Organisational and management audits | ORMA

Seminars for specialists and executives (SSC)

Public organisations are ever more confronted by organisational and governance issues. On the one hand, they must adapt their organisation (structure and processes) as a function of the services they deliver, the defined requirements, the environment and context, and the resources at their disposal. On the other hand, because those organisations work increasingly as integral parts of a network involving multi-level governance, extra questions regarding that governance come into play (allocating roles and responsibilities, decision-making rules, conflict resolution, data consolidation, etc.). The ability to audit public organisations from an organisational and governance perspective has become very important.

This seminar is based on four themes (4S), and each day is organised in a similar manner. These four themes are the strategy and principles of good governance, structure and agility, process systems and management, and, finally, the social aspects linked to managing projects and change. Each day of the seminar is divided into three parts: they will begin by introducing conceptual elements of the theme; they will then introduce methodological aspects by presenting particular analytical and auditing instruments; and lastly, they will present some case studies for illustrative purposes and exercises for practical applications.

This four-day seminar will be led by Martial Pasquier, Professor at IDHEAP, Dominique Hayoz, former director of the Canton of Vaud's Management and Organisation Support and Advisory Unit, and Eric-Serge Jeannet, deputy director of the Swiss Federal Audit Office and director of its Competency Centres. They will provide you with an integrated understanding of the governance and management of public organisations in a setting where you will be able to exchange and interact with other professionals working for public authorities.

This seminar for specialists and executives can be combined with two other seminars taught jointly by IDHEAP and the Swiss Federal Audit Office to lead to the award of a Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in Public Sector Audit and Oversight from the University of Lausanne.

• Understand how to analyse and question the organisational and governance issues present in public administrations with a view to improving them;
• Acquire deep knowledge of organisational structures, customer-focused management, change management, leadership and agile management methods via pertinent case studies on these subjects;
• Be capable of successfully implementing your own organisation's management models and instruments, but also of looking at them critically so as to be able to adopt an alternative perspective;
• Make new contacts with colleagues working in similar fields within other organisations.

This seminar is aimed at anyone working at the policy or administrative levels who: 

• Is responsible for the financial oversight of public entities, programmes, subsidies or projects (particularly auditors);
• Is responsible for interacting or negotiating with oversight bodies (e.g. in units under audit);
• Is a user of the services provided by those bodies (the media, elected officials, political and administrative leaders, etc.).

• French and german are the main teaching language for this program
• More information available on the corresponding pages