The first part of this course centres on explaining the foundations of strategic management. This includes a discussion of what strategy actually entails specifically in a public-sector context, and how strategic planning relates to strategic management. Indeed, strategic planning is perhaps the most popular managerial approach in contemporary organizations – but what is it, how does it fit within a strategic management system and (when) does it actually “work” (or not)? At the heart of this elaboration lies the idea that strategic management is, above all, something managers, policymakers and other professional “do” – and underlying the success of strategic management are the core concepts of strategic thinking, strategic acting and strategic learning. Strategic management should thus be, above all, not a series of fixed “steps” but, rather, a set of tools and approaches that practitioners can draw on, taking into account their context and the issue at hand, and with the aim of achieving better performance.
The second part of this course is designed to give a compact introduction into core ideas and concepts of performance management and specific instruments and how this is linked to strtategic management. Students get an understanding for different components of a performance management system such as structures, performance targets and performance indicators but also more recent developments such as dashboards or OKR.
Instructors
- Gerhard Hammerschmid , Professor of Public and Financial Management
- Bert George , Adjunct