Specialization "Public Management"

of the master 'Public Administration'


The Public Management specialization focuses on implementing government policy. More specifically, it aims to provide you with the competencies that enable academics to support public managers, integrating key insights from both public administration and business administration.

It not only equips you with a toolkit of instrumental competencies – partly borrowed from general managerial approaches in the private sector – but also teaches you to take into account the particular context of the public sector, including political influences on managerial decisions and other governance issues.

An understanding of the various aspects of governance is essential. Besides the more general requirements of managerial effectiveness and efficiency, this specialization considers public aspects such as compliance with laws and regulations and the democratic legitimacy of public organizations or arrangements. Governance in the public sector also implies a wider range of management issues, addressing multi-actor solutions to policy problems.

This specialization introduces relevant concepts from business administration, institutional economics, organizational sociology and political science. In addition, a toolkit of managerial competencies is provided, partly borrowed from more general management approaches also used in the private sector. Students learn to take into account the typical context of the public sector and to reflect on the role of public management. As in the other specializations, the understanding of different aspects of governance is considered essential. In particular, besides the more general requirements of effectiveness and efficiency of management actions, typical public aspects such as compliance with public laws and regulations and the democratic legitimacy of public organizations or arrangements have to be considered.

Programme overview

The one-year program is divided into four quarters. The first quarter is largely devoted to courses that introduce theories and tools of public management. In the second quarter students start to think about their master thesis, assisted by the Master Class Research Methods. At the end of this quarter a student should have developed a theoretical framework for the master thesis, to be build upon during the rest of the year. During the third quarter the context of and reflection on public management is the main subject of the courses. The fourth quarter will be devoted primarily to the master thesis, possibly based on an external assignment and carried out under supervision of two university staff members.

The programme represents a total of 60 European Credits (EC) while the six courses each represent 5 EC. The programme can be entered either in September or February.

The courses of the specialization Public Management can be summarized as follows (Black Board codes in parentheses; actual chronology of courses can be different):

Part 1: Concepts and tools

1 Public Management Theories and Tools (410XXX) 5 EC

2 HRM and organizational development (412010) 5 EC

3 Implementation of IT in organizations (234010) 5 EC

Part 2: Context and reflection

4 Public Governance and Legitimacy (410107) 5 EC

5 Public agencies and Public-Private Partnerships (410YYY) 5 EC

6 Public Sector Reform (410704) 5 EC

Master thesis

The master thesis represents 25 EC and reports on a research project where students prove theoretical and methodological skills in analyzing an interesting problem in public management. More guidance can be found on Black Board (course code 412803). A special Master Class Research Methods of 5 EC is given in the second quarter to provide additional support (course code 411904).

Career perspectives

The Public Management specialization provides academic training for a broad range of managerial and supporting positions in public and private organizations involved in design, implementation or evaluation of public policy. Typical sectors include central government, provinces, municipalities and water boards as well as education, health care, social security, police, courts and other publicly controlled or financed organizations. Private sector consultancy firms also provide employment opportunities.