This course will review how governments deliver goods and services, primarily focusing on procurement and contracting. As Laurence O’Toole proclaims “Those tasked with public management must often seek to operate on structurally uncertain terrain, firmament that can include ties with patterns of not-for-profits and profit-seeking entities as well as multiple formally governed institutions”. Public sector organizations form working relationships with communities, other governments, nonprofit, and for-profit firms through contracts and purchases. The course will discuss the tools managers need to form, operate, terminate, or transform these relationships. Students will examine contracting environments of their own interests and understand the dynamics, technical, and political aspects of contracting and procurement with different types of vendors in public service delivery networks.
This course is self-paced and work is done asynchronously - there will be no regular class meetings.