This elective explores the strategy-making process in public sector organizations. Building on the core module “Strategic Management in the Public Sector” the course deepens students’ understanding of strategy by focusing on the actual practice of strategizing. Understanding how strategy is actually done includes (but is not limited to) an intensive discussion of the following questions:
- Which use tools and maps contribute to an effective strategy process?
- How to engage diverse stakeholders, including the public, through new forms of participatory democracy?
- How to organize collaborations between the public, private and third sector?
- How to leverage strategy for internal cultural change processes?
- How are politics and power entangled in the strategy process and how to manage them?
- How to account for outcomes of the strategy process and monitor success?
This year’s elective at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Wien) will take place in partnership with the City of Vienna Administration, who agreed to be our case study partner. The City of Vienna is a truly unique administration with close to 70,000 employees in charge of an urban area that is home to 2 million inhabitants. Whilst the City has been once again voted the most liveable city in the world in 2022 (see “The Global Liveability Index 2022” from the Economist) the challenges ahead are enormous. In our module, we will focus on climate change and how the City Administration makes strategies to tackle climate change. Several senior public servants and politicians will discuss these strategies with the students and be open for discussion and reflection. The case will be a great learning opportunity for students with interest in managing and influencing strategically across sectors. Specifically, by engaging with this case and course, students will:
- Understand how strategy works in practice
- Have an awareness of organizational, cultural, and political dimensions of strategy making
- Learn from a leading public sector organization
- Understand how to create impactful strategies
- Have an awareness of the unintended consequences and paradoxes of strategy
- Be able to critically reflect on leadership in the public sector
Teaching will take place in Vienna and will include theory inputs (tools for thinking) as well as inputs from practice from senior managers from the City of Vienna administration. Participants will use a pre-defined live case study and discuss in groups with fellow participants of senior public sector leaders how to translate learnings into their respective home organisation.
Assessment will be in the form of an individual 5 to 7-page essay submitted after the course. In the essay the students present their reflections on theory and practice in the curriculum. The weighting is primarily on the discussion and argumentation.
