Arizona State University

Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions

School of Public Affairs

PAF XXX
Introduction to Organizations in Public Administration

Instructor: Ignacio Pezo

Office:
Phone:
E-mail: ipezosal@asu.edu
Office Hours:
Lecture time: Wednesdays, 9:00 am to 11:45 am

Course Description

Organizations are everywhere; most human activities are accomplished by organizations, while us
as individuals constantly interact with organizations or with other individuals within organizational
contexts. Despite the great variation found in organizations across the private, public, and nonprofit
sectors, organizational scholarship has developed a rich and diverse body of knowledge about
organizational dynamics and behavior. The objective of this course is to introduce students to the
main approaches in organizational theory and practical applications to organizations as discussed
in public administration. Despite the significant theoretical content covered, this course is
designed to foster critical thinking in applied discussions about organizations that will be useful
for students in their future careers as public administrators.

Learning Outcomes

The overarching objectives of this course are to provide students with:

 Familiarity with the main schools of thoughts in organizational studies.

 Understanding of the differences and similarities between public and private
organizations.
 Understanding of organizations as decision-making and sense-making units.
 Understanding of the key concepts used to analyze organizational dynamics (motivation,
leadership, knowledge management, organizational culture, groups, organizational
change, etc.).
 Understanding of the key concepts to analyze organizational structures.
 Intuition to think about organizations as embedded in wider systems.

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Course Materials

Required textbook:
 Rainey, H., Fernandez, S., & Malatesta, D. 2021. Understanding and Managing Public
Organizations (6th ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

All other course readings and working materials will be available through the university’s library
services or provided by the instructor on the canvas course website.

Expectations

 Come prepared to class having read the material beforehand.

 Complete assignments by the due dates specified.
 Communicate regularly with instructor, teaching assistant, and peers.
 Create a study and/or assignment schedule to stay on track.

Assignments and Grading

Class participation 10%

Quizzes 20%
Midterm 25%
Group Presentations 20%
Final Report 25%

 Class Participation. I expect students to engage in class by answering the questions

presented by the instructor, sharing their opinion, or bringing real-life examples to the
discussion. It is also encouraged to interrupt class by raising your hand and ask clarifying
question, do not give up the opportunity to make sure you understand things. Class
participation is assessed based on students’ effort to be engaged and the quality of their
contributions.

 In-class Quizzes. There will be 4 in-class quizzes scheduled throughout the semester, as
noted in the class program. Students will be tested on their knowledge about the content
mentioned in the readings. Quizzes will include true/false or multiple-choice questions
and one open ended question. Quizzes are taken at the beginning of class in the first 15
minutes. Students arriving after the dedicated 15 min will miss the quiz and receive zero
points. At the end of the semester, students will have the opportunity to do one additional
assignment to replace one of their quiz grades. More information on the assignment will
be discussed during the semester.

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  Presentations. Students will work in groups to develop 15-minute presentations that
briefly introduces one of the key schools of thought we will cover and applies the
concepts using a real-world example. Presentations must be shared with the instructor
one week in advance to get feedback. At the beginning of the course, we will make sure
each student is allocated to each of the presentations. The guidelines for oral
presentations will be presented in a “Presentation Template” and detailed in an
assignment sheet.

 Midterm. This will be a take-away exam. Students will be provided with a case and
asked three mini essay-like questions. Each question will require a succinct answer of no
more than 500 words. Students are expected to apply critical thinking and use concepts
covered in class.

 Final Report. You will write a report describing a real-life organization and discuss two
issues covered in class that this organization is facing (the issues faced by the
organization must be backed-up by sources, e.g., news articles, journal articles,
organizational reports, opinion-pieces). Reports should include: (1) a description of the
organization’s objectives and a characterization of its main structure and processes; (2) a
presentation of the first topic and how this is manifested in the organization at hand; (3) a
presentation of the second topic and how this is manifested in the organization at hand;
(4) a set of practical recommendations for the organization informed by your knowledge
acquired in class.

An initial Final report proposal will be submitted to the instructor for feedback. This
will be a one-pager including the name of the selected organization and a brief
description of how the two issues apply. Final reports will have an extension between 4
to 7 pages of written text, not including notes or references. Report should be formatted
using size 12 Times New Roman font, single-spaced paragraphs and 1-inch margins.

Grading. Grades reflect your performance on assignments and adherence to deadlines. Any
issues about your grading should be discussed with the instructor no more than two weeks after
grades are published. Your final course grade will be based on a simple 100-point scale, as
shown below:

A = 94.00-100
A- = 90.00-93.99
B+ = 87.00-89.99
B = 84.00-86.99
B- = 80.00-83.99
C+ = 77.00-79.99
C = 74.00-76.99
C- = 70.00-73.99
D = 60.00-69.00
E < 60.00

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Late submissions. Late assignments will receive grade penalty (unless there is an excusable
reason). A late assignment is graded down by 25% by each day after the deadline. This means
that an assignment submitted within the first 24 hours after the deadline will receive a 25%
reduced grade; an assignment submitted between 1 to 2 days over the deadline will receive 50%
reduced grade; and so on. Please reach out to me before an assignment is due if an urgent
situation arises and you are unable to submit the assignment on time.

University Policies

Students are responsible to reviewing and complying with ASU policies and codes of conduct.
The table below provides links to websites detailing student responsibilities.

Academic Integrity Policy: http://provost.asu.edu/academicintegrity/policy

Accommodations for Religious http://www.asu.edu/aad/manuals/acd/acd304-04.html
Practices:
Commercial Note Taking Services: http://www.asu.edu/aad/manuals/acd/acd304-06.html
Computer, Internet, and Electronic http://www.asu.edu/aad/manuals/acd/acd125.html
Communications Policy:
Handling Disruptive, Threatening, or http://www.asu.edu/aad/manuals/ssm/ssm104-02.html
Violent Individuals on Campus:
Missed Classes Due to University http://www.asu.edu/aad/manuals/acd/acd304-02.html
Sanctioned Activities:
School of Social Work Student http://ssw.asu.edu/filelib/students/AcademicIntegrityPolicy.pdf/
Academic Integrity Policy: view
Social work students are responsible http://www.socialworkers.org/pubs/code/code.asp
for reviewing and complying with the
National Association of Social
Workers Code of Ethics:
http://students.asu.edu/srr/code  (click on ABOR Student Code of
Student Code of Conduct:
Conduct)
 

Accommodations for Students with Disabilities:

 
If you are a student with a disability and have need of assistance or special
accommodations, please contact the ASU Disability Resource Center (DRC).  Students enrolled
with the School of Social Work Downtown Phoenix Campus and Tucson Component locations
may contact the DRC at the Downtown Phoenix
Campus:  http://campus.asu.edu/downtown/DRC
 
If you are having any difficulties in meeting the requirements of the course or if you have any
special needs that require my knowledge, please contact me as soon as possible.  It is my hope
that all students will be successful in meeting the course requirements.
 

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Course Schedule

Week Date Topic Deliverables

1 Introduction

2 Thinking about Organizations

3 Public and Private Organizations Quiz 1

4 Organizations and their Environment

5 Organizational Goals and Measuring Performance Quiz 2

6 Decision-making and Strategy in Organizations

7 Midterm – no class Midterm

People in Organizations: Behavior, Motivation, and
8 Quiz 3
Nudges
9 Break – no class

10 Organizational Structure and Power Proposal Final Report

11 Managerial Roles and Leadership

12 Organizational Culture and Institutional Knowledge Quiz 4

Organizational Change, Innovation and Technology
13
Adoption
14 Group Presentations Group Presentations

15 Finals – no class Final Report

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 Detailed Weekly Program

Week 1. Introduction

No assigned readings this class. Instructor will go over the syllabus, provide an overview of
the course and lecture on an introduction to thinking about organizations.

Week 2. Thinking about Organizations

 Scott, W. Richard. 1992. Organizations: Rational, Natural, and Opens Systems (3rd Ed.).
o Chapter 1 “The Subject is Organizations”
 Rainey, H., Fernandez, S., & Malatesta, D. 2021. Understanding and Managing Public
Organizations (6th ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
o Chapter 2 “Understanding the Study of Organizations: A Historical Review”

Additional reading (not required):

 Pfeffer, Jeffrey. 1998. “Understanding Organizations: Concepts and Controversies,” in
D. Gilbert, S. Fiske, and G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of Social Psychology, Vol. 2,
New York: McGraw-Hill, 733-777.

Week 3. Public and Private Organizations

 Rainey, H., Fernandez, S., & Malatesta, D. 2021. Understanding and Managing Public
Organizations (6th ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
o Chapter 3 “What Makes Public Organizations distinct?”

Assignment: Quiz 1.

Additional reading (not required):

 Bozeman, Barry. 2014. All Organizations are Public: Comparing Public and Private
Organizations. Chapters 1 and 2.

Week 4. Organizations and their Environment

 Rainey, H., Fernandez, S., & Malatesta, D. 2021. Understanding and Managing Public
Organizations (6th ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
o Chapter 4 “Analyzing the Environment of Public Organizations”
o Chapter 5 “The impact of Political Power and Public Policy”

Additional reading (not required):

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  Scott, W. Richard. 1992. Organizations: Rational, Natural, and Opens Systems (3rd Ed.).
o Chapter 4 “Organizations as Open Systems”.
 Mark Granovetter. 1985. Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of
Embeddedness, American Journal of Sociology, Issue 91(Nov.): 481-510.
 Pfeffer, J., & Salancik, G.R. 1978. The external control of organizations. New York:
Harper & Row. Chapter 1.

Week 5. Organizational Goals and Measuring Performance

 Rainey, H., Fernandez, S., & Malatesta, D. 2021. Understanding and Managing Public
Organizations (6th ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
o Chapter 6 “Organizational Goals, Effectiveness and Performance”

Assignment: Quiz 2.

Additional reading (not required):

 Richard, Pierre J.; Devinney, Timothy M.; Yip, George S.; Johnson, Gerry. 2009.
Measuring Organizational Performance: Towards Methodological Best Practice. Journal
of Management. SAGE Publications. 35 (3): 718–804
 Radin, Beryl A. 2006. Challenging the Performance Movement: Accountability,
Complexity, and Democratic Values (1st Ed.). Georgetown University Press

Week 6. Decision-Making and Strategy in Organizations

 Rainey, H., Fernandez, S., & Malatesta, D. 2021. Understanding and Managing Public
Organizations (6th ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
o Chapter 7 “Formulating and Achieving Purpose: Power, Decision Making, and
Strategy”.
 Daft, R.L., & Weick, K.E. 1984. Toward a model of organizations as interpretation
systems. Academy of Management Review, 9: 284-295.

Additional reading (not required):

 March, James D. and Herbert A Simon. 1993 [1958]. “Cognitive Limits on Rationality.”
Ch. 6 in Organizations. 2 ed. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
 Weick, K.E. 1993. "The Collapse of Sensemaking in Organizations: The Mann Gulch
Disaster" Administrative Science Quarterly, 38: 628-652.

Week 7. Midterm – no class

Students will receive a take-away assignment due by the end of the week (Friday
XX/XX, 11:59pm).
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Week 8. People in Organizations: Behavior, Motivation, and Nudging

 Rainey, H., Fernandez, S., & Malatesta, D. 2021. Understanding and Managing Public
Organizations (6th ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
o Chapter 9 “Understanding People in Public Organizations: Motivation and
Motivation Theory”.
o Chapter 10 “Understanding People in Public Organizations: Values, Incentives,
and Work-Related Attitudes”.

Assignment: Quiz 3.

Additional reading (not required):

 Landy, F. J. & Becker, W. S. 1987, Motivation theory reconsidered, Research in
Organizational Behavior.
 Eisenhardt, K. 1989. Agency Theory: An Assessment and Review. Academy of
Management Review, 14: 57-74.

Week 9. Break – no class

Week 10. Organizational Structure and Power

 Rainey, H., Fernandez, S., & Malatesta, D. 2021. Understanding and Managing Public
Organizations (6th ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
o Chapter 8 “Organizational Structure, Design, Technology, Information
Technology and Social Media”.

Additional reading (not required):

 Crozier, Michel. 1964. The bureaucratic phenomenon. Chicago University of Chicago
Press 1964.
o Chapter 6 “Power and uncertainty”.
 DiMaggio, P.J. and W.W. Powell. 1983. The iron cage revisited: Institutional
isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological
Review, 48(2), 147-160.
 Emerson, R.M. 1962. Power-dependence relations. American Sociological Review, 27:
31-41.

Week 11. Managerial Roles and Leadership

 Rainey, H., Fernandez, S., & Malatesta, D. 2021. Understanding and Managing Public
Organizations (6th ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
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 o Chapter 11 “Leadership, Managerial roles and Organizational Culture”.
o Chapter 12 “Teamwork: Understanding Communication and Conflict in Groups”.

Additional reading (not required):

 Selznick, P. 1957. Leadership in Administration. Berkeley, CA: University of California
Press. - Chapters 1 and 5

Week 12. Organizational Culture and Institutional Knowledge

 Watkins, Michael D. 2013. What Is Organizational Culture? And Why Should We Care?
Harvard Business Review. Link: https://hbr.org/2013/05/what-is-organizational-culture
 Levitt, B. & March, J. G. 1988. Organizational Learning. Annual Review of Sociology,
14:319-340.

Assignment: Quiz 4.

Additional reading (not required):

 Thornton, P. H., and Ocasio, W. 2008. Institutional Logics. Pages 99-129 in the Sage
Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism, edited by R. Greenwood, C. Oliver, R.
Suddaby, and K. Sahlin. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
 Sørensen, J. B. 2002. The strength of corporate culture and the reliability of firm
performance. Administrative Science Quarterly 47(1), 70-91.

Week 13. Organizational Change, Innovation and Technology Adoption

 Rainey, H., Fernandez, S., & Malatesta, D. 2021. Understanding and Managing Public
Organizations (6th ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
o Chapter 13 “Managing Organizational Change and Development”.
 Fernandez, Sergio and Hal G. Rainey. 2006. Managing Successful Organizational
Change in the Public Sector. Public Administration Review, Volume 66, Issue 2, Pages
168-176.
 Kotter, J. P. 1995. Leading change: Why transformations fail. Harvard Business Review,
73(2), 59–67. Link: https://hbr.org/1995/05/leading-change-why-transformation-efforts-
fail-2
 Ford, J. D., Ford, L. W., & D’Amelio, A. 2008. Resistance to change: The rest of the
story. Academy of Management Review, 33, 362–377.

Additional reading (not required):

 Barley, S.R. 1986. Technology as an occasion for structuring: Evidence from
observations of CT scanners and the social order of radiology departments.
Administrative Science Quarterly, 31: 78-108.
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  Cohen, Wesley and Daniel Levinthal. 1990. Absorptive Capacity: A new perspective on
learning and innovation. ASQ 35: 128-52.
 Powell, Walter, Kenneth Koput and Laurel Smith-Doerr. 1996. Interorganizational
Collaboration and the Locus of Innovation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 41: 116-
145.

Week 14. Group Presentations

Assignment: Class hours will be dedicated to the Group Presentations. Students in the
audience are expected to pay close attention to their peer’s work and engage in the
questions and discussion that follow. Attendance will be registered this week.

Week 15. Finals

Assignment: Students will submit their Final Report by the end of the week (Friday
XX/XX, 11.59pm)

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