Public organizations are confronted with substantial challenges and considerable risks, such as long term economic and financial instability, climate change and ecological sustainability. Equally important are the ongoing and increasing demands by citizens regarding transparency, coherence and effectiveness of public institutions. All this results in increasing demands for strategic management. The 6-month Master Class in Strategic Management focuses on the changing political landscape in which strategists and senior public managers operate, the internal and external competition for resources, the organizational reality of incremental decision making and the growing and inevitable need to develop and maintain strategic alliances with other government agencies as well as private sector organizations. It is aimed at professionals working in strategic functions in Dutch public administration.

The master class examines how public organizations can create long term public value and how they deal with e.g. financial instability or a radical change in the political landscape. What does it take to achieve one’s mission in such a situation? How should the organization be (re)structured to be most effective? In order to effectively deal with these challenges, managers need to acquire knowledge and skills in strategic management. These include conceptual and leadership skills such as the ability to accurately read change in the external environment, define and redefine organizational purpose, handle the complex trade-offs between demand for services and resource constraints, manage ongoing relationships and partnerships with other groups, maintain the commitment and productivity of employees, and guide the organization toward continuous improvement of service production and delivery systems to meet client needs.  The master class includes lectures, case discussions and small workgroups. The insights gained by reading relevant literature are applied to real cases that force participants to think through a variety of concepts, tools and approaches to strategic management.

The program is convened by professor Mark van Twist and managed by dr. Liesbeth Noordegraaf-Eelens.