MPA Program

Course List 

Core Courses (15 credit hours)

MPA 501 Public Administration and Governance on a Regional and Global Level

As the first core course this opening set of themes and topics introduces students to the broad issues of Public Administration, Governance and Ethics in a comparative context. The course explores comparative administrative theories, practice and processes and emphasizes the importance of the context in which they operate. It develops a critical awareness of the approaches of different political regimes to public administration and public sector management and seeks to develop a Masters level practical and theoretical understanding of the impact of globalization and de-territorialisation of national and international governance. An embedded element is the nature and application of ethics as a part of understanding ‘good’ governance. The course introduces some of the main issues and problems confronting public sector managers such as modernization, accountability in a complex age, ethical action, oversight, and audit and private-public partnerships. Many of these issues are then explored in more detail in the courses that follow this one.

MPA 502 Policy Making and Analysis

The course is the second ‘core’ course in the program and is viewed as an academic and theoretical continuation of MPA 501, as such there is an overlap of aims. This is deliberate and should be seen not as a repetition of some aspects, but as a reinforcement of core elements of understanding the way in which the public sector works. The course aims to explore the different traditions and theories of policy analysis and the importance of using theoretical frameworks for the analysis and understanding of human endeavour, governance and progress. It also aims to further explore what is meant by the term, ‘the public sector’, and the way in which policy making within the public sector is necessarily different to the approaches adopted in private sector organizations. The course will seek to examine how complex structures and institutions can be explained in ways, which are meaningful and have an academic and practitioner currency beyond the borders of the state where they are located.

MPA 503 Public Sector Finance

This course aims to provide a sound introduction, understanding and working knowledge of the key concepts, theories and structures of public sector finance.  It explores the sources of public and private finance, the role of public, private and third sector (or non-governmental) institutions in the provision of public services. It aims to develop knowledge of public sector budgeting, and financial management and control using an exploration of contemporary public finance issues. It also explores the political, historical, institutional and cultural dynamics that influence policy design and delivery in the context of the region.

MPA 504 Public Sector Leadership and HR Management

Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes” Peter Drucker. This course is designed to introduce students to the theories and practices of administrative leadership and organizational dynamics in public sector organizations. The way in which administrative leaders in government undertake their duties influence employees’ performance and in turn the ability of public organization to achieve their goals and objectives. Consequently, this course converses several issues related to how to manage and lead effectively in government. Administrative leadership theories and models will be thoroughly examined in order to underline the qualities of good public leaders and to distinguish the notion of public leadership from other similar concepts. The impact of leadership style on organizational dynamics and performance will be considered to figure out how different leadership styles may lead to different motivation schemes and systems as well as diverse techniques to manage human capital and diversity in public organizations. Class discussions and activities will focus on the analysis of administrative leadership in the UAE context as well as comparing this experience with other countries form the MENA region. The utilization of the case study approach will enable students to identify best practices and underscore the pitfalls of leadership.         

MPA 505 Research Methods

This course is designed to give students an understanding of the qualitative and quantitative research tools needed for public administrators and to utilize available research methods in their own research. In addition, students begin to learn the important skill of evaluating published research. Students learn how research methods help them answer public policy questions. Specifically, students get an overview of qualitative and quantitative methodologies.  They learn how to design surveys, how to systematically conduct qualitative research such as structured interviewing, etc., how to operationalize variables, and how to formulate research questions. Students learn about measurement issues, how to increase research reliability and validity, and other issues regarding bias in results.  Thus, the course serves as an introduction to research methods needed by public administrators to evaluate problems of public policy and to prepare students adequately for the Capstone exercise and research projects in subsequent classes. Course topics include program evaluation, data collection and measurement in public administration, descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing, processes for selecting statistical tests and assessment of statistical assumptions. Students get extensive, hands-on statistical experience through the use of Excel and SPSS. In addition the course provides an overview of research theory and methods, which serves as a further introduction to social research.

Elective Courses (Students must complete 12 credit hours)

MPA 601 Advanced Research Methods

This practical course is designed to help students to further develop their research skills using qualitative methods. The course builds upon the generic research methods introduction provided by MPA505. Relevant qualitative techniques to analyze public administration and policy processes will be re-emphasized and discussed in detail. That includes: case study analysis, participant observation, focus groups, content analysis, and narrative inquiry. A hands-on approach will be followed where students are asked to design a research strategy and collect relevant material using documentary analysis, questionnaires and interviews. Students will be required to increasingly detail the definition of specific research problem and ultimately provide a full research proposal with clearly identified and justified research methodology. Participants will also be exposed to analytical qualitative software packages such as SPSS, NVivo and SNA to help them organize and analyze the material collected from different sources. Developing such knowledge and understanding of core qualitative  research methods in public administration and policy as well as the way in which such methods could be applied to investigate and propose solutions to real administrative and policy problems is a prerequisite for the successful completion of the Capstone project.       

MPA 602 Strategic Dynamics in the Public Sector

“A goal without a plan is just a wish” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. This is particularly true in managerial and administrative practices. For public organizations to reach their goals there should be a clear road map to identify the strategic orientation of the organization. This road map is known as organizational strategy. This course introduces students to the process of strategy making and implementation in government organizations’. Conceptual differences between strategy, strategic planning, and strategic management will be explained to enable students to recognize the relationships among these three organizational components.  Additionally, relationships between organizational resources, goals, objectives and means will be fully considered in an attempt to find out how public organizations’ deploy these resources in order to achieve their missions and visions. The role of administrative leadership in defining organizational processes, goals, objectives and shaping the overall strategic orientation of the organization will be discussed to highlight the dynamic interactions between different organizational levels and team works. Tactics, models and techniques for analyzing and evaluation internal and external organizational environment as well as implementing strategic management in public sector organizations will be systematically examined to help students rethinking about the ways the undertake their tasks and activity and enable them to think strategically. The course also addresses the question why it is difficult to adopt strategic management in public organization’s and how to deal with the problems of implementations. A case study approach will be adopted through course discussions in order to link theory with practice.        

MPA 603 State-Market Relations in a Globalized Market Economy

State-market relationships, in terms of the way in which public authority is exercised and influenced by non-state actors, come at the heart of policy analysis and administrative studies. In a globalized world, the role of the state in the society has changed and so has the web of interactions and relationships between state and non-state actors. This course introduces participants to theoretical and practical models of state-market relationships with special focus on state-business relations in the region. The course converses changes in global governance and how these changes have reflected in the ways in which national governments manage markets in region’s economies. The notion of nation states vs. globalization and global markets will be systematically examined in an attempt to discover the real impact of globalization on the power of the state and national governments compared to private business and corporations. Additionally, the role of hierarchies, markets, and networks in organizing economic interactions and state-market relations will be fully considered in order to detect how to unpack, examine, and comprehend interactions between state apparatus and businesses. Furthermore, the core political economy of state-market relations in the region will be discussed by focusing on selected case studies in order to underline changes in the contours of state-business relationships. Major policy initiatives such as liberalization, privatization, in addition to the introduction of market mechanisms and competition in public sector organizations will be analyzed as major manifestations of the changing role of governments in region’s countries.

MPA 604 Socioeconomic Policy with Reference to Global Policies

This course introduces students to contemporary political economy of the region from comparative, global, and multilevel governance perspectives. The course focuses primarily on social and economic policies in the region in an attempt to highlight the relationship between socio-economic policies and development in the region. Understanding the overall social and economic contexts in the region is quite important for the contextualization of theoretical and empirical discussions of policy-making and implementation provided by other modules on this course. The region’s demographic characteristics in addition to employment and urbanization issues will be discussed. The course also converses economic patterns and models in the region with reference to their ability to achieve the desired social and economic goals. A special attention will be given to the legacy of Islamic institutions and the Oil economics as two main features of political economy of the region. Examples from current social and economic policy reforms in a number of oil-based economies will be examined to show how those countries prepare themselves for the after oil era. The role of global governance in shaping reform processes at social and economic levels will be investigated in order to underscore the interplay dynamics between the politics of reform at regional and global levels.

MPA 605 Information Strategy and Knowledge Management In the Public Sector

Organizational knowledge is a strategic asset for all types of organizations particularly governmental and public agencies. These types of organizations normally have the largest numbers of employees and regarded as main repository of information. This course is designed to introduce students to the principles and practices of Knowledge Management (KM) and information strategies in public organizations. The concepts of information strategies and KM will be thoroughly examined in relation to other elements of organizational theory and development. Taking into account the significant and unique features of public organizations, course discussions and activities will exclusively focus on KM applications and practices in government. A wide range of implementation tools and techniques will be investigated alongside the core components of KM systems and processes including: collecting, organizing, processing and communicating organizational knowledge and information. The relationship between KM and E-governance as well as the potential impacts for applying KM and information strategies in public organizations will be analyzed. Additionally, major application challenges will be identified based on the analysis of cases and examples from public organizations in order to underline good/poor practices in addition to the critical factors for the success or failure of KM application processes.  

MPA 606 Total Quality Management & Excellence in Public Service

This course focuses on the introduction of Total Quality Management (TQM) techniques as a method to improve the processes of public service delivery and the overall performance of public sector organizations.   The conceptual, philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of   TQM will be thoroughly explored as well as the different approaches for building up a quality and excellence organizational culture in public organizations. The course helps students develop a deep and comprehensive understanding of how to implement TQM approaches in their respective organizations and the ways in which the notion of ‘continuous improvement’ can be effectively incorporated in their everyday practices. Excellence models and programs including ISO 9001:2008, ISO 9004, ISO 14000 and EFQM will be discussed in order to identify the main components of these programmers and their potential impact on the performance of public sector management. Case studies of TQM applications in public organizations in the UAE and elsewhere will be examined in an attempt to underline the factors which may lead to the success or the failure of developing and implementing quality systems in governmental bodies.        

MPA 607 Organizational Behavior and Performance Management

This dynamic and interactive course is designed to help student improve their understanding of organizational cultures in public sector organizations and better explain the many different ways in which people behave when undertaking managerial and administrative tasks. The course links managerial practices and core components of public sector’s organizational culture with performance management and reflects on how different organizational dynamics, norms, attitudes, and values reflect in the process of measuring and managing the performance of governmental units. The course builds upon students’ knowledge and understanding in the area of public management and encourages them to evaluate their own experiences and to discover the link between their behavior and interpersonal skills and the ability of their organizations to reach the intended policy goals. The theoretical discussions of organizational behavior and performance management will be accompanied by case study analysis and group discussions of genuine organizational problems. Combining the theoretical and practical aspects will enable students to develop general frameworks of understanding and applying these frameworks to solve organizational and performance issues in a wide range of administrative situations. 

MPA 608 Islamic Public Administration and Governance  

This course is designed to introduce students to the Islamic model of public administration and governance. It focuses on the principles of Islamic public administration and governance as reflected in the holy Qur’an and the teachings of Prophet Mohammad PBUH and his Rightly-Guided Caliphs. Taking this course will enable students to identify and examine the main features of public administration and governance in Islam and to develop a balanced knowledge and understanding of Islamic administrative practices given the great influence of western theories and models in this area of study. Islamic systems of government have provided a comprehensive account not only on how to organize and run state organizations but for managing the great Islamic empire as a whole. The holy Qur’an, the teachings of Prophet Mohammad PBUH, and the practices of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs and the Salaf have identified a clear set of criteria for choosing rulers ‘Ulul-Amr’ and public officials.  A clearer set of rules and principles to guide public employees when undertaking their roles has even been developed. Decision-making processes were based on the principle of ‘Shura’ which represents another unique element in the Islamic mode of governance. Furthermore, the issue of accountability, which is still a major concern in western literature and debates, has been fully addressed as public officials were answering to the ruler regarding their decisions and general conduct. These unique aspects of Islamic public administration will be fully discussed and contrasted to modern models and practices of public administration and governance.          

Capstone Exercise (6 credit hours)

The Capstone Exercise is designed to enable students to integrate and apply knowledge and skills they have acquired throughout their course of study.

During the course of this Capstone project, candidates will analyze and present a real policy or administrative problem, in the form of empirical research, of high academic standards.  To this end, candidates will conduct original research on a policy or government institution in the region and then provide research results and recommendations. Students are required to make a formal presentation on their findings and recommendations before a review panel that would include faculty and invited members from the organizations where the research was conducted.