| CODE | PPL2217 | ||||||||||||
| TITLE | Quality in Public Management | ||||||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 02 - Years 2, 3 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 5 | ||||||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Policy, Politics and Governance | ||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This study-unit explains to students the meaning of quality in the design, evaluation and delivery of public services. It will trace the emergence of this concept within public administration and its evolution to the present. It will highlight the complexities involved in quality service delivery and will seek to explain how concepts of quality shape outcomes at the point of delivery. Furthermore, it will stress how quality processes can be implemented within the framework of day-to-day public administration as well as in the achievement of long-term objectives. Case studies will be employed in an effort to demonstrate, by example, how properly implemented quality processes can enhance delivery of public service. To this end theory and empirical research will compliment each other at every stage. Study-Unit Aims: The study-unit aims to explain to students the importance of quality in public service delivery through a thorough explanation of its concepts and by reference to studies and other methods. Thus, for example, it will show students how the delivery of quality services can impact not merely on citizens living standards but on national economics making a society attractive to FDI because of the efficiency it portrays. It will teach them to understand how special factors make the management of public administration challenging and requiring appropriate quality terms and methods. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - identify the concepts that define quality in a public administration context; - analyze current strengths and weaknesses relating to quality issues in Malta's public service; - relate how quality issues shape public affairs at formulation and implementation levels; - establish the inter-relationship between production and consumption. 2. Skills By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - conduct quality evaluation within specific areas of service; - comply concepts for the provision of better quality service; - prescribe how quality improvement on specific service may complement or is related to quality improvement in other services; - question the quality of service being delivered within ones own department. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts - Providing Quality in the Public Sector: A Practical Approach to Improving Public Services by Lucy Gaster and Amanda Squires. - Efficiency in the Public Sector, Editors: Fox, Kevin J. - Public Productivity Through Quality and Strategic Management edited by Arie Halachmi, Geert Bouckaert. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Joseph Bugeja Kyle Vella |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2025/6. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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