This course introduces students to how local officials measure the inputs, outputs, and outcomes of service delivery and how they use these performance data for making management and policy decisions. It explores the use of other types of data to information decision making, including content analysis, benchmarking, financial condition analysis, and benefit-cost analysis.

This course provides a conceptual and experiential grounding in theories of management and organizational operation. Students learn how to analyze organizations and their environments from multiple perspectives. Students systematically examine important dimensions of organizational life—what motivates people, how decisions are made, challenges of diversity, conflict, and power dynamics.