| CODE | PPL5105 | ||||||||||||
| TITLE | Competitiveness and Innovation: Government and New Ideas | ||||||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | ||||||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 7 | ||||||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | ||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Public Policy | ||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | Bason (2010, 34) argues that public sector innovation is about the process of "creating new ideas and turning them into value for society". This study-unit throws the spotlight on competitiveness and innovation as drivers for change, continuity and survival. Governments are not immune to the forces of change, rather they are expected to catalyze it and instil confidence in society to embrace it. The postgraduate student in policy leadership is hereby being sensitized with a body of literature on innovation in public sector organizations with a view to enhancing a region's, a country's or a firm's competitiveness. The main questions that need to be addressed here are: - What is competitiveness and what are the factors that influence competitiveness? - How is competitiveness measured? - How determining is intersectoral collaboration for national competitiveness? - What is innovation and what role does the public sector play in relation to innovation? - Where does innovation come from? How does innovation contribute to competitiveness? - What types of innovation are there? - What kinds of value can public sector innovation generate? According to Bason (2010, 34), the 'concept of innovation places a laser-sharp focus on whether the organisation is able to generate and select the best possible ideas, implement them effectively and ensure they create value'. The scope here is cultivate a new public leader with a positive view towards the innovation process, innovation as an ongoing review process of the policy-cycle. Study-Unit Aims: The aims of the study-unit are to educate policy leaders on the complexities of competitiveness and innovation, as cross-sectional catalysts in public organizations, as follows: - Understand competitiveness in theory and practice and acquire skills to develop policies which lead to increased competitiveness and innovation; - Develop an understanding of the corporate picture; structures, work processes, routines and human resources and how changing factors impact them; - Discern the normative context that surrounds a public organization; the political-structural context that will channel or constrain innovation; - Assess the innovation process - from administrative, to service, to policy innovation; - Generate valuable new ideas that have a capacity to innovate. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Appreciate and explain what competitiveness is and the factors influencing competitiveness; - Develop and analyse policies in terms of their contribution to competitiveness; - Learn the types of innovation (incremental or radical at system or component level); - Raise awareness (individual and organizational) on how to implement concepts of innovation, how to integrate ideas without disrupting the current policy momentum; - Design and offer incentives that stimulate competition in an environment where incentives to innovate are lacking (as opposed to the private sector); - Learn about public innovation incubators, either as sole initiatives, or as joint ventures with enterprises and research institutions. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Bring together his/her knowledge on policy making to an applied context and a pre-specified objective (i.e. competitiveness and innovation) for policy-making; - Comment critically on policies aimed at achieving competitiveness at a macro and/or micro level; - Apply policy making skills for competitiveness to an economic activity or sector; - Help to improve performance to sustain competitiveness for the development of a firm or enterprise. - Enhance one's skills in responding to change, possibly being an agent of change at one's workplace; - Communication what innovation means to colleagues, peers, subordinates or superiors. New leaders are expected to think outside the box; - Measure innovation activities and results to drive learning and performance; - Build an innovation portfolio drawing from the various innovation efforts that address recognizable gaps. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture and Seminar | ||||||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Alistair Farrugia Marie Louise Mangion (Co-ord.) |
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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 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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