Courses
Each On-Campus GDPA course is offered in an intensive one week format during summer term, daily from Monday to Friday. Following completion of the four courses, students are then eligible to receive their Diploma at the University's convocation.
Classes generally comprise no more than 30 students, allowing ample opportunity for class discussion and individual attention. The intensive learning environment is a strength of the program, and the professional contacts and friendships formed during the GDPA experience are one of the program's lasting benefits.
Please take the time to review the course description to see if the program is right for you. Heather Pierce, LGP Assistant is happy to answer any questions you have.
PA 9901 - Advanced Local Government
Objectives:
This course provides an introduction to the structures, functions, and financing of local government in Canada. The focus is on Ontario, but students will also learn about the history of local government in Canada, the United States, and Western Europe. Through surveys of relevant academic literature, student presentations, and class discussions, students will develop views on the appropriate role for local governments in governing Canadian communities.
Main topics:
Systems of local government; historical ideological movements; central-local relations; special purpose bodies; annexation; amalgamation; regional government; fragmentation; council-staff relations; budgeting and finance; property tax.
Instructor: Joe Lyons jlyons7@uwo.ca
Link to Brightspace (course website)
PA 9902 - Policy Process in Local Government
Objectives:
This course introduces students to selected aspects of the academic literature on the making of public policy. Students will learn how to apply theories and concepts from the public policy literature to Canadian local governments. Using case studies, students will learn how to determine the main factors that cause different kinds of local public policy outcomes in different circumstances.
Main topics:
The stages of the policy-making process; the “multiple streams” approach to the understanding of the policy process; the role of “social forces”, including analytical approaches that apply especially at the local level, such as “community power”, pluralism, non-decision-making, local governments as “growth machines”, regime theory and multilevel governance.
Note: This course cannot be taken before PA 9901.
Instructor: TBD
PA 9903 - Organizational Behaviour
Objectives:
This course introduces students to select aspects of the academic literature on organizational behaviour. Students will learn how the behaviour of people in organizations relates to individual, group, organizational, and societal outcomes. They will apply an organizational lens to help them better understand the challenges and opportunities of local government administration.
Main topics:
Organizational behaviour and local administration; organizational structure; leadership; trust; organizational culture; groups and teamwork; conflict; communication; motivation, stress, and productivity; organizational change; power and privilege; diversity and inequality; human resources management.
Instructor: TBD
PA 9904 - Local Government Management/Administration
Objectives:
Drawing upon theories and research findings in public administration and management, this course examines administrative approaches, issues, and debates arising in local government administration. Students will learn how the complex and unstable environment of public sector organizations produces both challenges and opportunities for public sector managers and will apply insights from the management and public administration literatures to real-world local government settings.
Main topics:
Differences between public and private administration; management models and approaches; the leadership role of the CAO; council-staff relations; managing in a unionized environment; recruitment, onboarding, succession planning; change management; performance measurement and management; ethics and values; citizen and community engagement; partnerships and contracting out; implementation and service delivery.
Note: This course cannot be taken before PA 9903.
Instructor: TBD
Accessibility
Please contact polisci-web@uwo.ca if you require any information in plain text format, or if any other accommodation can make the course material and/or physical space accessible to you.
