PA 556 Public Contract Management

Explores what happens when public sector organizations form working relationships with other agencies, communities, nonprofit organizations, or for-profit firms through contracts. It seeks to understand key elements of the formation, operation, and termination (or transformation) of these relationships and to do so from the perspective of the generalist manager rather than from a narrow technical view. The purpose here is not to debate whether government at all levels should do more contracting or less but to assess what happens when the decision is made to use contractual arrangements to perform services or provides materials.