Matthias Finger

Address & Phone

Professor Matthias Finger

Unit "Management of Public Enterprises"
IDHEAP
21 rte de la Maladière
1022 Chavannes-près-Renens
Switzerland

Phone: +41.21.694.06.50/1/2/3/4
Fax: +41.21.694.06.09

Email: mfinger@maxwell.syr.edu

Education

Ph.D. University of Geneva (Political Science)

Ph.D. University of Geneva (Adult Education)

Biography

The Unit "Management of Public Enterprises" (MEP) at the Graduate Institute of Public Administration (IDHEAP) in Lausanne, Switzerland has started its activities in 1995 with a unique focus on public enterprises and the challenges they are facing today, and this in an age characterized by trade liberalization, deregulation, and privatization of public assets. But we are also dealing with public sector transformation and reform more generally, both in highly industrialized and developing countries.

Our focus

Our main focus is thus the transformation of public sector organizations (public enterprise and public administration), the public sector more generally, as well as public service in light of today's changes and challenges. Among these challenges figure notably economic and financial globalization with its unprecedented implications on traditional politics and administration. We seek to understand these transformations and want to contribute to steering them into a direction which combines an efficient public sector with a participatory and sustainable society.

Our approach

Our approach is therefore a dynamic and empirical, and not a static one. It is unique in at least four different ways:

• We have a global view and see current pressures on the public sector against the background of large-scale societal and economic transformations, such as economic and financial globalization, the changing nature of work, the erosion of the nation-state, growing consumerism, and others more.
• We have a processual view, and see successful public sector transformation as necessarily resulting from a long-term collective learning process, and not from a one-time intervention.
• We have an organizational approach, and therefore consider public sector transformation not as a quick management fix, but as a complex, and not always rational, process of organizational change and development.
• And finally we are convinced that the above three approaches, as well as practical recommendations for public sector transformation are only possible through engaged and participatory involvement of the "formative-researchers" we are.

What we do

As a team, our main activities pertain to teaching, research, executive training, and consulting:

• We are teaching each year one masters course on public enterprises and one on public management.

Each of the team members is moreover active in at least one of the following research projects:

• case studies of organizational learning and organizational transformation
• sectoral studies relevant for public enterprise activities: we focus in particular on postal services, telecommunications, public transport, the electricity sector, and higher education.
• public opinion surveys pertaining to the citizens' changing attitude vis-à-vis public service and the public sector
• literature analysis and theory-building in the areas of globalization, deregulation, privatization, the changing nature of work, and organizational theory.
• As educators and trainers we offer executive seminars in the areas of public enterprises, and the management of their transformation, New Public Management, as well as other specialized topics.

As consultants we offer the following services:

• designing of organizational learning activities, conceptualization of management training seminars, and more generally conceptualization and practice of the learning organization, mainly in public sector environments.
• accompanying of organizational transformations of public sector organizations through interventions and evaluations, and giving conferences and keynotes in the areas of our specializations.

Who we are

Matthias Finger is Professor of Management of Public Enterprises and head of the Unit. Before coming to IDHEAP he was an Assistant Professor at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, and an Associate Professor at Columbia University, New York. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and a Ph.D. in Adult Education (both from Geneva). He is the author or co-author of nine books and over 50 book chapters and scientific articles, mainly in the area of social and organizational change. Besides teaching and research, his professional experiences include consulting with the Swiss Postal Service, the Rockefeller Foundation, and various UN agencies. His main interest pertains to the linkage between individual learning and organizational transformations. He is also a Senior Associate of the Global Affairs Institute, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affaires, Syracuse University.

Scientific collaborators are generally funded by special projects and consultancies:

Silvia Bürgin, MPA (Lausanne) specializes in organizational and management learning in public sector organizations. She works in particular with the Swiss Postal Service.

David Giauque, BA Political Science (Lausanne) specializes in public transportation, and addresses also issues of the changing nature of work in public sector organizations.

Serge Pravato, MPA (Geneva) specializes on the telecommunications and the electricity sectors, as well as on issues of deregulation and privatization.

Bérangère Ruchat, MPA (Lausanne) specializes on multilateral organizations (World Bank, IMF) and their role in public sector reform.

Simone Maier, MBA (Witten-Herdecke) specializes in environmental management and environmental learning of private and public organizations.

Frank Schürch, BA Political Science (Lausanne) specializes on issues of New Public Management and public sector reform.