Effective and efficient management is an essential component of all cultural, collecting and heritage institutions and sites. This course introduces a range of management concepts as they apply to museums and other cultural and heritage institutions, with specific case studies drawn from Australia and overseas. Subjects covered include leadership, marketing and managing the media, organisational theory and governance, strategic planning, problem solving, change management, risk and disaster management, finance and resource allocation, performance management, managing creativity, and knowledge management. Students will experience a mix of seminars, case studies, workshops and individual projects that are led by ANU staff and senior and executive staff from the cultural and heritage sectors. The subject is run according to an intensive format and is principally directed toward the development and analysis of management case-studies.

Key course topics:

• Leadership
• marketing and managing the media
• organisational theory and governance
• problem solving and strategic planning
• change and knowledge management
• risk and disaster management
• finance and resource allocation
• performancemanagement and managing creativity

Course aims:

On satisfying the requirements of this course, students will have the knowledge and skills to:

1. Evaluate the management structure of different types of museums, collecting institutions and heritage organisations in Australia and globally, with particular reference to structures of organisation, governance, models of leadership and management theories applied to the public, not-for-profit or private cultural, collecting and heritage context.

2. Compare and analyse the varying purposes and structures of contemporary museums, collecting institutions and heritage organisations in the context of reviewing relationships to government and industry policy frameworks, including primary research using annual reports and policy documents.

3. Demonstrate the conceptual and analytic skills required to interpret museums, collecting institutions and heritage organisations in the context of strategic planning, problem solving, change management, risk and disaster management, finance and resource allocation, governance, marketing, performance and creativity management, and knowledge management.

Learning outcomes:

1.     To gain skills in written and verbal expression for a variety of relevant professional and academic purposes that include essays and consultancy reports, and gain understanding about the purpose and style of corporate institutional documents and reportage.

2.     To develop skills in interdisciplinary thinking and the ability to use relevant theoretical ideas based in management principles to develop case studies out of a range of primary data.

3.     To gain skills required for humanities research and museum work. This includes data-collection, analysis, and verbal and written presentation at the standard of a postgraduate degree.

4.     To gain understanding and a basic set of management skills required for working in the cultural, collecting, and heritage sectors, including a functioning knowledge of current industry standards, protocols, policy frameworks, and approaches to strategic planning, and an understanding of challenges to the sector.

Museum management essay (35% / 1500-2000 wds); Online discussion of management readings (15% / 800-1000 wds); and Management consultancy exercise (50% / 2000-2500 wds).

Courses offered from the Liberal Arts program, specifically the Museums and Collections sub-plan and the Cultural and Environmental Heritage sub-plan.

Richard Sandell and Robert J. Janes (eds) (2007) Museum Management and Marketing. London and New York: Routledge.