Peck, A World Waiting to be Born, 1st Edition, 1993, (Bantam, NY, NY, 10103)

Book of your choice dealing with some aspect of organizational development/change.

Materials on electronic reserve.

Handouts distributed in class.
 

Course Objectives
 

• To develop an appreciation for what constitutes a healthy organization.
• To develop an understanding of the theories from the social sciences relating to changing complex organizations.
• To develop an understanding of the theories and assumptions of human behavior.  These assumptions are drawn from the social sciences, and relate to change in complex organizations.
• To develop an appreciation for what the resistance to change forces are and how they operate in individuals, small groups, and larger organizations.
• To develop a sensitivity for the changing "realities" of organizations.
• To develop a personal integrative model of organization change that is immediately useful in the context of your present personal, professional, and organizational situation.
• To develop an understanding of the conditions under which individuals and groups are most likely to change.
• To develop skills that will be beneficial to you as a change agent.

Course Description

Organizational Development and Change is designed to meet the professional needs of individuals engaged in management, consulting, human resource management, training and development, or some responsible line management assignment.  Organization change is becoming one of the most significant issues facing the manager.  Productivity problems, lack of innovation, organizational crises, and financial difficulties are taxing the abilities of today's managers.  Unfortunately, until recently we have not specifically addressed the techniques which can be used for organizational improvement.  We will deal directly with the process of organization analysis, diagnosis, and intervention.

Given the reality of modem organizations, the "systems" perspective proves most useful in clarifying organizational change.  Throughout the course, a systematic view of organizations will be adopted.  This systems view has gained popularity in environment wherein organizational interdependencies have become a fact of life.

A wide variety of concepts will be examined in class.  Behavioral science will provide the foundation for understanding dynamic changes.  Organizational change, by definition, involves employees in a complex behavioral setting.  Thus, a solid understanding of applied behavioral science is needed to deal with material presented.  Moreover, because organizational change is frequently implemented through structural changes, a familiarity with organizational design strategies will also prove useful.

This will be a survey course; we will cover a wide range of change methodologies in use today.  When we conclude, however, you will not be a fully-trained "organizational change consultant," but you will have a good understanding of the breadth and depth of the subject.  This is important.  Few of us will be consultants in the professional sense of the word (being hired to go into an organization to design and help with change), but to some degree all of us are internal change agents, concerned and charged with keeping our respective organizations effective and efficient in changing sociological, economic and political conditions.  Your roles as informal (if not formal) change agents should be all the more successful with the material we will be covering.

Throughout the semester there will be in class interactive activities.  These will focus on what you need to be aware of as a change agent.  They also will target at developing skills that you will find useful as a change agent across a broad range of situations.

Course Requirements

I.  Class attendance and participation

II.  Homework.

III. Journal - Keep a journal from the beginning of the course through Nov. 20 relating course concepts with your experiences and/or observations.

IV. Final Exercise - essay questions, past examples of which appear later in this syllabus.

Homework

Several times during the semester there will be homework assignments.  These serve two-fold.  By reading them I can determine if everyone is able to relate the course to real-life experiences and observations.  Second, they provide the foundations for class discussion.  They are due after class the day they are due.  They will not be graded, as such, but I will provide qualitative comments.

Journal

This assignment involves your keeping a journal from the beginning of the semester until November 9 when it is due to be turned into me.  You will have entries for ten weeks beginning the first week of class.  The purpose of this journal is for you to relate what is covered in class and assigned readings to experiences you have had.  Most of these experiences will be work related.  Some may be educationally related.  A few might be of a more personal nature.  This is NOT a personal journal, however, where you discuss what is going on with you.  Keeping the journal is the way you will apply what you are learning in the course with experiences you have had in your life.  Each week new sets of issues, concepts, and perspectives will be covered in class and in the reading material.  This is an opportunity for you to apply this to what you have seen or have been a part of in your life.

Journal entries might address (but are certainly not limited to) the questions listed below:
$ What did you learn from the text that you could relate to your experience?
$ What surprised you about your behavior or the behavior of others in a class exercise?
$ What did you learn about yourself in an exercise?  What did you learn about other people?
$ What would you do differently if you had to do the exercise over again?
$ What did a speaker say that was particularly relevant to you, and why?
$ How do OD principles apply to non-work situations?
$ What from a lecture was most pertinent to you, and why?
$ What from class/reading was particularly relevant to what was going on in the organization you last worked for?

Journal entries should not be restricted to what we cover in class.  Each week there will be assigned reading material to reflect on. You will also be reading in your book of choice.  Any relevant situation you are in or have been involved in at work or in some other setting.

The journal is a confidential communication between you and me.  I will not share verbally or in writing anything you write in your journal.

Journal entries should be made each week and should be typed double-spaced.  At least two pages and preferably four pages / week is necessary to provide some depth to your thinking/reflection.

While this is an important assignment to be completed as part of the course requirement, I want this journal to be written for yourself, something that you want to keep and go back to.  Therefore I am giving you a fair degree of latitude in what you reflect on as long as it relates to some aspect of the course.

Final Exercise

The final exercise will probably contain five (5) to ten (10) questions drawn from the lecturers, the assigned readings, handouts, homework, and class exercise simulations.  Sample questions from prior classes include: (1)

1. You have been assigned as a new supervisor of a long-standing work group of nine employees.  HR informs you that in their individual files you will find their scores on the Organization Process Survey and the Visibility/Credibility Index.  How can this information be helpful to you as a new manager?

2. What are the advantages/disadvantages of using non-structured interviews?

3. How and why have American values changed over the last century?

4. Organization development theory is based on assumptions that are made regarding people, leadership, groups, and organizations.  What are some of these assumptions?

5. A former student of mine has asked me to give a speech on culture at a Rotary luncheon.  He said he thought the Rotarians worked in either a Tough/Guy/Macho or a Bet The Company culture.  What could I say about one of these?  Choose one and provide me with an outline of a speech.

6. In the attached case, respond to the following three questions, each worth 15 points: (a) What have we learned about culture in W516 that applies to this case?; (b) What conclusions can you draw from the verbatim comments?; and (c) What intervention techniques would be most appropriate?  Why?

 A new text has been adopted for this class, so some of these concepts may not be
covered in this course.

Participation

Throughout the course we will be in an environment in the classroom designed for interactive learning.  Most of the content of the course can be gleaned from the material on reserve, the assigned books, and the handouts.  There will be a minimal amount of lecturing to supplement this material.  A typical class (and they will all be different) will involve a modest amount of lecturing, discussion of relevant topical areas, and involvement in various exercises and simulations which provide some reality to theory and give you the opportunity to reflect and respond to a variety of situations in a risk-free environment.  For some classes there will be homework assignments to be completed.  My philosophy is that the classroom in a course like this should be a learning laboratory.  I don't consider this to be my course or your course, but
OUR course.  In that vein, I will frequently not assume the traditional role of
professor--lecturer and disseminator of information.

Since class only meets once per week, missing class means missing an entire week.  Please email me prior to when you must miss and why.

Because of the uniqueness of what we sometimes do in class, occasionally students ask if a spouse or friend can attend class.  I welcome visitors, but would also appreciate e-mail notice.
 

The following grading system has been adopted for both first year core classes and second year classes at the Kelley School of Business.  The targeted distribution of grades in each class is:

W-516 Grading Parameters

Marginal Pass -- come to class and complete all the assignments.
Pass -- come to class, participate, and complete all the assignments, and demonstrate                 some examples of high pass work.

High Pass -- the above with some examples of high pass and excellent work.

Excellent -- the above plus an excellent performance on the final exercise.

Distinguished -- the above plus distinguished performance on the final exercise.

Course Evaluation
 

Book of Your Choice

Select a book that deals with some aspect of change.  You should select a book that you are interested in reading.  Make references to what you are reading as you make entries in your journal.

Visit Barnes and Noble, Borders, and the IU bookstore to review books you can scan.  Log onto Amazon.com.  Many of the books have a helpful synopsis.  Some also have reader reviews.

Course Outline

The following pages list the general topic for each day plus reading assignments.  There are several weeks where there will be handouts.  Periodically I will post material on the web.  Handouts and web material will be available one week prior to when it is discussed.