ORGANIZATIONAL DYNAMICS
(AS) {DYNM}
501. Foundations of Organizational
Dynamics. (C) Barstow.
This is a foundations course intended for undergraduates,
non-MSOD students and MSOD students in their first year of
study. The course serves to introduce the new student
to the central themes and requirements of the Program, the
five concentrations of study, and a cross section of the
faculty. Lectures, discussions, simulations, and experiential
learning are used to build an informed grounding in the philosophy,
theory and practice of Organizational Dynamics. The
course also includes a writing workshop built around the
written assignments of the course.
542. Theories & Model That
Inform Coaching. Orenstein.
This course will discuss the importance of theory in guiding
the practice of coaching. Students will be introduced
to a theory/model that explores a multiple-discipline approach
to coaching in an organizational setting. With this
framework as a basis, and a subsequent review of an array
of theoretical orientations, students will select, research,
apply and present a theoretical model of their own choosing. Their
moedel will provide the framework that informs their coaching
and/or use their thought and practice in their roles at work.
SM 600. Managing Diversity in the
Workplace. (C) Anderson.
This seminar will focus on the social nature of race, ethnicity,
and lifestyle relations in the workplace, assessing implications
for the resulting organizational culture and management issues. The
workplace is the intersection of many individual experiences
and biases, particularly those surrounding the personal issues
of race, ethnicity and lifestyle.
One's capability for managing and being managed are profoundly
affected by how clearly one is able to understand one's own
biases as well as those of others. A main objective of the
seminar will be to increase one's ability to understand and
manage diversity in the workplace by investigating: (1) how
distinctions manifest themselves in organizations; (2) how
the same behavior can be viewed differently, depending on experience
and culture; (3) the meaning of dominant and minority groups;
(4) the workplace as the same or different from society in
general; (5) risks of assuming that differences are being understood,
when they are not; (6) the nature of stigma and its implications
for the workplace.
SM 601. Gender Issues in Organizational
Leadership. (C) Vanderslice.
This seminar will explore the intersection of gender and organizational
behavior as it has evolved and in the current social and
economic context in this country. We will examine the
social, cultural and structural dynamics within organizations
that differentially affect women and men, as well as the
gender-linked resources each brings to organizations.
Discussion will also focus on how gender-linked resources can
be better used and responded to in organizations. Topics
that will be addressed include gender and power, gender and
class, gender and leadership, the social construction of organizational
structure and restructuring organizations to better meet the
needs of women and men in today's culture. We will also
examine phenomena such as the "glass ceiling," the "Mommy
track,"
organizational responses to parenting needs, the flight of
executive women from large organizations and the "pink
collar" ghetto.
SM 602. Leader-Manager as Coach. (M) Russo.
New work technologies, increased competition and employees'
desire for more involvement in their work are changing the
traditional role of the manager. Rather than directing, planning
and controlling the work, managers and leaders are facilitating
processes and coaching and developing their employees. Team
based organizations are built on coaching as a core requirement
of the team leader role. This course explores the theory
and practices of individual coaching as leadership behavior. The
focus is on helping managers develop their skills and improve
their performances as coaches. We will examine the
need to provide others with successful performance strategies,
timely feedback on strengths and on development needs and
growth opportunities in order to challenge others to reach
their potential. We will explore workplace environments
that foster the growth and achievement of those we lead.
SM 603. Administrative Decision Making
and Problem Solving. (C) Starr.
How do you make important decisions when confronted with organizational,
socialor personal problems? Is your primary approach
to use a strategic process? How many strategies do
you know and use?
In this course we will review and discuss research and descriptions
about how
"normal" people solve problems and make administrative, ethical,
and social decisions. We will evaluate situations and problems where
quantitative methods can be applied in order to improve both the process and
outcome of complex problems. Using readins and classroom case exercises,
we will consider cognitive erros or biases, as well as personality and group
dynamics forces that influence making choices. We will also consider
how psychological stress, gender, and leadership apply to decision-making and
problem solving in organizations. Most research reasings and methods of analysis
and evaluation are based on assumptions, theories, modes, and research conducted
by psychologists and published in psychology journals. The underlying
assumptions of the psychological approach to the topic will be presented and
discussed.
Participants will
learn to: understand and apply normative ("ideal")
strategies for decision making/problem solving; understand
and use descriptive ("everyday") and prescriptive
("improved") strategies and processes for decision
making/problem solving; understand the differences between
individual and group decision making/problem solving; understand
how conflict, leadership, and gender influence decision making/problem
solving; write papers that demonstrate understanding and
application of decision making and problem solving strategies.
SM 604. Organizational Risk Management.
(L) Combrinck-Graham.
We will examine our involvement in risk management in our
organizations and discuss whether our organizations manage
risk as they manage opportunity. The first half of
the course will focus on risk management's decisional and
managerial aspects. During the second half of the course,
we will apply these concepts to case studies as preparation
for your presentation on managing risk in your particular
organization. This course should provide you with a
framework for addressing risk in your organization and perhaps
in your personal life. You will also strengthen your
understanding of your appetite for risk and that of your
organization under different circumstances.
Risk management
is a function rather than a specific position. It should
be practiced by many levels of management, with coordination
and guidance from a senior level. Risk management is
a planning and strategic function, not solely an assessment,
financial or safety function. Risk management prepares
for an uncertain tomorrow, just as long-range planning deals
with the futurity of present decisions.
SM 605. Assessing and Managing Project
Risk. (C) Adler.
This seminar will focus on the six stages of project risk
management articulated in the best practices standard developed
by the Project Management Institute. These include:
(1) Risk Management Planning; (2) Risk Identification; (3)
Qualitative Risk Analysis; (4) Quantitative Risk Analysis;
(5) Risk Response Planning and (6) Risk Monitoring and Control.
Although the management processes involved in some stages may
appear easy to understand, their implementation always requires
appreciation of and commitment to the complexities of risk
management by the leadership of the organization. Stages
2 and 4 concern qualitative assessment; Stages 4 and 6 are
more analytic in nature and involve discussion and review of
quantitative techniques. Class participants will be asked
to find past or current projects in their own organizations
that could have or currently can benefit from early identification
of risk. Students will work in teams to identify the
benefits of, and more importantly, the challenges and barriers
to, establishing risk management processes in their enterprises.
SM 606. The Individual and the Corporation:
Ethnographic Methods Focused on the Individual. (C) Anderson.
This course introduces ethnography and its uses for understanding
everyday life within organizations. Attention is focused
on the roles individuals play in the development, elaboration,
and interpretation of organizational culture. Qualitative
methods including interviewing, observing, listening, writing
field notes, and interpreting data for organizational analysis
are emphasized. Aspects of everyday life, as well as formal
organizational activities, are examined and analyzed from
an ethnographic perspective.
SM 607. Psychodynamics of Organizations. (M) Hirschhorn.
SM 608. Organizational Dynamics of
Working in a Global Marketplace. (M) Tschoegl.
This course examines some of the sources of confusion, conflict,
misperception and error that arise when representatives of
U.S. organizations interact and work in the global marketplace.The
aim is to heighten awareness, help avoid personal or professional
pitfalls, and to more effectively manage some of the organizational
and business challenges that arise when operating across
dissimilar environments. We will focus on areas including:
ethics, culture, language, ethnicity, religion, gender, the
political and legal systems, labor, corruption, and corporate
organization. Each class session will begin with a
short, interactive introductory lecture, followed by discussion
around assigned readings and mini-cases.
SM 609. Organizational Effects of
Religion in the Workplace. (M) Dunning.
This is a new seminar on an emerging organizational challenge:
as America moves beyond the situation famously labeled by
Will Herberg as a society of "Protestant, Catholic,
Jew:" how should organizations adapt to the new religious
diversity? Should firms attempt to have a "religion-free" workplace? Should
they embrace some form of religion or spirituality and put
it in the service of the organizational mission? Or
is there perhaps a third way that respects the religious
practices of employees without favoring any one of them? A
related challenge faces leaders themselves: how can faith
and religious practice influence leadership? Finally,
how do these challenges reflect broader historical patterns
in Aamerican society and history? These questions will
be explored with selections from the following books: A Spiritual
Audit of Corporate America; Religion and the Workplace; Faith
in Leadership; A New Religious America, and Religious Outsiders
and the Making of Americans.
SM 610. Knowing Yourself: The Coach
as an Instrument of Change. (M) Napier.
Similar to most traditional programs where the focus is on
the mangement of change, the course is organized in relation
to (1) A diagnostic phase in which the values, history, assumptions,
and behaviors of the client will be assessed. In this
case, the client will be the student/coach. (2) The
applied phase in which analysis, interpretation, and formal
learning will be the central focus. (3) The end result
will be individuals with a deep and abiding understanding
of their own psychodynamics and their personal impact. (4)
By modeling many of the tools and strategies useful in any
effective coaching effort and practicing them on themselves
and their student peers, it is hoped that the experiential
nature of the course will allow maximum transference to the
real work of coaching.
SM 611. Strategic Perspectives on
Coaching. (M) Wilkinsky.
This course will examine coaching in the organizational setting
from the perspective of significant stakeholders in the coaching
process. Coaching from the perspective of the client
will explore the goals, issues, concerns, and outcome measures
that are in the domain of the clients. Why do they
want coaching to take place? How can they maximize
return on their time and energy investments? Coaching
from the perspective of HR within the sponsoring organization
considers HR goals and needs, and attaining "success" through
coaching. Also examined are confidentiality, the responsibilities
of HR (finding coaching and approving coaches), and how the
investment is defined and measured.Coaching from the perspective
of the coach addresses metrics and evaluation by the coach.
Determining excellence is no simple task. The issues
problems, barriers to success, and tools of the trade will
be addressed.
Coaching from the
perspective of the high impact group outside the organization
acknowledges the systems perspective that people are connected
to multiple organizations and that bahavior, knowledge, and/or
competency are interactive and co-producing.
SM 612. Mastering Organizational Politics
and Power. (C) Eldred.
The purpose of this course is to explore, enhance, and expand
the participants' competence in organizational politics. Students
will observe political dynamics as they occur in their own
organizations and will interview senior managers in other
organizations to learn how political realities vary from
one organization to another. Theoretical ideas about
a dimension of organizational politics of particular interest
to each individual participant will be analyzed in a term
paper. In addition, each participant will keep a personal
diary of political dynamics in his or her own workplace. The
course will also explore ways to master the political skills
of networking, negotiating, influencing, leading, and following,
as well as developing a political strategy.
SM 613. Is Bigger - Inevitable, Better
or Worse in Organizations?. (C) Licht.
Is the modern large corporation alienating, inflexible, unproductive? Is
the small organization or work team engaging, innovative
or creative, productive? Has it always been this way in the
U.S.? Is change possible? In this unique, informal, "turbo" seminar,
we will examine the large corporation in terms of history,
governance and control, and delivery of (office) work. We
will consider whether
"bigness" and bureaucracy are inevitable, and how organizations of
the present, and probably the future, are affected by those of the past.
SM 615. Staying Competitive: The U.S.,
China and You. (M) Bauer.
This seminar both examines and practices staying competitive
at five levels: the individual participant, the organization
or employer, the industry, and the nation (where being American
makes a difference), and the globalized world economy. As
a result of this semester's work, all participants will have
evaluated their own situation and organization and developed
a practical plan for their next step. Visitors who
have chosen particular ways of staying competitive will be
invited to class to discuss what happened and why.
Among the strategies
we will weigh against both the historical record and current
facts: How does an organization restructure for new development
while measuring and being measured for growth? Do economies
of scale still apply when the technology changes every 18
months? What technological, financial, and organizational
missions can support internal strategies for personnel development? What
are the specific trade-offs of looking outside for additional
strength? Participants build case studies of their
own organ izations and analyze them for evidence of strength
to the merger consultant, the CEO, the stock analyst, the
business media, the venture capitalist and their own career
paths.
SM 616. Globalization: World Politics,
Social Order and Economic Impacts. (C) Teune.
The purpose of this seminar is to provide analytical frameworks
for understanding change in the world seen as a total system.
The challenging question of our time is whether this and the
next decades will be dominated by a backlash against globalization,
including new forms of global war and local closure to trade
and exchange, or if the world, despite setbacks, will continueto
develop a new political, social and economic world order radically
different from the traditional one of relations among nations.
In either case, turbulence and volatility from the forces and
counter-forces of globalization can be expected.
The contradictions
of our era of globalization (beginning around 1975) are that
while globalization appears to lead to uniformities everywhere
(McDonaldization)nevertheless old and new differences and
identities intensify.Also, globalization makes it nearly
impossible to explain a particular change, for example, decline
in voting in elections in the U.S., in American political
terms, when the same phenomenon happens in all established
democracies. Regions separate, Europe and NAFTA, among
them, while at the same time globalization proceeds to include
all markets everywhere.
Topics that will be covered, after discussions of the main
issues of globalization and its consequences, include: economic
integration, the future of the nation-state, a New Europe,
a world of regions, global democracy, doing business globally,
nationalism and religious fundamentalism, the global environment,
global security, and human rights in a global society.
SM 617. Economics of Human Behavior
and Organizational Life. (M) Handy.
The primary goal of this course is an examination of the various
aspects of human behavior in the context of organizational
and institutional life from an economic perspective. We
begin with an examination of how micro economists view the
world, discussing concepts such as: efficiency; opportunity
cost/marginalism; externalities; incentives; free-riding;
rent-seeking; and transaction costs. We then focus
on a rational choice analysis of family, the oldest and most
fundamental institution in society. We examine marriage
and divorce and the consequences from an economic standpoint
for individuals and society. We then examine religious
organizations and religion in terms of choices individuals
make given costs and benefits of their actions while "producers" of
religion compete for adherents. Before concluding the
course with an economic analysis of democratic government,
we will look at several topics such as: human capital and
investment in education; law and enforcement; bribes and
gifts, economics of information; property rights and externalities;
and free-riding.
SM 619. Organizational Project Management.
(M) Choukroun.
This seminar presents and critically examines the components
of a project life cycle. We examine how to identify
and manage time, cost, quality, use of human resources, communications,
risk, procurement, scope, and project integration tools. We
acknowledge that project management is a formal synthesis
of quantitative and qualitative components such that effective
project management must include competencies of leadership
and communication that support the people directly and indirectly
associated with the project and its implementation with an
organization.
SM 620. The Coach: Applying Tools
and Skills in the Field. (M) Napier.
What makes this particular coaching course unique is that
it affords students the opportunity to experience a full
range of caoching practices in a relatively short amount
of time. The expectation is that the students will
have identified a potential client that will be discussed
during the first class (although no firm agreement would
have to be reached prior to that time).The criteria of a
good client would be: 1) that the individual is the leader
of a team or a dedicated group of individuals and has at
least 6 direct reports. 2) In addition to a span of
control of 6 or more, the individual responsibility involving
multiple consistencies such as clients, boards, volunteers,
task forces, or others that add breadth of his or her responsibilities. 3)
The client must be willing to take a hard look at their own
role, authority and most particularly6 their behavior as
a leader.
The student/coach
will be guided each step of the way through the coaching
process which will include a) contracting with the client;
b) engaging in a thorough diagnostic exercise for the client
including interviews, observations and a complete 360 feedback
cycle, c) analyzing the data, d) feeding the results back
to the client, e) engaging the client in problem solving
and an action plan designed to help increase the client's
effectiveness.
SM 622. Building Effective Organizational
Structures: Getting Things Done. (C) Barstow.
This seminar attempts to penetrate many of the formal models
of organizational planning, decision making and action to
ask how things actually get done. Popular concepts such as
participative management, teamwork and networking are often
not practiced effectively. Attempts to bring about
such political change in organizations often ignore the fluid,
informal structures already in place. This seminar
will explore structures and processes for redesigning an
organization and empowering its members to work and manage
effectively. This seminar is built around change projects
designed and carried out by each participant over the term. Each
participant will present and lead a discussion of their project
during the course.
SM 624. Program Leadership Skills.
(M) Staff.
Good program management requires leaders with vision, self-motivation,
and an entrepreneurial spirit grounded in sound managements
processes. Program management processes are primarily
integrative in that they coordinate the outputs of various
projects to derive the desired program outcomes. A
guiding rule for applying program management processes is
to ensure that the program manager effectively delegates
authority, autonomy, and responsibility for day-to-day management
of the projects to the designated project managers, thereby
leaving time and energy for stakeholder management in a broader
context and at higher, more strategic levels of the enterprise.
Tools and techniques
needed for program management will be reviewed including
(1) the assembling of expert judgements from a variety of
sources; (2) conducting meetings with stakeholders to prepare
for decisions and to develop synergies; (3) using and maintaining
organizational process assets such as policies and procedure
guidelines and shared knowledge bases; and (4) conducting
project reviews at key go/no-go decision points. Students
will be asked to learn about program management activities
within their own organizations and to assess their level
of productivity and effectiveness. Students from different
industries and functions will work in teams to compare and
contrast the program management environments they have encountered.
SM 626. Leading the Professional Service
Organization. (M) Eldred.
The purpose of this seminar is to (1) Identify the key dilemmas
involved in this kind of leadership role; (2) Differentiate
between leadership and management in these settings; (3)
Explore what different professional backgrounds have in common
in these leadership roles; and (4) Develop a data base of
common leadership practices in professional service firms,
especially as they exemplify the new emphasis of positive
psychology.
SM 627. Classics of Organizational
Behavior. (C) Barstow.
The purpose of this seminar is to critique the thought and
practice of several "big names" in organizational
behavior, while establishing the continuing relevance of
their work to today's organizations. Federick Taylor
(Scientific Management), The Hawthorne Studies (Human Relations),
Kurt Lewin (group Dynamics), Eric Trist (Socio-Technical
Systems) and others will be read in their primary sources,
giving participants the opportunity to form their own opinion
of these classic field studies.
Participants will
read primary sources in the field as well as more recent
critical scholarship. They will then present short
papers to the class in the model of an academic conference,
followed by discussion. Participants will debate their
own views in this conference atmosphere as if both the founders
and their critics were present. In addition to the
readings and discussion, participants will view a taped oral-history
interview with Eric Trist and a film of Kurt Lewin's famous
experiment on leadership styles.
Each participant will present two brief papers to the class
and will submit a longer final paper.
SM 628. Organizational Diagnosis:
Diagnostic Strategies for Enhancing Organizational Effectiveness.
(C) Kaminstein.
This seminar is designed to help participants learn multiple
approaches to diagnosing the complex ways in which issues
and/or problems manifest themselves in organizations. Frequently,
when organizations find themselves introuble, i.e., there
are rumblings in the system about such things as lack of
leadership, poor communication, diminished productivity,
low morale, etc., there is a tendency to frame the problem(s)
simplistically and/or locate blame in a few difficult individuals
or groups. However, upon closer examination, problematic
issues are often found to be symptomatic and/or symbolic
of multiple issues within the organization. This course
will help students understand how problems which appear at
one level of the system (for example, at the personal or
interpersonal level) often represent problems at other levels
of the system (e.g., at the group and/or institutional level)
or signify a range of inter-related issues. It will
provide students with the theoretical constructs and application
skills necessary for identifying and framing problem areas,
collecting data, and organizing feedback to client systems. Real-time
examples will inform our discussions as we consider the relationships
between diagnosis, organizational reflection and appropriate
action.
Subjects for exploration
include differences between high tech and other industry,
intellectual property, know how and expertise.
SM 629. Organizational Consulting:
Proseminar in Organizational Development. (C) Starr.
This course describes and examines progessional Organization
Development (OD) competencies identified by the Academy of
Management and professional OD societies. OD practitioners,
theorists, and corporate officers visit class to describe
- for example - establishing and managing organizational
coaching programs; applying different models in large-scale
organization change initiatives; managing change in virtual
and global teams; and using change methodologies such as
Appreciative Inquiry (a blend of positive psychology and
systems thinking) to create idealized development and growth. MSOD
or MPhil students interested in organization consulting and
coaching should consider this course as a first step. Most
research, readings and methods of analysis and evaluation
are based on assumptions, theories, models and research conducted
by psychologists and social scientists from the human relations
tradition.
SM 630. Business Process Excellence
- From Vision to Reality. (M) Kirchmer.
In the 1990s, organizations started to move from function
to process- oriented organizational structures. The
primary goals were to increase customer and market orientation
as well as flexibility of enterprises. Since 2000,
an increasing number of organizations have extended their
focus from intra-enterprise processes to inter-enterprise
business processes. This shift was considered essential
to achieve business process excellence, and to keep and improve
competitive advantages. Indeed, Dell, the computer
giant, succeeded because of their process innovation--not
because of new or revolutionary products. Using real-life
examples and case studies, this course will describe and
discuss ways of moving from function to process oriented
organizations. Change management will be a key topic. Participants
will learn what it means to structure an organization in
a process-oriented way, what challenges the realization of
such a structure creates, and how challenges can be mastered. Each
participant will write a paper about a potential business
process improvement intiative related to their professional
experience and will present their initiative case to the
class.
SM 631. Strategic Planning and the
Process of Implementation and Success. (C) Tomazinis.
Entrepreneurship engenders the notions of innovation, organization,
planning ahead, and above all, a determination to do something
that has not been done before. Every successful entrepreneurial
enterprise is a realization of strategy and planning. Participants
in this seminar will discuss the techniques necessary to
lead an entrepreneurial venture in the public and private
sectors and within large and small organizations.
SM 634. Process Improvement Tools
and Strategies. (C) Stankard.
This class emphasizes development of hand-on skills for coaching
process improvement teams including using the tools of process
improvement. A simulated process improvement project
will be run in class that will give students an opportunity
to use all of the most common process improvement tools. Remaining
meetings will compare and contrast currently popular process
models such as Lean production, Six Sigma,and Just-in-Time
production and how they apply in services and the service
side of manufacturing. The deliverableswill be (1)
Know-how in the use of process improvement tools, (2) An
understanding of the roles of team leaders, team coach, and
various team membership roles, and (3) an opportunity to
evaluate currently popular methods of process improvement
either through readings and field interviews at firms using
one or more process improvement methodologies or by picking
a process improvement episode within the student's home organization
and evaluating it to obtain lessons learned.
SM 635. Organizational Essentials
for Leadership. (M) vanMerkensteijn/Choukroun.
Through presentations by expert speakers, case dicussions,
and participation in team projects, students will review
and evaluate critical issues from across the frames of business,
including general; human resource; marketing; information
and stakeholder management; leadership; corporate culture;
communications; organizational behavior; sales, marketing
and public relations; finance and financial reporting; ethics
and social responsibility; unions and government relations;
and business law. Each of these elements will be studied
in light of changing environmental conditions, including
the economy; society; consumer behavior; market trends; regulation;
politics, unpredictable events such as 9/11; organizational
change; history; and internationalism.
SM 636. 21st Century Leadership Development:
Integrating Cultural Influences into Coaching Practice.
(C) Reyes.
Coaching has been used to support high-level leadership,to
develop high potential talent, to overcome or remediate deficiencies
or unproductive behaviors, and to support or manage performance
during periods of change. As the use of organizational
coaching has grown over the last decade, globalization of
the economy has transformed organizational markets, operations,
and workforces so that "culture" routinely influences
interpersonalgroup and organizational interfaces. In
this context, leadership requires an ability to recognize
and leverage the "cultural diversity" inherent
in tamwork, communication, collaboration, conflict and change.
Coaching, as a leadership development practice, must help
leaders grow in their ability to recognize and leverage the
national, professional, functional and organizational cultures
that influence workforce engagement, productivity, and satisfaction
and innovation.
This course is
intended for students with an interest in culturally complex
leadership and organizational development. This course
had a dual purpose. First, through reading, class discussion
and written reflection, the course will enhance student understanding
of coaching models, methods, and cases informed by cross-cultural
psychology, intercultural communication, anthropology and
international business disciplines. Secondly, through
guided practice, students will develop their skills in coaching
across cultural differences. Studnets will coach one
another through a self- assessment, development planning
process and initial movement toward their objectives using
a global scorecard using Rosinski's global coaching process
as one illustrative example of this kind of coaching.
SM 637. Coaching and Facilitating
Teams. (C) Wilkinsky.
Highly productive teams plan well and execute against that
plan. These teams have effective leadership which recognizes
and fosters the development of the skills of the team's members. Tasks
are accomplished in a cooperative and participative environment. Accomplishments
are recognized and, as appropriate, celebrated. Failures
and disappointments are explored so that the lessons can
be used to succeed in the future. Sadly, not all teams
and work groups fit the above description. Too often
goals are not met, participation is uneven, finger-pointing,
CYA, and lack of motivation permeate the team.
In this course,
we will explore the roles and functions of the coach and
facilitator of organizational teams. This highly participative
course will use both theory and practice to determine how
to help teams avoid limiting pitfalls and increase their
opportunity to become highly productive in the accomplishment
of tasks and the professional and personal development of
people.
SM 638. Evaluation of Plans and Programs
of Organizations. (M) Tomazinis.
The purpose of this seminar is to introduce, explore and analyze
the process of evaluation of plans, projects, programs, and
the operations of organizations in the private and the public
sectors.
Evaluation as an activity has been ackowledged in the field
as both vital in the decision making process and as an effort
that comes usually too late in the course of routine operations. (What
is the truth?) Evaluators have also been confronted with an
increased array of questions and responsibilities.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the task of evaluation took added significance
when foreign competition entered the private sector in large
scale and new, threatening trends developed. (What was
the cause of the recent economic recession?) The evaluators
of many projects and programs have also been confronted by
managers and decision makers who have already committed themselves
to certain courses of action.
The seminar will
explore situational variations, methodological tools available
in each case, procedural courses of action, the responsbilities
that confront the various actors, as well as the need to
make certain that the results of evaluation are being properly
incorporated in the executive decisions in both private and
public sector organizations.
SM 639. Project Team Strategy. (M) Adler.
This final course in the concentration offers the students
the opportunity to synthesize the knowledge, skill and creativity
from the other courses. Class meetings are not scheduled;
however, a faculty advisor will be assigned to each student
and team. Temas or 4 or 5 students from the same industry
will integrate competencies learned to creat a written plan/proposal
to (1) restructure an existing activity within one of their
companies or (2) propose a major new project activity within
one of their companies or (3) propose a new venture within
their industry.
The final product
will be presented to the class with the sponsor in attendance. The
final grade will reflect an assessment of overall quality
by the faculty advisor, value evaluated by the sponsor, and
team performance evaluated by each member of the project
team.
SM 640. Virtual Forms of Collaboration.
(M) Reyes.
In many of today's organizations, the process of improving
productivity and performance has become a big business. Quite
apart from the myriad internal studies, task forces, reorganization
efforts, re-engineering projects, and the like, there are
countless external vendors and consultants who provide productivity
and performance products and services to organizations of
all types. Perhaps the best known are Business Process
Re-engineering (BPR) and Business Process Engineering (BPE)
which have been developed to tackle the needs for broader-scale
improvements. The adoption of Enterprise-wide Resource
Planning (ERP) systems based on BPE has been a significant
development. Not only does ERP ordinarly constitute
a major investment of resources, it requires the adoption
of a reconfigured view of the organization and the processes
used in its design, structure, and operations. In this
seminar, the rationale for ERP will be discussed in terms
of its effects and impacts on productivity and performance
in organizations. In order to illustrate the factors
and considerations used in developing ERP systems, examples
will be presented which employ SAP's R/3 system and the R/3 "Business
Process Reference Models." In order to facilitate the
review, additional examples will be presented.
SM 641. The Art and Science of Organizational
Coaching. (C) Wilkinsky.
Coaching has become a primary tool for consultants, human
resources professionals and administrators interested in
promoting and sustaining leadership and executive development,
behavioral change, and role transition. This course explores
the theory and practices associated with organizational coaching. We
examine and practice the steps of the normative coaching
process,the issues and boundaries that affect coaching, and
pitfalls to avoid.
Throughout the
course, we will contrast what the theory says and what practitioners
in the field have actually experienced. Major foci
include the critical nature of gathering and using data,
observation tools, internal versus external coaching, informal
versus formal programs, and coaching for development versus
for corrective action. Participants will engage in
coaching processes in the classroom and in their own organizations.
SM 642. Allocating Resources: Economic,
Technological & Human. (L) Gale.
Setting, monitoring, and controlling organizational plans
and their implementation has become increasingly complex
in modern organizations. Simple measures of bottom-line profitability
by divisions, for example, often mask the processes required
for intra-and inter-organizational coordination and effectiveness. Similarly,
standard organization charts depict reporting responsibilities
and authorities without tracing either the flow of communications
or the financial impacts of change. As a means for
illustrating alternative approaches to the management of
organizations, selected models, methods and examples of organizational
resource allocation and control will be reviewed, discussed
and analyzed. In addition to the seminar discussions,
participants in the course will also be expected to identify,
develop, and analyze a resource allocation problem associated
with an organziation. (Typically, the organization
selected is one with which the participant is familiar or
is interested in creating.) Selected examples of resource
allocation strategies will be discussed during the first
seminar. Each participant will be expected to prepare a paper
on their problem and to make a brief presentation on the
methods of analysis employed and the means for implementing
the results.
The seminar will
involve working both on individual projects and discussions
of approaches and methods for the conceptualization and analysis
of resource allocation problems.
As such, the course will combine elements of a seminar and
a workshop.
Following the first session (which will cover introductions
of the participants, a presentation of the objectives and design
of the course,and a review of selected cases), each seminar
will be devoted to a review of methods and discussions of the
participants' cases.
SM 643. Overcoming Organizational
Barriers to Success. (M) Bayney.
This course examines the fundamental raison d'etre of Project
Portfolio Management and its relationships with other organizational
disciplines. It is not a course designed to teach individuals
how to practice Project, Program or Portfolio Management. Rather,
it is a course designed to place Project Portfolio Management
front and center of organizational survival and to educate
practitioners on how to create strategies for its long-term
survival and institutionalization. In today's cost
cutting and outsourcing environment, organizations are struggling
to continue to grow and create value from declining resource
constraints, whether human or budgetary in origin. This places
a greater level of importance and burden on Project Portfolio
Management but, in so doing, serves to threaten the traditional
domans of more established functions that have carefully
protected their influential territory for countless decades.
SM 644. Srategic Outsourcing. (M) vanMerkensteijn.
This course examines outsourcing from the perspective of corporate
effectiveness, staff development, and socio-politics. We
will discuss how to use outsourcing as a strategic and competitive
advantage; appropriate planning, implementing and managing
a successful outsourcing program; and using outsourcing for
downsizing and re-engineering. We will also consider
how to "sell" outsourcing to corporate staff and
the external community, and how to survive your own organization's
outsourcing decision. Students will complete projects
that will shape future information provided in this course.
SM 647. The Psychology of Conflict
and its Resolution. (C) Seltzer.
"What is life like without a good fight?" Conflict
(expressed or unexpressed) is a fact of organizational life. It
ocurs between individuals and within and between groups and
departments. It has both positive and negative purposes
and ramifications. It can stimulate development and
progress or retard it. This seminar examines psychological
and social dynamics which are connected to conflict: e.g.,
power, leadership, personal needs, role, communication, etc.,
and looks at the situations and personalities involved. Readings
also include theories of conflict and approaches to conflict
resolution. Examples will be drawn from actual participant
experience in a workshop experience. A background in
psychology is not a requirement.
SM 648. Ethics and Leadership. (C) Fielder.
While Hitler and Gandhi were both successful leaders, Gandhi
was a good leader,working for ethical goals and using ethical
means. As we know from recent corporate scandals, leaders
in contemporary organizations often encounter serious conflicts
between their ethical responsibilities and the demands and
culture of their organization. How these conflicts
are resolved defines who we are, what we stand for, and what
we won't stand for, so it is important to deal with them
effectively.
This course will
examine significant questions of organization ethics and
leadership. To clarify these questions and to seek
appropriate solutions, we will use readings and case studies. The
readings will analyze the major issues in ethical leadership,
with particular attention paid to the organizational dynamics
that shape the opportunities and constraints of the decision
makers. They are drawn from sociology, history, health
care, and contemporary accounts of ethical problems in organizations. The
case studies, which apply to a wide range of organizations,
issues and circumstances, will emphasize class discussion
so that individual expertise and experience can deepen participants'
understanding.
SM 651. Group and Team Dynamics. (M) Kamenstein.
SM 652. Impact of Chess, Literature
and Film on Organizational Dynamics. (M) Zubarev.
In this course we present pragmatic reasons that support greater
understanding and use of literature and art in organizational
decision making and problem solving. We examine how
styles and methods of decision making,as represented in the
game of chess and as presented in selected works of literature
and cinema,can be applied to help solve complicated organizational
problems and to improve management interactions. Our
analysis will be informed by the contemporary theoretical
tools elaborated by the late Dr. Aron Katsenelinboigen,
Professor or Operations and Information Management in the
Wharton School.
SM 653. Coaching Others to Manage
Conflict. (C) Napier.
Not a day goes by when you or I or a person we are coaching
is not faced with some tantalizing, challenging conflict. It
may be with someone we love, a conflict in a team, a struggle
between two direct reports, a difference with out boss or
the challenge of a difficult, perhaps aggresive person in
a meeting we facilitate. The problem is not that there
is a conflict. The problem is that most of us have
a very thin, often inadequate repertoire of responses to
the conflicts that engage us on a daily basis. The
result is that all too often we are predictable in our responses. Thus,
if we take these same limited skills and attempt to provide
them to a client in our role as a coach, the consequences
will more than likely be similar.
This course is
about expanding your repertoire of responses to a wide array
of conflict situations. In the process, you will increase
your understanding of the theoretical constructs that underlie
successful conflict management. Not only will your
strategies for managing a variety of conflicts expand, but
you will be better able to design unique responses that relate
to the particular situation with which your client is faced. How
you translate these ideas to your clients and, in the process,
provide them the confidence to use them, willbe a central
theme throughout the course. There is an attempt to
provide a balance between intellectual theory and the skills
and strategies necessary for application.
SM 654. Business Growth Strategies
and Successful Implementation. (C) vanMerkensteijn.
What is your company's strategy for growth? This seminar
is a chance to examine and critique your organization's plans
to grow as well as the opportunity to develop a business
growth strategy and a plan for implementation. For
more than a decade, American organizations have heralded
the strategies of downsizing, reengineering, and reorganization.
There have been countless articles, wrokshops and seminars
which have both championed and challenged the use of these "cost-side"
strategies. Now it is time to look at the revenue side
to grow the business. Why grow the business? How
can these strategies be developed, and most importantly, how
can these strategies be implemented to increase the potential
for success? How should companies organize given the
strategies selected? Should consultants be used in any
of these areas?
If so, what criteria should be used to select the consultant
and how can success be measured? This seminar will also
include an analysis of the potential value--and the pitfalls--of
strategic alliances as a strategy for strengthening and growing
the business. Participants will develop an understanding
of what types of strategic alliances exist, the organizational
issues related to each type, and when each would be an appropriate
choice given the organization's stage of development and culture.
Factors affecting
the implementation of the growth strategy will be considered.These
include core competencies, culture, and structure.
SM 655. Using the Political Process
to Effect Organizational Change. (C) Gale.
At one time or another, each of us has said something like,
"I know what to do to make some really effective changes in this organization,
but the politics make it almost impossible to get anything done." The
sense is that although there are changes that should be made to improve organizational
performance, politics (internal, external, or governmental) simply obstructs
our ability to make a difference.
Frustrations notwithstanding, politics is anything but an impediment;
it is the art and science of coordinating individuals, departments,
management, markets - the entire organizational environment
- to effect a balance of objectives and methods. This
seminar will discuss the use of politics to promote effective
change within organizations. After reviewing the theory
or organizations and the roles that political processes play
in communications and decision-making, a series of cases will
be presented that illustrate the contexts and conditions for
effective political coordination. Both private and public sector
examples will be employed. Seminar participants will
be required to present a case study of organizational politics
and demonstrate ways in which it can be used as an effective
agent of change.
SM 657. Understanding and Preventing
Organizational Deviance. (C) Dunning.
September 11, 2001, has made us all more aware of the
many ways in which organizations can manipulate the behavior
of their members. Some of them are commonplace, such
as the Dynamics briefcases we give you to carry or the hats
we hope you wear, as a way of building spirit and loyalty. Some
of these practices, however, put people in uncomfortable
positions: ethical questions are raised and difficult decision
must be made. This seminar will explore the sorts of
organizational practices that encourage members and employees
to engage in unethical, unprofessional, or even violent behavior. Studies
of religious cults and terrorist organizations will be utilized
to forge an understanding of when the use of symbols and
their meanings to shape behavior becomes invasive and unethical.
The objective of the course is to enable participants to understand
and to prevent deviant behavior in organizations.
SM 660. Mistakes and Errors, Accidents
and Disasters. (C) Bosk.
The purpose of DYNM 660 is to provide a basic understanding
of some rather ubiquitous social phenomena: mistakes, errors,
accidents, and disasters. We will look at these misfirings
across a number of institutional domains: aviation, nuclear
power plants, and medicine. Our goal is to understand
how organizations "think" about these phenomena,
how they develop strategies of prevention, how these strategies
of prevention create new vulnerabilities to different sorts
of mishaps, how organizations respond when things do go awry,
and how they plan for disasters.
At the same time
we will be concerned with certain tensions in the sociological
view of accidents, errors, mistakes and disasters at the
organizational level and at the level of the individual. Errors,
accidents, mistakes and disasters are embedded in organizational
complexities; as such, they are no one's fault. At
the same time, as we seek explanations for these adverse
events, we seek out whom to blame and whom to punish. We
will explore throughout the semester the tension between
a view that sees adverse events as the result of flawed organizational
processes versus a view that sees these events as a result
of flawed individuals.
SM 661. Organizational Culture Change:
Theory and Practice. (C) Vanderslice.
The importance of organizational culture in defining organizations,
and, often, in creating a competitive edge, has been regaining
attention during the past few years. One of the central
questions in the organizational culture debate is whether
a culture, particularly of a large organization, really can
be changed significantly. This course will begin by
engaging the debate about how to define organizational culture
and what key factors determine culture. We will explore different
models of categorizing cultures and discuss the extent to
which culture is really related to performance and what factors
may modify the culture/performance relationship. We
will also examine different methods of diagnosing cultures. During
this section of the course we will describe, compare and
contrast the cultures of different organizations-both those
of the class participants and those of other organizations. We
will begin the second section of the course by examining
both the theoretical and applied literature on organizational
culture change.
After developing
a generic framework for the culture change process, we will
read cases describing culture change efforts and hear from
guest speakers who will discuss specific culture change efforts,
successful and not. This section of the course will
introduce students to specific organizational intervention
strategies that can be used to facilitate culture change. In
particular, we will discuss traditional top-down change strategies,
Real Time Strategic Change, Appreciative Inquiry, and a customized
approach to culture change in mergers and acquisitions. During
the last section of the course, the class will discuss individual,
personal change management as a major factor in successful
organizational change; other factors that are essential in
most successful culture change efforts; barriers that can
be expected; predictable but unintended side-effects of culture
change efforts; and strategies for overcoming barriers and
managing side effects. Finally, students in this class
will apply what they have learned about organizational culture
change to their own organizations.
SM 662. Effective Leadership and Effective
Entrepreneurship. (C) Keech.
This course is designed to provide an understanding of the
nature of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial organizations
in today's economy with emphasis on issues related to the
management , strategies for, and financing of entrepreneurial
ventures. While attention will be focused on problems
related to early-stage ventures, the course will also consider
the issue of entrepreneurship in the management of larger,
established companies. We will examine the role of
the chief executive and the board of directors in providing
and directing entrepreneurship in large organizations and
will emphasize issues such as strategy development and crisis
management as part of the entrepreneurial management process.
SM 663. Psychology of Identity. (M) Seltzer.
What relevance does a positive sense of identity have to workplace
productivity, comfort, retention, promotion, effectiveness,
power, cooperation and competition? This seminar will
examine the
"who" in "who am I?" in the workplace and the
"who" in "who are the others?" as well as the context of
"work" and "workplace" as it affects a positive sense of
identity and the relationship to success in the workplace. Readings will
explore the theoretical origins of identity as well as the controversy of whether
identity is stable and consistent, or whether the "situation"
or the role one occupies at the workplace alters identity. Among
topics studied through class readings and individual interest
assignments will be basic attributes such as gender, age, and
race. The class will consider how these attributes impact
one's own sense of identity as well as how well the identities
of co-workers, subordinates, superiors and others are understood. During
the course of the semester, questions like "are identity
and personality one and the same thing?" and "what
is the relationship between identity and character?" will
be explored. Individual and small-group projects and
papers of interest to the class will be assigned.
SM 664. Organizational Culture and
Learning. (C) Barstow.
What is organizational culture? What is organizational
learning? How do organizations learn effectively and
change their culture? A learning organization is skilled
at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge, and at
modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge (Garvin,
1993). According to Ray Stata, Chairman of Analog Devices, "The
rate at which individuals and organizations learn may become
the only sustainable competitive advantage." However
we define and prioritize organizational learning, we must
still struggle with how to do it. This is a tougher
question. The thesis of this seminar is that an enriched
understanding of culture can enhance organizational learning. Participants
will explore the concept of culture, study the work of Chris
Argyris, and discover practices and behaviors that promote
organizational learning and culture change.
The objective of this seminar is to help participants get beyond
highly abstract philosophy and develop a deeper understanding
and useful skills based on these concepts.
SM 667. Complexity, Sustainability
and Systems Thinking. (C) Barstow.
This course focuses on an understanding of complexity, sustainability,
and systems thinking and explores how these concepts and
principles apply to organizations.
SM 668. Organizational Ethics and
Integrity. (C) Fielder.
Recent scandals in business organizations have focused on
individuals who made unethical and unlawful decisions. Equally,
if not more important, is the role of ethically dysfunctional
organizations which encourage unethical behavior. Integrity,
not just in the narrow sense of being honest, but in the
broader sense of adhering to ethical principles and seeking
socially responsible goals, applies to organizations as well
as individuals. Creating and sustaining organizational
integrity is essential for both organizations and the people
who work there to flourish and reach their full potential.
Research has confirmed that people do their best work in
an atmosphere of trust, responsibility and worthy organizational
goals.
In this course
we will examine cases and causes of failures of organizational
integrity; study examples of how organizations create and
sustain integrity; and apply these approcahes to a range
of actual case studies taken from health care, commerce,
and non-profit organizations. The course will emphasize
class discussion so that contributions from the individual
expertise and experience of the participants can deepen our
understanding of these complex ethical and organizational
issues.
SM 669. Leadership in Organizations:
Private and Public, Personal and Professional. (C) Larkin.
The most valuable resource of any organization is the people
who work there; the human capital, if you will. This
seminar will explore the issues of the leadership of this
human capital to meet the goals of the organization and the
personal and professional goals of the people in the organization. We
will read about and discuss issues such as: Crisis Periods
of Leadership, Enhancing One's Leadership Capability, Conflicts
Between the Organization's Leadership and One's Personal
Leadership, and Strategies for Success in Leadership Positions. Additional
themes of power, authority and control will be examined in
terms of the organization and the individual.
The seminar requires
a considerable degree of participation from the students.
Our explorations of leadership both begin and end with each
of us individually. Therefore, the seminar will reflect
both our common readings and our mutually uncommon (individual)
lives as we all negotiate this interesting and challenging
personal and professional journey.