BAD 64160 F05 Smas

This course is an attempt to develop structure and process for leaders to understand and manage organizational change. This subject is often viewed as trivial or mere behavioral babble by those who are more oriented towards data crunching and financial metrics. Your instructor however, has experienced many cases where people issues related with change have derailed major corporate initiatives and/or acquisitions or mergers. Let’s all agree up front that organizational change in this fast paced world of ours is a vital necessity if organizations are to remain competitive. The question is change to what? And how do we change organizations that have been steeped in their own culture for decades or even centuries. This is not an easy task. Yet, CEO’s must face these very challenges daily as in the cases of Hewlett Packard (HP) and IBM. Carly Fiorina of HP, was removed for moving to change HP’s culture too fast in a stodgy engineering environment. Louis Gerstener of IBM however, totally revamped IBM from a mainframe organization to service company and saved the business from bankruptcy. Why did Louis Gerstener succeed and Carly failed? What is Carly’s successor facing?

 

The design of the course is taken from the Organizational Processes Course taught at The Massachusetts Institute of technology, School of Business. The principal author of the text, Deborah Ancona  led in the formation of the course and the modules of which this book is made.  The key hypothesis of the course is that managers who are attempting organizational change must deal with change from three perspectives or lenses, the strategic, the political, and the cultural lenses. In my estimation, this is the best approach I have ever seen in this field,  and is the reason I am using this framework in this course.

 

You will also be doing a variety of assessments in this course which will help you and any manager for that matter, analyze and generate data on people, groups, and organizational culture that in the past have been rather difficult to obtain. It continues to amaze me that companies attempting major initiatives such as six sigma or lean manufacturing in a plant or trying to absorb a recently acquired company such as CSX acquiring Conrail, totally ignore these perspectives.

 

We will also be focusing on specific skills that are needed by managers to understand and manage organizational change. Skills like negotiation and issue selling are keys to persuading resistant cultures to move to structures that are more conducive to competitive excellence.

 

My objective here is to  facilitate learning, not to make your life miserable!  Thus, exams  will be take home exams on the reading materials to sharpen your focus and facilitate learning not to facilitate grading on my part. The point is to  learn from each other as much as possible. Please feel free to bring in your experience and understandings to the class and do research on other approaches that have been tried in this field. Your work on projects and assessments and role plays will also be  major grading criteria for this course.  Because we need a great deal of cooperative effort in teaching each other, grades will not be competitive. Grade competition reduces learning and creates a culture of individualism. It would be corrupt to preach teamwork and friendly work environments,  and then make grades a competitive, individual venture. So I hope you find this refreshing from this perspective. At this level, you are expected to get an A in this class and I will do my best to see that your hard work will be rewarded. Do the work, and do it well and your grade will not be an issue.

 

REQUIRED TEXT:

 

Ancona, et. al., Managing for the Future, Organizational Behavior and Processes, 3e, Thomson / Southwestern Publishing, 2005.

 

ISBN: 0-324-05575-7

Note:  The M & IS Department will purchase this package for you and hand it out on the first class session. This will eliminate confusion and the usual 30% up-charge of any bookstore. The cost of this package is about $50.00 with our student discount, and you will be asked to fill out a voucher form to allow M&IS to recover the cost of the package. This is a requirement for this course and an integral part of the methodology.

 

 

The grading for this course will consist of the following:

 

Exams (take home)                                                                          400 points

 

Written Case Analysis                                                                      100

 

Miscellaneous Small Projects                                                         100

 

Participation                                                                                      200

 

Final Project                                                                                      200

 

Total                                                                                                    1000 points               

 

 

There will be four take-home exams, essay type, consisting of questions covering the materials in the modules as specified in the class schedule.  The questions should be answered thoroughly but concisely. I do not wish to grade a thesis on each question and will deduct points for padding. Exams should be typed, normal spacing, and should be neat and presentable.

 

A case will be assigned to the class for development. You will be able to work as a team on this case . The case analysis methodology presented in this class should be used to develop the case.

 

 

This involves the assessments and your evaluations of them through the semester.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This will be a class evaluation of your contribution to the learning in the course through out the semester. I will also have a say in this but it is mostly a review by your peers. Shrinking violets need not apply here.  You are expected to contribute.

 

There are several possibilities here:

 

 

 

 

 

The final project may be done as a team or as an individual. You must clearly state that this is a team effort, and list the members on the paper. The paper should be a minimum of twenty five (25) typed pages not including exhibits or references. Neatness is a must and the case analysis methodology should be used for the project as well.  The key to any OC effort is in the implementation. In most reports, this section usually gets short changed. Do that here and you will lose valuable points. It is  perhaps the most import section in the project, how will you manage the change effort?

 

 

 

A rather complete and detailed attachment to this syllabus will outline for you all the things we will be doing and when they are due. Late means half credit. You don’t want to discount your grade by being late.  If you have dire circumstances such as illness, death in the family, or other calamities, see me and I will work with you on resolving the issue. Do not come to me with the story that your fourth quarter budget is due and you can’t participate or turn in your assignment.  Manage your time and deal with it in a professional manner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will use plus / minus grading this semester. Thus the grading for the course is as follows:

 

According to new University Guidelines the grades are converted to your grade point average by the following rules:

 

A   = 4.0

A-  = 3.7

B+ = 3.3

B   = 3.0

B-  = 2.7

C+ = 2.3

C   =  2.0

C-  =  1.7

D+  = 1.3

D    = 1.0.

F    =  0.0

 

 

              

 

B. Students have responsibility to ensure they are properly enrolled in classes.  You are advised to review your official class schedule (using Web for Students) during the first two weeks of the semester to ensure you are properly enrolled in this class and section.  Should you find an error in your class schedule, you have until [date will be provided by the Undergraduate Office in advance] to correct the error with your advising office.  If registration errors are not corrected by this date and you continue to attend and participate in classes for which you are not officially enrolled, you are advised now that you will not receive a grade at the conclusion of the semester for any class in which you are not properly registered.

 

C. Academic honesty: Cheating means to misrepresent the source, nature, or other conditions of your academic work (e.g., tests, papers, projects, assignments) so as to get undeserved credit.   The use of the intellectual property of others without giving them appropriate credit is a serious academic offense.  It is the University's policy that cheating or plagiarism result in receiving a failing grade (0 points) for the work or course.  Repeat offenses may result in dismissal from the University.

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D. For Fall and Spring semesters, the course withdrawal deadline is always the Saturday of the 10^th week of the semester.  For Intersession, the course withdrawal deadline is always the Saturday of the second week (of three total).  For Summer I and III, the course withdrawal deadline is usually the Saturday of the second week (of five total).  For Summer II 2004, the course withdrawal deadline is usually the Saturday of the fourth week (of eight total).

 

E. Students with disabilities: In accordance with University policy, if you have a documented disability and require accommodations to obtain equal access in this course, please contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester or when given an assignment for which an accommodation is required. Students with disabilities must verify their eligibility through the Office of Student Disability Services (SDS) in the Michael Schwartz Service Center (672-3391).