Organizational Change and Development

Catalog description

Theory of organizational change and development; case analysis of applications in actual situations. PADM 511 Organization Change and Development (3) This course is designed to lead to the understanding of the process of introducing planned change into complex organizations. Specific course goals include gaining an understanding of organization development (OD) as a specific type of change strategy acquiring knowledge of various OD approaches, learning how to assess organizations to enable effective organization change to be introduced, obtaining an understanding of the phases of the OD process and how to manage planned change efforts in organizations, and developing skills in applying the concepts learned to real-life organizational situations. Students will receive "hands-on" experience in designing and implementing organizational change by completing individual reports on OD and the change project as well as a team project report. Grading will be based on development of consulting skills and knowledge through involvement in class activities (10%), being an effective member of the project team (10%), demonstrating understanding of key OD concepts and processes via individual reports and contributions to project team work (40%), and by producing a high quality project based on evaluation of OD process, the final report, and class presentations (40%). PADM 511 is an elective course for the MPA degree and is offered every third semester.