Welcome to the OB/OD Homepage for MGT6300.  This is a very broad discipline, and includes an understanding of the behavior of individuals in the workplace, team dynamics, organizational processes, and larger scale cultural and global trends as they affect human behavior at work. MGT6300 emphasizes OB/OD at the organizational level (in contrast to individual and team levels). The links below should be considered as an online supplement to your text and class handouts, and as a resource for your projects and papers. In some cases, specific articles are linked, in other cases you will be given  links with extensive resources which you may need to browse.

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Schedule: Wednesdays 5:30-9:00 pm

Date	Topic/Resources  (Click on underlined web links for readings and information)
Session 1 Sept. 6	Introduction & Overview (some of this you may have covered before--please review in the context of organizational change) Intro to the OB-OD course series (OB-OD Rationale);  Change Drivers. What are the large scale forces that are impacting organizations and requiring them to change? You may have covered this in a previous course, but refamiliarize yourself again. Change Drivers  Behavioral science approach. What is the behavioral science approach to understanding organizations; what are its strengths and weaknesses?  In these two links, note the unexpected consequences of good intentions. Sense & Nonsense in the Behavioral Sciences Revenge Effects . The "Learning Organization" (LO). What is a learning organization and why is interest emerging in it at this time? How are changes in the marketplace requiring organizations and individuals to change the way they work?  Learning Organization  Knowledge Management  Understanding organizations as learning systems  Overview of OD. Brief history, stages, role of change agents, techniques  Overview of OD Interventions What OD practitioners know OD credo & ethics Sample OD case What's the (OD) idea? What are the issues of the future for OD?  The DNA of organizational transformations. Leading your organization through change. The OD Change Process--check the powerpoint slide shows, especially on OD and Change.(requires PPT for viewing) Formation of OD Teams for the class. Team building. Team building updates, arrangement for team meetings, discussion of potential cases for presentation. Use the team building procedure introduced in previous classes.
Session 2 Sept. 13	The Change Process Personal theories of change in organizations. How do you believe change occurs in organizations? Where does it start, what are the drivers, where are the leverage points, how can it be facilitated, etc? Formal change theories & stages of OD. There are many more theories than these, but these are a good foundation for discussion. Overview of OD  The nature of change.  Lewin's change theory  Management of change in Police Organizations  Organizational change--stages & types  Literature review of change in educational settings--thesis project Change--Fast Company article with business examples Climate: Change Readiness. If you were going to assess change readiness of an organization, what are the factors you would assess? Design a checklist or survey format for those factors.  Change Management Survey. Broad-range brief questionnaire. Organizational Climate Survey. Nice example of format Organizational Climate Analysis. A broader survey of climate Localized change. Teams consider cases for presentation. How does change occur in your company--what are the specific mechanisms by which it happens? What are the stages of change? What should be done differently?
Session 3 Sept. 20	Innovation diffusion & resistance to change Innovation. Why is innovation so important currently? What are stages of diffusion of an innovation ? Some interesting examples of unexpected discoveries  when people & organizations are open to it. How can you use this information to respond more appropriately to various groups of stakeholders in an organization? Innovation diffusion theory  Summary of Rogers' Book. Innovations & Inventions  Resistance to change. Why do people resist change? How are managerial styles  related to resistance?  Preparing for reactions to change;  'how to' article on organizational resistance and change;  Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale ,  Dynamics of change & resistance,  The human side of change. Overcoming Resistance to Change Overview of Strategies. Options for reducing resistance. Tactics for redicing resistance to innovation,  Your companies IQ (innovation quotient test),  Working with people who must change. Worst Case Scenario. Assume your organization must change, yet there are members who passively or actively continue to resist implementing proposed changes. What are options for dealing with them and criteria for selecting options? Ethical Considerations. What are the ethics of using these options? Team Application. In your team case(s), what kind of resistance to innovation and change would you expect? What the the causes of resistance be? How might they be reduced?
Session 4 Sept. 27	OD Diagnosis Diagnostic models and processes. Consider how problems with your physical health, mental health, car, and garden are assessed--what is the model?  Nomenclature. What are comparable diagnostic models for OD and what does the nomenclature reflect about change assumptions? Standard OD process. Same as "Overview of OD" above Weisbord 6-Box Model-- know his six components McKinsey 7-S Model--application of the 7-S model to assess business process reengineering--know the 7 S's. Are there important pieces Weisbord & McKinsey leave out? Systems Theory-- think links and loops! Very useful but complex. Psychological Models--This series is based on Kets de Vries work on "neurotic organizations." May be too specialized: Diagnosis & intervention in neurotic organizations; Five types of organizational dysfunction, Organizational Analysis Inventory. Organizational Diagnosis Questionnaire. Your model. In groups, discuss what key factors and processes you would attend to, the extent of coverage, how you would assess, and how you would explain the model to the "patient"/client organization. How would such information guide your intervention? Team application. Apply the model(s) to your team OD cases. What utility do they provide for understanding the case; which cases seem most feasible to work with?
Session 5 Oct. 4	Transition Management Sample OD Cases. Transition management. Think of major transitions you have been through in your workplaces-- What were the significant events and stages of organizational transition? (Read Bridges' Managing Transitions) What were stakeholder's needs at each stage? What did they actually get and what were the effects? 10 stages of change--a grief resolution model (pdf format) 3 stages of organizational change. Comparison of four theories of change--how change happens Change is natural-- Change Handbook--online book from Dept. of Defense on change management--this is a long but good read. Transition Plan. If you were going to facilitate a transition, how would you do it? (preparation for course paper--come with a problem scenario)
Session 6 Oct. 11	Instrumented Feedback Theory of feedback induced change. Role of cognitive dissonance & gap analysis; determining readiness to change & openness to feedback. Survey feedback.  Organizational surveys: history, samples, info  Trochim's Survey Pages. Excellent collection of well organizaed information & examples Scale development. What is a scale of measurement and how does one develop a sound scale? What are the criteria for a good scale? Practical Scale Development, Research resources on tests and surveys;  principles of scaling  Use of survey feedback in climate assessment,  Outline for developing a scale in class
Session 7 Oct. 18	Organizational culture and culture change Organization culture. What is culture and what are useful dimensions for describing it? Be able to describe your corporate culture using several of the dimensions and theories. Whats the difference between culture and climate and how are they useful? Links for organizational culture change. Stages of change--historical view of culture change Culture page Culture & climate Changing a large culture. Culture Change Plan. If you were going to formalize a general plan for changing culture in organizations, what would it look like? Localized change. How can culture be changed? Where would you start in your own organizational culture?
Session 8 Oct. 25	Downsizing Background. What is the history of downsizing? How effective is it and what are its collateral effects? Readings on Downsizing (be familiar with these) Local experiences. How have you or acquaintances experienced downsizing? How was it presented? What was useful and not useful about its presentation and process? Downsizing Plan. Assume you have been consulted by a large business to help develop a downsizing plan. What would you want to know in order to make a good decision? What would that plan look like?
Session 9 Nov. 1	The Smorgasbord: Techniques for facilitating change. This will be a "show and tell" of some of the more interesting and useful tactical techniques in OD. Be prepared to discuss procedures you have found useful in the workplace. Value Chain Analysis (to be presented in class) Best Practices model. Change metaphor (to be presented in class) Learning History Readings on Learning History Appreciative Inquiry Readings on AI
Session 10 Nov. 8	Change Agent (CA) Competencies & Skills. What do CA's do? What skills (KSA's) are needed? OD Skills--how do you stack up? Internal/External CA. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using internal and external CAs? What are the risks and pitfalls of your role as a CA? CA Role.  Are you the person to lead the change?  The agents of change. Overview of several opinions Team roles by stage of change. Interesting phase approach Change team members--series of brief articles on roles The unexpected change agent--internal teams in IT Surviving as a CA--insightful suggestions and more links Other important roles in the change process.  Legitimacy & Credibility. How can you build legitimacy, power and leverage for strategic change? Ethics & Style. What is your position on manipulativeness, and how might you behave under desperate conditions? *Mach Scale (online) Machiavelli Online. Links, background, history Manipulation questionnaire Research: Influencing your supervisor and personality variables Strategy. Conduct a strategy and risk analysis of your being an internal CA on several current issues in your workplace.
Session 11 Nov. 15	Team Presentations of OD cases. Teams will present case based on case selection from among its members. Presentation should include problem, background, system dynamics that allow problem to occur & maintain, leverage points, change agent considerations, recommended intervention & rationale, and evaluation methodology.
Session 12 Nov. 22	Thanksgiving Break--No Class
Session 13 Nov. 29	Team Presentations of OD cases (continued)
Session 14 Dec. 6	Team Presentations of OD cases (continued)
Session 15 Dec. 13	Integration You're Hired! Assume that you are promoting or interviewing for a position as consultant or change specialist with an organization. Be prepared to discuss the areas below. Each member of a pair will be interviewer & interviewee. The interviewer should prepare some challenging questions and situations for response. OD brochure. This is a promotional brochure (one sheet of paper) describing your skills and range of services as a consultant/CA.  Your model/approach to planned change.  Ethical issues. What have you encountered (or expect to), what is the principle involved, and how would you deal with it? Course evaluation
Session 16 Dec. 20	Finals week: Final paper on Transition Management due

Some Sample Cases & Applications

• OD in a County Human Service Agency.
• Levi's changes everything.
• Implementing technology change in Irish schools.
• Research example--resistance to change in an insurance company;
• innovation & low risk taking in federal government,
• medical resistance to innovation,
• Case Study at Aetna Insurance;

Other Resources (Many of these links combine individual, team and organizational information)

Swenson's OD Links Page
University of Southern California OB Course Notes
Ratzberg's Course Outline on OB
OB Self Test (Based on Robbins' book published by Prentice-Hall)
Online OB Exercises (Robbins' book)
International Workplace Studies Program (current topics on individual, team, and organizational behavior and performance)
Organizational Behavior & Theory (Army-Baylor Healthcare Admin Program--excellent summaries of individual, team, and organizational content)
University of Rhode Island--OB Class notes (good summary of key ideas)
Hard@Work  (humorous & engaging articles and news)
Robbins/Prentice-Hall OB Readings (Nice collection of brief readings and links)

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Last updated 8-8-99
David X. Swenson Ph.D.

Swenson's Homepage