EPSY 5154—Organizational Development and Change

Official syllabus will be handed out in class

Instructors
David W. Johnson, 60 Peik Hall, 612-624-7031

Overview of the course

This course is a broad overview of the field of organizational development and change. Class sessions will be spent in lectures, discussions, simulations, role-plays, and experiential exercises. Participants will become acquainted with the major theories, research, and major figures in the field. Participants will build a normative model of effective groups and organizations and learn entry and contracting skills. To diagnose the effectiveness of current organizational functioning participants need to learn how to construct and use questionnaires, interviews, and observational procedures. To intervene in organizations, participants need to learn how to use data feedback procedures, mediate conflicts, realign power, improve communication, and improve decision making. The use of organizational development processes to change schools and universities is emphasized. Participants will leave this course wanting to delve further into specific topics in organizational development and change.

Course objectives

1. Participants will learn the theory and research in the field of organizational development and change.
2. Participants will learn to apply organizational development and change theory and research to organizational and education settings.
3. Participants will learn how to diagnose in functioning of groups and organizations.
4. Participants will learn how to intervene in groups and organizations to improve their functioning.
5. Participants will Improve their diagnosis and intervention skills.
6. Participants will develop personal theories of organizational development and change.
7. Participants will learn how to use the processes of organizational development and change in their specific setting.

Texts

Johnson, D. W. & Johnson F. (2003). Joining together: Group theory and group skills (8th Ed). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Burke, W. (1994). Organizational development: A normative view (2nd ed). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. (1994). Leading the cooperative school (2nd ed). Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company.

Schein, E. (1987). Process consultation: Lessons for managers and consultants, Vol. 2 (2nd ed). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Beckhard, R. (1987). Organizational transitions: Managing complex change (2nd ed). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Course requirements

1. Prepare for, attend, and actively participate in class.
2. Read assigned material.
3. Write weekly papers.
4. Participate in a cooperative learning group that
   a. Makes two class presentations focusing on both diagnosis of problems in organizational functioning and intervention to improve organizational effectiveness.
   b. Conducts a peer-editing process among group members.
5. Write a paper diagnosing an ongoing work group or organization by describing the present level of effectiveness and the interventions needed to improve its functioning (each case study should be about ten pages long).
6. Write a paper describing how a consultant changes an organization; the paper must have a theoretical and empirical base of support; a finalized and polished view of the role of the consultant is not expected, you are expected to begin a process of building a normative theory that can be added to and revised each time you are involved in consulting activities; the appropriate length of the paper is about 30 pages.
7. Write a review of research and theory on some aspect of organizational change you are interested in. The paper should be about 12 pages long.

All written assignments must be critiqued by the members of your base groups. Hand in all written assignments the last day of class with copies of the critiques by the other members of your base group.

Grading

Grades will be determined on the basis of learning contracts. A certain amount of work is expected of all students. The alternative contracts are:

A - All course requirements 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.

B - Course requirements 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

C - Course requirements 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Class sessions

Introduction to organizational development

Organizational structures, experiential learning

Contingency vs. normative approaches, Beckhard & goals

Organizational Development Workshop

Diagnostic models and theories, power

Diagnosis: Case study; decision making

Diagnostic techniques and feedback; conflict

Interventions: Individual and group

Interventions: Intergroup, large system

Workshop

Workshop

Workshop

Workshop

Being a consultant

Summary, conclusions, closure

Revised October 2003