Organizations and their Environment
Simmons School of Management:
Educating Women for Power and Leadership
SOM 465: Section B
Fall 2005
Dr. Cynthia A. Ingols, Associate Professor
Office: 409 Commonwealth Ave, 3rd floor
Telephone: 617.521.3837
E-mail: cynthia.ingols@simmons.edu
Course description: Change Management.
Companies have now gone beyond struggling with the notion of Change. They see
Change Management as a “burning platform.” According to Accenture’s 2002 Global
Awareness Tracking Study, 51% of senior executives felt that “changing organizational
culture and employee attitudes” was their most important issue.
From
Lynne Morton
The Conference Board
The Critical Competencies in 2010
The business challenges of the future suggest a set of competencies critical to
leadership success in 2010. Four roles will be paramount:
Master Strategist
Change Manager
Relationship Builder/Network Manager
Talent Developer
From
“Developing Business Leaders for 2010”
by Ann Barrett and John Beeson
The Conference Board, 2002
Principles of effective and efficient organizing have become ever-increasingly
important as the external environment changes at an astonishing rapid rate.
Daily, we hear how technology shifts work patterns and competitors emerge from
around the global. Learning how leaders shape and change their organizations to
meet the demands of their environment is the overall goal of this course. Four
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themes will permeate the course: building, designing, and leading organizations;
and continuously managing change in them.
Frameworks: Frameworks or models give us mental pictures of how we might
operate in the world. Do you remember, for instance, the leadership model
presented in Kouzes & Posner in their book The Leadership Challenge? Ideally,
their model or framework of leadership helps you think about how to lead and
behave in organizations. The textbook for this course will be Reframing
Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership by Lee G. Bolman and Terrence
E. Deal. It’s published by Jossey-Bass. Please make sure that you buy the 3rd
edition (2003) in paperback.
Bolman and Deal argue that there are four fundamental frames for viewing
activities and events in organizations. They are the structural, human resource,
political and symbolic frames. We will read about and then apply the concepts of
each frame to cases and our classroom discussions. For each class, there will be
assigned and optional readings that give concepts that are relevant to a
particular discussion. For example, in Class #2, the case is Reborn Kyoto. A
major learning objective of the case is to understand how the external
environment – Japan’s economic, legal, social, and political environment impacts the non-profit organization Reborn Kyoto. The assigned reading for that
evening is by a Japanese expert who addresses how differently the Japanese
environment is for nonprofit organizations in Japan from the USA. If you will read
the required reading first, then you will have the context for reading the Reborn
Kyoto case.
The application of the four frameworks found in Bolman and Deal will guide our
class discussions and be the basis of your papers.
Application of frameworks through cases, classroom discussions and
papers: External environments push and pull organizations in varied and
contradictory directions. Critical external factors include, but are not limited to,
labor markets, availability and cost of capital, competitors, and governmental
laws and policies. In this course although we focus mostly on internal
organizational issues, we need to be aware how organizations respond - or do
not respond - to external forces. In class #1, we will begin to talk about the
frameworks that we will use in class. In class #2, we will analyze an international
start-up non-profit organization. As we progress through the semester, the
organizations that we will examine through cases will become increasingly large
and their organizational design issues more complex.
To grow and change organizations, leaders face a myriad of decisions about
mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing, and innovation. Through cases, we will
examine and discuss these issues and more. In the last class we will hear from
leaders who have changed their organizations in significant ways.
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The MBA Program prepares women for management positions by educating them for power and
leadership. This requires students to develop the following core competencies:
1. APPLICATION OF THEORY TO PRACTICE: Simmons graduates
recognize the value and limits of theory, and can apply the relevant
functional, behavioral and strategic knowledge and theory to the complex
issues found in a global, gendered, diverse, and technology-rich and
shifting working environment. Students can integrate management
theories and their own experiences to expand and give voice to their own
perspectives.
2. ANALYSIS AND DECISION MAKING: Simmons graduates are capable
of making innovative, ethical and responsive decisions within the
gendered, political, global and cultural context in which the decision may
be implemented. They can analyze, synthesize, and think critically and
can reason quantitatively, using the appropriate tools, technologies, and
methodologies to better understand situations and problems.
3. EXERCISE OF LEADERSHIP AND POWER: Simmons graduates
demonstrate leadership skills including the ability to seek out and define
significant problems, challenges, and opportunities. Building on enhanced
self-knowledge, they are prepared to lead individuals and teams in
increasingly diverse work settings. While recognizing the dynamics of
authority and power within their organizations, they can act influentially
and can balance advocacy of their own position and organizational
expectations.
4. GENDER STRATEGIES FOR WORK AND CAREER: Simmons
graduates understand the role of gender in organizations, and develop
effective leadership skills and personal career strategies that allow them to
overcome systemic barriers while seeking to remove them.
5. LEVERAGING DIVERSITY: Simmons graduates celebrate global diversity
and lead to include others in the workplace. They recognize that diversity
arises from many dimensions, including but not limited to gender, race,
religion, age, class, sexual orientation, style, abilities and learning
approaches. They understand the dynamic contribution diversity brings to
organizations, both as an internal resource and as an external opportunity.
They act as catalysts to infuse diversity in every facet of organizational
life.
The above Core Competencies have shaped the learning objectives for this
course. Note that the Application of Theory to Practice is particularly important for
this course.
Course objectives:
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1. Acquire the language and understand the dilemmas inherent in different
designs used by organization;
2. Acquire the language of the four frames – structural, human resource, political
and symbolic – and apply these concepts to organizational settings and
situations;
2. Gain vocabulary and knowledge about change management theories, and in
particular how changing organizations impacts people;
3. Articulate the multiple roles and dilemmas of leaders in designing
organizations and leading change;
4. Apply design concepts to a variety of organizational issues, such as mergers
and acquisitions and outsourcing;
5. Apply a framework for leadership behaviors, and where appropriate, apply
the behaviors in organizational settings; and
6. Integrate discussions on careers and career choices into conversations on the
organizations and leaders that will be studied.
Course requirements:
There will be three methods for evaluating students’ performance in this class:
class participation; an expertise paper; and a paper about leading change in
organizations. Explanations and requirements for these assignments will be
handed out in our first class and posted on web ct.
Honor Code.
As you complete your assignments for this course, I expect you to adhere to the
highest standards of honesty and integrity—in your dealings with me and with one
another. This is particularly important as you prepare and write your papers. In
particular, this means that you will need to document carefully your sources of
information that you use in your papers.
Please read about the honor system in the Simmons College Student Handbook. You
are expected to comply with all provisions of the Honor Code.
Students Needing Special Accommodation.
Reasonable accommodations will be provided for students with documented physical,
sensory, systemic, cognitive, learning, and psychiatric disabilities. If you have a
disability and anticipate that you will need a reasonable accommodation in this class,
it is important that you contact the Academic Support Center early in the semester.
Call Ext. 2474, or stop by the center in the Palace Road building, Suite 304A.
Students with disabilities receiving accommodations are also encouraged to contact
their instructor within the first week or two of the semester to discuss their individual
needs for accommodations.
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Syllabus: Section B
1.
Analyzing organizations and learning about the course
NOTE: Read “Organizational Alignment: The 7-S Model” (you will find
this reading in your course packet).
Select an organization of your choice and use the Strategy and
Structure parts of the 7-S Model to analyze your selected organization.
Preferably you will choose the organization where you work. For
example, when I completed this assignment, I analyzed Simmons
College’s strategy and structure. If you are not currently working, you
may use a nonprofit organization of which you are a member. The point
is to apply the first two sections of the 7-S Model to an organization that
you know.
Secondly, in a paragraph, describe your role in this organization. Tell
about your job or volunteer responsibilities. Then describe a leadership
challenge that you face. Ideally, this should be about some type of
change that you are responsible for leading in your organization.
Type your response and turn it in at the end of the class. I expect that
your responses will vary in length, ranging from a half to one page.
While this paper will not be graded, it will be part of your class
participation grade for the evening.
Buy Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership by Lee
Bolman and Terry Deal. Jossey-Bass Publishers. Make sure that you
buy the 3rd edition (2003) in paperback. All reading assignments will be
based on this edition of the book.
Date: Tuesday, October 4, 2005, 6 to 9 pm
In-class activity: Learn about the requirements for the course, participate in a
discussion about applying the 7-S Model to your organization and the four frames
by Bolman and Deal, and participate in an exercise.
Read: Bradach, J., “Organizational Alignment: The 7-S Model” (in course packet)
and Bolman & Deal, pp. 3 – 40.
Questions to prepare for the class discussion and for your paper:
a. How does Bradach define strategy and structure in the 7-S Model?
b. What does he mean by alignment?
c. Select an organization of your choice, preferably where you work, and apply
the strategy and structure parts of the model to your selected organization (read
instructions above for more details on this assignment).
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d. Define the four frames – structural, human resource, political, and symbolic –
and explain how it is useful to use each frame to see different aspects of
organizational life.
e. This course has a heavy reading load. Be prepared to talk about ways to
manage these readings.
2. Building an organization: how the external environment impacts it.
Date: Tuesday, October 11, 2005, 6 to 9 pm
In-class activity: Discuss the Reborn Kyoto case
Read: Reborn Kyoto case and A. Yamakoshi “The Changing Face of NGOs in
Japan,” www.gdrc.org/ngo/jp-face.html, Bolman & Deal, pp. 41-92
Optional readings:
Rangan, V. K., “Lofty Mission, Down to Earth Plans,” Harvard Business
Review, March 2004.
Bolman & Deal, pp. 93 – 109.
Saotmore, M. “Japan’s NGO Activities and the Public Support System,”
www.gdrc.org/ngo/jp-ngoactivities.html
Questions:
a. How has the Japanese government’s policies on taxation and the formation
of nonprofit organizations impacted the development of Reborn Kyoto?
b. What has Kodama done well to get the organization up and going? What has
she done poorly? What are the problems that she currently faces?
c. What would you recommend that she do to find a successor for herself?
3. Organizational structures and their implications for work environments and
change
Date: Tuesday, October 18, 2005, 6 to 9 pm
In-class activity: Discuss FOX case & “Miracle of Birth” article
Read: FOX Relocation Management Corp. case; “Miracle of Birth” by
Charles Fishman in Fast Company, October 2002; and Bolman & Deal, pp.
111-159.
* Bring to class: Robert Simons, “Designing High-Performance Jobs.”
Optional readings:
Greiner, L. “Evolution and revolution as organizations grow,” Harvard Business
Review (HBR). September/October 1998.
Leavitt, H. “Why Hierarchies Thrive,” HBR, March 2003.
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Mintzberg, H. and Ludo Van der Heyden, “Organigraphs: Drawing How
Companies Really Work,” Harvard Business Review, September-October, 1999.
Bolman & Deal, pp. 160 – 179.
Study questions:
a. How is it possible for Parkland to “do more, better and less expensively, than
any other maternity ward in America?” What is the role of their organizational
structures in their achievement? How are people treated? Give specific
examples.
b. FOX Relocation Management Corp. is also a well-run organization. It,
however, has only rudimentary structures. How is that possible? Do you expect
that Gretchen Fox will change the structural arrangements of her organization?
Why?
c. From analyzing these two very different organizations, what is the purpose of
structures? How does it help people in organizations? How might it hinder
people in organizations? How do structures help or hinder people to do their
work in organizations?
4. Growing a global organization in Internet time:
Date: Tuesday, October 25, 2005, 6 to 9 pm
In-class activity: Discuss Meg Whitman and eBay Germany case
Read: Meg Whitman case and Bolman & Deal, pp. 183 – 220.
Optional readings:
Joseph Bower, “Not all M & A’s Are Alike – and That Matters,” HBR,
March, 2001
Study questions:
1. How has eBay changed since Whitman’s arrival? Are these changes
inevitable, or has she taken the company in a particular direction?
2. What appears to be her working theory about how to develop and grow an
organization? How does she manage her executive team?
3. Using concepts from Bolman & Deal’s political frame, explain why you think
that Philipp and Malte are on a plane, flying to CA. How do you think that
Whitman should respond? Why?
5. Power in organizations: your response to it.
Date: Tuesday, November 1, 2005, 6 to 10 pm
In-class activity: Discuss Hill and Ibara articles, Bolman & Deal’s political
frame; participate in exercise
Read: Hill, “Exercising Influence,” Ibara’s “Building Coalitions, and Bolman
& Deal, pp.221 - 269.
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6. Leading change: developing a vision
Date: Tuesday, November 8, 2005, 6 to 9 pm.
In-class activity: Discuss Beers case, Jick’s Implementing Change & Bolman &
Deal.
Read: Charlotte Beers @ Ogilvy & Mather case; the Jick article, and Bolman &
Deal, pp. 270 – 299.
Optional readings:
Beer and Nohria, “Cracking the Code of Change,” HBR, May-June, 2000.
Kanter, R. “Leadership & the Psychology of Turnarounds,” HBR, June 2003.
Study questions:
1. What does Beers do in her first three months @ O&M? Why do you
think that she adopts those tactics?
2. What does she do in the following six months? Why?
3. Using Jick’s model of implementing change, what does Beers do well to
turnaround O&M and what does she do poorly?
4. How does Beers develop a new vision for O&M? Which of Bolman &
Deal’s four frames are most useful in thinking about how Beers
develops her vision at O&M?
7. Leading and implementing organizational change
Date: Tuesday, November 15, 2005, 6 to 9 pm
In-class activity: Discuss Bolman & Deal, pp. 301 – 319 and pp. 334 – 366
and participate in exercise.
Read: Bolman & Deal (pages listed above).
Optional readings:
Abrahamson, Eric. “Change without pain,” Harvard Business Review, JulyAugust, 2000.
Christensen, C. & M. Overdorf. “Meeting the Challenge of Disruptive
Change,” Harvard Business Review, March-April, 2000.
G. Neil Karn & Donna S. Highfill, “The Dark Side of Change,” in Across
the Board, March/April 2004.
8. Organizational structure & cultural across international boundaries.
Date: Tuesday, November 22, 2005, 6 to 9 pm
In-class activity: Discuss Trend Micro case and Bolman & Deal, pp. 367 –
393.
Read: Trend Micro case & Bolman & Deal (pages listed above)
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Optional readings:
Barlett, C. & S. Ghoshal, “What is a Global Manager?” HBR, August 2003.
“In search of Global Leaders: Perspectives from Green, Hassan, Immelt,
Marks & Meilard,” HBR, August 2003.
Wetlaufer’s “The Business Case Against Revolution,” Harvard Business
Review, February 2001.
Study Questions:
1. Diagnosis what is happening among Trend Micro’s executive team
through Bolman & Deal’s four frames.
2. Recommend actions for the executive team, using Bolman and Deal’s four
frames.
NOTE: No class on Tuesday, November 29, 2005.
9. Changing an organization: Considering the options
Date: December 6, 2005, 6 to 9 pm
In-class activity: Discuss Procter & Gamble: Global Business Services
Read: Procter& Gamble: Global Business Services and Bolman & Deal,
394 – 434.
Optional readings:
M. Useem and J. Harder, “Leading Laterally in Company Outsourcing,”
Sloan Management Review, Winter 2000, pp. 1-14;.
Study questions:
1. Using Bolman & Deal’s four frames, diagnosis the options that VP
Walker considers in the Introduction to the P&G case.
2. Apply the four frames to make a recommendation to Walker.
10. Integrating theory and practice: everyday experiences of leaders
Date: Tuesday, December 13, 2005, 6 to 9 pm
In-class activity: TBA
Read: TBA
Turn in leadership papers before 6:00 pm. Papers turned in after 6 pm will
be considered late.
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