Welcome to HRM 312 Organization Development!!
Fall 2001
11:55-1:10 Kline 327
Professor: Dr. Jenny Dose
Office: 333 Frey Hall
Office Hours: MWF 9:30-10:30am, T-Th 2-3pm
and by appointment at other times
Textbooks:
Campus phone 796-1800 x2320
Home phone 691-7247
(before 10pm)
Email: jdose@messiah.edu
1) Essentials of Organization Development and Change (1st Edition) by Cummings
and Worley (Southwestern, 2001)
2) Designing Effective Organizations by Nadler et al.
3) Other materials may be handed out from time to time
Prerequisites: You must have completed HRM 120 prior to taking this course.
Goals:
The basic goal of this class is to understand the why and how of change in organizations. We
will focus primarily on planned change because that is what managers control, but we will also examine unplanned change and how that can (or cannot!) be managed as well. The class format will
include lectures, experiential exercises and case analyses. Specific course objectives are:
1) To examine the roles played by various organizational members in change efforts
2) To become familiar with the process, assumptions and values of organizational development
3) To better understand organizational effectiveness and how planned change can make
organizations more effective
4) To examine various models of organizations and how they can be used to diagnose organizational problems
5) To increase your skills of analysis and teamwork as they pertain to organizational change
6) To increase your skills of organizational research and your ability to present results to a
group
Communication Strategies:
In addition to my office hours, I encourage you to use email to contact me. I read it once a
day and I expect you will as well. I reserve the right to use email to provide additional information to
the class between class meetings. I will accept assignments via E-mail. E-mail will also provide a
convenient and method of communicating within your teams. Please talk with me if you have questions about your grade or any grade I assign to you. My goal is to help you develop, so if you don’t
understand my feedback, please see me.
Course Format
Class time will involve lecture, discussion of cases, and exercises, some of which mirror the
types of activities organizations use for organizational development and change efforts. I will begin
each class period by asking for questions about the reading, so come prepared with things you do not
understand.
COURSE ASSIGNMENTS AND EVALUATION
All assignments are due by the beginning of class on the date due unless announced otherwise. Pleas
bring two copies of all assignments: one to hand in and one for your reference during class discussion. This due date holds regardless of whether you are in class on the date assigned or the due date
(unless you have a valid excuse). Late assignments will receive a one letter grade reduction for each
24-hour period they are late thereafter.
Individual Case and Peer Evaluation:
You will write a three-page memo about a case including identifying the problem requiring
change, identifying alternative solutions, and recommending one change strategy with supporting
evidence and implementation ideas. You will hand in two copies of this memo. Both should have the
last six digits of your SS# (or a number sequence of your choice) and ONE should have your name
on it. At the next class, you will then receive someone else’s memo to evaluate and grade on a 5point scale. The grade you receive will include my evaluation of your memo, the evaluation of your
memo by your peer and my evaluation of how well you reviewed your peer’s work. Peer evaluation
has several benefits. First, you will receive additional feedback on the clarity of your thinking and
communication to others. Second, you will get to practice evaluating the work of your peers. Third,
you will be exposed to how someone else responded to the same case. This feedback should help
you improve the rest of your assignments throughout the semester. I will expect later assignments to be improved, as a result of both my comments and your peer’s comments on this first assignment.
Group Project:
Each person will be assigned to a team of 3-5 people. The group project will be an analysis of
a change case and require a 10 minute presentation and a 3 page executive summary (supporting
charts and tables are not counted in the three pages).
Paper on History of an Organization’s Change Efforts
You might even think of this as writing your own case. Each person will choose an organization and research the history of that organization with regard to change. What internal or external
conditions necessitated the change? How was it accomplished? Was it successful? What does the
future hold? In your opinion, what should have been done differently and what should the next steps
be? Your work products will be a 5-page paper and a 5-min summary presentation to the class.
Exams:
There will be two midterm exam and a final exam for this class. Exam dates are fixed and will
cover material up to that date. Questions on exams may include multiple choice, short answer, essay
or take home case analysis. To some degree the nature of your preparation and the progress of the
class will help me choose the best format to test with. Each test will include some combination of
assessing the basic course knowledge and applications of that knowledge.
Attendance and Participation:
Your participation grade will be based on attendance AND participation. Although I will not
take formal attendance at each class meeting, absences will be observed and noted. Further, I will
regularly make notes of class participation and allot your grade based on my notes. This course
requires active participation to reach the goals stated above; this part of your grade is designed to
serve as an incentive to have everyone prepared for and participating in each class. If I feel the class
is not prepared for discussion on a daily basis, I reserve the right to have pop or announced quizzes
about the material you have read for the day. If I quiz, quiz grades will become a component of your
participation grade. Another good way to increase your participation grade is to bring in current
events which fit with the class topics as we cover them. I can’t read every periodical or listen to
every newscast, but our class will be enriched by tying the course material to real situations. Thus,
please bring in current issues to me at the beginning of class and we will spend some time discussing
how they interact with change and development processes. I reserve the right to call on people
with questions about the cases you have prepared for class!
Your final grade will be based on the following:
Individual Case and Peer Evaluation
Group Project
Paper/Presentation on an Organization’s Change History
Exam 1
Exam 2
Final Exam
Class Participation, Misc. small assignments
10%
15%
15%
15%
15%
15%
15%
Tentative Course Schedule
Date
8/28
8/30
Topic/Assignment
Introduction and syllabus
EODC Chapter 1 - Intro to OD
DEO Chapter 1
9/4
EODC Chapter 2 - Planned Change
DEO Chapters 2 & 3
EODC Chapter 3 - Entering and Contracting
“It’s Your Turn” case (p. 198)
9/6
9/11
9/13
EODC Chapter 4 - Diagnosing Organizations, Groups, and Jobs
DEO Chapter 4
9/18
9/20
EODC Chapter 5 - Collecting, Analyzing, and Feeding Back Diagnostic Information
Sunflower Inc. Case (p. 200)
Individual Case Analysis Due
9/25
9/27
Catch up/Review
Exam 1
10/2
EODC Chapter 6 - Designing Interventions
10/4
DEO Chapter 6
Peer Evaluation of Individual Case Analysis Due
10/9
10/11
EODC Chapter 7 - Leading and Managing Change
DEO Chapter 7
10/16
10/18
Fall Break
Group Project Presentations
10/23
10/25
EODC Chapter 8 - Human Process Approaches
Exley Chemical Company Case (p. 275)
10/30
11/1
Exam 2
EODC Chapter 9 - Restructuring Organizations
DEO Chapter 8
DEO Chapter 11
11/6
11/8
Randy Basinger
Chapter 10 - Employee Involvement
11/13
Chapter 11 - Work Design
11/15
11/20
Lizard Lick Fine Paper Mill (p. 372)
11/22
Happy Thanksgiving!
11/27
Chapter 12 - Human Resource Management Interventions
11/29
Precision Instruments (A) and (B) (p. 458)
12/4
12/6
Presentations
Presentations
Wrapping up Loose Ends
12/10
10:30-12:30am
Final Exam
DEO chapter 9 (architecture)
DEO chapter 10 (culture)
DEO chapter 12
DEO chapter 13
Torenton Mine (A) and (B) (p. 202)
Chapter 19 - Organization and Environment Relationships
Chapter 20 - Organizational Transformation
Rondell Data Corporation (p. 536)
Qwik Paint and Body Centers, Inc (p. 592)
Gilette Metal Fabrication (p. 657)