For several years, I offered a Senior elective course in the ENTR major at
Brock University on the management of radical change environments. My
design premise was that entrepeneurial managers worked on the outer edges
of the change envelope. If they could grasp the extreme conditions, then
they could handle the more routine chores inside the envelope. Similarly,
people tend to have greater affinity or emotional tolerance for different
parts of this envelope, and the classroom was a great place for them to
begin learning their personal styles and advantages.
I defined the four corners as: Rapid Growth; Rapid Downsizing or
Liquidation; Radical Transformation or Re-engineering; and Turn-around
Management (combining all elements). Weekly assignments included a set of
scholarly and trade articles. Each student was required to pick a
different article and then to prepare a conceptual and propositional
inventory, and methodological critique (1-2 pages) for distribution to the
class. I graded on the basis of the quality of their work, as well as the
Degree of Difficulty (like Diving or Gymnastics), to encourage them to
tackle a mix of scholarly and journalistic treatments over the course of
the term. They accumulated a set of these critiques each week, sharing
their work with classmates, which encouraged both communication and
improved standards.
For their major term assignment, I required them to concentrate on one of
the areas of change management, to develop their own model based on at
least six of the readings in that section, and to apply it analytically to
a current organizational situation. There were some great pieces of work
down on high-tech (rapid growth and re-engineering, as well as turnaround)
companies, and some good ones on transforming family or government
enterprises. Both individual and group projects worked, although the
individual ones tended to be more difficult for the students to complete
really well -- it is a complex assignment. Over the years, I encouraged
students to make greater use of technology in their final presentation
workshops with the class, and got a few really good web-site
implementations.
As you can see, the course had several learning objectives. It introduced
the students to the change management subjects. It challenged them to look
for levels of knowledge about ways we have learned to handle different
kinds of management challenges. It encouraged them to think critically
about the strength of underlying knowledge, and levels and types of proof
in social science. It promoted modelling in a flexible and adpative way,
by encouraging both a general model and a specific adatiation of it. It
gave them a binder full of critical summaries of the best literature on
each subject, as well as a comprehensive bibliography and search algorithms
to update their knowledge resources. Finally, it introduced them to the
learning styles of advanced sholarship -- I've had at least one student
decide he liked that so much that he would pursue a PhD and faculty career!
And I've had a couple of interesting research projects arise from
questions that appeared to be unresolved. The field is wonderful for a
scholar -- lots of knowledge gaps and an infinite number of potential
applications!
Please let me know how you progress with your course, and if I can provide
any further assistance.
Best regards,
Tom Bryant.
>I am offering an elective course on Organization Development (OD) and Change
>to MBA students specializing in HR and OB. I am searching for appropriate
>exercises, projects, assignments which will enhance the learning value of the
>course. I am also looking for ideas on designing the course : suggested
>outline, good text books, readings, cases etc. I request for suggestions and
>help from anyone with experience in teaching OD and Change. I would greatly
>appreciate your help. Please reply direct to
srinivas@xlri.ac.in
>
>Thanks.
>
>Dr. E. S. Srinivas
>Associate Professor (Organizational Behavior)
>Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI)
>Jamshedpur - 831001, India.
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Professor Thomas A. Bryant, Ph.D.
Director of Entrepreneurial Management Programs
The State of New Jersey Chair in Entrepreneurship and Small Business
Faculty of Management, Rutgers University
Tel: (973) 353-1062. Rutgers e-mail:
tabryant@andromeda.rutgers.edu
Past-Chair, Entrepreneurship & Family Business Division, Administrative
Sciences Assn. of Canada
Senior Research Fellow, The Institute for Enterprise Education
President, Brystra Consultants, P.O. Box 125, Waterloo, ON N2J 3Z9
Tel: (519) 746-6225; e-mail:
brystra@golden.net