B3087 - Organizational Change & Evaluation of Interventions

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, students will know: - the main approaches to intervention design and evaluation tools in organizational settings, - the main techniques on organizational change and development, - the main contextual, intra-organizational, social and individual factors promoting or hindering change, - some of the main techniques used in planned change.

Course contents

Considering the advanced nature of the contents of this course (and students’ previous experiences), the selection and attendance of this course is NOT RECOMMENDED to Bachelor students of the Erasmus + program. Alternatively, the “Organizational change and development” course may be more affordable for such students.

This course concerns two main topics: 1) how to design organizational interventions and evaluation interventions; 2) how to conduct research within organizations to monitor development and effectiveness of interventions, implemented by profit and no-profit, public and private organizations, at individual, group and organization level.

 

Contents

1. Design of interventions and design of intervention evaluation

2. Evaluation processes and principles (main aspects, basic models, formative and summative evaluations, realistic evaluation)

3. Research designs for the evaluation of WOP interventions (quasi experimental and longitudinal designs, within subjects and single case design).

Readings/Bibliography

Mandatory readings: 

1) European Project Management – The Project Cycle Management (on moodle platform)

2) Linfield, K.J. & Posavac, E.J. (2019) Program evaluation : methods and case studies, Routledge, London, 9^th ed. (chapters 1-3, 7, 10, 13) (the 7^th ed. book is available in the Psychology library)

3) an empirical article based on the evaluation of an intervention.

 

Integrative readings:

Komaki J., Goltz S. (2001) Within-group research designs: going beyond program evaluation questions, in Merle Johnson, Redmon, Mawhinney, Handbook of organizational performance, New York: Haworth Press (pp. 81-86, 92-106).

Pawson R. & Tilley N. (2004) Realist evaluation (on moodle platform)

Teaching methods

The course will use one or more of the following teaching methods:

- lectures,

- a case simulation.

- small group discussions,

- students’ oral presentation.

Assessment methods

Learning will be evaluated with the following two tasks/assignments:

1) design of an intervention and of an evaluation intervention.

2) Knowledge test on the topics presented in the book, in classroom and on the empirical article;

For task 1, the “design of an intervention and of an evaluation intervention”, teams of students will have to design an intervention project and the evaluation project (and present it in the classroom).

The knowledge test will be formed by 15 closed questions and 4 open questions.

Each task will be assessed on a scale from 0 to 30; thus total score will range between 0 and 60; this total score will be averaged from 0 to 30 and that will be the final score for this course/module.

 

Students with learning disorders and\or temporary or permanent disabilities: please, contact the office responsible (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students) as soon as possible so that they can propose acceptable adjustments. The request for adaptation must be submitted in advance (15 days before the exam date) to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of the adjustments, taking into account the teaching objectives.

 

Teaching tools

The course will use one or more of the following teaching methods:

- lectures,

- simulation,

- group case study.

Office hours

See the website of Salvatore Zappalà