96158 - Organizational Change and Development

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, students will know: - the main techniques on organizational change and development - in particular, the main contextual, intra-organizational, social and individual factors promoting or hindering change, - some of the main techniques used in planned change

Course contents

RELEVANT:

Please, note: this course/module will start at the beginning of the semester; AFTER the completion of this course/module, the other one (Design and evaluation of interventions) will start. 

Contents:

1. History of theories and contributes to organizational change

2. Organizations as system and Systems theory

3. Organizational diagnosis

4. Change agents and the consultancy process and market

5. Resistances and psychological reactions to change

6. Steps and components of organizational intervention design

7. Selected individual, group and organizational intervention techniques

Readings/Bibliography

MANDATORY READINGS

- Anderson D. (2017) Organization development: The process of leading organizational change, Thousand Oaks (CA): Sage.

- an empirical paper, selected from a list of papers (students will work in couples/teams: each team will select a topic and each team member will read one article related to that topic and then a team report will have to be produced and shortly presented during class).

 

INTEGRATIVE READINGS (useful for the team/pair paper)

Austin, J.R., Bartunek, J.M. (2003) Large group interventions (excerpt from: Theories and Practices of Organizational Development, in W. Borman, D. Ilgen, & R. Klimoski, (Eds.), The Handbook of Psychology: Volume 12 Industrial and Organizational Psychology, (pp 309-332). (on Virtuale platform)

Porras J., Robertson P. (1992) Organizational development: theory, practice, research. In M.D. Dunnette & Hough (Eds.) (excerpt) (on Virtuale platform)

Kotter, J.P. Leading change. Why transformation efforts fail. Harvard Business Review (on Virtuale platform)

 

Suggested readings:

Schein E.H. (2010). Helping: How to offer, give, and receive help. (chapters from 3 to 8) Berrett-Koehler Pub, San Francisco
(italian edition: Le forme dell’aiuto. Milano: R. Cortina (the Italian version of this book is available in the Library)

Teaching methods

The course will use the following teaching methods:

- lectures,

- case study assignments,

- case studies and small group discussions during the class;

- students’ writing essay and oral presentation.

Assessment methods

Evaluation aims to assess knowledge on the topic, academic and diagnostic competencies. Thus, assessing an organization (and designing an intervention) requires a good knowledge of principles on which change is based.

Learning will be assessed using the following assignments:

a) 2- or 3-person team paper on an intervention technique, selected by a list of intervention techniques, and a short (4 minutes, no slide) presentation of the paper. The paper includes an AI-assisted component and a mandatory evidence-based critical evaluation of the AI-generated content.

b) Knowledge test on theoretical and practical aspects related to organizational change approaches and characteristics (there will be 20 closed and 6 open questions). Here use of AI (or any other tool) is forbidden. 

 

More information on team report will be paper available on Virtual platform.

 

The two assignments are both necessary for the final mark.

The pair-team paper is worth 10 points out of 30 (about 30-40% of score to the AI-assisted draft, and 60-70% to the critical analysis); the knowledge test is worth 21 points. A total of 31 corresponds to "30 and Lode". 

For students taking also the other module (Design of intervention and evaluation),  the final mark of the course will be the average of the two modules.

NOTE: the group paper has to be delivered in printed format. Papers not delivered in that way will not be marked.

 

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,

- audiovisual methods,

- group case study.

Office hours

See the website of Salvatore Zappalà