24604 - 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

1. History of theories on organizational change

2. Levels of change: individual, (group), organization and system models

3. Characteristics of change agents and the consultancy process

4. Organizational diagnosis and organizational well-being

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

- 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 discussed during class.).

Teaching methods

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

- lectures,

- case study assignments and reports,

- small group discussions,

- practitioner's report/guest lectures,

- students’ oral presentation.

Assessment methods

Considering the practical – professional perspective of this course, evaluation aims to assess knowledge and academic and diagnostic competencies of students. Thus, a very good knowledge of course contents is one component of evaluation, but it is not the guarantee of a very good mark.

Learning will be assesses using the following assignments:

1. Knowledge quizzes on organizational change topics presented in classes and in the book;
2. Group report on an issue related to the course contents (a theory, a method, an aspect of the intervention project, and so on);
3. Reaction paper on a specific technique of intervention.

Teaching tools

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

- lectures,

- audiovisual methods,

- video projector

- group case study.

Office hours

See the website of Salvatore Zappalà