Syllabus for MAN-425

ADVANCED ORGANIZATIONAL MANAGEMENT


COURSE DESCRIPTION

Advanced Organizational Management addresses the role of organizational culture in enabling the successful leader to be the architect of organizational change. From a leader’s perspective, the course examines organizational culture including, creation of organizational values, alignment of vision and goals, creating an ethical organizational culture, and succession planning. It also discusses the role of culture in introduction of new strategies, how to enable open communication for empowerment, and the role of organizational culture in implementing change.

Advanced Organizational Management has four general goals:

  1. To introduce the concept or organizational culture and its relationship to leadership.
  2. To define the role of culture in strategy and related organizational activities.
  3. To highlight the importance of cultural considerations by leaders in change management.
  4. To expand students’ skill in understanding and applying cultural considerations to organizational situations.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

After completing this course, you should be able to:

  1. Define and analyze organizational culture, and assumptions shaping it and how it emerges.
  2. Explain the importance of understanding organizational culture and ethical considerations from a leader's perspective.
  3. Identify and analyze ways that an organization's culture shapes behavior of those working within it.
  4. Compare mechanisms a leader can use to facilitate organizational cultural creation and/or change including communication approaches.
  5. Evaluate the relationship between organizational culture, strategy, vision, and goals.
  6. Evaluate the relationship between organizational culture, strategy, vision and goals.
  7. Describe what succession is and explain how culture impacts an organization’s plan for succession.

COURSE MATERIALS

You will need the following materials to do the work of the course. The required textbook is available from the University's textbook supplier, MBS Direct.

Required Textbook

ISBN: 978-0470185865

Note: Students will also need to sign up for a free New Jersey State Library card in order to access additional required readings for the course. Sign up for a card at http://www.njstatelib.org/research_library/get_a_library_card/

COURSE STRUCTURE

Advanced Organizational Management is a three-credit online course, consisting of four modules. Modules include an overview, learning objectives, study materials, and activities. Module titles are listed below.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

For your formal work in the course, you are required to participate in online discussion forums, complete written assignments, take a proctored online midterm examination, and complete a final project. See below for more details.

Online exams are administered through the course Web site. Consult the Course Calendar for the official dates of exam weeks.

Promoting Originality

One or more of your course activities may utilize a tool designed to promote original work and evaluate your submissions for plagiarism. More information about this tool is available in this document.

Discussion Forums

In addition to an ungraded but required "Introductions" forum in module 1, Advanced Organizational Management requires you to participate in four graded discussion forums based on information from the textbook.

Communication with the mentor and among fellow students is a critical component of online learning. Participation in online discussions involves two distinct activities: an initial response to a posted question (discussion thread) and subsequent comments on classmates' responses.

You will be evaluated both on the quality of your responses (i.e., your understanding of readings, concepts, and practices as demonstrated by well-articulated, critical thinking) and quantity of your participation (i.e., the number of times you participate meaningfully in the assigned forums). Responses and comments should be properly proofread and edited, professional, and respectful.

Meaningful participation in online discussions is relevant to the content, adds value, and advances the discussion. Comments such as "I agree" and "ditto" are not considered value-adding participation. Therefore, when you agree or disagree with a classmate, the reading, or your mentor, state and support your agreement or disagreement. Click link for the Discussion Forum Evaluation Rubric.

Written Assignments

Advanced Organizational Management has four written activities. Each assignment consists of essay questions based on associated chapters in the textbook and your personal reflection. Familiarize yourself with the written assignment questions before you begin each module's study assignment. Conversely, be sure to complete all relevant readings before answering the questions.

When you have completed all of the assigned reading for a written assignment, prepare your answers to the written assignment questions. These questions require critical thinking. Take the time to determine what you need to include to present a thoughtful, complete response that conveys your understanding of the course materials.

Formulate responses in your own words (do not merely copy answers from your reading materials); however, support the points you make with information from your course materials and from outside sources. Cite and document all sources of information with an appropriate reference. Your answer to each question should be between 250 and 500 words (or approximately 1–2 pages per question, typed double-spaced). Due dates for each assignment are listed in the Course Calendar.

Prepare your written activities using whatever word processing program you have on your computer. Include your name at the top of the paper, as well as the course name and code and the semester and year in which you are enrolled.

Before submitting your first assignment, check with your mentor to determine whether your word processing software is compatible with your mentor's software. If so, you can submit your work as you prepared it. If not, save your assignment as a rich-text (.rtf) file, using the Save As command of your software program. Rich text retains basic formatting and can be read by any other word processing program.

Midterm Examination

The midterm is a closed-book, proctored online exam. It is two hours long and covers all reading and activities from modules 1 and 2 of the course. The exam consists of objective questions (multiple-choice), definition questions, and essay questions.

For the midterm, you are required to use the University's Online Proctor Service (OPS). Please refer to the "Examinations and Proctors" section of the Online Student Handbook (see General Information area of the course Web site) for further information about scheduling and taking online exams and for all exam policies and procedures. You are strongly advised to schedule your exam within the first week of the semester.

Online exams are administered through the course Web site. Consult the Course Calendar for the official dates of exam weeks.

Statement about Cheating

You are on your honor not to cheat during an exam. Cheating means:

If there is evidence that you have cheated or plagiarized in an exam, the exam will be declared invalid, and you will fail the course.

Final Project

For the final integrating paper, you will walk through the steps of a ten step intervention to assess cultural dimensions (chapter 18) and then apply the transformative model of change (chapter 17) to a selected organization/situation. To do this you will use an organization with which you are familiar, your current place of employment, a past employer or other organization as your example organization. You can use the same organization you used in module written activities. The paper has three parts: a cultural assessment, application of the transformative change model, and summary. You will approach these from a leadership point of view.

GRADING AND EVALUATION

Your grade in the course will be determined as follows:

All activities will receive a numerical grade of 0–100. You will receive a score of 0 for any work not submitted. Your final grade in the course will be a letter grade. Letter grade equivalents for numerical grades are as follows:

A

=

93–100

C+

=

78–79

A–

=

90–92

C

=

73–77

B+

=

88–89

C–

=

70–72

B

=

83–87

D

=

60–69

B–

=

80–82

F

=

Below 60

To receive credit for the course, you must earn a letter grade of C or better (for an area of study course) or D or better (for a course not in your area of study), based on the weighted average of all assigned course work (e.g., exams, assignments, discussion postings, etc.).

STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS

First Steps to Success

To succeed in this course, take the following first steps:

Study Tips

Consider the following study tips for success:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

Thomas Edison State University is committed to maintaining academic quality, excellence, and honesty. The University expects all members of its community to share the commitment to academic integrity, an essential component of a quality academic experience.

Students at Thomas Edison State University are expected to exhibit the highest level of academic citizenship. In particular, students are expected to read and follow all policies, procedures, and program information guidelines contained in publications; pursue their learning goals with honesty and integrity; demonstrate that they are progressing satisfactorily and in a timely fashion by meeting course deadlines and following outlined procedures; observe a code of mutual respect in dealing with mentors, staff, and other students; behave in a manner consistent with the standards and codes of the profession in which they are practicing; keep official records updated regarding changes in name, address, telephone number, or e-mail address; and meet financial obligations in a timely manner. Students not practicing good academic citizenship may be subject to disciplinary action including suspension, dismissal, or financial holds on records.

All members of the University community are responsible for reviewing the Academic Code of Conduct Policy in the University Catalog and online at www.tesu.edu.

Academic Dishonesty

Thomas Edison State University expects all of its students to approach their education with academic integrity—the pursuit of scholarly activity free from fraud and deception. All mentors and administrative staff members at the University insist on strict standards of academic honesty in all courses. Academic dishonesty undermines this objective. Academic dishonesty can take the following forms:

Plagiarism

Thomas Edison State University is committed to helping students understand the seriousness of plagiarism, which is defined as using the work and ideas of others without proper citation. The University takes a strong stance against plagiarism, and students found to be plagiarizing are subject to discipline under the academic code of conduct policy.

If you copy phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or whole documents word-for-word—or if you paraphrase by changing a word here and there—without identifying the author, or without identifying it as a direct quote, then you are plagiarizing. Please keep in mind that this type of identification applies to Internet sources as well as to print-based sources. Copying and pasting from the Internet, without using quotation marks and without acknowledging sources, constitutes plagiarism. (For information about how to cite Internet sources, see Online Student Handbook > Academic Standards > “Citing Sources.”)

Accidentally copying the words and ideas of another writer does not excuse the charge of plagiarism. It is easy to jot down notes and ideas from many sources and then write your own paper without knowing which words are your own and which are someone else’s. It is more difficult to keep track of each and every source. However, the conscientious writer who wishes to avoid plagiarizing never fails to keep careful track of sources.

Always be aware that if you write without acknowledging the sources of your ideas, you run the risk of being charged with plagiarism.

Clearly, plagiarism, no matter the degree of intent to deceive, defeats the purpose of education. If you plagiarize deliberately, you are not educating yourself, and you are wasting your time on courses meant to improve your skills. If you plagiarize through carelessness, you are deceiving yourself.

For examples of unintentional plagiarism, advice on when to quote and when to paraphrase, and information about writing assistance, click the links provided below.

Examples of Unintentional Plagiarism

When to Quote and When to Paraphrase

Writing Assistance at Smarthinking

Disciplinary Process for Plagiarism

Acts of both intentional and unintentional plagiarism violate the Academic Code of Conduct.

If an incident of plagiarism is an isolated minor oversight or an obvious result of ignorance of proper citation requirements, the mentor may handle the matter as a learning exercise. Appropriate consequences may include the completion of tutorials, assignment rewrites, or any other reasonable learning tool in addition to a lower grade for the assignment or course. The mentor will notify the student and appropriate dean of the consequence by e-mail.

If the plagiarism appears intentional and/or is more than an isolated incident, the mentor will refer the matter to the appropriate dean, who will gather information about the violation(s) from the mentor and student, as necessary. The dean will review the matter and notify the student in writing of the specifics of the charge and the sanction to be imposed.

Possible sanctions include:

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