Courses I Teach
(Click on Course title to download syllabus)
Seminar in Organization Theory
The goal of this doctoral course is to familiarize students with the major conceptual frameworks, constructs, and developments in contemporary organization theory. Organization theory draws on theories from sociology, economics, political science and psychology to explain the forms, origins, persistence and disappearance of organizational structures and processes. No single perspective best explains why organizations behave the way they do, why certain ways of organizing linger and others fade away. Thus, the focus of inquiry is not the individual or the group, but the organization, its subunits, processes, and approaches to organizing, as well as the environment within which organizations function. We explore those debates in an effort to understand how issues such as power, politics, conflict, and environment affect the ways organizations structure themselves, learn, change and perform. Recent developments from complexity science arel also considered.
Conceptual Foundations of Management
This is an introductory MBA Management course which explores the complexities of organizational processes from the perspective of structural, human resource, political, and symbolic frameworks. Through these conceptual lenses, traditional management theory is contrasted with contemporary ideas associated with the new sciences and complex adaptive systems theory assumptions. We will also examine high reliability organizations and how managers can learn to create “mindful” organizations.
Effective Negotiating
Negotiation is a joint decision-making process whereby two or more people agree on how to allocate scarce resources. Negotiation pervades every aspect of our lives; some even believe it is the most fundamental skill of effective managers. This graduate course explores the art and science of negotiation within formal and informal competitive settings involving individuals, groups and organizations. The object is to understand and apply useful theories and analytical frameworks and to develop effective negotiation skills. The course is highly interactive and utilizes realistic negotiation practice with others to improve skills and stimulate discussion.
Organizational Decision Making
This graduate course is designed to improve the decision making skills of students by: (1) understanding how decisions get made in organizations, (2) examining the obstacles to good decision making, (3) understanding a process for making “winning decisions” choices. ” Students examine some fundamental theories of individual, group, and organizational decision making.