Syllabus for LCO-610

LEADING CHANGE IN COMPLEX ORGANIZATIONS

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Leading Change in Complex Organizations focuses on organizational change. The course examines the importance of change, how change agents can work with others to effect meaningful change in organizations, and why change will become increasingly significant to organizations in the future. Students will examine and apply a change process that provides them with an opportunity to think about change, to reflect on stories of individuals who have changed their organizations, and to put learning into practice in current organizational settings.

Students please note: In order to view the videos in this course, you may need to download a free version of QuickTime 7. If you cannot view the videos featured in the commentaries, go to QuickTime download and click "Free Download."

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Upon completion of the course, students should be able to:

1. Analyze the importance of change for organizations.
2. Evaluate why change efforts succeed or fail.
3. Apply an eight-step model for change that includes establishing urgency, forming a coalition, developing and communicating a vision, empowering others, generating short-term wins, consolidating gains, and anchoring change in corporate culture.
4. Analyze the relative contributions of leadership and management skills to the facilitation of change.
5. Explain ways that systems, structures, practices, and culture either encourage or impede change.
6. Discuss the ways individuals have led change successfully.
7. Present a plan for change in an organization.

COURSE MATERIALS

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

Required Textbooks

1. Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

ISBN-13: 978-0875847474

1. Kotter, J. P., & Cohen, D. S. (2002). The heart of change: Real-life stories of how people change their organizations. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

ISBN-13: 978-1578512546

COURSE STRUCTURE

Leading Change in Complex Organizations is a three-credit online course, consisting of four (4) modules. Modules include topics, learning objectives, study materials, and activities. Module titles are listed below.

1. Module 1: Succeeding or Failing at Organizational Change

2. Module 2: Leading Change, First Steps

3. Module 3: Leading Change, Next Steps

4. Module 4: Leading Change in Contemporary Organizations

Consult the course Calendar for assignment due dates.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

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

Consult the course Calendar for assignment due dates.

Discussion Forums

Within each module you will participate in one or more online class discussion forums. All discussion forums take place asynchronously on the class Discussion Board.

Online discussions provide an opportunity for you to interact with your classmates. During this aspect of the course, you respond to prompts that assist you in developing your ideas, you share those ideas with your classmates, and you comment on their posts. Discussion board interactions promote development of a community of learners, critical thinking, and exploratory learning.

Please participate in online discussions as you would in constructive face-to-face discussions. You are expected to post well-reasoned and thoughtful reflections for each item, making reference, as appropriate, to your readings. You are also expected to reply to your classmates' posts in a respectful, professional, and courteous manner. You may, of course, post questions asking for clarification or further elucidation on a topic.

Click link for an Evaluation Rubric.

Written Assignments

Modules 1 through 3 contain three types of written assignments:

1. Reflection Exercises and Written Assignments: Both of these types of assignments require a relatively brief reflection on a question (two to five paragraphs).

2. Module Papers: These assignments require the writing of a three- to four-page paper on a particular topic.

The fourth module contains a reflection exercise as well the instructions for the final paper (see below).

Click the appropriate link for the evaluation rubrics for these assignments:

1. Reflection Question Evaluation Rubric
2. Written Assignment Evaluation Rubric
3. Module Paper Evaluation Rubric

Final Project

Your final assessment for will be a paper that allows you to synthesize and demonstrate what you have learned in this course. Your paper should be 10 to 15 pages in length and should follow the guidelines provided in the activity. Be sure to follow accepted research approaches and citation format (APA). A full description of the project and its requirements is found in Module 4.

Click link for an Evaluation Rubric.

A Note about Research

The use of Wikipedia or other online encyclopedias for graduate-level papers is inappropriate. Aside from the uneven quality of the information that may be found in these sources, the real issue is that the information presented in these sources is "already digested." Use of such sources is an unacceptable shortcut for the graduate student. Students gathering information from these sites are essentially obtaining analyses done by someone else, not doing the work themselves. Rather than exploring the literature on a subject, such students are merely using the words of others who have already taken this vital step in academic research. It is imperative that graduate students be able to search the more academically-oriented literature, sift through useful (and not so useful) information, analyze, synthesize, and report the results of their activities. All of these steps are bypassed if information is cited from an online site such as Wikipedia. To sum up: Using information summarized or annotated by someone else is an unacceptable shortcut for a graduate student.

GRADING AND EVALUATION

Your grade in the course will be determined as follows:

1. Online discussions (4)—12 percent
2. Written activities and reflection exercises—28 percent
3. Module papers—20 percent
4. Final project—40 percent

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:

To receive credit for the course, you must earn a letter grade of C or higher on the weighted average of all assigned course work (e.g., assignments, discussion postings, projects, etc.). Graduate students must maintain a B average overall to remain in good academic standing.

STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS

First Steps to Success

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

1. Read carefully the entire Syllabus, making sure that all aspects of the course are clear to you and that you have all the materials required for the course.

1. Take the time to read the entire Online Student Handbook. The Handbook answers many questions about how to proceed through the course and how to get the most from your educational experience at Thomas Edison State College.

1. Familiarize yourself with the learning management systems environment—how to navigate it and what the various course areas contain. If you know what to expect as you navigate the course, you can better pace yourself and complete the work on time.

1. If you are not familiar with Web-based learning be sure to review the processes for posting responses online and submitting assignments before class begins.

Study Tips

Consider the following study tips for success:

1. To stay on track throughout the course, begin each week by consulting the course Calendar. The Calendar provides an overview of the course and indicates due dates for submitting assignments, and posting discussions.

1. Check Announcements regularly for new course information.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

Thomas Edison State College 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 College insist on strict standards of academic honesty in all courses. Academic dishonesty undermines this objective. Academic dishonesty takes the following forms:

1. Cheating
2. Plagiarizing (including copying and pasting from the Internet without using quotation marks and without acknowledging sources)
3. Fabricating information or citations
4. Facilitating acts of dishonesty by others
5. Unauthorized access to examinations or the use of unauthorized materials during exam administration
6. Submitting the work of another person or work previously used without informing the mentor
7. Tampering with the academic work of other students

Academic dishonesty will result in disciplinary action and possible dismissal from the College. Students who submit papers that are found to be plagiarized will receive an F on the plagiarized activity, may receive a grade of F for the course, and may face dismissal from the College.

A student who is charged with academic dishonesty will be given oral or written notice of the charge. If a mentor or College official believes the infraction is serious enough to warrant referral of the case to the academic dean, or if the mentor awards a final grade of F in the course because of the infraction, the student and the mentor will be afforded formal due process.

If a student is found cheating or using unauthorized materials on an examination, he or she will automatically receive a grade of F on that examination. Students who believe they have been falsely accused of academic dishonesty should seek redress through informal discussions with the mentor, through the office of the dean, or through an executive officer of Thomas Edison State College.

Plagiarism

Using someone else's work as your own is plagiarism. Although it may seem like simple dishonesty, plagiarism is against the law. Thomas Edison State College takes a strong stance against plagiarism, and students found to be plagiarizing will be severely penalized. 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, 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 Graduate 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 and advice on when to quote and when to paraphrase, click the links provided below.

Examples of Unintentional Plagiarism

When to Quote and When to Paraphrase