Required OCL Courses (15 credits)
OCL 6400 – Foundations in Organizational Change Leadership (New Course - 3 credits)
The course provides an overview of the Organizational Change Leadership (OCL) function in an organization and an overview of the whole OCL curriculum. The ability to lead and manage effective change in diverse domestic and cross-cultural contexts is one of the most sought after skills among managers and leaders working in today’s organizations. Many researchers and practitioners believe that in order to lead effective change, one needs to be a theoretician, a manager, and a consultant. In other words, today’s change leaders must know how to use theory to understand the organizational changes they encounter and lead; be able to apply change management principles to their change initiatives; and be skilled at diagnosing organizational problems and developing recommendations for improvement, using global/cross-cultural perspectives. Topics include organizational change theory, levels of organizational change, organizational change models, resistance, and change leadership.
OCL 6410 – Organizational Culture and Globalization (New Course - 3 credits)
The capability to understand and to interact with diverse societal cultures across the world, and the skill to build effective local organizational cultures, are prerequisites to effective organizational change leadership. This course examines organizational culture from an interdisciplinary and global perspective. Key models of organizational culture and current research studies and practice processes are examined, with an emphasis on how culture develops and evolves, and its relationship to leadership and organizational effectiveness. With a deep understanding of various organizational and national cultures, students become empowered to organize systems, symbols, and people in ways that influence planning, policies, and resource allocations in their organizations.
OCL 6430 – Group Dynamics and Team Development in an Age of Globalization (New Course - 3 credits)
This course examines theoretical perspectives and current research and practice on group dynamics including seminal and contemporary theories of intra and inter group dynamics, diversity in groups, group communication, and developing and leading teams. Adopting a group level perspective, specific topics include: inclusion and identity, formation, cohesion and development, structure, influence, power, leadership, performance, and decision-making. Throughout the course, students engage in experiential group activities (both inside and outside the classroom) to enhance their competence to assess group performance and to more effectively lead and develop diverse teams.
OCL 6440 – Large Scale Change and Organization Design (New Course - 3 credits)
This course focuses on organizational theory and practice at the organizational level, or change related to large human systems. Shouldering an open systems perspective, the models and methodologies supporting organizational level change are reviewed. In particular, students become skilled at Whole Scale Change, i.e., methodologies used when the goal is to change the entire organization. Managing strategic reorientations, mergers and acquisitions, culture change, technological change, and organizational process engineering are explored. In addition, this course reviews established organizational design models. Emphasis is placed on the many internal and external factors that cause an organization to fit a particular architecture, and students design a forward-thinking organization creating all components, including vision, mission, strategy, structure, and processes.
OCL 6792 – Capstone Seminar in Organizational Change Leadership (New Course - 3 credits)
The capstone seminar is an action research project designed to increase one’s individual capacity for leading and managing change. A cornerstone of the program and a key requirement for successfully completing the degree, the capstone seminar requires students to engage in an actual organizational consultation, either within their own organization or with a client organization, while receiving coaching and supervision from expert program faculty. Successfully fulfilling the requirements of the capstone seminar involves mastering both the key aspects of organizational consulting and the basic principles of applied and action research. All capstone projects are expected to be rigorous, theory-based and empirically driven.
Required ELRT Inter Program Courses (12 credits)
EDLD 6020 – Educational Leadership, Systems and Change (3 credits)
This course is an introduction to educational leadership and leadership theory and practice. It provides the foundation for leadership in educational programs and institutions. Students will be required to demonstrate an understanding of transformational leadership and other leadership theories, effective communication and problem solving, motivation and decision-making, organizational change and renewal, and consensus building and conflict resolution.
EDLD 6650 – Principles and Practices of Adult Learning (3 credits)
This course is designed to help students discover how principles and theories of adult learning can be applied to create effective learning and training outcomes in formal and informal settings across multiple organizational contexts. Students will explore conditions, both internal (age, gender, race/ethnicity, life situation, experience, physical ability) and external (workplace or educational setting, distance, family obligations, other commitments) to the learner, which are known to affect learning outcomes. In addition, alternative methods, strategies, and technologies that increase instructional effectiveness for diverse students, in various learning situations and circumstances will be explored.
EDT 6420 – Instructional Design (3 credits)
This course focuses students on learning a systematic approach to the design and development of instructional interventions, strategies and environments. This course provides an overview of innovative instructional design methods and principles that are supported by current learning theories. Students will have opportunities to apply their learning through applied course projects in which students will practice all aspects of instructional design including analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation. Instructional design that integrates learning and communication technologies will be featured.
EMR 5400 – Fundamentals of Evaluation, Measurement, and Research (3 credits)
This course is designed to develop skills in the fundamentals of research design and the uses and interpretations of research findings. Each student is expected to prepare a review of literature and a design for a research study.
OCL Elective Courses (6 credits)
OCL 6890 Special Topics: Great Thinkers of Organizational Change (3 credits)
This course introduces students to the enduring thoughts of the great thinkers of organizational change. The Palgrave Handbook of Organizational Change Thinkers, edited by the instructor of the course, Dr. David Szabla, frames the course, presenting inspiring and thought-provoking sketches of prominent organizational change thinkers from the seminal work of Kurt Lewin to the modern-day thinking of Otto Scharmer. Students explore early and contemporary organizational change strategies, processes, and models that have persisted since the beginning of the last century. In addition, emphasis is placed on current and emerging practices of organizational change leadership. At the end of the course, students are able to debate key practices of leading change through time and integrate new organizational change strategies, processes, and models into their own change leadership practices.
OCL 6890 Special Topics: Organizational Change Leadership and Coaching (3 credits)
This course focuses on the theory and practice of coaching leaders in the context of organizational change. The course emphasizes development at the individual level, assessing and developing the student's increasing capabilities as both coach and leader. Topics include: ethics and professional standards, establishing a coaching presence, active listening and question thinking, goal setting and accountability, and contemplative practice and reflection. Based on theories of organization behavior and change, students engage in individual coaching, supported by a coaching framework, learning plans, and additional resources to sustain on-going coach development.
OCL 6890 Special Topics: Meaningful Work (3 credits)
This course examines various conceptualizations of meaningful work and its design from individual, socio-cultural, leadership, and ethical perspectives. Drawing on a variety of disciplines (sociology, psychology, organization studies, and philosophy) and the principles of design thinking, the course focuses on making sense of what meaningful work is, why it is important, what is its dark side, and how it can be fostered and/or managed. In addition to a critical examination of different assumptions related to meaningful work, students will apply design thinking in their own career development and experiment with meaningful work design in practice.
OCL 6890 Special Topics: Contemporary and Seminal Readings in Organizational Change Leadership (3 credits)
Understanding organizational change leadership involves, not only learning about popular tools and techniques for leading change, but also about gaining deep understandings of the seminal theories that founded and built the field of organizational change. In this course, students review seminal and contemporary readings from classic books that established the field and present-day texts that are bringing new insight into the process of leading change.