Managing Change in Organizations

Prof. James Portwood
Spring - 0.5 credit
 
Today´s turbulent global business environment is forcing organizations into a state of almost constant change. At the same time, intensifying competition has caused these same organizations to shed excess personnel and peripheral non-strategic activities to concentrate on their core business. Management in many such corporations is stretched thin attempting to organize and implement change while co-coordinating current operations. Managers must therefore be increasingly effective and efficient in conceptualizing and directing necessary revisioning and retooling of their organizations.

This course will review the factors driving corporate change, and the core management competencies needed to ensure value added institutional transformations. This will include a consideration of roles and responsibilities of primary “change agents” who lead such changes, as well as those employees and other stakeholders who must cooperate with management to effect these changes.  Finally, the course will work to develop specific skills necessary to be successful in planning and implementing complex change efforts. Specific topics will include use of organizational diagnostic tools, scanning and planning techniques to support change, building change management teams, methods for gaining approval/acceptance of change, and effective implementation strategies. The module will also focus on a variety of core competencies for change managers, including communication/presentation, leadership/influence, educational design/delivery, and negotiation/conflict management.