Overview

This course prepares leaders to analyze, understand, and influence organizations and organizational processes. The focus is on principles and techniques for diagnosing managerial problems and developing solutions. The course combines theoretical and practical knowledge to prepare students for situations that commonly arise and give them the tools to deal with unexpected or unusual situations. First, we build foundational understanding of how organizations work, viewing people, technologies, tasks, and structures as interrelated components of complex systems. Then we apply this understanding to real organizations. From a leadership perspective, we identify ways to improve an organization's efficiency and effectiveness, motivate subordinate and peer performance, manage organizational boundaries, and increase the likelihood that evidence-based decisions and actions will be taken. Students complete a course project analyzing the structures, processes, boundary-spanning activities, and environment of an organization. MN4474 is a distributed learning course that meets via online communications. Prerequisite: none.

Included in Degrees & Certificates

• 192
• 206
• 208
• 835
• 836

Learning Outcomes

Students who successfully complete this course will be able to:

• Analyze organizational systems.
• Understand group processes and design effective teams.
• Integrate abstract thinking into concrete recommendations for action.
• Explain how individual differences influence behavior in organizations.
• Design organizational structures and practices.
• Apply techniques to manage conflict and change.
• Describe key leadership skills and apply them to organizational situations.