PAD 705--Organization Theory Professor Patrick O’Hara

Room 3504 (Suite 3501) North Hall 212-237-8086; 610-286-7163

E-Mail: patohara@jjay.cuny.edu 

COURSE OBJECTIVES

To provide students with an understanding the fundamental structures/processes of organization, with particular emphasis on public sector and non-profit organizations. To make students better able to manage, for themselves and others, the interface between the individual and the organization. To convey a working knowledge of the dynamic nature of organizations so that students can successfully negotiate their way through the variety of organizational settings they will encounter in their careers. To review different leadership models so that students can better undertake roles that advance their organizations and careers. To introduce or further expose students to the efficiencies and substantial knowledge enhancement that can be realized by on-line learning, research and dialog. To have a good time because learning should be fun.

BOOKS FOR THIS COURSE

NOTE: This is an ONLINE DISTANCE LEARNING COURSE. In addition to reading assignments from the books below, you will be given numerous links to case studies, articles, and breaking stories. These sources must be integrated into your on-line commentaries in chat classes and discussion groups, as well as into your homework, term papers and tests. Students are also expected to identify and share internet-based sources that shed light on the issues being addressed by the class. To a much greater extent than a "classroom" course, an on-line course is a joint real-time study venture where students, as well as instructors, are in a search for materials that help us all understand things.

Richard Daft. Essentials of Organizational Theory and Design. Cincinnati: Southwestern, 2001. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/032402097X/qid=1011979042/sr=1-5/ref=br_lfbnb_b_5/002-1220044-2196803

James Q. Wilson. Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do and Why They Do It. New York: Basic Books, 2000. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0465007856/qid=1011979221/sr=2-2/ref=sr_2_11_2/002-1220044-2196803

The links for the required books are to Amazon.com, as are the links in the bibliography. The links are designed to allow students and prospective students to get a better idea about the reading material in the course. Students in the course may obtain their books wherever they please. These books are available in the John Jay Bookstore, as well as at other on-line retailers.

ASSIGNMENTS AND PERFORMANCE EXPECTATIONS

This on-line class depends on student participation, which accounts for 40% of your grade. Not only do you participate in discussion forums and chat groups, but I will also ask each student to post a “PowerPoint” version of their term paper for the enlightenment of everyone. (Don’t sweat the technical stuff, help is available and things are easier than you think anyway.)

DISCUSSION FORUMS (30% of Grade)

Every student is required to post at least one response “The First Post” to each DISCUSSION FORUM that is posted. Student responses should fully engage with the issues raised by the Professor’s initial entry in the FORUM. Students may make additional posts to a DISCUSSION FORUM to respond to what others, including the professor, have said. Think of these FORUMS as the equivalent of weekly class discussions. NOTE! The “First Post” due dates are absolute. Full credit is given to on-time submissions, two-thirds credit is given to submissions that arrive beyond that date and, since the discussion boards are “locked” two or three weeks after the due date, no submissions will be accepted (and no credit given) after that time. Discussion Forum grades are a composite of all the student’s contributions. Students will be assessed in terms of how fully they respond to the issues raised (on both “first” and subsequent posts in a Forum), the logic of their analysis, the relevance of their examples, and the clarity of their posts.

CHAT CLASSES AND GROUP CHATS (10% of Grade)

Chat Classes: We will all get together on a “whole class” basis in the “Virtual Classroom.” The original meetings are scheduled on Sunday evenings at 7:00 beginning on February 17 and every TWO weeks thereafter. The “whole class” meetings are where we work through course issues, including administrative ones, in a real-time, give and take environment. The Virtual Classroom works just like an AOL Chat Room (without the rudeness and crudeness). Based on the readings, discussion forums, and quizzes, the Professor will raise issues, for general discussion, in the chat class. The chat class is an informal, fast-typing atmosphere where typos are common, succinctness wins out over elegance, and the purpose is shared learning. Students will be assessed in terms of their attendance, their willingness to participate and the degree to which their contributions sheds light on the subject under discussion.

Group Chats: Based on factors of commonality among students (this may mean similar jobs, similar interests or, most likely, similar term paper organizations—the professor decides), groups of 4-6 students will be created who will meet at least three times during the semester in their group chat room—which functions exactly like the Chat Class. Agenda items for these discussions will center around the challenges faced by the students’ term paper organizations. Students on their own, in focused discussions on a topic in which they share an interest, should be able to figure out things to the benefit of all present.

CHAPTER QUIZZES (5%)

Short answer quizzes with due dates are provided in the on-line course environment for each Chapter of the Daft text. The quizzes are explained in more detail in the course environment but their basic purpose is to insure that students have some command of the text material BEFORE chiming in on discussions about that material in FORUMS and CHAT CLASSES. The quizzes have been developed as a vehicle for keeping students on track, and the quiz grade can be affected negatively only if students fall behind or fail to complete the quizzes as specified.

TERM PAPER (25%)

Every student will be expected to complete a term paper. For a basic outline of the paper, see course information in the course environment). Additional materials, including suggested books, will also be posted shortly in the assignments area. The term paper will be due in Week 13.

POWERPOINT PRESENTATION (10%)

Students will be expected to create, and submit by Week 11 a PowerPoint presentation based on their term paper draft. Each student’s task is to boil down your term paper story into a presentation of ten or more slides that succinctly and engagingly convey the key points about the agency you have studied. These presentations will be made available, via link, to everyone in the class. These presentations should strive, first and foremost, to give your fellow students a succinct outline of what your paper is about—fancy is a nice frill but informative is the basic requirement. Prior to posting, the instructor's will review each student's presentation as an early indicator of the quality of the student's term paper. Students should use this feedback in order to improve their term paper submission in Week 13.

EXAMINATION (20%)

As “in-class” examination, to be held at some point after week ten, will be given. Every question that is a candidate for this exam is in the “Assignments” section of your course environment. All questions track our reading of the Daft text. So reviewing and mentally drafting answers to these questions in synch with your reading of Daft not only gets your ready for Discussion Forums and Chat Classes but also gets you ready for the exam.

DO NOT FLEE THE INTERVIEW! Because on-line courses have to lay everything out in great specificity in advance, your first look at the on-line material can be overwhelming. Please be assured that almost everything you see is (1) no less work than a regular class (count up the books’ pages) and (2) is designed on keep us on track to mastering organization theory. And don’t forget what you are missing: the two or more hours of commuting to class, the parking fees, the big mouths who monopolize the class and waste your timeàadd your own reasons here.

MY TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

Learning is a partnership between teacher and students in which student to teacher AND student to student interchanges play a major role. Active engagement with the cases, ideas and individuals in the class is what makes learning real, and fun. So enjoy, and learn at the same time.