APPLIES TO ACADEMIC YEAR 2013/2014

GRA 2425 Change Management

Responsible for the course
Jon Erland Lervik, Arne Carlsen

Department
Department of Leadership and Organizational Behaviour

Term
According to study plan

ECTS Credits
6

Language of instruction
English

Introduction
“It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who would profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order, this lukewarmness arising partly from fear of their adversaries, who have the laws in their favor; and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had actual experience of it. Thus it arises that on every opportunity for attacking the reformer, his opponents do so with the zeal of partisans, the others only defend him halfheartedly, so that between them he runs great danger.”
From The Prince – Niccolo Machiavelli

The course examines organizational change and development and the management of change through theoretical and conceptual lenses from social psychology and organizational sociology as well as strategic management, organization development and change management.

Learning outcome
1. To develop a theoretical and conceptual understanding of organizational change.
2. To develop a knowledge framework concerning organizational change that will contribute to your development as organization psychology professional, both in driving and responding to organizational changes.
3. To develop an appreciation for the key role of organizational diagnosis in effective change management and to begin to develop your skills as a diagnostician.
4. To continue to develop your abilities to effectively communicate both orally and in writing.

Prerequisites
GRA 2205 Organizational Behaviour or eq.

Compulsory reading

Collection of articles:
Collection of academic articles, available through BI document centre at start of term

Other:
During the course there may be hand-outs and other material on additional topics relevant for the course and the examination


Recommended reading
Books:
Beer, Michael, Nitin Nohria, eds. 2000. Breaking the code of change. Harvard Business School
Burke, W. Warner. 2011. Organization change : theory and practice. 3rd ed. Sage

Course outline
• Introduction to organizational change and change management
• Historical foundations of organization development and change management
• Group dynamics: Social psychological perspectives on change
• Organizational learning interventions
• Organization design and organization development
• Organizational transformation
• Organizational configurations and inertia
• Politics of change: Power, interest and coalitions
• Change, ambiguity and sensemaking
• Cultural change interventions
• Critical perspectives on rhetorics and realities of organizational change
• Change management in different contexts

Computer-based tools
Itslearning, powerpoint

Learning process and workload
The course will be a combination of lectures, student presentations, class discussions, case analyses and other interactive learning elements.

Active class participation is required for students to fully benefit from this course. Minimum expectations are that assigned articles or book chapters are read thoroughly prior to each lecture, so that students are well prepared for small group discussions or theoretically informed case analyses.

A central learning element of the course is the term paper project which will be conducted in small groups. The term paper (70% of grade) should empirically analyze an event of major organizational change event/process in a public, private or non-profit organization. The term paper should preferably be conducted by groups of three students, but we also allow individual assignments.

Please note that while attendance is not compulsory in all courses, it is the students responsibility to obtain any information provided in class that is not included on the course homepage/It's learning or text book.


Examination
30% - Classwork (participation, presentations, contributions to class discussions)
70% - Term paper - Individually or in groups of up to three students on the termpaper

All evaluations must be passed in order to obtain a passing grade in the course.

Specific information regarding student evaluation beyond the information given in the course description will be provided in class. This information may be relevant for requirements for term papers or other hand-ins, and/or where class participation can be one of several elements of the overall evaluation.

This is a course with continuous assessment (several exam elements) and one final exam code. Each exam element will be graded using points on a scale (e.g. 0-100). The elements will be weighted together according to the information in the course description in order to calculate the final letter grade for the course. You will find detailed information about the point system and the cut off points with reference to the letter grades on the course site in It’s learning.

Examination code(s)
GRA 24251 continuous assessment accounts for 100% of the final grade in the course GRA 2425.

Examination support materials
A bilingual dictionary. Exam aids at written examiniations are explained under exam information in the student portal @bi. Please note use of calculator and dictionary in the section on examaids

Re-sit examination
It is only possible to retake an examination when the course is next taught.
The assessment in some courses is based on more than one exam code.
Where this is the case, you may retake only the assessed components of one of these exam codes.
Where this is not the case, all of the assessed components of the course must be retaken.
All retaken examinations will incur an additional fee.

Additional information
Honour Code
Academic honesty and trust are important to all of us as individuals, and they are encouraged and promoted by the honor system. This is a most significant university tradition. The honor system is the responsibility of students. As faculty, we share the commitment to the ideals of the honor system.

At no time should notes or papers or personal consultations based on previous semesters of this course be used. As part of the honor code papers handed in as part of the course is, at the discretion of the professor, scanned for plagiarism. We are using Safe Assignment in Black Board for this purpose. Any violation of the honor code will be dealt with in accordance with BI’s procedures on cheating. These issues are a serious matter to everyone associated with the program. They are at the heart of the Honor Code and academic integrity. If you have any questions about your responsibilities under the honor code, please ask.