Course Description:

Course Objectives:  

At the end of this course the student will be able to:

1) Establish a theoretical foundation about the development and perpetual sustainability of all organizations that the student may apply in various academic and practical endeavors throughout their professional career.

2) Discuss current and future trends that are emerging in the field of organization theory in an effort to assist in preparing the student for problem solving in an organizational setting.

3) Use analytical reasoning skills for making decisions and solving problems in organizations.

Students taking this course must be admitted to the Masters of Professional studies degree program or have been granted permission to take this course by their degree granting institutions' faculty advisor for this program.

1. Classical Organization Theory

2. Neoclassical Organization Theory

3. Modern Structural Organization Theory

4. Systems Theory, Population Ecology, and Organizational Economics

5. Power and Politics Organization Theory

6. Organizational Culture and Reform Movements

7. Postmodernism and the Information Age

8. Human Relations School of thought

9. Management and the Behavioral Sciences

10. Individual Behavioral and Motivation

11. Leadership and Power

12. Organizational Change and Development

  There are no specific requirements for this course.

Please visit the Virtual Bookstore to obtain textbook information for this course:
http://rodp.bkstr.com

 

There are no supplementary materials required for this course.

The minimum requirements can be found at http://www.rodp.org/students/hardware_software.htm. No additional hardware is required for this course.

The minimum requirements can be found at http://www.rodp.org/students/hardware_software.htm.

Please see the instructor page to find contact information.

The following avenues will be used as testing procedures for this class: an annotated

bibliography, weekly assignments, discussion board sessions each week and a midterm and final

exam. 

A rubric will be developed for each assignment with the total number of points available. Different assignments may carry different weights. These weights will be defined with each assignment.

The course will consist of 400 points total. The final grade will be a percentage of the total number of points available listed below:
 

Grading Procedure:

Annotated Bibliography                                    100 points

Midterm Exam                                                 100 points

Final Exam                                                     100 points

Weekly Assignments                                        100 points

Total                                                                         400 points

 

Grading Scale:          

Final Grades will be premised on cumulative points as follows: A = 400- 350; B = 349 - 300; C = 299 - 250; D = 249 - 200 (Grade may not be offered at some institutions); F = below 200.

Individual Assignment Grading Scale:  A = 100 – 90; B = 89 – 80; C = 79 – 70; D = 69 – 60(Grade may not be offered at some institutions); F = below 60.

Exams:

Each student will be required to complete a midterm and final exam.  The the student will have one week to complete the exam.  The student will be required to answer questions about organizational theory topics discussed throughout the semester for the take home exam. The student will submit the exams via the drop box link on the RODP course module.

Weekly Assignments:

Each week the student will be required to submit an answer to a proposed question over the readings assigned for the week.  The weekly assignment question(s) will be found under the course content module & the assignments link for the corresponding week in the syllabus.  Each student must answer the question in a three to five page essay and submit the weekly assignment twenty-four hours before the discussion board session for that given week.  The instructor will grade each weekly assignment and submit the grade via the assignment drop box link  before the next discussion board session.  Late assignments will not be accepted, period.  There will be ten weekly assignments scheduled throughout the semester so every time the student fails to complete the assignment on time points will be deducted from their weekly assignment grade. Each exam is scheduled to be available for a one week period and can be accessed through the Quiz Tool.

In addition to the written assignments there will be a weekly discussion where the student will post an answer to a question, stated by the instructor, for that particular module.  Once the student turns in the weekly assignment in the module drop box, it is recommended that they should then answer the discussion question (found at the bottom of the assignment link) posted for that week. The weekly assignment grading scale will be part of the students overall 10 point weekly grade. In addition, each student will respond to the comments left by one of the students. You may only respond once to a student and the student must respond to the comments made by that student. Only one response per student. For instance, if Nancy posts a discussion and Tom responds to her discussion then no one else can respond to Nancy. Nancy must then respond to Tom's comments. Nancy does not have to ask Tom a question but she can if she would like. Every student must receive a response and every student must be responded too. The instructor will review the discussion sessions each week to ensure the student is participating in this exercise. 

On certain weeks throughout the semester there will only be a discussion and no written assignment will be due.  On those specified weeks the discussion component of the module will count as 10 points of your weekly grade.  Therefore, these discussions will need to be thorough and should specifically address the question being asked by the instructor.

Annotated Bibliography:       

Annotated bibliographies train the research-oriented student on the systematic

process of formulating literature reviews that are used in theses and dissertations. 

This is a good exercise for the student who is planning on continuing their

graduate education at the doctoral level or for the student planning on writing a

masters thesis.  Additionally, this exercise is a writing and research exercise

intended to train the student in such skills that are necessary at the graduate level

of training.

Annotated Bibliography

(View my website for examples on how to write an annotated bibliography.  http://www.angelfire.com/tn3/rstanley/)

The format (headings for all sections) of each article analyzed in the annotated bibliography should be as follows:

·         Citation of the Journal Article

·         The stated Problem addressed by the article 

·         The Purpose of the article

·         The Methods used to gather the data in the Article (this may not be applicable in all cases since most of the articles are theoretical arguments)

·         The Findings and Conclusions of the Article

·         Your Opinion of the validity of the Article in helping us understand  organizations and why you tend to believe this way

The overall structure of the Annotated Bibliography should be as follows:

·         Title Page

·         Table of Contents of sections with each article alphabetized

·         The summarized articles in alphabetical order

·         An analysis of the articles relating them to one another

o       Address the literature gap that warrants further research on your topic

o       An automatic letter grade will be deducted from your grade if this question is not addressed

·         Conclusion stating what we have learned from the articles

·         Bibliography

·         Citation Style: APA

Minimum Requirements for the Annotated Bibliography

·         At least 15 pages in length, not counting the title page but no more than 20 pages.

·         No less than 10 sources, of which can only be from referred journal articles.

·         Submit two copies of annotated bibliography of which I will return one copy graded.

*** The student will submit the annotated bibliography via the drop box link on the RODP course module.

Technical Format:

All papers should use the following technical format: MicroSoft Word, Times New Roman, 12 point font, 1” margins from left to right and top to bottom, and double space each line in the paper. Furthermore, number all the pages in your paper. However, if direct quotes used in the paper are the equivalent of three lines or more, single space and separate them from the main text.  Late projects will automatically be reduced one letter grade for each day they are late (not class period or week).  If the papers are more than three days late they will not be accepted, period!

Grading Criteria:

The following information outlines the grading criteria for the take home exams & annotated bibliography:

1)      Analysis: A sufficient number of ethics and values concepts are used to analyze the situation discussed in the paper;

2)      References: A variety of pertinent and timely references were sought and obtained in preparing the paper;

3)      Organization: The main points are stated clearly and arranged in a logical sequence;

4)      Coherence: The development of ideas, arguments and discussion shows consistency and logical connection;

5)      Clarity: The ideas, arguments and discussion shows consistency and logical connection;

6)      Conciseness: The language is direct and to the point, using sufficient space to say exactly what is intended and be readily understood by the reader;

7)      Grammar: The written is in standard American English, with proper sentence structure, syntax, punctuation and spelling;

8)       Drafting: The writing shows evidence of being drafted and revised before submission of the final copy.

Additional Readings:

Additional readings may be assigned throughout the semester to accompany chapters in the required texts for this class.  The instructor will provide these additional articles to the students approximately one week before the readings are due in class.

Communication:

All communication with the instructor is to be made through the transfer of information via email. 

Note: Following explicit directions is an important aspect of graduate school training.  Therefore, it is important that the student follow the stated guidelines in this syllabus, throughout the course of this class, because failure to do so will result in point reductions.  Furthermore, it will probably be to your best interest to submit papers to me before the due date (at least two weeks), so I can make suggestions on how you might want to change your work in order to receive a higher grade.

Late projects will automatically be reduced one letter grade for each day they are late (not class period or week).  If the papers are more than three days late they will not be accepted, period! 

You will be expected to participate in the asynchronous discussion forum. All assignments must be submitted electronically.

All assignments will be assigned a due date when they are distributed. Failure to meet this deadline will result in a loss of one letter grade from the original point value of the assignment for every 24 hour interval an assignment is late. Assignments must be submitted electronically and therefore will be date and time stamped.

Note: Following explicit directions is an important aspect of graduate school training.  Therefore, it is important that the student follow the stated guidelines in this syllabus, throughout the course of this class, because failure to do so will result in point reductions.  Furthermore, it will probably be to your best interest to submit papers to me before the due date (at least two weeks), so I can make suggestions on how you might want to change your work in order to receive a higher grade.

Late projects will automatically be reduced one letter grade for each day they are late (not class period or week).  If the papers are more than three days late they will not be accepted, period!

 

Participation is required.  You are expected to communicate with other students and the instructor as part of the course assignments.  You are expected to be able to navigate course management system and to keep abreast of course announcements. Observe course netiquette at all times. The student is responsible for ensuring their programs and hardware are compatible with course management system and acceptable to the instructor.

• Columbia Guide to Online Style by Janice R. Walker and Todd Taylor
• Citation Styles Online http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/cite6.html

Library

The Tennessee Virtual Library is available to all students enrolled in the Regents Degree Program. Links to library materials (such as electronic journals, databases, interlibrary loans, digital reserves, dictionaries, encyclopedias, maps, and librarian support) and Internet resources needed by learners to complete online assignments and as background reading must be included in all courses. 

Students With Disabilities

Qualified students with disabilities will be provided reasonable and necessary academic accommodations if determined eligible by the appropriate disability services staff at their home institution. Prior to granting disability accommodations in this course, the instructor must receive written verification of a student's eligibility for specific accommodations from the disability services staff at the home institution. It is the student's responsibility to initiate contact with their home institution's disability services staff and to follow the established procedures for having the accommodation notice sent to the instructor.

Syllabus Changes

The instructor reserves the left to make changes as necessary to this syllabus. If changes are necessitated during the term of the course, the instructor will immediately notify students of such changes both by individual email communication and posting both notification and nature of change(s) on the course bulletin board.

Technical Support

If you are having problems logging into your course,
timing out of your course, using your course web site tools, or other technical problems, please contact the AskRODP Help Desk by calling

1-866-550-7637 (toll free)

or go to the AskRODP website at:

http://help.rodp.org