Organizational Performance and Change (OPC)

Course Descriptions

Classes are more like seminars than lectures designed to stimulate interaction and create a learning environment enhanced by the faculty and student's professional experiences.

EDCO 500 – Career and Employment Concepts (3 cr.)
Examines career planning as an individual and organizational change strategy. First-hand use of assessment tools, feedback, and strengths-based development models provide insight to enhance performance.

EDOD 506 – Human Resource Development (3 cr.)
A study of modern practice human resource development from a perspective of its history, philosophy, principles, application and literature. Special attention will be placed on the three domains of HRD: organizational learning, performance and change.

EDOD 665 – HRD Consultation and Analysis of Organizations (3 cr.)
Examines the roles, responsibilities, and competencies of HRD consultants (change agents) within organizations, particularly their ability to build change capacity within firms. Emphasis will be placed on the processes, competencies, and knowledge required to apply the consulting process in organizational settings.

EDOD 667 – Power, Politics & Influence in Organizations (3 cr.)
Examine the creation and execution of power relationships, political engagements and communications in organizations. Learn how to understand your own political capacity as well as those with whom you work, and communication strategies useful for change agents.

EDOD 669 – Performance Management (3 cr.)
Examines the characteristics and elements of the performance improvement and change process with special attention to what roles and responsibilities employees, managers and organizations engage in when improving individual and organizational performance.

EDOD 670 – Strategic HRD (3 cr.)
Examines the latest theoretical and practical insights on the strategic role of human resource development in organizations, including how to promote a culture of continuous learning, improving organizational effectiveness and instigating change.

EDOD 671 – Performance Consulting and Causal Analysis (3 cr.)
Examines performance analysis and causal analysis, roles and responsibilities of performance consultants and performance consulting processes.

ED0D 672 – Change Facilitation (3 cr.)
Examine the roles and responsibilities of change agents and the fundamentals of change: principles, practices, processes, and resistance strategies.

ED0D 674 – Seminar: Intervention Strategies (3 cr.)
This course examines the analysis phase of the performance consulting process and the tools useful in organizational, process, and individual performance improvement efforts. Particular emphasis is on a systems approach to analysis and the foundational tasks used in identifying performance gaps and root causes and also a review of required expertise.

ED0D 692 – Seminar: Analysis in Organizations (3 cr.)
This course will examine four types of analysis in organizations: needs, performance, casual, and organizational as well as address the methods and practices used to analyze data.

EDRM 602 – Action Research (3 cr.)
Examines the fundamentals of practical action research, utilizing proven data-gathering methods and tools including interviews, surveys and focus groups.

EDRM 698 – Research (3 cr.)
Students complete a case-study project which brings together all facets of a strategic organizational analysis including intervention strategies and recommendations.