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Syllabus

EN IT

Learning Objectives

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
This course focus on the process of implementing change as a critical dimension of business success.
The course have two main goals:
1) Understand how organizational changes can be effectively implemented
2) Improve personal skills and abilities to drive change

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING:
Through experimental activities the aim is to make the time spent in the classroom more functional and productive for the teaching-learning process, investing the session hours in solving the most complex problems, deepening topics, linking themes and analyzing disciplinary contents, producing works in groups and in peer-to-peer mode in an assisted context.

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING:
In experimental activities, teachers are no longer simply "knowledge dispensers", but take on a guiding and tutoring role by providing students with their own classroom assistance to bring out meaningful observations and considerations through shared exercises, research and learning by doing re-elaborations.

MAKING JUDGEMENTS:
During the course we will examine the various theories, conceptual models and patterns of change through a continuous confrontation with the experiences and dilemmas of practice in order to understand what contributes to the realization of a positive and lasting change. We will also examine how individuals in the front line, as well as those in managerial positions, express their contribution to change and interact with others to produce change.
Furthermore, by reflecting on the theory, practice and experience of change, we will seek to develop personal profiles of how we interpret change and the relationships, beliefs and materials that inspire us to undertake and sustain change. We will enrich the instrumentation at our disposal and our ideas for navigating and implementing change.

COMMUNICATION SKILLS:
One of the expected output is the full involvement of the students in the development of the sessions and, therefore, in the learning process. Guided by the objective of encouraging the learning of the entire class (and not only of the individual student), it is necessarily required to all students attending to read the assigned readings and case studies and the preparation of a Powerpoint presentation before each lesson, so as to allow each student to actively participate in the discussions undertaken in the classroom.

LEARNING SKILLS:
In order to facilitate the learning process and to give students a view into the world of change, specific moments of workgroup will be organised for the analysis and solution of complex organisational issues.

Prerequisites

None

Program

The course is structured in 27 sessions divided into 4 different sections:
The first and second sections, Introduction to the world of organisational change and Leading organisational change, focus on the Leadership of change from above, the main types and drivers of organizational change, such as strategic, leadership, cultural, structural, ownership, and communities and differences between these transformations. Some of these are "long marches" in which there are gradual and incremental changes through multi-stage change processes. Others are "handshakes" in which important, brief changes are instituted and their impact is immediately perceived. Some are changes to stimulate growth and some are geared towards downsizing and cost cutting. The aim is to gain an understanding of how these types of transformations take place, how changes have been defined, the sources of resistance encountered and how leaders are involved in all this effort. Finally, we will focus on the impact of change on employees.
The third section, Implementing organisational change, examine the world of implementation tools and techniques, and the ingredients for successful change management.
The fourth section, New perspectives on organisational change, focuses on new ways of change in order to develop change skills: building smooth and effective change, rather than passive introduction of change, and guiding and implementing continuous change.

Section 1: Introduction to the world of organisational change
#1 Introduction to the course and focus on the organisational change process
#2 Why does change happen?
#3 The world of organisational change: leading, implementing and experiencing change and CASE Donna Dubinsky

Section 2: Driving organisational change
#4 Driving change: evolutionary and revolutionary change and CASE Merrill Lynch Evolution, Revolution, and Sale, 1996-2008
#5 Day-to-day change management
#6 Driving organisational change: When to change? Who to involve? Change management approaches and CASO Brandeis University: Selling Art or the Art of Selling
#7 Simulating Change
#8 Simulating Change
#9 Identifying and creating opportunities for organisational change
#10 Driving change: ingredients of successful change and CASE Cadbury (A), (B), (C) and (D)
#11 Addressing the 'political' issues associated with organisational change and CASE John Smithers: Change Agent
#12 Driving change: ownership changes and CASES Supervalu, Reader's Digest, Heinz and HTPG
#13 Developing an innovative culture and CASE IDEO Product Development

Section 3: Implementing organisational change
#14 Implementing change: Managing merger communication - what, when, how and who to change and CASES AlphaNet and OmegaCom
#15 Implementing and experiencing organisational change and CASE Broadway Brokers
#16 Implementing change from the bottom up and CASES The Young Change Agents, Susan Baskin and Change Agent in Waiting
#17 Establishing Best Practices in Organisational Change and CASE Southwest Airlines: Using Human Resources for Competitive Advantage (A)
#18 Navigating change amidst differing opinions and perceptions
#19 Navigating cultural dynamics in change
#20 Creating the best "self-portrait" in organisational change

Section 4: New Perspectives on Organisational Change
#21 New Perspectives I° and CASE A Summer in Change Management: Implementing a New System Launch
#22 New Perspectives II
#23 Continuous Change: Developing Organisational Change Capacity and Sustaining Long-Term Performance
#24 Simulation of change
#25 Simulation of change
#26 Collaborating non-traditionally on organisational change research
#27 Course wrap-up

Books

1) M. A. Beitler, Strategic organizational change: a practitioner's guide for managers and consultants, 2nd ed., Greensboro, 2006
2) D. L., Anderson, Organization development: the process of leading organizational change, Fourth Edition, SAGE, 2017
3) S. Bert, Implementing Organizational Change: Theory Into Practice, 2nd edition, Prentice Hall, 2010
4) J. P. Kotter, D. S. Cohen, Al cuore del cambiamento. Come le persone cambiano le organizzazioni, Etas, 2003
5) J. W. Slocum Jr., D. Hellriegel, Comportamento organizzativo, Hoepli - Collana: Economia, 2010
6) R. Fincham, P. Rhodes, Principles Of Organizational Behaviour, Oxford University Press, 2005

Bibliography

A) Readings
1) C. Fredman, 2002. “The IDEO Difference,” pp. 52-57 in Hemispheres, Magazine of United Airlines. August.
2) D.A. Nadler and M.L. Tushman, 1989. “Organizational Frame Bending: Principles for Managing Reorientation,” Academy of Management Executive, 3: 194-204.
3) M. Wheatley, 1994. “Searching for a Simpler Way to Lead Organization” (Introduction), pp.1-13;
4) “The New Scientific Management” (Chapter 8), pp.139-147; in Leadership and the New Science. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
5) “Whatever Happened to Mother Merrill?” The New York Times, August 3, 2003.
6) “Putting the Muscle Back in the Bull--Stan O’Neal May Be the Toughest--Some say the most ruthless--CEO in America. Merrill Lynch Couldn’t Be Luckier to Have Him”, Fortune, April 5, 2004.
7) “Subprime Suspect: “The Man Merrill Lynch Loved to Hate” New Yorker, March 31, 2008 (Abbreviated).
8) D.E. Meyerson, 2001. “Radical Change the Quiet Way,” Harvard Business Review. October.
9) Q. N. Huy, 2001. “In Praise of Middle Managers,” Harvard Business Review. September.
10) T. Reay, K. Golden -Biddle and K GermAnn, 2003. “How Nurse Practitioners and Middle Managers are Acting to Create Work Role Changes. Best Papers Proceedings of the Academy of Management in Seattle, Washington.
11) M. Tyre and W. Orlikowski, 1994. “Windows of Opportunity: Temporal Patterns of Technological Adaptation in Organizations,” Organization Science. Volume 5(1): 98-118.
12) (Global Examples): “Mergers That Stick”, HBR, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Oct 2009, pp. 121-125.
13) “How Can PE Lessons Apply to You”, Chapter from Lessons from Private Equity Any Company Can Use, Gadiesh and MacArthur, 2008.
14) E. H. Schein, 1999. Why Does Corporate Culture Matter? In The Corporate Culture Survival Guide, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers: 3-58.
15) J. Martin, 2002. “Chapter 4: Single Perspective Theories of Culture,” In Organizational Culture. Sage Publications.
16) R.S. Zander and B. Zander, 2000. Capitolo 3, “Giving an A” and Chapter 4, “Being a Contribution” In The Art of Possibility. Penguin Books.
17) K. Golden-Biddle, T. Reay, C. Witt, S. Petz, A. Casebeer, A. Pablo, and C.R. Hinings, 2003. Toward a Communicative Perspective of Collaborating in Research: The Case of the Researcher-Decision Maker Partnership. Journal of Health Services Research and Policy.
B) Optional readings:
1) “Introduction: The Challenge of Change”, Managing Change, Jick and Peiperl, pp. xix-xxvii, 2011, 3rd Edition.
2) “Best Practices in Change Management”, Prosci Benchmarking Report, 2014
3) “Change Management is Bigger than Leadership,” G. Shea and C. Solomon, HBR Blog Network, March 29, 2013, 2.
4) Reading: “How Change Really Comes About”, The Challenge of Organizational Change, Kanter, Jick and Stein, pp. 497-503.
5) “Implementing Change”, Todd Jick (HBS Note, No. 9-491-114).
6) “Why It’s So Hard to Be Fair,” Joel Brockner, HBR, March 2006.
7) “Why Organizations Succeed: Assessing Change Strategy”, The Challenge of Organizational Change, Kanter, Stein and Jick, pp. 490-495
8) “What Successful Transformations Share: McKinsey Global Survey results” McKinsey Quarterly, March 2010.
9) “Tactical Choices”, The Challenge of Organizational Change, Kanter, Jick and Stein, pp. 514-519.
10) “Driving Change Through Corporate Programs,” Boppel, Kunisch, Keil and Lechner, Sloan Management Review, Sept 2013
11) L. Hill, 1995. “Power Dynamics in Organizations,” Harvard Business School Note.
12) B. Oshry, 1993. “Converting Middle Powerlessness to Middle Power: A Systems Approach” In: T. Jick (Ed). Managing Change: pp.401-412
13) “Stirrers and Shakers,” Financial Times, August 2012.
14) “Laying the Foundation for Communicating Change”, Perfect Phrases for Communicating Change, Lawrence Polsky & Antoine Gerschel, 2010, p. 1-17.
15) “The Balance Needed to Lead Change”, Harvard Management Update, Kerry Bunker and M. Wakefield, Nov 2008, pp. 4-6.
16) “The 10 Steps to successful M&A integration”, Bain, Ted Rouse and Tony Frame, Nov 2009.
17) “Can the new CEO end a culture clash after a merger?”, Financial Times, Sept 10, 2008, p. 10.
18) “The Recipients of Change”, HBS, Jick, 1996, 9-491-039.
19) “Leading Transition”, On Leading Change, Bridges and Mitchell, 2002, pp. 33-45.
20) “How to Communicate Layoffs”, Harvard Management Update, Robbins, April 2009, pp. 11-12.
21) “Do you really think we are so stupid?” A letter to the CEO of Deutsche Telecom (A)” 2013 ESMT Case Study.
22) “Meg Whitman Details Layoffs to HP Employees in Internal Video, Thinks HP is ‘Re-Building Credibility’” Matt Burns, May 23, 2012
23) “Leading Change in the Era of Bad News: Dealing with Anger, Distrust, and Revenge in the Workplace”, Prosci Global Conference, Robert J Bies, April, 25, 2010.
24) “Leading From Below”, Wall St. Journal, James Kelly and Scott Nadler, March 3, 2007.
25) “Catalyst for Change: The Impact of Millenials on Organization Culture and Policy” C. Berenguer, J. Delano, and K. Stawarky, Monitor Magazine, 2009, 1- 14.
26) J. Dutton and E. Heaphy, 2003. “Coming to Life: The Power of High Quality Connections at Work”. In K. Cameron, J. Dutton, R. E. Quinn, Positive Organizational Scholarship, San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
27) J. H. Gittell, 2001. “Investing in Relationships,” Harvard Business Review, June.
28) “Relationships: The New Bottom Line.“ Roger Lewin and Birute Regine, Weaving Complexity and Business, New York: Textere, 2001.
29) “Where Process Improvements Go Wrong,” Chakravorty, WSJ, Jan 25, 2010
30) “Leadership in a (Permanent) Crisis”, Harvard Business Review, Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky, July-August 2009, pp. 62-69.
31) “The Business Case Against Revolution—An Interview with Nestle’s Peter Brabeck”, HBR, Feb 2001, pp. 113-119.
32) “The Hard Side of Change Management”, HBR, Sirkin, Keenan and Jackson, Oct 2005, pp. 2-11.
33) “The Globe: Singapore Airlines’ Balancing Act”, HBR, Hercules and Wirtz, July 2010.
34) “Designing Organizations That Are Built to Change”, Chris Worley and Ed Lawler III, MIT Sloan Management Review, Fall 2006, 19-23.
35) “Achieving Successful Strategic Transformation” G. Johnson, G. Yip, and M. Hensmans, MIT Sloan Management Review, March 20, 2012
36) “Change for Change’s Sake”, HBR, Vermeulen et al, June 2010, pp. 70- 76.
C) Case studies:
1) Donna Dubinsky
2) Merrill Lynch Evolution, Revolution, and Sale, 1996-2008
3) Brandeis University: Selling Art or the Art of Selling change
4) Cadbury Schweppes: Capturing Confectionary, (A), (B), (C), and (D)
5) John Smithers: Change Agent
6) SuperValu Case: “Private-Equity Investors Show Supervalu Who’s the Boss,” Wall Street Journal, B1-2, Jan 11, 2013.
7) Reader’s Digest: “Impatience,” Forbes, June 16, 2008. (2pp)
8) Heinz: “Brazilian Style—Tightfisted New Owners Put Heinz on a Diet”, Annie Gasparro, WSJ, Feb 11, 2014.
9) “We’re From Private Equity, and We’re Here to Help”, Brendan Greeley, Business Week, May 6, 2012, pp. 55-59.
10) IDEO Product Development
11) AlphaNet and OmegaCom
12) Broadway Brokers
13) The Young Change Agents
14) Susan Baskin: Aspiring Change Agent (A)
15) Change Agent in Waiting
16) Southwest Airlines: Using Human Resources for Competitive Advantage (A)
17) A Summer in Change Management: Implementing a New System Launch
18) Singapore Air-Continuing Service Improvement
D) Other study material
Slides and course materials are available on the website.

Teaching methods

A mixed teaching mode is adopted, which includes:
1) Experimental activities
Experimental Activities are characterized by a strong interaction between teacher and students in order to facilitate the transfer of notions and knowledge. An experimental activity is structured in three moments: 1) Preparatory moment: the teachers have selected resources related to the subject in question useful to provide an introduction, a conceptual framework and have assigned to the students tasks to be carried out; 2) 2) Operating moment: this is the phase in which the students carry out the task, i.e. they create products to demonstrate their learning; 3) Restructuring and concluding moment: the teacher evaluates and corrects the products elaborated by the students and their contributions, fixes the conceptual knots emerged and above all accompanies the class towards a significant re-elaboration of what has been learned.
2) Role Playing
Role playing is a simulative technique that requires students to play, for a limited time, the role of "actors", i.e. to represent certain roles in interaction with each other, while the other students act as "observers" of the contents and processes that the representation manifests. Role-playing is a valuable tool for training, based on the simulation of something that has or could have relevance to a real situation and is structured in such a way as to be emotionally engaging. The characteristics of this technique provide multiple stimuli to learning through imitation, action, observation of the behavior of others and comments received on their own, through the analysis of the entire process.
In the preparation of a Role playing session, each student must prepare, through the reading of the materials indicated for the session, to play one of the roles of the actors described in the situation analyzed.
3) Simulations
Creation of a model that allows to evaluate and predict the dynamic development of a series of events or processes following the imposition of certain conditions by students in the design, guidance and implementation of an organizational change. In order to carry out the simulations, students are asked to carefully read the indications given in the analytical syllabus and to bring a PC in class, useful for the implementation of the simulation.
4) Discussion of case presentations
In the analytical syllabus there are questions regarding each case dealt with. The cases have been designed to integrate and deepen concepts addressed and studied also from a theoretical point of view. The preparation and discussion of cases does not exclude the study of theoretical contents related to cases in order to pass the course examination.

Exam Rules

The score of the exam is given by means of a mark expressed in thirtieths.
The exam shall consist of a written test or an oral test.
1. Written test. The duration of the test will be 2-3 hours. It can be used a PC to translate any English text. In this first test it will be assigned:
a. A case study with related questions in order to lead the discussion. For case analysis, therefore, students will be asked to answer questions using specific content and theories studied in the course. It will not be possible to obtain scores for answers containing personal opinions unless these are supported by theories, studies or other text material. It is also necessary to describe "how" and "for what reason" the theory referred to can be applied to the case being studied. Responses will be evaluated on the basis of both quantity and quality. More comprehensive responses that demonstrate a higher level of understanding and analysis will receive higher ratings.
b. Theoretical questions directly related to the reference texts. Questions can be open, multiple choice, or a combination of the two above.
2) Oral test. In the oral test, the candidate may be asked to answer the questions:
a. Theoretical questions related to the reference materials .
b. Questions for short discussion of some incidents of organizational change, orally advanced by the examination committee in order to focus attention on the application to real situations of the theoretical content of the course.

Finally, the laboratory of organizational change aims to develop the reading and interpretation skills of the students attending the course. During the activities of the workshop students will be able to develop autonomously the soft dimensions of reading, interpretation and intervention in complex organizational situations. Students participating in the workshop will be allowed to get a bonus of -3/+3 extra points for the first exam after the course.

The exam will be assessed according to the following criteria:
Not Successful: important deficiencies and/or inaccuracies in the knowledge and understanding of the topics; limited ability to analyse and synthesise, frequent generalisations and limited critical and judgemental skills, the topics are set out inconsistently and with inappropriate language;
18-20: Barely sufficient knowledge and understanding of the topics with possible generalisations and imperfections; sufficient capacity for analysis synthesis and autonomy of judgement, topics are frequently exposed in an incoherent way and with inappropriate/technical language;
21-23: Routine knowledge and understanding of topics; ability to analyse and synthesise correctly with sufficiently coherent logical argumentation and appropriate/technical language;
24-26: Fair knowledge and understanding of the topics; Good analytical and synthetic skills with arguments expressed in a rigorous manner but with language that is not always appropriate/technical;
27-29: Comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the topics; considerable capacity for analysis and synthesis. Good autonomy of judgement. Arguments presented in a rigorous manner and with appropriate/technical language;
30-30L: Excellent level of knowledge and thorough understanding of topics. Excellent analytical and synthetic skills and independent judgement. Arguments expressed in an original manner and with appropriate technical language.