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Readings/Advanced Seminar in Organization Theory
Culture, Technology, Innovation, and Inter-Organizational Relations
PO 637, Winter 1996, Time/Location TBA -- Mark Burns, Instructor
Course Introduction
This material is an designed to give you a basic introduction to PO637,
Readings in Public Administration/Advanced Seminar in Organization
Theory. If you're in the class on the first day, you'll receive a paper copy.
In the introduction, you'll find:
- Course Objectives
- Methods and Grading
- Textbooks
- Course Schedule
- Additional Syllabus Components
If you're reading this page over
a Web browser, you can use the Return Symbol to go back to the start of these instructions.
- COURSE OBJECTIVES -
This course will provide an opportunity for doctoral students in the joint program in
Public Administration to further refine concepts evolved in PO708, Public Organization
Theory and Management. In the process, they will become more able to:
- Perform more extensive and intensive research in the literature of organization theory.
- Develop more precise research designs leading toward their dissertation and/or a
publishable research effort.
- Share the results of their efforts with colleagues in oral presentations.
- METHODS AND GRADING -
- Course Requirements
| Component |
Date |
Weight |
|
| Annotated Bibliography |
Week of
Feb. 5 |
25% |
Class Presentation |
Weeks of
Feb. 26,
Mar. 4 |
20% |
| Research Design |
Week of
Mar 4 |
35% |
| Class Discussion |
-- |
20% |
- By the week of January 3, students should be in the process of
evolving a topical area related to the concerns of the course in which
he/she can produce a research design pointing to a highly focused research
project--either a dissertation or a publishable research article. These
must be approved by the instructor; once a student has been assigned a
topic, he/she has the responsibility to make a preliminary evaluation of
available resources and to notify me no later than one week after the
approval if there appears to be a shortage of materials.
In the event of overlapping interests, I will seek to help students
specify and more sharply delineate their proposals. We will spend part of
our sessions the weeks of January 3 and 8 discussing the role of a
research design and early student concepts for their own research designs. Students may wish to prepare a rough outline or brief abstract to pass out to the class to facilitate this process.
- The Annotated Bibliography will be a minimum of 50 sources (a
book would count for 3 sources) related to the area of the research
design. For each source, a proper bibliographic citiation should be
provided, along with a concise summary of the source (3-5
sentences). In preparing the annotated bibliograpy and the research
design, below, students must follow my Guidelines for Research
Papers.
- Each student will make a Class Presentation of his/her research
design during the week of February 26 and March 4. At the start of the
presentation, the student should pass out a one-to-two-page outline
of his/her remarks, plus a bibliography of at least ten sources in
the Auburn University main campus and/or AUM library, including call
numbers and campus (AU/AUM), which may be used in reading on this topic;
at least five should be journal articles. Sources preferably should not
include readings used in this course or any other PO graduate or
undergraduate course.
- The Research Design, minimum fifteen pages (less bibliography),
may be a refinement of such an effort for a previous seminar. Both it and
the annotated bibliograpy must follow my Guidelines for Research
Papers.
- For the Class Discussion grade, students will be evaluated on
the basis of quality and quantity of interaction in class discussion. Each
student is expected to come to class fully prepared to discuss the
readings assigned for that day. Class discussion is not a grade for
class attendance, although one generally cannot discuss without attending
class. However, students who attend class without ever participating in
class discussion can expect no higher grade than "D" in class discussion.
As an alternative to discussion in the physical classroom, students are
also welcome to raise questions or make comments on the course's
Internet newsgroup (see below); details on this opportunity will be
discussed in class.
- All students in the course are expected to have e-mail accounts to
communicate with each other and with the instructor. These accounts
are free of charge and relatively simple to operate, in addition to
giving students experience in modern electronic communications. Assistance
is available in setting up an account, beginning to use e-mail, and
accessing newsgroups. A local Internet newsgroup (usenet group) will
be set up for purposes of letting students raise discussion issues,
comments, and questions outside of the physical classroom and for
making course announcements. Students should check this group at least
once a week and at least two days prior to each scheduled class meeting for announcements; failure to
do so will be the sole responsibility of the student.
- TEXTBOOKS -
The textbooks for the class are a mixture of classic and contemporary sources. All texts will be available only at J & M Bookstore and J & M II.
- Ban, Carolyn. How Do Public Managers Manage? Bureaucratic
Constraints, Organizational Culture, and the Potential for Reform. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1995.
- Downs, Anthony. Inside Bureaucracy. Boston: Little, Brown,
1977.
- Kidder, Tracy. The Soul of a New Machine. New York:
Avon, 1990.
- Kiel, L. Douglas. Managing Chaos and Complexity in Government; A
New Paradigm for Managing Change, Innovation, and Organizational
Renewal. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1994.
- Thompson, James. Organizations in Action. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1967.
- COURSE SCHEDULE -
- Date: Weeks of Jan. 8, 15
- Topic: Organizational meeting, discussion of student areas of
interest, field of organization theory
- Reading: Begin looking through Downs.
- Date: Week of Jan 22
- Topic: Organizational Culture
- Reading: Finish looking through Downs by start of this week,
then refer back to as relevant during rest of class. Read Ban text.
- Date: Week of Jan. 29
- Topic: Coping with the Impact of Technology
- Reading: Kidder.
- Date: Week of Feb. 5
- Topic: Innovation and Change
- Reading: Kiel
- Date: Week of Feb. 12
- Topic: Inter-Organizational Relations
- Reading: Thompson
- Date: Week of Feb. 19
- Individual conferences with students to discuss bibliographies,
research designs as necessary.
- Date: Weeks of Feb. 26, Mar 4
- Student presentations of research designs. (Note: If class
enrollment is large, this may begin the week of Feb. 19) The actual
research design should be handed in no later than the day of the last
presentation, or Mar 8, whichever is earlier.
-ADDITIONAL SYLLABUS COMPONENTS -
The other parts of this syllabus are listed below. If you are taking the
class, you are responsible for reading ALL of them, as well as this
introduction, and following their instructions.
Are you reading this introduction on the Worldwide Web? Simplicity
itself. Just use the links below to read each component. As you probably
know already, that also means you can save them as printed copy or files
on disk.
Are you reading a paper handout? Then you can access this
introduction--and its links to the other course components--through the
Worldwide Web address "http://www.auburn.edu/~burnsma/po637/intro.html".
If you don't know how to access the Worldwide Web, request the handout
"Finding This Course on the Worldwide Web" from the instructor.
- Further Reading. Material you may want to
read to pursue further the topics of the course or in connection with
required papers, if there are such.
- About the
Instructor.
Information about Mark Burns and his expectations for the class.
- Additional
Course Information you need to be aware of.
- To correctly prepare two major assignments for the course, you will
also need to read these:
- Guidelines for
Oral Presentations
- Guidelines for
Research Papers
"It must be
considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more
doubtful of success,
nor dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new
order of things. For the reformer has enemies. . .and only lukewarm
defenders."
--Niccolo Machiavelli
Have comments or ideas for other information that should be included here? Send your suggestions!
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