Insegnamento a.a. 2023-2024

(1) To gain an understanding of how organizational change is achieved

We will examine the various theories and concepts of change, along with experiences and dilemmas in practice, that together help gain an understanding of what contributes to the carrying out of successful and lasting change. 

(2) To enhance personal capabilities to navigate change in our lives

Exploring both the theorizing and experiencing of change, attendees will develop personal profiles of how to navigate in change, and the relations, convictions and materials that inspire people to undertake and sustain change in our lives. 

Coherently with the above-mentioned objectives, beyond lectures and concept-building sessions, the course will use different learning tools:

-       Case studies and case studies discussions: students will have to prepare cases in teams and present them to the plenary session

-       Individual change management project, requires to apply change management notions to oneself 

-       Multimedia based simulation exercise

-       Group project change management research. 

(1) To gain an understanding of how organizational change is achieved

(2) To enhance personal capabilities to navigate change in our lives

Exploring both the theorizing and experiencing of change, attendees will develop personal profiles of how to navigate in change, and the relations, convictions and materials that inspire people to undertake and sustain change in our lives. 

• Face-to-face lectures
• Online lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Exercises (exercises, database, software etc.)
• Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)
• Individual assignments
• Group assignments
• Interactive class activities on campus/online (role playing, business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls)

Team work change management projects (case study)

Attending students are required to actively participate to the following projects within the course:

-       Form groups of 6-8 people to participate to an Internet Web based Change Management research project. Change Management projects will take place off-line class hours and will be delivered to instructors online at the end of the course + presented in plenary session on December 3. Groups are requested to submit a MS Power Point presentation as well as proofs of the Internet sites visited + a MS Word report (please use only MS Office files and not PDF files). The grade will be given on a group-basis and it will account for the 30% of the total individual grade.

-       Same groups will be also used to prepare case discussions in class.

Groups will be formed (by students) and they will have to select / offer a change management case study by accessing information from public available resources. Privileged proposal are the ones of transformations under the crisis window of 2008-2015 and/or the COVID impact times of 2020/2021. Each group will have to select one case / incident. Examples will be provided in class.

Team Composition

This course assumes that students will freely team-up, choosing their preferred teammates. Instructors WILL NOT assign students to teams, neither interfere with issues regarding team composition and team management. Instructors will limit their work to evaluating output (the “product” of a real-life consulting team) and students will do the job of finding partners. This is adopted as an “ethical rule” of the course, to avoid any conflict of interest on the Faculty side, being those that give grades to team output and also interfering in team composition (input of the process).

Peer Evaluation

An eventual peer evaluation system will be offered at the end of the course. In this case the grade received by peers will account for 5% of the total grade and the Final Exam grade will be 50% (instead of 55%).

The HELP simulation – a multimedia based learning tool of change management 

All attending students are highly recommended to actively participate to the HELP Simulation day, (see syllabus schedule). The HELP Simulation is one of the most powerful change management learning tools available and it is offered only to the Change Management class of the whole Graduate programs of Bocconi University. The Simulation is run in teams in a computer lab, and it will allow participants to experiment the effective implementation of appropriate change tactics. At the end of the simulation a full debriefing will be run, where the core learning messages will be summarized. To free learning from misunderstandings and maximize the simulation experience, no evaluation is assigned to the HELP exercise. Students are not allowed to attend ONLY a part of the sessions dedicated to the Simulation experience.

Individual work

Attending students are required to take a final exam (55% of the final individual grade). Active participation is a fundamental requirement for effective learning. Attending students are asked to actively participate in class discussion and in-class exercises, on the forums on-line and off-class course hours; instructors also expect that group members will circulate ALL the electronic material via Web-Learning, including final and work in progress documents related the group projects. 

Individual class participation will account for an extra +1/30 for a maximum of 5 students that will distinguish their contribution during the overall semester.

Personal change project

This is an individual project in which you will identify a desired personal change to implement this term. It involves: (1) a written plan – the change goal and expected process for implementing the change, (2) one report (for your own self-learning, it will not be shared with Faculty) during the term detailing your progress and reactions on carrying out the process, identifying ways you connect with others to gain support and achieve momentum in your change, and examining how you are drawing on your strengths and awareness of your limitations to enhance your implementation, and (3) a final paper (up to 3 pages) detailing your key learning about implementing this change and their applicability to implementing organizational change (to be uploaded on Blackboard). This discussion needs to integrate ideas from the course that were most insightful for you in implementing this change. The final paper will be due at the end of the course, before the final exam scheduled dates. Only the Final Paper will be evaluated and it will account for 15% of the total course grade.

Attending students, that will regularly access on-line resources, will prepare: 

-       Readings and cases available online through Web-Learning.

Non-attending students:

J M. BEITLER, Strategic Organizational Change, Second Edition

D. Anderson, Organizational Development: The process of leading organizational change

(The above books are available on Amazon.com)

Attending students, that will regularly access on-line resources, will prepare: 

-       Readings and cases available online through Web-Learning.

Non-attending students:

J M. BEITLER, Strategic Organizational Change, Second Edition

D. Anderson, Organizational Development: The process of leading organizational change

(The above books are available on Amazon.com)