Organizational Studies 148: The Nature of Work
Fall Semester, 2016

Meeting Time: Mondays and Wednesdays, 1:15 – 2:30 pm		Room: Avery Hall, Room 226
Professor: Jeff Lewis	Office: Fletcher 214 Phone: 607-3069
E-Mail: jeff_lewis@pitzer.edu	Web page: http://www.pitzer.edu/~jlewis
Office hours: Mondays and Wednesdays at 10 am and 2:30 pm, and by appointment
Reading Material: Assorted reading posted on class Sakai site (under resources and weekly forums).

Goals of the Course

This course examines personal and societal issues related to the changing nature of work. With a primary focus on the human side of organizational life, we will examine how social expectations, multicultural and intercultural relations, and changes in technology shape our present and future understanding of work in our contemporary world. In addition, you will be asked to complete individual assessments and explorations to further your understanding and perspective on these topics.

This course is designed as an investigation of work, working itself and aspects of workers, and how through individual exploration we can answer questions related to ourselves and what we might seek in our lives. We will study the changing nature of work, learn about our own skills, abilities and interests, explore various conceptions of what work entails, and investigate how organizational practices can impact the lives of its members. This course is also designed to prepare students for internships, assist in career planning, and it is best taken in the senior year or at least after completing ORST135 and ORST100.

This course and the Organizational Studies major as a whole are also aligned with the college’s educational objectives. In this course it is hoped that students’ work will exemplify critical thinking, effective expression, interdisciplinary appreciation, intercultural understanding, and ethical evaluations.

In addition, this course is designed to help students achieve the following objectives:

• Gain an appreciation of the place of work in our society in terms of what it means and how it has evolved.
• Develop a better understanding of the complex path charted during career development.
• Be able to constructively create, lead and participate in active presentations of course relevant material.
• Develop more self-awareness along with skills and practices related to self-assessment, critical evaluation and improvement.
• Construct a five-year plan that integrates your academic and life goals and that helps you to identify key opportunities for improvement.

Expectations

Your active participation in this course will enhance not only your learning but also the experience we co-create in this class. You are expected to prepare fully prior to the class, reading the assigned material before the class sessions and coming prepared with questions that you want answered. The major assignments in this course allow for extended preparation, and working with your fellow students as you absorb the material is encouraged. Good cooperation and conscientiousness when engaged in collaborative work is crucial and should be characteristic of all team projects in this course. Individual papers and assignments are exclusively your own product, however, and it is expected that works collected from you to meet these course requirements will be of your own creation. You are required to adhere to the College’s Code of Student Conduct, which upholds academic integrity and prohibits academic dishonesty, including those forms of academic dishonesty that are listed in the Pitzer College Student Handbook.

Course Requirements

Self Assessment and Analysis Portfolio (60% of the course grade) - Your work in this class will center upon independent projects (e.g., reflection, in-class exercises, short reviews and interviews) that will form a collection of materials related directly to the topics addressed during the semester. The portfolio will consist of three types of assignments – weekly reflections drawn from the course material, class discussion and your experience, assessment exercises, and working interviews. At the end of the class, you will be asked to turn in your work and an overall reflection of what you have discovered. A more detailed description of this assignment is provided below. Please hand in the first two rounds of the portfolio as a single, electronic file (in docx or pdf compatible format), placed in the class Sakai drop box by the dates below. The final version can be turned in as an electronic file or printed out in hard copy form.

Topic presentations (25%) - You will be asked to organize the class discussion for one day of the week during the semester. You will be asked to extend the topic for that week by designing a presentation with additional reading assigned (available to the class the week prior). You should be expected to present a brief summary of the important points from the reading, present how it relates to the week’s general topic, extend our exploration through a project or an exercise, and lead class discussion.

Class participation (15%) – Each week you are expected to contribute your thoughts and analysis of the readings and to complete any weekly assignment. While your journal will be the place for a written collection of your work, it is important to interact, connect to the material and support your fellow classmates as we construct our learning environment.

Schedule of Lectures and Readings

Dates and Topic			Readings and assignments
August 31^st: Organizing the class			Major comparison project
September 5^th & 7^th: Experiencing the work and workplace			NY Times Readings – Amazon vs. Zappos Ciulla – Chapter 1-3 of The Working Life
September 12^th & 14^th:		Defining success	Rose et al (2006); Christensen (2010); Groysberg and Abrahams (2014) Resume Project – Career Services visit/assessment
September 19^th & 21^st:		Career management	Drucker (1999); Briscoe & Hall (2006)
Sept. 26^th & 28^th: Positive Organizational Behavior			Jordan et al. (2002); Luthans (2002) Report on Career Services visit
Portfolio Round 1 due on September 28^th
October 3^rd & 5^th:	Computer Skills		Ford (2015) – What is Code - http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-paul-ford-what-is-code/
October 10^th & 12^th: Motivation and Goal Setting			Porter & Lawler (1968); Locke & Latham (2002); Nohris et al (2008); Self-assessment project (continued)
Fall Break – October 15^th through October 18^th (no class on October 17^th)
October 19^th: Occupation path and Organization choice			Fulmer et al (2003) Self-assessment project (wrap-up)
October 24^th & 26^th: Job Automation			Colvin (2015)
Oct. 31^st & Nov. 2^nd: Big Data and Assessment			Kaplan & Norton (1993); Kerr (1995); Davenport (2006)
Portfolio Round 2 due on November 2^nd
November 7^th & 9^th: Managers and Leaders			Buckingham (2005); Hamm (2006); Benjamin & O’Reilly (2011)
November 14^th & 16^th: Compensation			Lawler (1995) Five-Year Plan project
November 21^st: Managing relationships, work and family			Friedman (2014)
Thanksgiving Break November 24^th – 27^th (no class November 23^rd)
November 28^th & 30^th: Power			Ragins & Sundstrom (1989)
December 5^th & 7^th: Wrap-up			Presentation of five-year plans Final Portfolio due on December 9^th

Student Portfolio Construction

Overview: Throughout the course, you will be asked to complete a variety of assignments that enhance participation and exploration in this class. In order to assess your learning, you will electronically submit your work at three points in the semester. You will have some choice in determining what assignments are included in your portfolio, but all of the class will be asked to include certain identified assignments. At the end of three class meetings (see syllabus above for scheduled dates), you will turn your portfolio in for comment and evaluation. The portfolio should be submitted in a format that is compatible with .doc format or as a pdf that is viewable on most any platform.

Assignments: The assignments included for evaluation will be varied and generally fall into three categories, all ranging in length:

1. Self-selected assessment exercises and reflection statements. A major component of this course will be the development of self-knowledge through assessment, critique and reflection. You will be asked to turn in a total of three personal assessment exercises (e.g., personality inventories, strength assessments, feedback exercises). These may come from a number of sources and it is your choice what to include in the portfolio. Throughout the course, a number of exercises will be distributed for your completion in class, and you may use some of these. In addition, textbooks from other classes may also provide exercises that you may find attractive, and the Career Services office can also offer you some options that might be especially valuable. Besides the three exercises selected for inclusion, you will also answer questions designed to help you reflect on the assignment and why you chose to include it with the rest of your work. Specifically, upon reflection, you should thoroughly address the following issues:

a. Why did you select this piece for inclusion?

b. What specific class aspect does this tap? Why might they be important to you?

c. How does it connect with specific class readings?

d. How is it representative of your learning in this class?

e. In what way does it relate to the changing nature of work, working and/or the workplace?

Your statements should highlight what you believe to be the most important aspects of the exercise, its personal connection or meaning, and your discussion should be more than merely description. Try to integrate other sources and exercises from this and other classes that connect with the assignment.

2. Working Interviews. You will also be asked to summarize your impressions of encounters that you have outside of the class with a person or group of people from a unique or interesting work context. These interviews should directly connect to one or more of the weekly topics that we have in our class, and the basic goal here is to gather different viewpoints regarding the subjects that we discuss and explore how different experiences and perceptions relate to organizational factors. For example, you could interview a co-worker regarding the changing patterns of communication within a company that is restructuring, gather a supervisor’s impression of how changes in technology might affect an organization’s culture over time, or difficulties and benefits related to a training experience. Include the questions that you asked, a summary answers received, and your overall impression of the interaction.

3. Completed Projects. At different points in the semester you are asked to complete specific projects that extend beyond what we do during class time. The results of these projects will be shared in class, but a written version of your work should also be included in your portfolios.

Besides these three sections, you may also propose an exercise of your own that you feel illustrates the class material, or that relates to an exploration of important aspects of work that you would like to explore. You need to get approval before you include this in your portfolio, however.

Portfolio Structure: When preparing your portfolio for evaluation, you will be asked to include all of your projects completed at that point, the selected exercises, and interviews from the preceding weeks that represent what you have gained from the class experience. Listed below in checklist form are the specific parts that need to be included in each round. The first evaluation will be advisory only, in that instead of receiving a grade, your assignments will be returned with comments asking for more reflection or connection, and advice on how you could improve your understanding and use of class material. The second and final evaluation will include new drafts of previous work, the last set of assignments and at the end of the semester a summary evaluation of your accomplishment in the course. The round two and three evaluations will be graded.

Assignment Check List:

1. Self-assessment exercises and reflection statements.

Round 1 selection: ___

Round 2 selections: ___

Round 3 selections: ___

Be sure to include the reflection questions: a. Why did you select this piece for inclusion?; b. How is it representative of your learning in this class?; and c. In what way does it relate to the changing nature of work?

2. Working Interviews.

Round 1: ___

Round 2: ___

Round 3: ___

3. Project write-ups

Major Comparison Project ___

Career Development Assessment Project ___

Five Year Plan Project ___

4. Round 3 Summary evaluation of your accomplishment in the course. ___

Include not only how you feel about your learning but also how you view the changing nature of the work, the workplace, and the worker via the impact of technology, multiculturalism and globalization and our relationship to our job.