MS in Positive Organization Development - Curriculum

This forty-credit-hour, nineteen-month program is delivered in five week-long residencies and one ten-day international study tour, but it also includes virtual conferencing and intensive, Internet-mediated learning between the residential periods.

In addition to gaining a solid theoretical basis for change management through courses in Appreciative Inquiry, Emotional Intelligence, Team Learning and building Sustainable Enterprises, you will take practical courses on consulting methods, strategic thinking, and organizational development that will explore the "how-to" of facilitating positive change in an organization. The storytelling methodology that is one Appreciative Inquiry technique helps you gather principles from illustrative examples and provides a library of real-life precedents from which to draw productively over the course of your career.

Residencies

Residency One

• Foundations of Positive Organization Development and Change
• Leadership and Executive Assessment and Development
• Experiential Learning for Individuals, Teams, and Organizations

Residency Two

• Leadership and Executive Assessment and Development
• Practicum in Appreciate Inquiry and Positive Organization Development
• Foundations of Strategic Thinking

Residency Three

• Leadership and Executive Assessment and Development
• Sustainability for Strategic Advantage
• Leading Change from a Complexity Perspective
• Dynamics of Effective Consulting

Residency Four

• Building the Sustainable Enterprise
• Individual Field Project
• Leading Change from a Complexity Perspective
• Dynamics of Effective Consulting and Implementation

International Study Tour

• Global Citizenship and Multi-Cultural Organization Development: International Study Tour

Residency Five

• Organization Design for a Knowledge World
• Individual Field Project

Education between residencies will be conducted via Internet-mediated learning, individual reading and writing, and virtual conferencing.

International Study Tour

One of the uniquely rewarding aspects of the MPOD program is the ten-day international study tour. You will travel as a cohort to Katholieke Universieit in Leuven, Belgium, to learn with students from their Certificate of Continuing Education program in Consultancy in Groups and Organizations (CIGO), and to Ashridge Business School, Berkhamsted, U.K., to study alongside peers in the Ashridge Masters in Organisation Consulting (AMOC) program.

Experiencing the dynamics of a multicultural student body and engaging directly with consultants and other agents of change during site visits provides an intensive learning opportunity unlike any other. This is also an occasion for Weatherhead students to deepen peer relationships and broaden their international contacts while gaining first-hand experience of global citizenship.

Tour locations include:

• Consultancy in Groups and Organizations (CIGO)-Katholieke University, Leuven, Belgium
• Ashridge Masters in Organisation Consulting (AMOC)-Ashridge University, United Kingdom

Experiential Learning

The MPOD includes three supervised action learning experiences. You'll form consulting teams to work with Cleveland-based clients as part of the Practicum in Positive OD Methods and the Building the Sustainable Enterprise course. The third experience, the Individual Field Project, is a robust action learning project that allows you to work in the field with your organization, or an organization of your choice.

For additional information review the general bulletin.