Organizational SCAN

This class is considered one of the capstone classes for the ADMG MS degree. You’ll be combining your skills in interviewing, report writing, conceptualization, and leadership assessment.

So, to be successful in this class You’ll need to find an organization to study throughout the quarter. It should be “smallish” with no more than 20 or so employees. You can choose a department in a larger organization. Plus, you’ll need to create a relationship with someone in authority (principal) who can OK this project and be available for meetings and interviews.

It’s fine to choose and use your current place of employment. You’d be an internal consultant, vs. an external consultant. Either role is valuable.

Please get going on thinking about which organization to use and get their verbal or email OK, ASAP.

This first assignment is to be a minimum 3 pages single-spaced, using MS word, memo format. Memo format is technically single spaced, and as a consultant, you could end up using a memo to outline all the information. Please use a technical/analytical report style with page numbers, section headings, and appropriate paragraph breaks and spacings. Please use section headings for each area of information you are presenting (vision, mission, budget, org. structure, general description of principals, etc.). Address the memo to me.

First-off: Make sure you have contacted a principal and have received some sort of positive verification that you can use this organization as your “case study”. You will not be successful in the class without an organization to study.

Have an e-mail record if you can get it (not required, but please get someone’s permission).

Guidelines: Describe your organization in detail to me. Make sure to include products, services, organizational structure, jurisdiction/catchment area (especially for public agencies and school districts), principals (CEO, director, superintendent, etc.), legal charter (501.c3, subS, LLC, etc.), mission, vision statements, governing bodies, general annual budget estimates, organizational history/news, etc. Most of this will be available on-line or through your initial contact with the principal of the organization. If you are studying a department of a larger organization, please focus much more on the department, vs. the larger organization.

Then create a proposed timeline for securing and performing the first four of the seven phases of OD programs: entry, contracting, diagnosis, and feedback (from the module 1 readings), using a maximum of one page, of the three-page minimum.

Of the 20 points: 10 will be for the organizational description; 5 for the proposed timeline; and 5 for general document formatting consistency, and writing.

Feel free to use a table format with respective OD phases with the timeline, contact person (principal), timeline, and preferred outcome in each column. Remember that this timeline needs to be in synch with the course requirements/timelines, while leaving room for flexibility in scheduling. In other words, don’t leave stuff until the last minute. If you schedule an appointment required to complete an assignment, one day before an assignment due date, you are asking for trouble.

The issue with formatting is always consistency in appearance. Make it look good. Lastly, the table format for the timelines/plan should be simple and again consistent in appearance. Feel free to get these to me ahead of time (Wed. or early Thurs. via e-mail), and I’ll proof them if you’d like.