Introduction

Organizational Perspectives critically examines how organizations and institutions affect our lives personally, and professionally. The course engages new ways to understand organizations and entertains a variety of responses to the problems encountered in organizations. It explores the use of metaphor to see and think about organizations, and addresses the social consequences of corporate re-engineering, short-termism, and leanness and meanness. Course readings and videos provide hopeful insights into new, more life-giving organizational forms, explore the potential of using cultural values to foster organizational change, and examine democracy, morality, and leadership.

Course materials include five textbooks and a collection of four articles. Three videos, available on request from Athabasca University Library, are required viewing. Students will be evaluated on their two written assignments and their participation in four online class conferences.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course students should be able to

1. identify various metaphorical organizational forms and describe the characteristics of each.
2. describe the impact of organizational forms, past and present, on the individual and on society.
3. develop probable solutions to organizational dilemmas in which the individual is enmeshed.
4. assess critically organizational responses, including artistic ones, to slavery and other forms of societal repression.
5. identify ways of thinking that will offer the greatest leverage for coping with change.
6. analyse the impact of amorphous, less comprehensible organizational forms on society and ourselves, and the ways in which cultural shock waves can potentially transform the parent or dominant culture.
7. assess critically the potency of organizational culture to generate individual and organizational change.

Student Evaluation

You should be prepared to devote the time necessary to complete the various activities in this course: reading and viewing actively and critically; writing succinct, critical answers to the study questions and student postings; researching and writing academic papers that are both critical and integrative. To help you develop these skills, your course professor will provide feedback on each activity. You are expected to demonstrate a willingness to work.

To receive credit for this course, you must participate in the online activities, successfully complete two written assignments, and achieve a final mark of at least 60 per cent.

The following table summarizes the evaluation activities and the credit weight associated with each evaluation activity.

Week Due	Activity	Weighting	Length
1	Computer Conference 1	No grade	Varies
3	Computer Conference 2	5%	Varies
5	Computer Conference 3	5%	Varies
8	Computer Conference 4	5%	Varies
10	Computer Conference 5	5%	Varies
12	Computer Conference 6	5%	Varies
8	Essay 1	25%	(10-14 pages in length)
10	Essay 2	25%	(10-14 pages in length)
13	Essay 3	25%	(10-14 pages in length)
	Total	100%

Course Materials

The course materials for Master of Arts-Integrated Studies 610 include the items listed below.

Textbooks

• Finger, Matthias, and Jose Manuel Asun. Adult Education at the Crossroads: Learning Our Way Out. London: Zed Books, 2001.
• Morgan, Gareth. Images of Organization. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1997.
• Sennett, Richard. The Corrosion of Character. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998.
• Stein, Janice Gross. The Cult of Efficiency.Toronto: House of Anansi Press Limited, 2001.
• Wheatley, Margaret J., and Myron Kellner-Rogers. A Simpler Way. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1996.

Reading File

The assigned readings, which supplement the course textbooks, are included in the Reading File.

Videotapes

Copies of the three assigned videotapes are not included in the course materials package; however, they are available, upon request, from Athabasca University Library.

• "Dedicated to Chaos." Jazz, Episode 7. Written by Geoffrey C. Ward. Directed and produced by Ken Burns. 120 min. Florentine Films and WETA, 2001. Videocassette.
• Moore, Michael.The Big One. 90 min. Miramax, 1998. Videocassette.
• Mondragon. Written and produced by Gregory MacLeod. 13 min. Tompkins Institute of Human Values and Technology, University College of Cape Breton, and New View Productions Limited, 1997. Videocassette.

Athabasca University Material

Course Guide: The Course Guide contains the introduction, objectives, reading assignments, participation activities, assignments and evaluation criteria, and other information students will need to complete the course successfully. Students should take time to review the information in this document in order to become familiar with the design of the course.

Forms: The forms students will need to submit assignments or to inform the University of a change in status as a student are included with the course materials.

Required Reading and Viewing

Unit 1 Historical Influences: Ancient Rome

Reading File: Reid, T. R. "The Power and the Glory of the Roman Empire." National Geographic 192, no. 1 (1997): 2-41.

Reading File: Reid, T. R. "An Empire's Enduring Reach." National Geographic 192, no. 2 (1997): 60-83.

Unit 2 Images of Organization

Textbook: Morgan, Gareth. Images of Organization. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1997.

Video: Mondragon. Written and produced by Gregory MacLeod. 13 min. Tompkins Institute of Human Values and Technology, University College of Cape Breton, and New View Productions Limited, 1997. Videocassette. Cape Breton, and New View Productions Limited, 1997. Videocassette.

Unit 3 The Social and Personal Effects of the New Flexible Capitalism

Textbook: Sennett, Richard. The Corrosion of Character. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998.

Video: Moore, Michael.The Big One. 90 min. Miramax, 1998. Videocassette.

Unit 4 Some Responses to the New Economy

A Canadian Response

Reading File: Reid, Angus. "Staying Afloat in the New Economy." In Shakedown: How the New Economy Is Changing Our Lives, 269-312, 321-324. Toronto: Doubleday Canada Limited, 1996.

A Holistic Response

Textbook: Wheatley, Margaret J., and Myron Kellner-Rogers. A Simpler Way. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1996.

Unit 5 Learning Organizational Ways of Dealing with Internal and External Cultural Repression: The Power of Culture

The Creative Response

Video: "Dedicated to Chaos." Jazz, Episode 7. Written by Geoffrey C. Ward. Directed and produced by Ken Burns. 120 min. Florentine Films and WETA, 2001. Videocassette.

The Forceful Response

Reading File: Hanson, Victor Davis. "Epilogue: The End of Democratic Marches?" In The Soul of Battle, 405-412. New York: Anchor Books, 2001.