A Systems Approach to Crisis Preparation and Building Organizational Resilience Course Information / Syllabus

Take a broad view of the world around you -- a systems view -- and you'll see it racing, accelerating even, toward precipitous cliffs. The world as we know it will not last sixty years; it may not last six.

Survival in every sense will depend on awareness, understanding, preparation and resilience.

Meets: Wednesdays 6:30-9:30 pm            Professor: Steven F. Freeman ; (215) 802-4680, 3401A Walnut St., Rm. 325

Official University of Pennsylvania Organizational Dynamics program course website: DYN 672

General Educational Philosophy

Sensemaking: Graduate level courses are not simply about transmitting a given body of knowledge; it's about reflecting on important questions, looking at the big picture and making sense of it.

Critical thinking: ”The educated person is not the person who can answer the questions, but the person who can question the answers” (q.v. quotes). Think critically about material, challenge it as appropriate, and to bring your experience to bear on the question.

Adaptable syllabus: students can maximize the value of a course is through a flexible, adaptable syllabus. If there is any topic you want to cover or anyone you'd like to invite, I try to make that possible. I also try to incorporate relevant current developments and unique opportunities.

Collaborative learning: cooperative teams achieve at higher levels of thought and retain information longer than learners who work quietly as individuals. Active exchange of ideas increases interest among the participants andalso promotes critical thinking. Shared learning provides an opportunity to engage in discussion and can lead to new insights and the need to reflect on unquestioned assumptions.

Useful assignments: The effort you put into getting a degree represents a significant portion of your life and a very large proportion of time not obligated to family or employer. As such it's precious, and the time spent on assignments should reflect that value. So I strive to help you to do useful assignments. But this does require you to reflect on what would be of value.

Assignments

Class Participation (30% of grade): Think about, reflect on, and try to apply course material. Think critically about what you read and hear, both in the course and outside of it. And use the classroom to display and develop your ability to analyze, summarize, evaluate, and argue positions. Life is not a multiple choice test; it's all essay questions! For particulars, see handouts:

• Expectations for Class Participation: Why, What and How
• Case Learning: How It Works, Why It's Effective: How to prepare a case, i.e., how to take action as a leader and professional.

Class participants should help lead in areas related to their core interests.

Topic Development (30% of grade): 1st half of course: Choose a potential crisis and develop a course webpage about it (e.g.,Famine). 2nd half of course: develop a course webpage on a solution, i.e., a potential course of action to prevent or cope with a given type of crisis or some aspect of general resilience.

Your webpage could be something like a Wikipedia article, but you do not have their style or NPOV restrictions. In fact, you should have a point of view and make an implicit argument as to why your topic is or is not a potential crisis. SourceWatch is a better model. It's standard is "fair, accurate and fully sourced," which better lets the truth come through by making points while insisting that every piece of information have an external, verifiable source. [1]

Webpages should be short and to the point, but if you're inspired you can do a series (or web) of pages.

Content is the most important thing! But if your content is good, and you're up for it, graphics, pictures, videos, etc..., can make a page far more effective. The more creative and aesthetic the better. We want people to want to visit your page and the site.

Course Project (40% of grade): Consider why you have enrolled in the course and what you hope to get out of it. What would be the best possible outcome of having taken the course? Is there anything you really want to do or accomplish towards which this course may be helpful? Examples of course projects could include:

• A crisis case study: What was the crisis? How was it handled? What was the outcome? How does what you've learnt compare with extant theory and knowledge?
• An organizational crisis audit. What are its vulnerabilities? Does it have a crisis management plan? Does it have the capabilities of resilience?
• A full academic paper on one of the topic areas, including a thorough literature search
• Design a research project to better understand a problem area or some aspect of it.
• Design a research project to investigate a potential solution to a crisis-related issue
• Write an article for publication summarizing course-related knowledge or insights that might be useful for a particular audience.
• Develop a full-blown scenario of a potential crisis
• Make a video or create a work of art related to course material
• Further develop a website, "hub" or interest group around a particular issue
• Engage in some other means to promote understanding of a potential problem or a solution 

This could be a smaller stand alone project, a piece of a larger project or a team effort. Ideally course projects are identifiable as components in your overall educational program. Do something you WANT to do, it's not (just) a test or yet another burden. Consider me, your classmates and the OD program as means to pursue and accomplish something uniquely valuable.

By the end of the course, you must give a presentation and/or submit a paper about your project. If you choose to do a presentation, please review these Presentation Suggestions. If you choose to write a paper, please read my Guide to Developing and Writing a Research Paper. You may also want to attend my research writing workshops. I encourage students to submit outstanding for publication in a new annual collection/Journal of Dynamics Best Papers and possibly elsewhere as well.

Grades and course credit are awarded as directed by program guidelines.

Notes:

[1] Wikipedia has become one of the most-read websites on the planet, but it is vulnerable to manipulation though the use of anonymous edits and a need for a "neutral point of view," even when some points of view are disingenuous. SourceWatch is a preferable model. It makes points of view explicit, identifies authors, and allows them to separate wheat from chaff and sense from non-sense.