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If you wish to apply to join any of the CeFiMS programmes by distance learning, please first complete this online form and submit. [New window]

Centre for Financial & Management Studies (CeFiMS) - University of London

Individual Professional Courses – IPC  

Managing Organisational Change [PPM203]

Introduction

The public sector is going through substantial change. We first saw a desire to scale down the scale and scope of the public sector, with an emphasis on privatisation and “downsizing”. While these processes continue around the world, more recently we also see a desire to improve the capabilities of the public sector, often described in terms of capacity building, or institutional or sectoral development. This in turn leads to significant changes to, and within, individual public sector organisations. New organisational forms have emerged. For example, public sector service organisations are no longer conceived of solely as large scale, rule bound bureaucracies. Although there are still plenty of these, alongside them we find smaller, decentralised organisations, sometimes with a short lifespan, sometimes shifted to the private sector, or at least allegedly more “market oriented”.

At the same time, new managerial processes associated, for example, with human resource management or management information systems have been introduced. Whether managers in the public sector approve or not of the underlying factors that have brought about such change, or of the specific organisational changes introduced, nonetheless they are responsible for dealing with these changes at an organisational level. This course is about how managers understand and implement organisational change, thereby helping them to fulfil their responsibilities.

Aims & Objectives

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

  • understand and assess the significant components of an organisation, the relationships between an organisation and its environment, and apply these concepts to public sector organisations in general and to your own organisation in particular
  • distinguish different levels of, and approaches to, organisational change both generally and with special reference to public sector organisations
  • appreciate what is meant by organisational structure, culture, power and politics, and leadership, and apply them to analysing the dynamics of public sector organisations in general and your own organisation in particular
  • identify how issues of structure, culture, power and politics, and leadership can be used to manage change in public sector organisations effectively
  • apply different techniques of managing change to processes of change in your own organisation
  • appreciate the skills, personal attributes and behavioural styles required of managers as organisational change agents
  • handle, communicate and apply with confidence the analytical framework of organisational change management.

Resources

Your study materials for this course are concentrated in the unit text, the course texts, and the key Readings provided which the unit text provides context, commentary and guidance on. The two course texts are:

Your study materials for this course are concentrated in the unit text, the course texts, and the key Readings provided which the unit text provides context, commentary and guidance on. The two course texts are:

Textbooks:

Organisational Change by Barbara Senior. This is a general change management textbook, aimed at general management practitioners and students. It does not have a particular public sector focus, nor does it specifically allude to organisations in non-OECD countries. It is better than most, however, in that it includes some public sector examples and makes some, albeit limited, reference to organisations with developing country relevance (Kenya Airways and the World Bank).

Creative Organization Theory is a “resourcebook”, compiled by one of the best known contemporary writers on organisations, Gareth Morgan. The book consists of 109 very short chapters or sections, divided in three parts. “Mindstretchers” contains a range of activities designed to challenge and develop how we think about organisations and processes within them. “Readings, stories, and other resources” consist of very brief excerpts from, and summaries of, key theories of organisation and management. “Cases and exercises” are precisely what they say, although mostly selected from private sector and US experience.

The Online Study Centre also has supplementary readings and useful links to academic and other resources for this course.

Course Content

This course containss:

  • organisations and environments
  • organisational change
  • organisational structure and change
  • organisational culture and change
  • power, politics and change
  • leadership and organisational change
  • the manager as change agent
  • strategies for change

Tuition & Assessment

There are two Assignments for the Course after Units 4 and 8, that is, in weeks 4 and 8 of the study calendar. These assignments will be marked by your tutor.

To assist with revision and preparation for the final examination, review questions and a specimen examination paper are contained in the course file.

The assignments count for 30% of the final mark and the examination 70%. Assignments are submitted and feedback given online. In addition, queries and problems can be answered through the Online Study Centre.