Course Syllabus
Welcome to BUS643: Leading Organizational Change
Specific information about this course and its requirements can be found below. For more general information about taking Saylor Academy courses, including information about Community and Academic Codes of Conduct, please read the Student Handbook.
Course Description
Explore concepts and strategies for change management and implementation – by learning how to lead yourself first, you can effectively lead others and organizations.
Course Introduction
As a leader, it is important to facilitate change in any organization. A good leader first understands themselves and then how to engage employees to get behind and assist in implementing change. Before implementation, changes must first be understood by all before employees will follow them. This course will help leaders to understand the change process and what tools may be utilized to assist that process.
Many factors need to be understood about the change process, including the human element, straightforward leadership, change models, stages of change, and the organization's culture. Facilitating positive change and improving an organization through change is a specific skill that is necessary for leaders to develop.
This course will focus on developing these skills and what it takes to manage change in any organization effectively. This course will also cover how to determine what organizational changes are needed. Within this context, we will analyze change management practices and theories and review failed changes that organizations have attempted to implement. We will also review the impact of change on employees and how to mitigate resistance.
This course includes the following units:
- Unit 1: Introduction to Leadership and Organizational Change
- Unit 2: Change Management Models and Methods
- Unit 3: Considerations and Case Studies in Organizational Change Management
- Unit 4: Talent Management and Facilitating Change
- Unit 5: Planning, Implementation, and Managing Transitions
Course Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:
- apply well-known change models to drive organizational change in a given organization;
- determine the scale and scope of organizational change initiatives;
- interpret the reasons organizations fail at implementing change and mitigation strategies;
- analyze critical people skills to effectively lead others through change in a given organization;
- differentiate long-range strategies to lead the organization to successful outcomes;
- analyze methodologies to plan change initiatives with appropriate measurements in a given organization; and
- analyze change management practices in a given situation within a global context.
Throughout this course, you will also see learning outcomes in each unit. You can use those learning outcomes to help organize your studies and gauge your progress.
Course Materials
This course's primary learning materials are articles, lectures, and videos.
All course materials are free to access and can be found in each unit of the course. Pay close attention to the notes that accompany these course materials, as they will tell you what to focus on in each resource and will help you understand how the learning materials fit into the course as a whole. You can also see a list of all the learning materials in this course by clicking on Resources in the navigation bar.
Evaluation and Minimum Passing Score
Only the final exam is considered when awarding you a grade for this course. To pass this course, you will need to earn a grade of 70% or higher on the final exam. Your score on the exam will be calculated as soon as you complete it. If you do not pass the exam on your first try, you may take it again as many times as you want, with a 7-day waiting period between each attempt. Once you have successfully passed the final exam, you will be awarded a free Course Completion Certificate.
There are also end-of-unit assessments in this course. These are designed to help you study and do not factor into your final course grade. You can take these as many times as you want until you understand the concepts and material covered. You can see all of these assessments by clicking on Quizzes in the course's navigation bar.
Tips for Success
BUS643: Leading Organizational Change is a self-paced course, which means that you can decide when you will start and when you will complete the course. There is no instructor or an assigned schedule to follow. We estimate that the "average" student will take 35 hours to complete this course. We recommend that you work through the course at a comfortable pace that allows you to make regular progress. It's also a good idea to schedule your study time in advance and try to stick to that schedule as best as you can.
Learning new material can be challenging, so we've compiled a few study strategies to help you succeed:
- Take notes on the various terms, practices, and theories that you come across. This can help you put each concept into context and will create a refresher that you can use as you study later on.
- As you work through the materials, take some time to test yourself on what you remember and how well you understand the concepts. Reflecting on what you've learned is important for your long-term memory and will make you more likely to retain information over time.
Technical Requirements
This course is delivered entirely online. You will be required to have access to a computer or web-capable mobile device and have consistent access to the internet to either view or download the necessary course resources and attempt any auto-graded course assessments and the final exam.
- To access the full course, including assessments and the final exam, you will need to log in to your Saylor Academy account and enroll in the course. If you do not already have an account, you may create one for free here. Although you can access the course materials without logging in to your account, you should log in to maximize your course experience. For example, you cannot take assessments or track your progress unless you are logged in.
For additional guidance, check out Saylor Academy's FAQ.
Fees
This course is entirely free to enroll in and access. Everything linked in the course, including textbooks, videos, webpages, and activities, is available for no charge. This course also contains a free final exam and course completion certificate.