Colleges and universities across the nation are grappling with issues related to diversity and inclusion on their campuses. This case study approaches diversity and inclusion efforts on college campuses from a student perspective. It outlines a grassroots initiative, developed by students and supported by student-athletes, that illustrates the…

This exercise introduces students to reality creation processes in organizational life (e.g., self-fulfilling prophecy, Pygmalion effects, etc.) as a theoretical perspective that must be understood to design transformational organizational change. By comparing the differential effects of conventional and appreciative questions, the experience also…

This case was written for school leaders, specifically for administrators interested in addressing and improving school culture. Often efforts to address toxic culture and organizational change result in resistance, requiring leadership that is capable of influencing and inspiring cultural transformation. However, leaders who embark on these types…

Leading change is a significant element of a management career, and therefore, discussions on change management are integral to leadership and organizational behavior courses in business programs. However, given their limited work experiences with organizational transitions, most business students fail to appreciate the challenge involved in…

Resistance to change is a central topic in the study of change management, with resistance by employees often portrayed as an inevitable and undesirable response to planned change that managers must attempt to overcome. While resistance can be detrimental to organizations, it can also be beneficial, by prompting deeper analysis of a change, or by…

Implementing and integrating an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system into an organization is an enormous undertaking that requires substantial cash outlays, time commitments, and skilled IT and business personnel. It requires careful and detailed planning, thorough testing and training, and a change management process that creates a…

Principal Vanessa Sanchez assumed leadership of a high-need, high-poverty urban school with a mandate from the district superintendent to change the school culture and to build an instructional team aligned to the principal's theory of change. The central dilemma of the case is how to lead organizational change while managing interpersonal…

This case positions the reader as the superintendent of Jefferson City Public Schools (pseudonym). Like many urban school districts in the United States, Jefferson City faces a complex milieu of fiscal challenges attributed to inadequate state funding and declining student enrollment. Within this case, the superintendent must address the failing…

This case study allows students to apply their corporate law and ethical knowledge to a socially focused business in a global environment. The assignments provide opportunities for reflection on some of the challenges facing Ben & Jerry's as the company attempted to pursue corporate social responsibility in three separate, but related,…

Describes how a graduate class in communication consulting might be structured. Includes a list of readings and class assignments. (PD)

This article presents the perceptions of nine past presidents of the National Association of Biology Teachers regarding the organization and its growth in the period covering 1966 to 1985. These comments were taken from taped statements which are now in the organization's archives. (CW)

Presents an exercise to facilitate employee understanding and implementation of planned organizational change, along with techniques to introduce the concept of change into organization development workshops or supervisory training efforts. Describes barriers that stimulate resistance to change and ways to promote acceptance of organizational…

A journalism adviser with no formal background in journalism education analyzes his successes and proposes a new approach to scholastic journalism--separate publications (newspaper, magazine, yearbook) with a common staff and the sharing of resources. (RL)

The product of a graduate-level introductory course on the principles, approaches and techniques of effecting change, this syllabus provides instructors with a semi-organized collection of readings, exercises, lecture topics, films, student projects, and discussion points. Its target is the student in the professional school who has little formal…

Two workshops are described in detail. One explores ways to increase the effectiveness of work groups and includes the workshop leader's personal observations. The second involves training transformational leaders, whose characteristics include idealized influence, individualized consideration, intellectual stimulation, and inspirational…