To help in your planning, the following is a list of the OS course offerings. There are special registration instructions for 400-level courses are at the end of each class description.

ORGSTUDY 305 Inside Organizations
(Required Core course for all OS juniors on campus and for all OS seniors who have not previously enrolled)
M/W 10:00-11:30 AM; EH1084              
Faculty: Stephen Garcia

This course offers an overview of the psychology of people in organizations, broadly defined.  Topics will focus on social dynamics in organizations, including employee motivation, influencing others, decision-making, cooperation, culture, leadership, and teams, to name a few.   The format of the course will comprise lectures, general discussions, and smaller seminar discussions.   To complement the standard reading material, case studies will also be read as a common touchstone for analyzing and discussing psychological phenomena in a real world organizational context.

ORGSTUDY 415 Networking
(New course number – previously taught as an OS 495 Special Topics course)
M/W 4:00–5:30 PM, DENN 110
Faculty: Michael Heaney

This class can be used to fulfill Cluster A or C requirements (student choice).  

This course explores the relationship between formal and informal social networks and the dynamics of organizational processes.  Networks may be based on friendship, technical expertise, family, authority, sexual relations, common interest, political alliances, electronic communication, or many other factors. We consider a variety of theories of networks (e.g., small worlds, the strength of weak ties, structural holes) and apply them to topics such as Facebook friendships, social movement activism, the choice of sexual partners, and advancement within a corporation.  We will give special attention to the question of how to "use" networks to attain organizational objectives.  Computer applications will be emphasized, though no specialized computing knowledge is prerequisite.

10 seats are reserved for OS Students to be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.  This course is a meet together with Political Science (POLISCI 489.002; you may receive OS credit regardless of whether you register under ORGSTUDY or POLISCI).  

OS 420 Nonprofit Organizations
(New course number – previously taught as an OS 495 Special Topics course)
Tues/Thurs 11:30 AM -1:00 PM; East Hall 1372
Faculty: Victoria Johnson

This class can be used to fulfill Cluster B or C requirements (student choice).

In the first half of the course, we will pose and answer questions about the nonprofit sector’s emergence in the United States; its changing relations with government and with the for-profit sector; the current state of the nonprofit sector; and its likely future. Attention to the nature of civil society abroad will shed light on the unique role of nonprofits in the U.S., while comparative analyses of different domains of U.S. nonprofit activity (the arts, education, healthcare, etc.) will provide an in-depth understanding of the processes and issues that divide and structure the nonprofit sector internally. In the second half of the course, drawing on readings in law, public policy, and business, we will develop practical knowledge of the special challenges that come with managing and working for a nonprofit organization. Among the topics we will take up in this half of the class is the formulation of nonprofit mission and strategy; the management of relations with boards, committees, volunteers, and employees; and marketing and fundraising for nonprofits.

OS Seniors will have sole access to register for OS 420 through 12/1/11. On 12/1/11, the remainder of the open seats will be for OS concentrators at large to be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.  

Waitlist Policy: OS students will be given preference on the waitlist based on academic standing.  Waitlist priority will be at the discretion of the instructor. 

 
ORGSTUDY 490 Sec.001 Advanced Research Team: Psychology of Competitive Advantage
Meeting times will be arranged with the professor
Faculty:  Stephen Garcia

OS Juniors receive Cluster C credit; OS Seniors may receive either Senior Field Research or Cluster C credit

Students in this research laboratory course will learn about “the psychology of competitive advantage” by learning how to conduct experiments and surveys and analyze existing data sets to test a variety of hypotheses related to competition. Harnessing the social psychology and decision-making literatures, we will explore factors that influence people’s motivation to compete and, consequently, their willingness to enter joint ventures, form strategic alliances, share scarce resources, and collaborate with other competitors.

This research laboratory course can also provide a strong platform for launching honors theses in Organizational Studies (or related fields), and students, if they are interested, will also have the opportunity of co-authoring an article manuscript that could conceivably lead to a publication.

Students may register with instructor permission only.  Interested students should send Professor Garcia a short email explaining their interest (smgarcia@umich.edu).

ORGSTUDY 490 Sec.002 Advanced Research Team: Research on Social Movements and Political Parties
M/W 10:00 am-11:30 pm; 753 DENN
Faculty:  Michael Heaney

OS Juniors receive Cluster C credit; OS Seniors may receive either Senior Field Research or Cluster C credit

This research seminar investigates the intersecting organizational processes of social movements and political parties in the United States.  We begin by considering the theoretical relationship between these different types of organizations.  This discussion is followed by discussions of two left-wing social movements (Occupy Wall Street and the antiwar movement) and two right-wing social movements (the Tea Party movement and the Christian right movement).  Students work in teams on a major research project that examines the politics of one or more of these movements.

Students may register with instructor permission only.  5 spots have been reserved for OS students.  This is a meet together with POLSCI 489.003. You may receive OS credit regardless of whether you register under ORGSTUDY or POLISCI. Interested students should set up a meeting with Professor Heaney via e-mail (mheaney@umich.edu).

OS 495 Sec. 001 Special Topics in Org Studies: Organization of Violence
Tues/Thurs 4:00 - 5:30 PM; 753 Dennison
Faculty: Sebastian Prange

Sebastian Prange is our new faculty member who joined Organizational Studies this fall.  Professor Prange is an historian with a focus on the social and economic organization of Muslim trade networks in the pre-modern Indian Ocean, with a regional focus on South India. Sebastian received his doctorate from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and holds a joint appointment with the Department of History.  This will be Professor Prange’s first course with OS!

This class can be used to fulfill Cluster B or C requirements (student choice).

This course explores the role of violence in business, society, and politics both historical and contemporary.  It asks how violence affects enterprises, communities, and states but also how violence itself is organized in relation to its economic, social, and political contexts.  Rather than simply regard violence as the antithesis of order, we will examine how violence has structured interactions and exchanges through time and across space.

Organized around a series of case studies, the course will look at pirates and street-gangs, mercenaries and slave-traders, terrorist groups and arms manufacturers, super-powers and “failed states.”   Through such case studies, we will range from late antiquity all the way to the present time in order to situate the organization of violence in its historical dimensions.  We will draw on concepts and approaches from the disciplines of History, Sociology, Political Science, Cultural Anthropology, Philosophy, and Economics.  As a result, the course is reading-intensive.

OS Seniors will have sole access to register for OS 495 through 12/1/11. On 12/1/11, the remainder of the open seats will be for OS concentrators at large to be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.  

OS 495 Sec. 003 Special Topics in Org Studies: Organizations and the Natural Environment

Tues/Thurs 2:30 – 4:00 pm; 753 Dennison
Faculty: Victoria Johnson

This class can be used to fulfill Cluster B or C requirements (student choice).

In this seminar, we will investigate the impact of formal organizations on the natural environment.  Drawing on readings from sociology, anthropology, ecology, and business, we will consider how organizations of all kinds--for-profit, non-profit, and government--have shaped both our social understandings of the natural environment and the character and health of the natural environment.  This course will bring together students from Organizational Studies and the Program in the Environment.  No past experience in the study of either organizations or the natural environment is necessary.

10 seats are reserved for OS Students to be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.  This course is a meet together with Program in the Environment (ENVIRON 302.002; you may receive OS credit regardless of whether you register under ORGSTUDY or ENVIRON).  

You can also find these courses on the LSA Course Guide which is now available.  Have fun planning for an invigorating winter semester!