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Curriculum and Course Schedule

A key aspect of the MOD program is a rigorous examination of the current national and international context surrounding organizational change. Students will gain an understanding of the complex and rapidly evolving ecosystem of change management practices, leadership strategies, and ethical guidelines through close study of cutting-edge research, tools for practitioners, cases, and frameworks relevant across a range of global workplace contexts such as international corporations or non-profits.

The MOD program is cohort-based, designed to be a full-time program for students living in the Chicago area. Students are expected to enroll full-time, completing the program within one year, including summer as needed. Northwestern undergraduate students have the option of taking MOD courses toward the end of their bachelor’s program by participating in the combined Bachelor’s-MOD pathway.

Twelve courses are required to complete the MOD degree. The curriculum is structured around three pillars: People, Organizations, and Analysis & Design. Our curriculum offers flexibility for students to examine areas of particular interest within each pillar. The coursework includes:

  • 9 Required Course Options: 3 courses in each pillar (People, Organizations, and Analysis & Design).
  • 3 Elective Courses: 3 courses from any pillar, or other approved electives.

MOD courses typically meet just once per week in the evenings to allow students to work, engage in extracurricular activities, or obtain internships during the day.

Sample Core Curriculum Courses

People

Leadership in Organizations 

MSLOC 415 is a joint class with the Master of Science in Applied Economics and Social and Economic Policy (MSSEP) that explores individual, organizational, and social factors that influence how leadership is defined and enacted in organizations. This exploration highlights theories and models of effective leadership, providing opportunities to build knowledge, develop your own perspectives, and practice the leadership skills necessary to face the challenges of leading organizations for positive impact in complex environments. We will explore the concept of leadership as a set of organizational responsibilities that are socially conditioned and shaped by different cultural values, social contexts, and individual identities. Readings and activities will cover leadership issues such as: aligning and articulating connections among organization mission, strategy, and culture; recognizing and countering bias to support evidence-based decisions, inclusion, and equity; modeling emotional intelligence; and developing and inspiring new, emerging leaders.

Negotiations 

Negotiations—the process of reaching an agreement when two or more interdependent parties have conflicting interests and positions—are common in all walks of life. This course is designed to provide the necessary knowledge, practice, and techniques to effectively overcome the cultural barriers in international negotiations and acquire global leadership skills for successful careers. The course material will be derived from the research carried out in the fields of social and cross-cultural psychology, legal studies, and international management and will be taught through a mix of pedagogical tools including lecture, role plays, experiential learning exercise, and case studies.

Adult Development & Aging

Taught from the life span perspective, this course assumes that development is not completed with adolescence but continues throughout all of life. We also believe that race, ethnicity, class and gender affect development. The topics covered will help you understand the major developmental issues of adulthood, from the present through middle and old age and to the end of life.

Technology, Emotions, and Social Relationships

How is technology shaping our social and emotional lives? How do our emotions and social interactions shape technology? And can AI ever truly understand what we are feeling? These are some of the mysteries that we will seek to unravel in this interdisciplinary course. We will discuss foundational scientific theories and the latest empirical studies, combine lectures with small-group discussions, and experiment, write, collaborate, and imagine together.

Thriving in Dynamic Work Environments

Organizations

Managing Projects for Organizational Change

This course offers a comprehensive introduction to project management and an examination of its synergies with organizational change. We will delve into the roles of project teams and managers, understanding how effective project management can facilitate organizational success. The curriculum focuses on the practical application of project management frameworks and tools to develop and implement robust project plans. By integrating principles of organizational change, you will learn how to manage projects that facilitate change adoption and agility.

Strategic Change Management

This course serves as an introduction to strategic change and will provide students with fundamental change models, concepts, and tools for facilitating strategic change in various organizational contexts. Students will examine how to identify organizational change needs, select appropriate models and steps to utilize, build a change strategy, and measure change impact all through the lens of a change agent and leader. In addition, the challenges associated with change implementation and adoption are examined. Various business case studies are explored in which individual students and student teams will conduct critical change analysis and strategy recommendations. Expected course outcomes include the practical application of strategic change models to business challenges, adoption of a proactive stance to barriers to strategic change, and the ability to understand the challenges and complexities of incorporating significant change at the individual, team, and organizational levels.

Team Dynamics

In this course, we will explore team dynamics, those forces that influence a team's behavior and performance, and what can enhance or hinder potential for impact. We will analyze the contributors to team functioning and their interrelationships at multiple levels: intrapersonal, interpersonal, group and organizational. Key topics include team development, team make-up and roles, leadership and followership, decision-making, navigating conflict, collaboration and competition, effective communication, content vs. process, diversity and in-group/out-group tensions. Throughout the class, students will be analyzing and applying concepts through case studies and simulations. Assignments to demonstrate mastery include regular written individual papers and a team project. This course is suitable for undergraduate students in LOC, Human Development in Context, and related majors throughout Northwestern that are interested in leadership, teams/groups or organizational change. Taught with HDC 309-0; may not receive credit for both courses.

Identities, Intersections and Orgs

Fundamental to nearly all life experiences is a) who we are - who we understand ourselves to be and who others think we are, b) the organizations and groups of which we are a part, and c) the co-construction and myriad entanglements and interactions of these things. Using primarily seminar-style discussion and a series of case studies, this course focuses on building and analyzing theoretical frameworks to understand the nature of individual, group, and organizational identity, identity politics, theories of intersectionality (that is, the critical interactions/tensions among social roles, histories, identities, social locations, and so on), and how each of these function and manifest in the life of and life in myriad types of organizations and groups. Developing a robust understanding of how to identify and deconstruct the dynamic and varying role that identities play in organizations and group life is key to understanding the "life course" and experiences of individuals within groups, how/why organizations behave the way they do, whose needs groups/organizations serve/who is left out or marginalized, and the possibility of/conditions for change at both the individual and group levels.

Learning & Thinking in Organizations or Modern Organizations & Innovation

Learning & Thinking in Organizations explores human judgment and decision making under conditions of uncertainty. You will learn to recognize recurring patterns in your own cognition and that of the people around you, and examine the ways those tendencies can lead people to better or worse courses of action. The class opens with a focus on the work of two research psychologists, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, who developed an important framework for understanding how people reach conclusions and make decisions. Their work formed the foundation of the field of behavioral economics. As we move through the quarter, we will draw on this framework to analyze human judgment and organizational decision-making in the domains of medicine, public health, criminal justice, and sports. We will investigate ways to use insights from research to improve the functioning of organizations, with a goal of making life better for the people that work in them and the people they serve. In the final project, working either independently or in a group, you will research an organizational phenomenon and develop a design for change using the theoretical perspectives from the course. Grading is based on quizzes, a midterm, and a final project.

Technology Adoption in Organizations

Thriving in Dynamic Work Environments

Analysis & Design (Choose 3)

Exploring Sustainable Development for Orgs. AND Developing for Career Advancement

Embark on an exploration of how to become an architect of positive change in the world. This dynamic half-credit course invites you to unravel the mysteries of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and UN Global Compact Principles for organizations. Through a structured exploration, you will learn how to translate these aspirations into actionable problem statements, creating a roadmap for organizational leaders to drive impactful solutions. This course is designed to prepare you for evidence-based organizational change. We begin by building a shared understanding of the SDGs and Global Compact Principles. As a class, we will decide which SDG to focus on for the quarter to build out problem statements for organization leaders. Working in teams, you will learn to use credible sources to inform how organizations might pursue sustainable development. By the end of this course, you will possess a nuanced understanding of how global goals for planetary health apply to organizational development. Equipped with evidence-based problem statements, you will be prepared to guide leaders in effecting meaningful change that creates a sustainable, healthy, and equitable future.

Discovering & Designing Innovation 

Discovering & Designing Innovation is a collaborative, project-based learning experience designed to field-test students’ abilities to apply MSLOC course concepts. Each year the MSLOC Department works with business and nonprofit partners to identify critical problems they face in learning, change, knowledge management, and strategy. The process yields challenging assessment and design projects addressed by student teams during the course. By working on a project, students will develop the ability to analyze organizational challenges in new and different ways, explicitly using models and skills learned in MSLOC; deepen their expertise in the practice of specific areas of interest from MSLOC courses; broaden their experience through exposure to different organizational settings and become reflective practitioners.

Solving Problems with Data

In today’s dynamic and complex work environments, leaders must use data to enhance organizational effectiveness and drive meaningful change. This course equips you with practical skills to address workplace challenges using data, and to make informed decisions about data gathering, analysis, and interpretation. Through case studies and hands-on exercises, you will take on the role of strategic advisor as you work with data to diagnose workplace challenges. This will involve critical analysis of the credibility of qualitative and quantitative data, with emphasis on methodological rigor, as well as holistic interpretation of data and consideration of impact on a variety of stakeholders. By grounding your work in ethical standards, you will develop the ability to support organizations in making valid, fair, and inclusive evidence-based organizational change.

Analysis of Global Teams 

Global Virtual Teams (GVTs), with technologically-connected and geographically dispersed members—have long been a cornerstone of numerous multinational organizations. The pandemic further shifted the focus on this organizational structure, making it more prevalent and pervasive. However, GVTs present a dual nature, posing both challenges and opportunities. Leveraging the 24-hour clock and tapping into global talent pools offer significant advantages. Nevertheless, the hurdles of coordinating and communicating through technology channels, navigating time-zone disparities, and managing diverse multicultural workforces pose significant challenges. This course is designed to help students develop a basic and applied understanding of the inherent complexities of GVTs so they can navigate this increasingly-common team structure effectively and successfully as team members, managers, and leaders.

Sample Elective Courses

People

Leading for Equity

This course challenges teacher leaders to think deeply about their own identity and those of their students, colleagues, families, and communities. It will explore the ways school leaders must take up issues of equity, social justice, and power to improve schools for all stakeholders. Participants will delve into tools such as data, research, culturally responsive teaching, and professional learning to create an action plan that will bring equity into the forefront of their leadership.

Culture and Development

This course will provide a comprehensive understanding on the role of culture in human development at behavioral, psychological, and neurobiological levels. Importantly, this course will not only review well-documented similarities and differences across cultures (e.g., how cultures are different from each other), but also examine potential mechanisms underlying such cultural differences (e.g., why there are cultural differences) based on empirical studies. To this end, we will start with classic theories on culture and human development, and then cover a wide range of topics to understand the process through which culture influences human development. These topics include, but are not limited to, self, cognition, motivation, achievement, emotion, adolescence, family, peer groups, acculturation, and cultural change. For each topic, we will read the most recent empirical studies/reviews from cultural psychology, developmental psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience to exemplify how scholars in different fields study culture using different methods.

Organizations

Understanding Higher Education Organizations through Historical Structures, Issues, and Policy

Students explore the evolution and present structure of U.S. higher education and become acquainted with the values, processes, and language to explore critical issues facing colleges and universities (e.g., opportunity, cost, financial aid, research, freedom of speech, intercollegiate athletics, national and global topics). This course broadens our understanding of U.S. higher education far beyond the individual’s enrollment or employment experience at a college or university. We use basic ethnographic analysis tools to deeply describe different institutional types and settings (e.g. liberal arts colleges, community colleges, minority-serving institutions, for-profit institutions, faith-based institutions) to help us realize the complexity and diversity of institutions. Instructors and guest speakers share their professional experiences to broaden our awareness of the higher education landscape and career pathways.

Sports, Technology and Learning

Sports, Technology and Learning will examine the apparent alignment and discrepancies among these three areas. Students will read conference and journal papers, watch sports-related movies, critique existing sports-related technologies and prototype their own technologies. The course also plans to include guest speakers from other universities, industry and sports teams and more. In addition to in-class discussions and student reflections, students will complete a course project. The course projects can take on many different forms. Some possible project areas include creating a custom wearable device, using data mining to model or predict sports-related behaviors or actions, or designing a curriculum to engage student-athletes in consequential learning experiences. Projects can be completed in groups or individually. Some elements of the course will involve students using different computer programming tools. However, no prior experience with programming is required. Current and former student-athletes are strongly encouraged to enroll.

Analysis & Design

Tools for Organizational Analysis

Tools for Organizational Analysis is a collaborative course designed to: 1) Help students harness the fundamentals of organizational analysis to address key questions about organizational behavior and performance; and, 2) Help students experience first-hand the rewards and challenges of collaborative work. We pay special attention to research design and methodologies that address the dynamics of stability and change at the field and organizational levels. Topics covered include networks, institutional change, innovation, and diffusion. Students will submit weekly assignments and work in groups to develop a research proposal and class presentation.