Course syllabus

Course-PM

TEK431 Change management and improvement processes lp1 HT20 (7.5 hp)

Course is offered by the department of Technology Management and Economics

Contact details

• Examiner: Petra Bosch, petra.bosch@chalmers.se, 032-772 1945
• Teaching Assistent: Ingrid Svensson, ingrid.svensson@chalmers.se, 031-772 5412
• Teachers: 
  • Petra Bosch,  petra.bosch@chalmers.se
  • Pernilla Gluch, pernilla.gluch@chalmers.se
  • Andreas Hellström,  andreas.hellstrom@chalmers.se
  • Ingrid Svensson,  Ingrid.svensson@chalmers.se
  • Anna Norinder, anna.norinder@chalmers.se 
• supervisors: 
  • Petra Bosch,  petra.bosch@chalmers.se
  • Andreas Hellström,  andreas.hellstrom@chalmers.se
  • Ingrid Svensson, Ingrid.svensson@chalmers.se
  • Anna Norinder, anna.norinder@chalmers.se 

Confirmed Guest lecturers:

1. Sari Scheinberg - Action Research Center
2. Anna Sandberg - Volvo Cars
3. Mats Färnstrand - CoreChange
4. Anna Norinder - Chalmers 
5. Hans Winberg - Foundation Leading Health Care
   

Course purpose

This course provides insights into change and improvement theories and practices on the organizational level; it consists of lectures, literature seminars with homework assignments, seminars with experienced change managers from industry, as well as authoring and presentation of a term paper. The areas covered include theories on learning, leadership, resistance, and levels of analysis.

All course participants study a common body of literature and in addition each student group specializes in a narrower area (term paper). The theoretical content of the course is discussed from the perspective of practical experiences of change projects in industry. These experiences come from research projects, participants’ personal experiences and above all from seminars with experienced change managers.

A major part of the course is an in-depth group assignment where participants themselves choose a specific area to specialize in. The aim is to combine theories with practice by conducting a literature analysis accompanied by own data gathering from organizations and document the analysis in a term paper.

Schedule

The schedule on Canvas will be used for the course and links to online lectures are placed in the Canvas schedule/calendar.

TimeEdit

Location: The course will to a large extent be given online. You will get a link that give you access to a Zoom meeting for each scheduled lecture.  

If not agreed on differently, tutoring will be carried out online. You make arrangements with your tutor on e-mail.

Preliminary schedule 

Week	Date/time	Topic
1	2020-09-02: 10-12	Lecture 1: Introduction to course and change management– Petra Bosch
	2020-09-02: 13-16	Lecture 2: Change management theory & Introduction to term papers.- Petra Bosch
2	2020-09-07: 8-12	Guest lecture 1: “So you want to change the world, why not? Large system changes at all levels” - Sari Scheinberg
	2020-09-07 24:00	Hand-in: Discussion Questions (Lit. Seminar 1)
	2020-09-07 24:00	Hand-in: Preliminary Term Paper Proposal for discussion at supervision
	2020-09-02: 10-12	Lecture 3: Change management theory. Petra Bosch
	2020-09-09: 13-15	Literature Seminar 1: Why do companies fail in change processes?
	2020-09-09/11	Consultation: Supervision Book time beforehand with supervisor
3	2020-09-14: 9-12	Lecture 4: Communication and change agents? Pernilla Gluch
	2020-09-14 24:00	Hand-in: Discussion Questions (Lit. Seminar 2)
	2020-09-14 24:00	Hand-in: Term Paper Proposal – final version
	2020-09-16: 10-12	Guest lecture 2: Change Management consulting - Mats Färnstrand
	2020-09-16: 13-15	Literature Seminar 2: Management theories and change
4	2020-09-21: 9-12	Lecture 5: Motivation and Resistance to change Ingrid Svensson
	2020-09-23 - 24:00	Hand-in: Discussion Questions (Lit. Seminar 3)
	2020-09-23: 10-12	Guest Lecture 3: Change at Scale – Automotive going Agile – Anna Sandberg
	2020-09-23: 13-15	Literature Seminar 3: Title: Leadership, Resistance to change and motivation
4-5		Supervision Book time beforehand with your supervisor
5	2020-09-28: 9-11	Guest Lecture 4: Change - perspectives from the consultant, the manager and the employee - Anna Norinder
	2020-09-30: 10-12	Lecture 6: Sustaining Change, learning and ethics – Petra Bosch
6	2020-10-05: 9-12	Lecture 7: Driving Change & Implementation – Andreas Hellström
	2020-10-05- 24:00	Hand-in: Discussion Questions (Lit. Seminar 4)
	2020-10-07: 10-12	Guest Lecture 5: Hans Winberg, Foundation Leading health care.
	2020-10-07: 13-15	Literature Seminar 4: Title: Driving change
6/7		Consultation: Supervision Book time beforehand with your supervisor
7	2020-10-15 24:00	Hand-in: Term paper – first version. Please send one copy to your opponents
		Quiz online
8	2020-10-21 8-17	Presentation: Presentation and opposition of Term Papers
8/9		Consultation: Supervision feedback possibility Book time beforehand with your supervisor
9	2020-10-28 24:00	Hand-in: Term Paper – Final Version This version will be graded!

Course literature

All literature for the course is provided through the lectures and the literature seminars. A full reference list of the literature is provided in the Canvas module (literature seminars).

Course design

The course contains lectures, guest lectures and literature seminars

• 7 Lectures
• 5 guest lectures
• 4 literature seminars
• Group presentation and opposition
• A major part of the course is a project assignment in groups

 

• Literature seminars

As a participant you are expected to read all of the material supplied before each literature seminar and submit three discussion questions based on your reading. The questions need to be suitable for discussion, but you do not necessarily need to have a definitive answer for them. Good questions often connect different pieces of literature. You should also provide a motivation to why each question is relevant. It is mandatory to hand in three questions/motivations before each seminar (through Canvas).

Attendance at literature seminars is highly recommended both because of the opportunity of learning in small group discussions/seminars and because active participation provides bonus points that affect the grading. Active participation during the literature seminars is awarded with bonus points.

During the literature seminar sessions, the class is divided in two groups; Literature Seminar from 13:15 to 15:00 with two different zoom links on Wednesdays (the groups and timing are subject to change).

• Guest lectures

The guest lectures will highlight different aspects of change management in practice. Submission of a written reflection (1 -1,5 pages max.) based on the guest lecture, provides bonus points that affect grading as it is a way of showing active participation (reflections on at least 3 guest lectures are required to receive any bonus points). You are assessed on the:

• Ability to summarize the guest lecture content
• Ability to describe your main personal learnings from the guest lecture.

Changes made since the last occasion

A summary of changes made since the last occasion.

Learning objectives and syllabus

Learning objectives:

• Define, describe and interrelate management and change theories
• Define, describe and evaluate change and improvement approaches
• Provide good examples on quality driven improvement and change processes and projects
• Develop a sustainable and ethical understanding and approach to change
• In-depth understand and analyze one more narrow areas within the field change management and improvement processes
• Develop an ability to critically view consultants packaging of change and improvement project offerings.

Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen.

Study plan

Examination form

The examination is based on a term paper written in groups of two or three students and an online quiz.

However active participation in literature seminars (both as participant and a leader) and guest lectures, and submission of discussion questions/comments on other groups’ term papers, affect the final grading (bonus points can be gained). The final grades are: fail, 3, 4, or 5.

• Online Quiz: An online Quiz focusing on the literature and lectures is provided through Canvas and is graded with a pass or fail. A pass (which is 50% of the questions are correct) is needed to finalize the whole course.
• Term paper (3-4 persons): The term paper assignment includes the choice of topic to study, the development of a theoretical understanding and research questions, empirical data collection, analysis, hand-in of a written report and oral presentation at a seminar. The written report should not be more than 5,000 words. This strict limit excludes the front page, table of content, reference list, and appendices.

The first hand-in of the term papers is on Thursday 2018-10-15 (23:59 h). Each group is supposed to present its term paper and to provide constructive comments on another group’s term paper. Before the presentation of group’s report, the group has to submit the slides that will be used. Attendance at the presentation seminar is mandatory.

Each group will be assigned another group’s term paper to scrutinize in detail as opponents (more information will be provided). As an opponent, you are supposed to make both a written (1-2 pages) and an oral opposition including a few questions suited for discussion and suggestions for improvement. More detailed comments (e.g. on language etc.) are only provided in the written comment. In addition, you are also required to review two other term papers in order to be able to participate in a discussion (more information will be provided).

After the final presentation, you have the opportunity to consider the comments and improve your report. The final deadline to hand-in the term paper is on Wednesday 2019-10-28 (23:59 h). This version will be graded.

Course elements	Max points	Assessment criteria	Compulsory/optional
Term Paper	42 p	Overall impression, including lay-out, coherence, referencing and length of the paper Introduction (relevance of selected purpose) Literature overview Methodology Empirical data presentation Discussion and conclusion	Compulsory min. 17p for pass
Online Quiz	pass	Demonstrated understanding of the theory presented in the course	Compulsory 50% needed for a pass
Literature seminar participation	4p	Active participation in the literature seminars	Optional 1p per lit. sem.
Send in question for literature seminars	4p	Send in three questions for the literature seminars	Compulsory, 1p per lit. sem.
Guest lecture reflection	10p	Ability to summarize the guest lecture content Ability to summarize your main personal learnings from the guest lecture	Optional, 2p per reflection
Total	60p

See slides introduction for the grading of the course: for finalizing the course you need:

Quiz pass (50%), term paper of at least 17points as well as at least 40% of the bonus points (meaning 7 bonus points). (as mentioned in the slides)

Final grade:

• 24 – 35 points = 3
• 36 – 47 points = 4
• 48 – 60 points = 5