LOC 351: Modeling Organizations - Northwestern University
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LOC 311: Tools for Organizational Analysis
Spring 2016
Tuesday 6-9 pm; Annenberg Hall, Rm. 345
Professor Jeannette Colyvas
j-colyvas@northwestern.edu
Annenberg Hall, Rm. 311
Office Hours: Tuesdays 3-5 and by appointment
TA Sam Rehberg
rehbergsa@
Office Hours: Wednesdays 1:00 – 2:00 PM and by appointment
Required Materials and Text will be posted on Canvas
Course Description and Goals:____________________________________________________
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
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.
Requirements:___________________________________________________________________
1. Assigned Readings and Class Contribution
30% of final grade
A student’s contribution to class discussions is critical for the participation grade and will be assessed based on clear and well-organized arguments, the use of evidence from the readings, and the ability to respond to the critique of peers. The course is organized as a seminar. Each week students will be expected to have read the assigned material and to actively participate in class discussions and exercises. Attendance is mandatory.
In addition, each student is expected to come to class very well-prepared to take up the discussion and respond to objections from peers. To participate in this way, you will have to read the assigned texts carefully and critically before each class. We expect your comments to reference the readings, and to use class materials thoughtfully and effectively. Voicing opinions without a basis in reference to the required readings, tools or concepts developed in class, or some other source is not helpful. Each student is expected to bring copies of the reading to class, so you can draw on them easily during discussions. Weekly assignments are designed to sharpen your tools for this aspect of the course.
2. Assignments
35% of final grade
Students will be required to submit weekly assignments covering the readings and concepts in anticipation of each class. For most weeks, this will take the form of a one to two page memo summarizing students’ reactions to the readings. Ideally the memo would have three components:
1. ideas, concepts, arguments that the student found stimulating, worth remembering and perhaps even applies to real world examples (a “wow” statement)
2. questions, concerns, disagreements with ideas encountered (“puzzles”)
3. connections, linkages, contradictions between one idea or approach and another in the readings (“threads”)
Students are encouraged to utilize these memos as an opportunity to relate the tools from previous readings and class discussions to those introduced each week. As the quarter progresses, students may use these memos to deepen ideas that they will apply to the final project.
All assignments must be submitted via Canvas no later than 9 am Monday morning, the day before the Tuesday class session. All memo files must be named “LOC311LastNameDate” as well as include your name and date clearly in the heading of your document. Late or incorrectly submitted memos will be marked down, will not receive the same quality of feedback, and no memos will be accepted after the class period. No credit will be given for assignments submitted after this deadline.
3. Final Project
35% of final grade
The central activity of the course is to develop a group research proposal that investigates an organizational phenomenon of your choice followed by a class presentation stating the problem addressed, key research questions, the research setting, methodology and implications. Students are expected to have prepared and rehearsed their presentations in advance, using no more than 5 slides and taking 15 minutes.
Class activities and homework assignments are designed to give you an opportunity to work on the final assignment and get feedback from the instructors before the final version is due. Students are expected to meet outside of class within their groups and encouraged to gather preliminary “pilot” data or information to support their research proposals. The faculty instructor and TA will work with each student to identify an appropriate project early in the quarter and will provide materials to facilitate core components of a strong proposal.
The total length of the final project should not exceed 15 double-spaced pages and must include complete references in APA style. Attention to directions for the assignment and editorial details are a necessary condition for a successful proposal. However, these are not the only factors in our evaluation of the projects. We are predominately concerned with the content of your reasoning, the clarity with which you communicate your ideas, the coherence of the disparate parts of the proposal, and your ability to incorporate the conceptual and analytical tools from the course.
The final project is due by March 14, 2016 at 5:00 p.m. and should be submitted via Canvas and also delivered as a hard copy to the professor’s office at Annenberg Rm. 311.
Note: Following the Northwestern University schedule for Spring 2016 there will NOT be a session for LOC 311 on Tuesday, March 29th. On that Tuesday, Monday classes will be held so there will not be a session that week. We will begin on April 5th.
Class 1: Introduction and Foundations for Organizational Research
Tuesday, April 5th
Background readings: [Not Required]
Robert Alford, (1993). The Craft of Inquiry: Theories, Methods, Evidence, New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Chapters 1-3, pp 11-53.
Charles Ragin and Howard Becker. “What is a Case: Exploring the Foundations of Social Inquiry.” Chapters 1, 9 and 10. pp. 1-16; 205-226
Class 2: Field Research Methodologies: Mechanisms, Organizational Variation and Response
Tuesday, April 12th
Peter Anderson, Ruth Blatt, Marlys K. Christianson, Adam Grant, Christopher Marquis, Eric J. Neuman, Scott Sonenshein, Kathleen Sutcliffe, 2006. “Understanding Mechanisms in Organizational Research: Reflections from a Collective Journey,” Journal of Management Inquiry 15(2): 102-113.
Karen Lutfey and Jeremy Freese. 2005. "Toward Some Fundamentals of Fundamental Causality: Socioeconomic Status and Health in Treatment Design for Diabetes" American Journal of Sociology 110: 1326-1372.
Karolyn A. Gazella (2012, January 11). “The Impact of Socioeconomic Status on Health: as the rich get richer, do they also get healthier?” in The Healing Factor, Psychology Today.
Wendy Nelson Espeland and Michael Sauder. 2007. “Rankings and Reactivity: How Public Measures Recreate Social Worlds.” American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 113, pp.1-40
Michael Stratford (2014, March 20) “Ratings or Rankings?” Inside Higher Ed
Andrew Kelly. (2014, Feb 20) “Obama’s College Rating Plan is just More of the Same” US News from
Background Reading: [Not Required]
James Rosenbaum, Regina Deil-Amen, Ann Pearson. 2006. After Admission: From College Access to College Success. Russell Sage Foundation.
Class 3: Field Research Methodologies: Mechanisms, Organizational Behavior and Performance
Tuesday, April 19th
**Project team and basic idea for final project due
Diane Burton, 2001. “The Company They Keep: Founder’s Models for Organizing New Firms.” Pp. 13-39 in Claudia B. Schoonhoven and Elaine Romanelli (Eds.) The Entrepreneurship Dynamic: Origins of Entrepreneurship and the Evolution of Industries. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Fiona Murray, 2004. “The Role of Academic Inventors in Entrepreneurial Firms: Sharing the Laboratory Life,” Research Policy 33: 643-659.
Keith O’Brien. (2007, February 1) “Cracking the Biotech Code.” The Scientist.
Andrew Wang. (2012, October 29) “Northwestern Leads the nation in tech transfer revenue.” Crain’s Chicago Buisness.
Background Reading: [Not Required]
Andrew Van De Ven and Marshall Scott Poole, “Field Research Methods,” in Handbook, pp. 867-888
Class 4: Archival Methods: Diffusion and Organizational Structures
Tuesday, April 26th
** Short Project Proposal
Michael Lounsbury. 2001. "Institutional Sources of Practice Variation: Staffing College and University Recycling Programs.” Administrative Science Quarterly. 46: 29-56.
Frank Dobbin, Soohan Kim, and Alexandra Kalev. 2011. “You Can’t Always Get What You Need: Organizational Determinants of Diversity Programs.” American Sociological Review 76:386.
Alexandra Kalev, Frank Dobbin and Erin Kelly. 2006. “Best Practices or Best Guesses? Assessing the Efficacy of Corporate Affirmative Action and Diversity Policies.” American Sociological Review 71(4): 589-617.
Background Readings: [Not Required]
Paul Hirsch, 1986. “From Ambushes to Golden Parachutes: Corporate Takeovers as an Instance of Cultural Framing and Institutional Integration.” The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 91, No. 4 (Jan., 1986), pp. 800-837
Gerald F. Davis and Christopher Marquis. 2005. "Prospects for Organization Theory in the Early Twenty-First Century: Institutional Fields and Mechanisms,” Organization Science, Vol. 16, No.4, July-August 2005
Class 5: Archival Methods: Policy, Institutionalization and Change
Tuesday, May 3rd
**Project proposal outline with research design due (should include an archival or primary data collection component)
“Innovation’s Golden Goose,” The Economist, 14 December 2002, p. 3.
Clinton, Leaf. 2005. “The Law of Unintended Consequences.” Fortune Magazine, September 19.
Colyvas, Jeannette A. and Walter W. Powell. 2006. “Roads to Institutionalization: The Remaking of Boundaries between Public and Private Science,” Research in Organizational Behavior (27): 305-353.
Colyvas, Jeannette. 2007. “From Divergent Meanings to Common Practices: The Early Institutionalization of Technology Transfer in the Life Sciences at Stanford University,” Research Policy.
Background Readings: [Not Required]
Marc J. Ventresca and John Mohr. 2002. “Archival Methods in Organizational Analysis.” Pp. 805-828 in J. A. C. Baum (ed.), Companion to Organizations. New York: Blackwell.
Class 6: Network Analysis: Governance and Performance
Tuesday, May 10th
Robert Cross and Andrew Parker, 2004. The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations, pp. 3-48.
Ronald Burt, 2009. “Neighbor Networks: Understanding the Power of Networks,” Capital Ideas: Selected Papers on Organizations and Markets.
Ronald Burt, 2004. “Structural Holes and Good Ideas,” American Journal of Sociology 110(2): 349-399.
Background Readings: [Not Required]
Mark S. Granovetter. 1973. “The Strength of Weak Ties.” The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 78, No. 6. pp. 1360-1380
Mark Buchanan. 2002. Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Theory of Networks, New York: Norton Press, chapters 1-5, 7, 10-13.
Alain Degenne and Michel Forse. 1999. Introducing Social Networks, pp. 1-12.
Stanley Wasserman and Katherine Faust. 1999. Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Class 7: Network Analysis: Embeddedness
Tuesday, May 17th
**Updated project outline with research design and methods revision due
Uzzi, Brian. 1997."Social Structure and Competition in Interfirm Networks: The Paradox of Embeddedness," Administrative Science Quarterly, March 1997, 42:35-67.
Centola, Damon and Michael Macy. 2007, Complex Contagions and the Weakness of Long Ties. American Journal of Sociology, November 2007, 113(3): 702–34
Robert Cross and Andrew Parker, The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations, pp. 143-166.
Background Readings: [Not Required]
Martin Kilduff and Wenpin Tsai, 2004, Social Networks and Organizations, pp. 1-33, 87-110.
Class 8: Current Events and Applications
Tuesday, May 24th
Robert Faris and Diane Felmlee, 2014 “Casualties of Social Combat: School Networks of Peer Victimization and Their Consequences.” American Sociological Review 79 no 2:228 - 257
Chuck Hadad, (2011, Oct. 12) “Schoolyard Bullies not just preying on the Weak” CNN: AC 360
Class 9: Final Presentations
Tuesday, May 31st
**Final Research Proposal due Following Monday June 6th
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