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Program on Social and Organizational Learning

• Faculty
• Course Work
• Program on Social and Organizational Learning

Faculty

Associate Professors: Addleson (Interim Chair), Cox, Foreman, Thatchenkery

Assistant Professors: Baker, Bennington

Course Work

Program on Social and Organizational Learning

The program offers an M.S. in Organizational Learning through the M.A./M.S. in New Professional Studies degree (see University Programs section of catalog for more information). Organizational learning focuses on managing the contemporary, knowledge-based organization in an environment of change. The degree is nontraditional, experiential, team- and project-focused and requires 33 hours of graduate credit. Four core courses incorporate both the theory and application of reflective practice and action-research, continuous improvement, work in teams, and technology in organizational learning. Additional prescribed and elective courses include LRNG 602, 672, 868, 714, 605, 610, 681, 720, and 701.

Individual LRNG courses and sequences of courses serve to fulfill requirements and restricted electives in a growing number of graduate programs including the Ph.D. in Public Policy, the Ph.D. in Economics, the D.A. in Community College Education, the M.A. in Telecommunications, the Master of Public Administration, and the M.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies (MAIS). Students from software engineering, management, nursing administration, psychology, English, and other programs take LRNG courses. LRNG courses can satisfy students wishing to concentrate in a variety of areas.

A student can pursue an interest in information-age markets and regulation via:

• LRNG 572 Taming the Electronic Frontier
• LRNG 590 Global Financial Markets and Technological Change
• LRNG 610 Object Technology for Nonprogrammers
• LRNG 612 Economics, Technology, and the Regulatory Process

A focus on applications of an Austrian economics perspective can be gained in:

• LRNG 792 Special Topics in Social and Organizational Learning (on the topic Interpretive Social Theory)
• LRNG 605 Culture and Economic Change
• LRNG 676 Comparative Socio-economic Systems
• LRNG 681 Economics for the Professional

The program's courses address social theory as well as practical issues related to change management in organizations, and subtle questions in the philosophy of knowledge. In teaching and research the faculty attack one question: How do learning processes work in human society? The methodological slant is interpretive, emphasizing ethnographic and archival approaches to empirical work. Theorizing is grounded in problem solving. The courses examine the role of knowledge, markets, and information technology in social institutions and organizations.