What class?
LSAL 5133 - Cultures of Organizations
Why is it cool?
While most of us understand on a basic level that organizations have different cultures, we don’t really see beneath the surface. In Cultures of Organizations, students will take a deeper look into the emerging cultural challenges faced by some of today’s leading companies.
For example, Google is currently coping with an employee’s anti-diversity manifesto that criticized the organization’s “ideological echo chamber,” and Amazon and Whole Foods are in the process of merging their vastly different cultures following the retail giant’s purchase of the grocery store chain. Other organizations, like Wells Fargo and Volkswagen, are also dealing with cultural changes.
By exploring different organizational cultures, students will be able to identify what kind of culture they best fit into. They will learn how to better understand the culture of their current organization, as well as assess an organization’s culture before accepting a new position.
“The best part of the class is the discussion,” said instructor Ruby Daniels. “It lets us ‘peek behind the curtain’ of organizations to discuss real world issues that influence the success of organizations. Regardless of the semester, the news reports a variety of organizational challenges related to culture.”
At the end of the course, students will examine a real world scenario to demonstrate their understanding of the course concepts. They will leave knowing how to analyze and discuss cultural challenges faced by today’s organizations and how to determine whether they are a good cultural match for an organization.
Talk to your advisor to see if this class might be right for you, or see what else is offered by the College of Professional and Continuing Studies.