Human Relations & Organization Development Online Undergraduate Certificate Program

Addresses the opportunities and problems involved in managing human dynamics in organizations. Identifies intervention techniques, theories, principles, and values involved in planned change processes for organization development and organizational transformation. Reviews and applies behavioral science theory and practice.

Students will apply communication theory and research to address the particular challenges to communicating effectively in organizations. Students will learn how to identify organizational communication problems, analyze those problems, and generate effective solutions. Students will examine the relationship between organizational structure and specific communicative practices, and how communication practices by organizational members establish, maintain, or change organizational culture. They will also learn how to anticipate communication deficiencies in organizations, and use communication as a means to facilitate organizational development and innovation.

Students will learn how to create conditions for successful conflict engagement, a necessary skill for any professional. The course focuses on the foundational capacities to remain calm and connected with oneself and others. In this state students can access helpful ideas and responses and be their best selves regardless of environment. Improving facility for conflict creates stronger relationships and reduces fear. By the end of the course, students will understand that disagreement and difference can become a source of personal and interpersonal growth.

Students will learn to navigate the rapidly changing nature of communication in the digital age, deeply engaging with tools such as instant messaging, social networks, blogs and collaborative spaces online, all the while applying specific communication theories in order to determine best practices. Through reading, discussion and intensive hands-on projects, students will work to overcome online communication barriers and gain critical understanding of which tools are effective in which situations. Students will be required to download, access and utilize various online communication tools.

Students will explore the field or Organization Development, with particular emphasis on the strength-based research, theory, and tools emerging in the social sciences that are informing modern approaches to organizational change. Students will explore concepts including appreciative inquiry, positive orgranization scholarship, positive psychology, design theory, and the rise of sustainable enterprises.