Organizational Learning, Performance, and Change Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Education and Human Resource Studies – Organizational Learning, Performance, and Change Specializatio
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Take It Beyond the Flavor of the Month On completion of our program, our students have become scholar practitioners. This means they look beyond flavor of the month approaches, New York Times Best Seller or pop management books. They look to understand problems deeply at the core, at their foundation, and their goal is to create long-lasting solutions. – Dr. Thomas Chermack, Professor
Degree Overview We believe that teaching our students how to help individuals, teams, and organizations manage change, in turn, helps organizations and companies keep up with the rapid pace of institutional innovation happening in today’s world. To this end, throughout the program, we dig deeply into the foundations of problems and challenges in the workplace, working together to create long-term solutions. The result? Our graduates ask more questions, think more deeply, and want to know more. They’re not always satisfied with answers that were acceptable before. And, because our program tends to change our students, inevitably there’s an impact on the organizations in which they’re working. Organizations become better, more sustainable places to work. Friendlier places to work. More collaborative places to work. Those are the drivers that, when running efficiently and effectively, ultimately determine a company’s success. And everything we teach serves that end. Helping our students become leaders who can improve the performance and effectiveness of the organizations they work for. Immediately.
Time frame
Tuition
Can be completed in 3 ¾ years
Financial aid is available
Credits
School of Education
Offered by
60 credits
Degree Awarded
Doctor of Philosophy in Education and Human Resource Studies; transcript reflects the organizational learning, performance, and change specialization
See how this program works, and hear about the skills you’ll gain by earning your Ph.D.”
Q&A with Faculty Dr. Thomas Chermack
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Who Does This Program Appeal To? Our program typically attracts experienced executives, administrators, academics, consultants, and senior managers in a variety of industries. Increasingly we attract healthcare senior managers and executives, as well as manufacturing, innovation, research and development companies. But, overall, we work with professionals from companies of varying sizes and industry, who seek to gain a deeper understanding of common problems in the workplace, and specifically how to use research to inform solutions that can help solve those problems for the long term.
What Do Students Learn? Our students gain a thorough understanding of the tools of research, which helps them more deeply understand problems in the workplace. We are not a program built on fads or bestselling authors. We build on unique research, and we teach our students how to use that research to look more carefully at trends or problems or issues in the workplace. Again, looking to create solutions that are more long lasting.
Dr. Thomas Chermack, Professor
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How Do Students Bring What They Learn Into Their Workplace? Because our program really tries to balance research and practice, we require that our students have a workplace in which they can try out these tools and use research to dig in to their specific issues. The benefit of that real-time application is that, as our students learn about research, they can immediately apply solutions. So, as they learn about research on Saturday, they can immediately go to work on Monday and try out some of the tools and the concepts. This improves their learning and increases the depth of their understanding, while enhancing their workplace immediately.
How Do You Balance Research and Application? Organizational learning, performance, and change is an applied discipline. That means that it shouldn’t exist purely in our University research, and it shouldn’t exist purely in practice. The two are brought together, so one influences the other, and vice versa. That’s why our students are required to bring the two together within their own workplace; so research can help them understand specific problems more deeply. And, because practice is sometimes ahead of the research, we all get new insights, new problems, that require further study and takes us down a different path in research. Bringing those two together is the basic structure of the program.
A significant portion of our coursework focuses on research and research methods, and we balance both quantitative and qualitative approaches to inquiry. Different ways of conducting research simply are different ways of knowing and different ways of generating knowledge. So, for instance, if you’re only versed in quantitative research you have a certain way of looking at the world. But we try to balance out our students and give them a sense of different approaches to qualitative inquiry, as well, and how that helps gain a wider, deeper understanding of any workplace issue. Our students complete the program with a well-rounded understanding and knowledge of research, overall.
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What Types of Research Will Students Encounter?
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Plan of Study Students enter the program in a cohort and complete courses based on a lock-step plan of study. We begin with a few courses that help calibrate with foundational knowledge, which helps students from different disciplines to enter ours. For example, people with a master’s degree in public health can come into our Ph.D. program and receive a foundation in organizational learning, performance, and change. Next, we proceed into studies of systems leadership, and scenario planning. These unique courses are built on our faculty’s expertise, and give students tools, research, and skills they’re not going to find anywhere else.”
Learn from researchers and scholar-practitioners CSU faculty are active researchers working to address critical societal and global issues, as well as practitioners with their own private consulting entities. This expertise is shared in class with examples of real-world problems and researchbacked solutions, so you will have access to the scholar practitioners who are working to carry their field forward and learn now what will be in the textbooks of the future.
48
Course Credits
Dissertation
Faculty Advising Credits
Ph.D.
60 Total Credits
Featured Courses EDOD 773 – Systems Leadership Sue Lynham reconceptualizes leadership as a system in which different leaders can move in and out of that role. EDOD 766 – Scenario Planning in Organizations Thomas Chermack helps decision makers understand complex and uncertain environments, and how to make decisions when they have no idea what the future holds.
Career
What differentiates our program? The program prepares students to facilitate learning, performance, and change in almost any field – including business, industry, government, military, medical, social service, and non-profit organizations.
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A schedule that caters to working professionals
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Balancing research and practice
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Faculty expertise
We offer courses on Saturdays and deliver our program faceto-face. This appeals to seasoned, experienced managers and executives in organizations, while still allowing our faculty to provide the level of mentoring that truly helps students effect change throughout their organizations.
Our students are asked to apply fundamental workplace tools alongside innovative research. This means students understand problems deeply, at their core, and work on long-lasting, practical solutions that are immediately applicable to their current careers.
Our faculty provide both a foundation for the discipline, as well as expertise in specific areas that are not found in similar degree programs.
Potential careers include: • Career Advisor and Consultant • Education Administrator • Human Resource Director • Management Analyst and Change Agent • Organizational Development, Performance, or Motivational Consultant • Small Business Owner • Workforce Development Specialist
Hear from Our Students Saturday classes in Denver I work full time while enrolled in this Ph.D. program, so it’s very helpful that we have a relaxed study structure, which allows you to maintain that full life/work schedule when necessary, as well as time to be in the program full time on Saturday. – Victor G., OLPC Ph.D. student
Scholar-practitioner focus It’s really important for me to not only take what’s out there in the public and my own experience in organizations, but also supplement that with empirically based evidence, scholarly evidence, which proves what kinds of interventions in leadership development, organizational development, really work. It was also important for me to have a community of support as I navigated through this type of learning, and that’s what I found here in this program. – Erin C., OLPC Ph.D. student
Cohort of professionals The interactions are outstanding. Everybody has a different perspective that they bring to things. It’s a very diverse group of people. We all have different interests but they’re all interwoven, whether it’s culture, mindfulness, change, leadership… it’s really the interaction that brings out the best thinking in all of us. – Gretchen G., OLPC Ph.D. student
Apply what you learn to your workplace I couldn’t pause my career to further my academic development. It was important for me to continue to be in a situation where I could apply my learnings immediately to my corporate environment. The coursework really lines up closely with leadership development, systems thinking, scenario planning, and strategic planning. These are all things that are vitally important to the work I do as a management consultant. – Erin C., OLPC Ph.D. student
Classes
Students meet on eight Saturdays over the semester, and sessions are split into two courses – one runs from 8:00 to noon, there’s a lunch break, and the second course runs from 1:00 to 5:00. Faculty and students work closely together within a mentoring relationship related to the coursework, the application of theory, and on developing and completing dissertation research. The program is completed in eight semesters, followed by a dissertation which typically takes nine to sixteen months.
The student-faculty relationship is enhanced by: • A small cohort size of approximately 20 students • Faculty who are experienced change agents and researchers • Discussions, projects, and papers aide in learning and grading • Student-student relationships that add a personal dimension to small group activities
Class Schedule
8—12:00 Scenario Planning in Orgs. 12—1:00 Lunch 1—5:00 Social, Cultural, and Political Foundations of the Workplace
Why Choose CSU? As a student in CSU’s online organizational learning, performance, and change Ph.D. program, you can expect a program that offers:
Scholar-Practitioner Training Our focus is on developing students into high-level scholars and industry experts by ensuring research is grounded in ongoing professional practice.
A Cohort Model The same group of students goes through the program together, offering a cohesive support structure and built-in professional network.
Practical Experience Throughout your course of study, apply what you learn to an actual organization and initiate practical solutions for a real-world environment while receiving faculty mentorship and support.
Expert Faculty Renowned faculty, known for both their research and industry practice, teach to their specialties in the areas of scenario planning and systems leadership.
Convenience Our program offers the unique structure of bi-weekly Saturday meetings held face-to-face in Denver, with supplementary online coursework designed to allow you to maintain your already busy schedule while working on a Ph.D.
An Interdisciplinary Approach We deliver course content focused on a combination of sociological, systems, psychological, and economic approaches to performance improvement strategies.
Tools to Enact Change Faculty teach a systematic approach to examining individual, group, and process segments within organizations, allowing you to produce highly relevant, customizable, and long-term change solutions.
What’s Next? Organizational Learning, Performance, and Change Ph.D.
Contact Information
How to Apply
Resources How to Apply Program Overview Curriculum Contact Us online.colostate.edu/contact (970) 492-4898