Master of Philosophy in Organizational Dynamics Theses

Search results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 19
  • Publication
    Aspects Of Organizational Learning: Four Reflective Essays
    (2010-05-05) Walton, Jerrold A
    This thesis presents my responses to questions posed by four professors with whom I studied while completing my coursework in the Organizational Master’s Degree program at the University of Pennsylvania. My paper will present various perspectives on learning organizations – organizations characterized by a capability to adapt to changes in environment. All questions posed by each professor impact learning organizations in some manner. Dr. Stankard’s questions focus on the roadblocks organizations face when transforming to learning organizations. Dr. Kaminstein’s questions center on how organizations can become less individualistic and more team-centered. Dr. Wilkinsky queried how developmental coaching might be used to increase organizational performance. Finally, Dr. Russo asked how to address the misalignment that occurs when the leader-manager’s coaching model is not the same as the larger organization. This project has allowed me to investigate and reflect on potential key drivers of organizational learning. I have learned that a multitude of individual and organizational complexities – internal and external – affect and determine if organizations learn and whether learning is sustained. To successfully navigate those complexities through planned interventions is a core tenet of organizational development and the hallmark of a true learning organization.
  • Publication
    Defining Corporate Social Responsibility: A Systems Approach For Socially Responsible Capitalism
    (2011-07-01) Smith, Richard E.
    Although the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been advocated for decades and is commonly employed by corporations globally, agreement on how CSR should be defined and implemented remains a contentious debate amongst academia, businesses and society. This gap is problematic for corporations because they are increasingly being required to align with societal norms while generating financial returns. In order to remedy this problem, the following definition is presented: corporate social responsibility is a business system that enables the production and distribution of wealth for the betterment of its stakeholders through the implementation and integration of ethical systems and sustainable management practices. Many of the concepts in the proposed definition are commonplace amongst CSR practitioners and organizations, the validations for the key segments – production and distribution of wealth, stakeholder management, ethical systems, sustainable management practices – coupled with the application of a systems approach and other business practices make the definition unique and conclusive. An in depth review of the definition and supporting concepts will provide the needed vision and knowledge to enable corporations to successfully manage CSR strategies.
  • Publication
    The Castlebury Tales, A Frame-Story Of My Reflections On Organizational Dynamics Learnings
    (2020-12-01) Castle, Daniel
    This Capstone is written in the portfolio paper format, and strives to synthesize key lessons learned over my three year journey as a Masters in Philosophy student in the Organizational Dynamics program at The University of Pennsylvania. Main themes and key learnings are presented, supported and interpreted through a series of stories inside a larger story, the former being told in the style of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer and the latter as a dialogue between an older man and his grandson. The stories themselves, included in the fictional title The Castlebury Tales, each exemplify a value/ key lesson learned in my journey through the OD program. Key themes were selected through combining key themes identified during an exhaustive literature review and through something I’m calling the PennVenn, an artifact that identifies key themes from each course I’ve taken and where/how such themes overlap. A copy of the PennVenn can be found in the Appendix. The Castlebury Tales are read by an older character to a much younger character. The younger character (the “grandson”) exemplifies the version of myself before I started my Penn journey in January of 2018; the older character (the “grandfather”) from the perspective of one who has had time to reflect on the value of his education at Penn. As the grandfather fields questions from the grandson or finishes an individual story, he takes time to reflect on what he has learned and experienced in life and it is here where supporting literature is entered into the Capstone. Diagrams in the Appendix serve to aid the reader in both the Capstone’s construction and as an aid to understanding the flow of the document overall.
  • Publication
    Rethinking Intuition: Using the Framework of an Integrative-Brain Assessment for Optimal Decision-Making
    (2018-06-04) LeBoon, Richard
    The purpose of this capstone is to challenge the coaching community to rethink intuition as a form of intelligence, and that when applied to the coaching process can be of greater help to coaching clients within the context of decision-making. This capstone introduces the design and test pilot of an “Integrative-Brain Assessment” that uses a novel somatically-informed, neuroscience-based framework to help coaching clients engage their whole-brain for an optimal decision-making process. This assessment enables the coaching client’s ‘Intuitive Intelligence’ to absorb, synthesize, and integrate the elements of their problem or challenge so that a solution seems to pop into their head without any conscious effort on their part. The more the coaching client lets go and allows this organic process to work, the stronger their ‘Intuitive Intelligence’ becomes.
  • Publication
    A Comparative Analysis of Coaching Programs Offered by the Graduate School Alliance for Executive Coaching (GSAEC)
    (2008-05-28) Perry, Kimberly A.
    The field of executive coaching has grown dramatically over the past 15 years and continues to increase in size and scope. A growing number of academic institutions in the United States and Canada now offer coaching programs packaged as graduate degrees, graduate certificates, continuing education courses, workshops, and other professional development for students, faculty and staff. Academic coaching programs are located in many departments or schools including psychology, business, education, public policy, and human resources. A single institution may have multiple yet autonomous coaching programs or offerings. Out of the chaos and turmoil of coaching education offerings, an orderly academic system began to emerge. Coaching now seems on a pathway toward becoming an academic discipline. At this juncture, the nidus of executive coaching exploded into a universe of possibilities in a fashion similar to cosmology’s Big Bang. In 2005, an expansion of the U.S. academic coaching community occurred when a small number of other colleges and universities offering coaching programs where enjoined. One important goal was to form an alliance around the establishment of educational standards for academic and professional coaching programs. At this epicenter the “Graduate School Alliance for Executive Coaching” (GSAEC) formally assembled. Eight academic institutions in North America provided financial support for this new organization and hence become the “founding members” of GSAEC (Ibid). If indeed GSAEC is the epicenter of the academic universe for executive coaching, what are the characteristics of the institutions and their programs? Can they be
  • Publication
    Implementation of Change to Audits and Inspections Using Action Research
    (2021-05-14) Hampton, Larry K
    The audits and inspections process is a critical component related to a pharmaceutical firm’s compliance in the industry. To be out of compliance has significant ramifications both on the safety and purity of the firm’s products and its viability in the industry. Such firms are routinely audited by boards of health and customers that purchase the firm’s products to ensure they are in compliance with expected standards. The success of hosting the audits and inspection program is the first line of defense in demonstrating compliance. To succeed at these audits and inspections changing with the times is a necessity. The implementation of change in an organization is fraught with challenges. Issues such determining who in the organization are the right people to discover, develop, and diffuse change is a complex process for management. This study will describe how the use of Liberating Structures and coaching were used to change the audits and inspection process for a major pharmaceutical firm. The changes are evaluated through the lens of Adaptive Space and the use of action research to integrate theory and action with the goal of answering the following questions: How might I get the right people on the team to implement a digital auditing process? How might I implement a digital auditing process? In the time involved with the completion of this action research study, COVID-19 hit. This led me to another question: What modifications to the auditing process must be made as a result of COVID-19, how can I modify the auditing approach to incorporate site restrictions The outcome of this effort transformed the auditing process at the firm and was implemented at the firm’s sites worldwide.
  • Publication
    The Underwriting of American Healthcare: One Hundred Years of Reform and the Need for a New Paradigm
    (2010-09-30) Thomas, Carol
    In 2009, healthcare costs in the United States totaled $2.5 trillion dollars and constituted more than 17% of GDP. 1 , 2 Healthcare inflation has trended higher than general CPI for more than twenty years and this pattern is expected to escalate. The U.S. currently has the most expensive healthcare system in the world both in terms of absolute dollars and per capita spending. The underwriting for these costs however, is highly fragmented and currently leaves 47 million Americans to either cover the full costs themselves or forego treatment. 3 Recent enactment of healthcare reform via the Patient Protection and Affordability Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act promises to expand insurance coverage as well as redress systemic shortcomings in the delivery and financing of healthcare. However, there is considerable debate as to what will really be accomplished by this latest reform attempt as well as considerable opposition its promulgation. The current debate over healthcare reform is a continuation of a conflict that arose more than one hundred years ago when powerful business, political and medical interest groups allied themselves against changes to the status quo. In 2010, it is simply “déjà vu all over again”.* This paper will present the salient features of the current healthcare model in the U.S. It details the elements making up the three segments of the model and the factors that led to their entrenchment. The paper will also trace the evolutionary reformation of healthcare and the forces that have shaped the model we have today. It will highlight the process surrounding the passage of the latest reform measure as well as specific requirements and protections being introduced by it. *Quote attributed to Yogi Berra As other countries have faced the same issues with respect to the role of government in ensuring the health and welfare of its citizens, a comparative review of the healthcare financing and delivery models in Great Britain, Germany, France and Canada will be presented. The paper will further examine the governance structures in these countries versus those in the U.S. to gain insight as to why the U.S. has lagged behind its democratic peers in implementing healthcare reform. Lastly, this paper will seek to reframe the current U.S. debate over healthcare reform from one centered on underwriting principles to one centered on national values.
  • Publication
    An Exploration of the Effects of Collectivism and Individualism on Maintaining Societal Cohesiveness and Encouraging Cross-Societal International Relations by the Review of a Sample of Societial Mechanics
    (2008-03-31) Marciniszyn, David
    A functional society is a society that has found its balance between the extremes of 100% Individualism (Chaos) and 100% Collectivism (Stagnation). Thorough exploration of the influences that the institutions of Society, Family, Education, Work Environment and Religion have on the members of a particular society allows for an understanding of the mechanics which work to shape and influence societies from generation to generation. Following a review of multiple pieces of literature and personal interactions and observations in select societies (China, Czech Republic, Greece and Sweden) the extrapolation can be made that there are two distinct societal types, collectivist and individualist. Although it is often speculated that a society must utilize one extreme or the other, in reality societies try to balance between the extremes of stagnation and chaos as a means of self preservation. The institutions used by societies to enforce compliance among its membership are essentially universal; however, the methods by which societies choose to maintain cohesiveness differ from society to society and are influenced by changes in technology and information sharing on a global scale. These factors serve to explain why degrees of both individualism and collectivism can be found in each functional society currently in existence. The balance of these two societal extremes allows a society to optimally function and maintain harmony. This balance is by no means stagnant. Societies constantly struggle toward one extreme or the other. Functional societies find themselves being drawn back toward the middle over time, with no society every truly obtaining a perfect equilibrium. An understanding of the dynamics at work in this cycle enhances our ability to function in our own society and interact with other societies on an international scale.
  • Publication
    The African Immigrant In The American Workplace: Understanding The Implications Of Immigration & Education
    (2020-05-20) Mosugu, Tegan J
    There are more than 3.8 million black immigrants in the USA that represent 8.7% of the USA’s black population (Anderson & Lopez, 2018). Among these immigrants are African immigrants. The purpose of this research is to conduct a preliminary exploratory study on what the African immigrants experience (specifically, Anglophone African immigrants) is at the workplace - a demographic that has been historically understudied in the social science literature. In order to understand how African immigrant professionals adjust to their newfound reality, a historical overview of African immigration to the United States shall be provided. Subsequently, a secondary analysis of various sources provides insights on the potential barriers that exist as well as the opportunities that enable African immigrant professionals to thrive. An understanding of interpersonal workings that African immigrant professionals have within the organizations yields an in-depth understanding of how African immigrants fit the new organizational culture that they find themselves in. Furthermore, it also enables scholars and practitioners to apprehend how and why the outcomes for African immigrants are not the same, as compared with other demographics. Last but not least, this paper explores the African immigrant professional’s contribution to society. Knowledge of this is juxtaposed with the current immigration laws and policies that can potentially inhibit the cross-sector benefits that African immigrants bring to the USA. In this capstone research paper, first-generation and second-generation of immigrants are studied. The first-generation of immigrants refers to the first group of immigrants that come to the United States or individuals that come to the United States in their early teens. On the other hand, the second-generation of immigrants refers to the children or grandchildren of such immigrants. (Thomas, 2014).
  • Publication
    Is Time on Your Side: An Examination of Six Dimensions of Time From a Negotiation and Relational Perspective
    (2008-11-01) Jacobson, Larry
    This Capstone Paper, which is heavily influenced by my Master of Philosophy studies in the Organizational Dynamics program, discusses six dimensions of time that influence negotiations and relationships. I describe in detail each of the six dimensions of time. Next, I use examples from the Cuban Missile Crisis to illustrate how these dimensions of time played a critical role under the most pressure packed situation. Then I explore how these dimensions play an important role in how individuals and organizations use time when negotiating with third parties and use time as a form of strategic advantage. I conclude by relating back to my prior discussion and analysis to support my argument that the person or organization who understands the time dynamics of a situation frequently will have the upper hand in a negotiation or relationship, regardless of the advantages or disadvantages the other person or organization might have in material resources.