Topic outline

  • General course information

    Welcome to the course Change project and program management!

    More information will be updated later on these MyCourses pages.

    Course contents:

    The course offers a comprehensive understanding of the key themes, areas and frameworks in change project and program management with practical considerations and guidelines necessary for managing change in organisations through projects and programs. The course also addresses the role of project and program management in the management of societal grand challenges (such as climate change). Specific contents relate to a process perspective of change: recognizing the need for change and starting the change process, diagnosing what needs to be changed and formulating a vision of a preferred future state, planning how to intervene in order to achieve the desired change, implementing plans and reviewing progress, sustaining the change, leading and managing the people issues, learning. Idiosyncrasies of change projects: project management vs. change management.

    Learning activities and teaching methods:

    • Self-studying the course book to comprehend the key concepts, and features of organizational change and change management
    • Utilizing the acquired knowledge from course book and other relevant courses to understand and analyze change in different types of cases (=real-life change projects/programs), and discuss in more detail, how project and change management can be used to support change initiatives

    More information of the two learning activities are provided in Learning activities -section (available after the first lecture).

    Learning outcomes

    Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:

    • Explain the key concepts and features of organizational change, and change projects and programs
    • Evaluate the role of change projects and programs in implementing organizational change, industry level change and societal level change
    • Analyze different approaches and processes to managing real-life change projects and programs in different contexts
    • Utilize practical approaches, tools, frameworks, and processes for planning change projects and programs

    Assessment methods and criteria

    A continuous assessment will be used. To pass the course, a student must complete the following items:

    • Self-study: Read the coursebook and identify and analyze key learnings
    • Case assignments: complete case assignments and reflect on key learnings

    Assessment:

    • Key learnings from the coursebook (35%)
    • Completing case assignments (60%)
    • Course feedback (5%) 

     Grading: 0-5 for all assignments.

    Workload:

    The estimated time required for completing the course is 81 h: Online sessions 14 h / Self-study 30 h / Case assignment 36 h / Course feedback 1 h

    Course schedule:

    • Tue 24.5. 12:15-16:00 (Online session): Practicalities and introduction to course (introductory case business school)
    • Mon 6.6. 21:00 (MyCourses submission): Self-study DL
    • Tue 7.6. 12:15-16:00 (Online session): Self-study debriefing and preparations for case assignments (change vs. project management)
    • Tue 14.6. 12:00 (MyCourses submission): Case CRM DL
    • Tue 14.6. 12:15-14:00 (Online session): Planned organizational change (Case CRM debriefing)
    • Tue 21.6. 12:00 (MyCourses submission): Case Finnair DL
    • Tue 21.6. 12:15-14:00 (Online session): Change caused by environmental shocks (Case Finnair debriefing)
    • Tue 28.6. 12:00 (MyCourses submission): Case Compensate DL
    • Tue 28.6. 12:15-14:00 (Online session): Change at societal level (Case Compensate foundation debriefing)

    All sessions are organized online (Zoom) unless otherwise indicated. All sessions are mandatory unless otherwise indicated. The same link is used for all sessions:

    https://oulu.zoom.us/j/65136861909?pwd=aThsNHRMTk03ME84c0pRTXdpL25WUT09