|
Welcome
to Project Renaissance!
)Please enter this module on "Social Sciences" — whether you are an enrolled freshman or an online visitor. This page outlines the course, and is also our attempt to gather resources useful for our students as well as for students and practitioners elsewhere anywhere around the globe. Please make yourself at home, browse around as long as you like, and feel free to try anything you want to. We’re still developing this page and would certainly appreciate your feedback. (1997-1998)
Renaissance is revival (literally, "to renew"). The historical Renaissance period was fueled by a unique combination of forces, including an explosion of discovery, exploration, and invention. It was also an extraordinary period of enlightenment that shattered long-held beliefs. Ideally, in the group of four course modules this year you will experience complete intellectual immersion unbounded by time, place, or convention. In this community, you are free to share your intellectual curiosity.
Each module satisfies a General Education requirement: Humanities & the Arts, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Cultural & Historical Perspectives. This particular module satisfies the "Social Sciences" component of the University at Albany’s General Education requirement. As such, we will examine businesses as institutions where many of you will be spending your careers. But even if you do not intend to pursue a "business career," businesses are economic, social, and political arrangements that influence us in many ways, and we will discuss just a handful of those impacts. A second purpose of this course is to satisfy the writing-intensive requirement for General Education. Please plan on devoting at least ten hours each week to write assignments for this course. Finally, you will master computer skills for communication and research, and interpersonal skills for team development and leadership.
Typically (but not exclusively) we will meet as a group every Tuesday and Thursday led by a "core faculty" member. We will meet in smaller groups on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday led by a "preceptor" responsible for recitation, facilitating, synthesizing, and feedback. We will also plan activities outside of class including library, computer, social, cultural, recreational, and team development skills as well as to conduct major projects. Throughout your experience, you will be helped by peer mentors and RAs.
| Course Information | References | The Internet | Community Service - Action Learning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Text: Frost,
Mitchell, & Nord, Organizational Reality (Addison-Wesley
1997); Pierce & Newstrom, The Manager’s
Bookshelf (HarperCollins 1996); Ray & Rinzler, The
New Paradigm in Business (Putnam 1993); MLA
Handbook Project Renaissance Home Page |
Business
Periodicals: Business
Week  Forbes
|
Evaluating Internet Resources | Service-Learning |
| Session | Topics/Examplar Organizations | Cases/Self-Assessments/ Examplar Organizations |
|---|---|---|
| 1: Historical Perspective and Paradigm Shifts |
 Historical Perspective |
Exemplar New Paradigm
Organizations: Calvert
Group
Ricardo Semler’s Transformation at Semco ABB the prototypical transnational company for the
year 2000? |
| 2: Conducting Research in Business |  References Business Research Corporate Data |
Corporate annual
reports for: 3Com
Compaq IBM Intel Microsoft |
| 3: Entrepreneurship: Individual Imagination, Invention, Innovation, and Initiative |  Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation |
Self-Assessment: Creativity |
| 4: Corporate Membership: Cog in a Wheel? |
 Antitrust and Competitor Relations Consumerism Employee Relations |
Self-Assessment: Teams |
| 5: Corporate Membership: Getting Ahead and Making a Contribution |
|
Self-Assessment: Leadership/CEO Personality |
| 6: Large - Scale Organization Change |
 Organization Learning Quality and Re-Engineering Strategic Change Vision |
Self-Assessment: Change Innovation Exemplar New Paradigm Organizations: American
Express parent of Amex Life
Assurance |
| 7: The Virtual Organization |
 Virtual Organization Cooperative Strategies: Consortia and
Alliances |
Exemplar New Paradigm
Industries: Electronic Banking Information
Technology |
| 8: Corporations and Technology |
 Science and Technology |
Cases: "The Vasa
Capsizes" "The Sandhogs" and "The Sandhogs continued" |
| 9: Ecology and the Natural Environment |
 Ecology and Environment |
Read: Daniel
Quinn’s Ishmael Self-Assessment: Ecology |
| 10: The Virtuous Organization and "Business Ethics" |
 Social,
Political, and Ethical Dimensions of Business |
Self-Assessment: Values Exemplar New Paradigm Organizations: Des Moines
Water Works |
| 11: Corporations Across Cultures and Countries |  International Strategies Global Trade: Cross-Cultural, Social-Political,
Ethical |
Read:
Sun
Tzu and the Art of Business Self-Assessment: Cross-Cultural Exemplar New Paradigm Organization: Levi Strauss & Co. |
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Copyright � 1998 Paul
Miesing. All rights reserved. Revised on January 19, 2006.
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Strategic Leadership
Team Building and Group
Dynamics
Decision Making Behaviors