PADM-GP 2132: ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN AND SOCIAL IMPACT
Time: Tuesdays 4:55-6:35 (Our Tuesday September 24th class will be rescheduled for Saturday the 28th at 11:00 a.m.)
Location: Meyer 261
Professor: Paul C. Light, Paulette Goddard Professor Of Public Service, Robert F. Wagner School Of Public Service, New York University
Email:
Phone:(301) 642-4150
Office Hours: Wednesdays, 1:00-3:00
OVERVIEW
This course is designed to provide a deep introduction to the challenges facing social agents in the quest for a more just, tolerant, healthy, equitable, and educated world. Although the course will focus more deeply on organizational dynamics, its primary focus is on social change.
The course starts with the premise that social impact is the product of a simple logic chain that runs from:
- The world as it is (which contains a variety of inputs such as your own purpose, work style, and the problem that you care about)
- The world as it should be (which contains a variety of activities for change such as the tool you pick, the way you imagine the future and handle uncertainty, and the intervention you choose for changing the world)
- The world as it will be(which contains early outputs such as how you will test your intervention, decide where to strike for maximum impact, scale to greatest impact, and deliver on your promises)
- The world as it must be (which contains outcomessuch as the proof that your intervention is working, your strategy for defending your success from inevitable resistance, and your eventual decision to pass the torch).
These four worlds frame the many discrete steps in the cycle of social impact that will be covered in this course.
The field of social change, if it can be called a field at all, has long focused on celebrating success, which is a perfectly understandable strategy for calling problem solvers to action. But the lack of a control group of less successful efforts has limited the pursuit of leverage points that either accelerate or block impact. As a result, the field has generated long lists of recommendations for creating new worlds, some of which are no doubt important, and others that have no statistically significant relevance.
This course will search for rigorous recommendations regarding creating social change as leaders begin the difficult journey to impact. Students will explore these issues through a variety of readings, and their own project work on a problem they wish to solve. Readings will be tailored specifically to show students how they can make a difference, and what they need to know and do to create the world that they imagine.
This search for ways to make a difference will anchor the final paper. Students will focus on a single idea for addressing a problem—large or small, local or international, domestic or foreign policy directed, etc.—that they seek to address. The paper will examine the first two steps of social impact by design: (1) the world as it is, and (2) the world as it should be.” As such, it will focus on each student’s personal view of the world, the evidence to support an effort to change the world (complete with statistics on the research, and the causeproblem chain), the choice of a path to change, and the intervention. Students will organize the paper around the first eight sections of the course by answering each question in order. The paper will be due on the last day of class, and should not exceed 20 pages (4,000 words).
BOOKS
Paul C. Light, The Search for Social Entrepreneurship(Full PDF available on NYU Classes)
Paul C. Light, Sustaining Innovation (Complimentary copy provided by Professor Light—pick up your copy the week before class from Jessica Holmes at Wagner 3rd floor)
GRADES
Final grades will be based on three class deliverables.
- 20 percent for full participation, including attendance (unless excused in advance) and active engagement in class discussions.
- 20 percent for a final exam in the form of a letter to yourself that I will mail to you in five years.
- 60 percent for the final project paper.
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READINGS
All readings are on dropbox.com and NYU Classes. All readings are required. You do not need to understand every statistical equation in the academic articles, but should read the introduction, literature review, discussion of findings, and conclusion. You should also try to understand the main statistical findings to the best of your ability.
SessionOne/September 3: Course Mottos
Course Mottos
- It Depends
Jason R. Pierce, and Herman Aguinis, “The Too-Much-of-a-Good-Thing Effect in Management,” Journal of Management, 2013
Margaret E. Ormiston, and Elaine M. Wong, “License to Ill: The Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility and CEO Moral Identity on Corporate Social Irresponsibility,” Personnel Psychology, 2013
- Form Follows Function
Emma Green, “Innovation: The History of a Buzzword,” The Atlantic, June 20 2013
3. Organization Is Just Another Variable
Paul C. Light, Sustaining Innovation, chapters 1 and 2 (Pick up your copy from the front desk at #3 Washington Square Village—corner of Bleecker and LaGuardia Place)
Paul C. Light, The Search for Social Entrepreneurship, chapter 4 (Section on organizations)
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THE WORLD AS IT IS
Session Two/September 10: Committing to Change (Why do we care?)
Paul C. Light, Search for Social Entrepreneurship, chapter 4 (Section on entrepreneurs only)
C. Daniel Batson, Nadia Ahmad, and Jo-Ann Tsang, “Four Motives for Community Involvement,” Journal of Social Issues, 2002
Matthijs Baas, Carsten K.W. De Dreu, and Bernard A. Nijstad, “Creative Production by Angry People Peaks Early On, Decreases Over Time, and Is Relatively Unstructured,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2011 (Browse for main findings)
Matt McGue and Thomas J. Bouchard, Jr., “Genetic and Environmental Influences on Human Behavioral Differences,”Annual, Review of Neuroscience, 1998 (Browse if you have time)
Session Three/September 17: Cause and Effect (What is the problem? What is the cause? What have we already tried? And why do we need something more or different?)
- What is the problem? What is the cause?
Government Accountability Office, Prospective Evaluation Methods: The Prospective Evaluation Synthesis, 1990, preface, chapters 1 and 4
- What have we already tried? Why do we need something more?
Paul C. Light, A Government Ill Executed: The Decline of the Pubic Service and How to Reverse It, chapter 1
Paul C. Light, “Government’s Greatest Priorities of the Next Half Century,” Brookings Institution, 2001
Session Four/September 28: Confronting Reality (What stands in our way?)
(This class will be held on Saturday, September 28 at 9:00 a.m. in Rudin)
- The Problem with Problems
Horst W. J. Rittel and Melvin M. Webber, “Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning,” Policy Sciences, 1973
- The Current Crisis (Browse if you wish)
Frank Rich, “The Stench of Washington,” New York, 2013
Thomas E. Mann & Norman J. Ornstein, “Finding the Common Good in an Era of Dysfunctional Governance,” Daedalus, 2013
Russell J. Dalton, “Citizenship Norms and Political Participation in America: The Good News Is…the Bad News Is Wrong,” Center for the Study of Democracy, Occasional Paper 2006-01, 2006 (Read for an alternative view of the state of the world)
- The Global Context
Paul C. Light, Global Trust in Government, Memo prepared for the Volcker Alliance for Effective Governance, Salzburg Seminar, fall, 2013
Daniel Kaufmann, Aart Kraay and Massimo Mastruzzi, “The Worldwide Governance Indicators: Methodological and Analytical Issues,” September 2010 (After reading about the indicators and aggregating methodology, visit and see how the indicators work by selecting countries, regions, and/or the world to examine the ratings
- The Social “Ecosystem”
Paul Bloom and Gregory Dees, “Cultivate Your Ecosystem,” Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2008
Session Five/October 1: Managing Uncertainty (What does the future hold?)
Paul C. Light, The Four Pillars of High Performance, chapter 1
Arnoud De Meyer, Christoph H. Loch and Michael T. Pich, “Managing Project Uncertainty:From Variation to Chaos,” MIT Sloan Management Review, 2002
Muhammad Amer, Tugrul U. Daim, Antonie Jetter, “A Review of Scenario Planning,” Futures, 2013
THE WORLD AS IT SHOULD BE
Session Six/October 8: Design Thinking (How do we dream?)
Tim Brown, “Design Thinking,” Harvard Business Review, 2009
Andrew B. Hargadon and Yellowlees, “When Innovations Meet Institutions: Edison and the Design of the Electric Light,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 2001 (Browse and note similarities to Brown’s “Design Thinking” and timing—ask whether Brown “borrowed” without attribution?)
Mary Bryna Sanger and Martin A. Levin, “Using Old Stuff in New Ways: Innovation as a Case of Evolutionary Tinkering,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 1992
Paul C. Light, Sustaining Innovation, chapter 4
Session Seven/October 22: Four Tools for Social Change (What tool do we need?): (1) Social Exploring, (2) Social Inventing, (3) Social Advocacy, and (4) Social Delivery
PICK AT LEAST THREE OF THE TOOLS LISTED BELOW AND READ THE ENTIRE SET OF READINGS ACCORDINGLY:
SOCIAL EXPLORING
(We need to learn more about the problem and the solutions)
- Get the Facts Right: Social Fact Checking
Brendan Nyhan and Jason Riefler, “Misinformation and Fact-Checking: Research Findings from Social Science,” New America Foundation, February 2012.
Paul C. Light, “Investigations Done Right and Wrong: Government by Investigation, 1945-2012,” Brookings Institution Issue Brief, December 2013.
Paul C. Light, Government by Investigation: Congress, the President, and the Search for Answers,” Brookings Institution, 2014, chapters 2 and 3.
- Build a Better Measure: Estimate the Social Value
Melinda T. Tuan, “Measuring and/or Estimating Social Value Creation: Insights Into Eight Integrated Cost Approaches,” paper prepared for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2008
Melinda T. Tuan, “Profiles of Eight Integrated Cost Approaches to Measuring and/or Estimating Social Value Creation,” slide presentation, 2008
- Speak Data to Power: Measure the Impact
Robert D. Behn, “Why Measure Performance? Different Purposes Require Different Measures,” Public Administration Review, 2003
Mary Bryna Sanger, “From Measurement to Management: Breaking through the Barriers to State and Local Performance,” Public Administration Review, 2008
Warren S. Stone, and Gerard George, “On the Folly of Rewarding A, While Hoping for B: Measuring and Rewarding Agency Performance in Public-Sector Strategy,” Public Productivity & Management Review, 2007
PICK AT LEAST TWO OF THE FOLLOWING CASE STUDIES AND READ ACCORDINGLY:
Jonathan Bauchet, et al., Latest Findings from Randomized Evaluations of Microfinance, Poverty Action Lab, December, 2011
Mark D. Anderson, “Does Information Matter? The Effect of The Meth Project on Meth Use Among Youths,” Journal of Health Economics, 2010
Doug McAdam, and Cynthia Brandt, “Assessing the Effects of Voluntary Youth Service: The Case of Teach for America,” Social Forces, 2008
- Search for Answers: Social Impact Reporting
Lisa Lynch, “We’re Going to Crack the World Open:Wikileaks and the Future of Investigative Reporting,” Journalism Practice, 2010
Brant Houston, “The Future of Investigative Journalism,” Daedalus, 2010
Nicholas Smith, and Erica Dawon, “Climategate, Public Opinion, and the Loss of Trust,” Anthony A. Leiserowitz, Edward W. Maibach, Connie Roser-Renouf, American Behavioral Scientist, 2013
- Protect the Independent Voice: Public Opinionating
Amitai Etzioni, “Reflections of a Sometime-Public Intellectual,” PS, 2010
Henry A. Giroux, “Higher Education UnderSiege: Implications forPublic Intellectuals,” Thought and Action, 2006
Laura Bettencourt Pires, “Public intellectuals—Past, Present, and Future,” Comunicação & Cultura, 2009
Ellen Barry, “Battling Superstition, Indian Paid with His Life,” New York Times, August 24, 2013
- Imagine It First: Preotyping & Prototyping
Alberto Savoia, Preotype It: Make Sure You Are Building the Right IT before You Build IT Right, electronic edition, 2011
Jeffrey A. Drezner and Meilinda Huang, On Prototyping: Lessons from RAND Research, 2009
- Confront the Bias Against Creativity: Find the Concealed Barriers
Jennifer S. Meuller, Shimul Melwani, and Jack A. Goncalo, “The Bias Against Creativity: Why People Desire But Reject Creative Ideas,” Psychological Science, 2012
- Understand the Chaos: Social Sensemaking
Sally Maitlis, and Scott Sonenshein, “Sensemaking in Crisis and Change: Inspiration and Insights From Weick (1988), Journal of Management Studies, 2010
Lars Fugsland, and Jan Mattsson, “Making Sense of Innovation: A Future Perfect Approach,” Journal of Management & Organization, 2011
Tom Stannard, “A ‘Fruitless Obsession with Accuracy’: The Uses of Sensemaking in Public Sector Performance Management,” Local Government Studies, 2011
- Shape the Solution in Real Time: Formative Evaluation
James A. A. Gamble, A Developmental Evaluation Primer, 2008
- Track the Advocacy: Evaluating Advocacy
Steven Teles and Mark Schmitt “The Elusive Craft of Evaluating Advocacy,” Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2011
Ivan Barkhorn, Nathan Huttner, and Jason Blau, “Assessing Advocacy,” Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2013
- Scrape the World Clean: Exploit the Big Data
Purdue Big Data Working Group, “Challenges and Opportunities with Big Data: A Community White Paper Developed by Leading Researchers Across the United States,” November, 2012
United Nations Global Pulse, “Big Data for Development: Challenges & Opportunities,” May, 2012
SOCIAL INVENTION
(We need a new idea)
- Create A New Combination of Ideas: Social Entrepreneurship (Invention)
Paul C. Light, The Search for Social Entrepreneurship, chapter 1
Peter A. Dacin, M. Tina Dacin, and Margaret Matear, “Social Entrepreneurship: Why We Don’t Need a New Theory and How We Move Forward From Here,” Academy of Management Perspectives, 2010
- Let Business Do It: Philanthrocapitalism
The Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal, “Philanthrocapitalism: Savior or Emperor? A Debate,” 2009
Michael Edwards, Just Another Emperor, Demos, 2008, chapters 1 and 2
READ THROUGH THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES AS A CASE STUDY ON PHILANTHROCAPITALISM:
Ataur Rahman Belal, Stuart Cooper, “The Absence of Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in Bangladesh,” Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 2011
Stephanie Clifford, and Steven Greenhouse, “Fast and Flawed Inspections of Factories Abroad,” New York Times, September 1, 2013
- Let Funders Do It: Venture/Strategic Philanthropy
National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, REAL RESULTS
Why Strategic Philanthropy is Social Justice Philanthropy, NCRP, 2013 (Short introduction to the concept)
Karen Mass, and Kellie Liket, “Talk the Walk: Measuring the Impact of Strategic Philanthropy,” Journal of Business Ethics, 2011
David Bornstein, “The Real Future of Clean Water,” New York Times, Opinionator, August 21, 2013
Marc Parry, Kelly Field, and Beckie Supiano, “The Gates Effect,” The Chronicle of Philanthropy, July 14, 2013
Christian Seelos & Johanna Mair, “Innovation Is Not the Holy Grail,” Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2012
- Let a Miracle Worker Do It: Lone Wolf Inventing
Pino Audia and Christopher Rider, “A Garage and an Idea: What More Does an Entrepreneur Need?” California Management Review, 2005
Jasjit Singh, and Lee Fleming, “Lone Inventors as Sources of Breakthroughs: Myth or Reality?” Management Science, 2010
Elizabeth Watson, “Who or What Creates? A Conceptual Framework for Social Creativity,” Human Resource Development Review, 2007
- Build an Idea Generator: Structured Creativity
A. Brennan, and L. Dooley, “Networked Creativity: A Structured Management Framework for Stimulating Innovation,” Technovation, 2005
Doris C. C. K. Kowaltowski, Giovana Bianchi, and Vale´ria Teixeira de Paiva, “Methods that May Stimulate Creativity and Their Use in Architectural Design Education,” International Journal of Technology Design Education, 2010
Teresa M. Amabile, Sigal Barsade Jennifer S. Mueller, and Barry M. Staw, “Affect and Creativity at Work,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 2005
- Let Collaboration Do It: Collaborative Social Entrepreneurship
A Wren Montgomery, Peter A. Dacin, M. Tina Dacin, “Collective Social Entrepreneurship: Collaboratively ShapingSocial Good,” Journal of Business Ethics, 2012
Grace Davie, “Social Entrepreneurship: A Call for Collective Action,” OD Practitioner, 2011
- Build the Right Team and Run the Team Right: Social Teaming
Jennifer S. Mueller, “Why Individuals in Larger Teams Perform Worse,” Organization Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2012
Julia Minson, and Jennifer S. Mueller, “The Cost of Collaboration: Why Joint Decision Making Exacerbates Rejection of Outside Information,” Psychological Science, 2012
Anto J. Villado, and Winfred Arthur, J., “The Comparative Effect of Subjective After-Action Reviews On Team Performance on a Complex Task,” Journal of Applied Sociology, 2013
- Create a New Voice: Social Alliances
Priscilla Wohlstetter, Joanna Smith, and Courtney L. Malloy, “Strategic Alliances in Action: Toward a Theory of Evolution,” Policy Studies Journal, 2005
Christine Mahoney, “Networking vs. Allying: The Decision of Interest Groups to Join Coalitions in the US and the EU,” Journal of European Public Policy, 2007
- Create a New Kind of Business: “B Corps”
William H. Clark, Jr., and Larry Vranka, et al., “The Need and Rationale for the Benefit Corporation,” 2013, published by bcorporation.net (Spend a few moments visiting the website to get a sense of the movement)
Visit and read the sections titled “What are B Corps,” “Why B Corps Matter,” “Why Become a B Corp,” and “B the Change.” Then drill around to find “How to Become a B Corp” and “The B Corp Declaration”
- Increase Accountability: Measure and Improve Ethical Conduct
Gael M. Mcdonald, “An Anthology of Codes of Ethics,” European Business Review, 2009
John C. Lere, and Bruce R. Gaumnitz, “Changing Behavior by Improving Codes of Ethics,” American Journal of Business, 2007
Eric D. Raile, “Building Ethical Capital: Perceptions of Ethical Climate in the Public Sector,” Public Administration Review, 2013
- Embrace the Standard: Adopt ISO 26000
ECOLOGIA, Handbook for Implementers of ISO 26000: Global Guidance Standard on Social Responsibility, May 2011
Zdenka Zenko and Matjaz Mulej, “Diffusion of Innovative Behavior with Social Responsibility,” Kybernetes, 2011
Janet Jacobsen, “The Quality Professional’s Role in ISO 26000,” The Journal for Quality and Participation, 2001
SOCIAL ADVOCACY
(We have the right idea, but it needs to be adopted and diffused)
- Strengthen the Soft Wiring: Activate the Empathy
Francis B. M. de Waal, “The Antiquity of Empathy,” Science, 2012
Stephanie D. Preston, and Frans B. M. de Waal, “Empathy: Its Ultimate and ProximateBases,” Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2002 (Read main article and browse responses)