Three graded assignments and class participation make up your final grade.
Assignment #1-Individual Industry Policy Analysis (due: Class 3) 25%
Assignment #2-Sub-Group Organizational Process Assessment (due: Class 6) 40%
Assignment #3-Concluding Consensus Policy Recommendations (due: Class 13) 25%
Class Participation 10%
Industry Groups: Aerospace, Airlines, Bio-technology, Water/Gas/Electric Utilities, Health Care, Pharmaceuticals, Telecommunications, or others based on class dialogue. (industry assignments to be established in the first class)
Assignment #1-Initial Industry Policy Analysis. (25% of course grade)
Assume you have been retained as an external industry analyst by a public-private stakeholder consortia in your industry sector. Draft a 1-2 page (single spaced) memo. This should provide an industry analysis identifying what you see as the top 2-3 technology and policy issues in this sector of the economy. For each of these policy issues, list the major stakeholders and provide 1-2 paragraphs of analysis of the key organizational challenges that are associated with the issues. Provide any additional conclusions or comments as are appropriate.
In class all of the people in a given industry sector will have a chance to reach a full-group consensus on a single policy issue to be the main focus of subsequent analysis in this sector-which will require instructor approval.
Due: Class 3
Assignment #2-Full Organizational Process Assessment. (40% of course grade)
You will be randomly assigned to appropriate public and private stakeholder sub-groups for your industry sector. It will be your responsibility to conduct a more detailed assessment of the organizational implications of the selected policy issue. You are encouraged to use primary and secondary sources in constructing your analysis. Every person in the group must conduct at least one interview with someone who can provide a key stakeholder perspective on the organizational and policy issues. It is expected that you will include in the analysis the following elements:
Current state assessment of the organizational situation relative to the policy issue Future state vision of aligned and effective organizations for the given policy issue Recommended implementation milestones connecting the current state to the future state vision
Be sure to use all three course perspectives-political, strategic, and cultural-in your analysis. The analysis is expected to be a 3-5 page single-space paper.
Due: Class 6
Assignment #3-Concluding Consensus Policy Recommendations. (25% of course grade)
All stakeholder groups from a given industry sector will be expected to work together-in class and outside of class-to craft a consensus set of policy recommendations on the issue selected. This should be drafted in the form of a policy white paper that is designed to facilitate any legislation or private policy decisions that are required. This should also be a 3-5 page single-space paper.
Due: Class 13
Participation (10% of course grade)
Attendance in all classes is a base-line pre-requisite for this part of the grade. During class discussions we will be looking for informed judgments incorporating insights from reading assignments. This portion of the grade is not a reward for maximizing "air time"-in fact we highly value efforts at encouraging contributions by others and shared learning by the entire class.