This semester's syllabi

This semester I'm teaching two sections of a course called EADM 368: Administration of Complex Educational Organizations. One class is "face to face" meets on the Stockton campus of University of the Pacific. The other section is a hybrid course (face to face and online) that meets monthly (3 times in Hanford, once in Stockton). I'm teaching it as an organizational theory class with a history of org theory by Scott & Davis and Reframining Organizations by Bolman & Deal. In the middle of the semester I'll add an article on Afrocentric organizational theory and some readings on feminist organizational theory. Then I want to think about the future: how will technology and social media impact organizational structure and design? Our immediate access to college presidents via email (or even Facebook) has, for example, allowed us to cross, skip, navigate traditional organizational boundaries and "go right to the top." In some sense, then, the structure has flattened out. Other times, we find ourselves copying more and more people, hitting "reply to all" and getting pulled into issues that may not actually be ours to address, thus creating some confusion in the organization. I'm looking forward to working with the two seminars to consider future organizational structures.