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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Organizational Analysis by Stanford University

4.6
stars
1,448 ratings

About the Course

In this introductory, self-paced course, you will learn multiple theories of organizational behavior and apply them to actual cases of organizational change. Organizations are groups whose members coordinate their behaviors in order to accomplish a shared goal. They can be found nearly everywhere in today’s society: universities, start-ups, classrooms, hospitals, non-profits, government bureaus, corporations, restaurants, grocery stores, and professional associations are some of many examples of organizations. Organizations are as varied and complex as they are ubiquitous: they differ in size and internal structure; they can entail a multiplicity of goals and tasks (some of which are planned and others unplanned!); they are made up of individuals whose goals and motivations may differ from those of the group; and they must interact with other organizations and deal with environmental constraints in order to be successful. This complexity frequently results in a myriad of problems for organizational participants and the organization’s survival. In this course, we will use organizational theories to systematically analyze how an organization operates and can best be managed. Organizational theories highlight certain features of an organization’s structure and environment, as well as its processes of negotiation, production, and change. Each provides a lens for interpreting novel organizational situations and developing a sense for how individual and group behaviors are organized. Theories are valuable for the analyst and manager because most organizational problems are unique to the circumstances and cannot be solved by simple rules of thumb. Armed with a toolset of organizational theories, you will be able to systematically identify important features of an organization and the events transforming it; choose a theoretical framework most applicable to the observed mode of organizing; and use that theory to determine which actions will best redirect the organization in desired directions. In sum, the course has three goals: to become familiar with a series of real-world organizational phenomena; to learn different theoretical perspectives that can elucidate these phenomena; and to apply these different ways of “seeing” and managing organizations to cases. In such a fashion, the course is designed to actively bridge theory and practice, exposing students to a variety of conceptual tools and ways to negotiate novel situations....

Top reviews

AL

Sep 2, 2019

Very challenging yet worth it. If you are in an administrative position in an organization (especially education) you will get some great perspectives/understandings from this course. Take good notes!

AA

Apr 29, 2020

This course provides in-depth analyses of a host of organizational theories and their application in real life. The dissection of each case and the applicability of the theories are really insightful.

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326 - 350 of 426 Reviews for Organizational Analysis

By GOBI S

Nov 7, 2017

excellent

By Sandra V S

Oct 12, 2020

Excelent

By Fahad N A

Sep 6, 2018

AMAZING

By Vikki K

Jan 25, 2023

Good

By Shimaa T

Sep 8, 2021

Great

By SHYAKA G

Mar 8, 2021

Super

By Swarup R S

May 30, 2020

Great

By منير ح

Oct 10, 2023

good

By Efi A

Aug 19, 2023

Good

By Dissanayake M B D D

Dec 27, 2021

best

By Yao J P B k

Mar 18, 2021

BON

By Isaak T

Dec 7, 2022

The content is excellent, and I like the idea of using organizational analysis models as "lenses" through which we can look at organizations, networks and situations.

The videos are well made, though the instructor is mostly reading from the provided PDF, which after some point I found more helpful than watching or listening to the videos. The provided PDF is very useful and contains lots of good content structured in a solid manner.

The examples used to highlight the presented theories are mediocre; they are often either far removed from most people's experiences (e.g., Cuban Missile Crisis) or too education-focused or too US-centric; the instructor also often uses situations he faces in an academic environment as examples of applying the different theories, which is not interesting for people taking the course to better understand business organizations and/or people not currently enrolled in or considering employment in an academic institution.

The quiz at the end of each week is mostly good, as it builds on the questions posed while watching the videos, though it's possible to answer them by studying the course's PDF. Some questions in the quizzes test attentiveness rather than understanding.

The final quiz is, unfortunately, an exercise in memorization and reviewing the PDF content. There is simply too much nitty-gritty material covered across the 10 weeks of the course and there are too many contrasting theories and aspects to really be able to answer 117 multiple-choice questions in a row without questioning the point of it all.

IMO the many-question quiz is an outdated way of checking for obtained understanding and knowledge, and some of the questions don't really mean much outside of the context of the course. For example: fine, I know that theory A differs from theory B in some minute way mentioned in a video or documented in the PDF. It's however very likely that this difference will not be something I will remember months down the road or something that will impact my application of either theory, so why focus on this difference instead of applicability of the theories on various situations?

I applaud the fortitude and memorization skills of everyone who got 100% on it, though I cannot understand how that translates to proof of a better learning outcome than just barely passing and calling it a day, with the PDF as a useful reference to remember all the nitty-gritty.

For those wanting to dive deeper, the Screen-Side Chat videos are very useful and often more insightful than the main course videos in answering "what if" questions, and I strongly recommend them.

Overall, this is a very insightful and well-delivered course that was a good use of my time. It provided many "aha moments" related to my business experience in change and improvement initiatives, as well as regarding motivations of mergers, acquisitions, and general joint ventures. The course would benefit from a more application-focused and understanding-oriented means of checking the attendee's knowledge retention, but that's really nitpicking.

By Inta O

Sep 14, 2020

Unfortunately, not my favorite course. It did contain loads of information and theory names, but a little bit less of explaining. More often than during other courses I had to pause and go back or consult other sources to grasp the concepts (only to learn during the exam that it was still not enough ;) ). I also did not enjoy the reading (by the Professor) of the material - I would have rather preferred him telling in his own words and explaining along the way as it was during the SSC sessions; I do acknowledge though that this may be my own individual learning peculiarity. Also, the choice of examples sometimes seemed interesting; if the course if available worldwide, peculiarities of US educational system require a degree on its own (I am from Europe and had a tough time to figure out what the bottom line/ issue of the example would be..). However, I really do appreciate the amount of work that has been put into the material. Thank you!

By Daan P

Aug 5, 2018

Interesting course offering deep theoretical insight into the captivating world of organizations. The frameworks offered in this course provide anyone interested in the field or those thinking about taking some related undergraduate course with a good place to start their (continued) journey. As I have had the opportunity of studying in the United States during my exchange semester, the examples were not completely lost on me. For those also having spent most of their lives in Europe; the practical application of the theoretical frameworks are considerably centered around American affairs and cases. The forum offers some counterbalance, but whose participation and/or contributions are not necessarily of importance to the successful completion of the course. The quizzes were excellently interwoven with the lectures and recapped at the end of the week and provide you precisely with the tools and preparation to the final examination.

By c k v

Apr 16, 2020

I found the course quite interesting as I could relate these theories to the Management Practices & Organisational behaviours that I am very familiar with. There are very insightful and powerful tools & information in these theories for the practising Manager.

Th only improvement I would suggest would be to teach the theories under "management concepts" so that it is easily relatable by working professionals. This means that each week (or module) covers a Management concept say - Decision Making or Resource Management or Managing culture etc. This way, you will attract lot of practitioners your online version of the Course. Otherwise, it appears to be just an exposition of a bunch of sociological theories about Organizations.

By Alexandra J

Mar 1, 2020

Highly recommended course. There is a lot to unpack here, immediately applicable yet with solid theoretical basis. I have learned to ask new questions, and learned to look at organizations from new, very different perspectives. I do think having work experience is an advantage. The course material is very good (reader, videos, transcripts), the lessons are well-presented. The one thing that keeps me from ticking that 5th star is the state of the discussion forum: it's basically dead. Not Stanford's fault, but as an interactive learning tool it's over.

The site lists '28 hours' as time investment, that is an underestimate - it's easily double that.

By Krista M

Sep 19, 2018

I thought the course was a start in the introduction of Organizational Analysis. I have reviewed the written text as part of this course - this is a feat, while I have many interdisciplinary comments, questions, critiques - some of the ideas could be clarified. I would elaborate more in the theories of Organizational Anarchies, Network Formations, and think about adding examples of buffering, bridging, and bonding. I've more questions in the development of organizational theories in implementation; thinking many gaps in the realm. Did different individuals write the quizzes?

By Julliard L

Dec 28, 2019

Serves as a great, thorough intro to the academic field of organizational analysis. The professor puts organizes a ton of content and explains concepts very well.

That said, the course would have been much more useful if the forum were active, rather than all posts being 3 years old. Half the videos (the screen-side chats) are the professor responding to student discussion from earlier iterations of this course. I wish us later learners had that opportunity! As is, it's not hard to blow through this course with minimal real engagement with the concepts.

By Guillaume H

Feb 4, 2018

This course is really great to solidify the concepts about organizations as a whole. It digs in the academic as well as the pratical use cases. Only caveat is that it is too centered on examples from the teaching environment (shools) and public sector in the West. No perspective on organizations in other parts of the globe. It lacks a bit of examples from real life and there should be more tertimonies from third parties, videos, interviews. We have only one view here.

In spite of these limitations, I highly recommended it.

By Holly C

Jan 25, 2021

Professor is exceptional - great connections from theory to examples. Some technical glitches meant that I missed some of the nuances (not all is captured by the lecture transcriptions). For example, sound would stop after some of the mini-quizzes and I'd have to start the lecture over again. And some mini-quizzes popped up before all of the content had been covered. Much of the content is particularly more interesting and relevant now, in this COVID-19 environment.

Thank you for the opportunity!

By Adedayo A

May 15, 2018

A very informative course and definitely worth it - good job to all those involved!! (a bit hard going at times due to the pace vis-a-vis some of the theory topics).

The side chats expanded on practical application of the theories with examples which was very helpful. It may be worth updating the side chats with more recent questions and comments though as these are currently showing as 2012 and 2013.

By Michael M

Nov 25, 2018

I did find the course itself quite interesting and easy to follow. However the weekly forums were essentially dead, most of the posts were dating back months to years. The one or two recent posts did not result in any discussion. I am under the impression, there was any maintenance of the course content since 2013 at the latest.

By ALI R

Aug 9, 2017

Though the course is arranged and organized in a very smooth way. But often time during lectures, it gets boring. Too much verbal explanation, that often distract us from the main topic. But overall it was a good course and one can learn a lot from it. The teaching of the professor was awsum.

By Andreea O

Jul 6, 2023

very well structured, the content is very interesting and the learning material is complete. However sometimes it's quite too heavy and the slides are too crowded. It can be very tiring but with some fine tuning it is a great course! Thank you for making it available to everyone on Coursera.

By Manuel G

Jun 3, 2017

I learned a lot of interesting concepts in this course. The only thing that I would criticise is that, at times, I felt like some of the theories made up these kind of overly complicated categories to classify simple or intuitive things. But it was a good course overall.