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Curriculum

The OS curriculum contains core and elective courses offered by the OS Program, but the majority of the curriculum is made up of classes drawn from departments across the university. However, not all courses at Michigan are “organizational,” and thus only some qualify for OS credit. Organizations are social systems that coordinate individual efforts to achieve things beyond the reach of individuals acting alone. Courses included in the OS curriculum can cover a very broad range of academic fields and topics, but must be in some sense “organizational” in their content or approach.

Because the curriculum is so rich and diverse, Organizational Studies has created a planning tool called the Concentration Pathway.  Concentration Pathways allow concentrators to plan and their trajectory navigate through the array of courses available.

Students must apply for and be accepted into the concentration.  Only students admitted to the program can be declared concentrators.

Prerequisites to concentration. Students must complete an introductory course in economics, psychology, and sociology. Courses that serve as an introduction to the field include Economics 101; Psychology 111, 112, 114 ,or 115; and Sociology 100, 101, 102, or 195. AP credit is acceptable to fulfill the Psychology and/or the Economics prerequisites.

Students should be aware that additional prerequisites are required for many of the upper-level courses in the OS curriculum. Depending on their particular area of interest, students may wish to complete Econ 102 and/or entry level courses in Political Science, Communication Studies or Women's Studies as they prepare to apply to the OS program.

Concentration Program: The concentration in organizational studies requires a minimum of 37 credits, distributed as follows:

Core requirements:  Two courses are required. Minimum 6 credits.

• Organizational Studies 305 Inside Organizations
• Organizational Studies 310 Formal Organizations and Environments (fulfills ULWR for OS students)

Cluster Requirement

Non-core courses are divided into three "clusters" based on their contents.  We require a minimum of four courses spread across both clusters.  Two courses in each cluster listed below must be completed for a minimum of 12 credits.  Cluster requirements are designed to provide disciplinary variety in the study of organizations, drawing on courses in a number of fields, and ranging across multiple levels of organizational analysis. Please note that some courses may require additional prerequisites.

Cluster A:  Organizations and Individuals
Cluster A courses are those that focus mainly on questions and topics concerning the organized behavior of individuals or the behavior of individuals in organizations. Cluster A classes typically  are either upper level offerings in the LSA curriculum. These courses may address the relations individuals have to larger social structures such as the family or formal organizations.  Their major focus should be on the effects organizational structure exert an individual psychology of behavior. Most psychology courses concerned with organizations and organized behavior will fall in this cluster, as will some courses in political science, anthropology, communications, and economics. Sociology courses rarely fall in this cluster.

Cluster B: Organizations and Society

Cluster B courses are those that focus mainly on questions and topics concerning the organization of social groups (e.g., ethnic groups), historical processes (e.g., the rise of capitalism), and/or medium to large social structures (e.g., corporations, national governments, or global governing bodies). They are typically either 300 or 400 level offerings in the LSA curriculum. Although Cluster B courses may at times address the impact of such larger structures and processes on individual behavior or may include attention to particular individuals from U.S. or world history, the primary concern of Cluster B courses is with questions about how social groups, historical processes, and social structures emerge, remain stable, and/or change. Most sociology, political science, and history courses will fall in this cluster, as will some economics and anthropology courses:

Senior Field Research and Quantitative Skills Requirements

Analysis, Research and Practice in Organizations. 7 credits. This requirement is designed to provide both quantitative analytic and experiential learning opportunities for research, analysis, and practice in a wide range of organizational settings. One course is required in each area. The research course must be taken in the senior year.

Interest Cluster (Cluster C)

Cluster C courses in the organizational Studies Curriculum are intended to allow concentrators to pursue their curriculum pathway interests in a more specialized way. Cluster C courses should have an organizational theme and can be of either the A or B variety, but are almost always more narrow and focused in their content. Cluster C courses can and do often come from a variety of departments both in LSA and in various University of Michigan schools and colleges.

Orgstudy courses NOT counted toward the concentration

Orgstudy 201 Leadership and Collaboration is a project-based class uses organizational sociology, psychology, economics, and political science to ask what good leadership is and how people can be effective leaders when they lack formal authority.

Orgstudy 299 Undergraduate Internship is available for students who are required or wish to receive credit for an internship experience. OS 299 is a 1 credit non-graded (CR/NC) course which does not count toward OS concentration requirements.

Soc/Orgstudy 215 Organization and Society is a survey course designed for underclass students who wish to have a broad introduction to the field of organizational sociology. It is not a prerequisite for the OS concentration, nor does it count toward OS concentration requirements.