Human Relations and Organizational Behavior in Education

Course Description

This course examines human relations and organizational behavior concepts, strategies, and theories from the public, business, and educational sectors and applies them to the educational realm. The key processes of conflict resolution and organizational change are explored, along with how they influence educational organizations in the areas of leadership, communication, decision making, problem solving, diversity issues and educational change.

Topics and Objectives

History and Theories of Human Relations

• Examine the history and theories of human relations.
• Examine how sociological and psychological points of view have influenced educational organizations today.
• Promote teaching and learning that recognizes various components of human relations.

Behavioral Dynamics

• Compare and contrast human behaviors that positively and negatively affect the dynamics of the educational system.

Decision-making Models and Group Dynamics

• Analyze power structures, group dynamics, shared decision-making processes, and integrity to identify effective techniques for building consensus.
• Analyze internal and external power structures to determine how they affect systemic change in the educational organization.
• Compare and contrast decision-making models to facilitate systemic change.
• Analyze how integrity and ethical behavior affects decision making and group dynamics.

Organizational Culture and Climate

• Evaluate current research on human relations and organizational culture.
• Analyze evaluation practices and instruments that measure the organizational culture and climate.

Leadership

• Analyze different leadership styles.
• Determine how transformational leadership can affect systemic change.
• Compare and contrast leadership and management.

Conflict Resolution and Problem Solving

• Explore conflict resolution and problem-solving techniques.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of these techniques in minimizing and resolving conflicts among staff, administrators, and the community.
• Analyze the importance of effective communication in conflict resolution.

Examine ways to manage stress effectively at the organizational level. Diversity

• Analyze current diversity issues that influence human relations in schools and in other educational agencies.
• Generate effective strategies for dealing with diversity-related issues in educational organizations.