Workplace Productivity
IFSM-302 (3)
University College
Electronic Distance Education
Heidelberg, Germany
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Workplace ProductivityIFSM-302 (3) |
University
of Maryland University College Electronic Distance Education Heidelberg, Germany |
| DE Term 4, 2002-2003; Dates: 7 Apr. - 25 Jul. 2003 | ||
Course Syllabus |
| [If you have specific questions about this course, please email me.] |
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Course Goal: To enable you to:
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Week 1 Work Continual Individual Work |
A survey of techniques for improving the productivity of practices and procedures in the workplace. Teaming (e.g., encouraging employees' participation in group activities, brainstorming, and making meetings more effective) and problem solving (e.g., simplifying work; charting workflow processes; diagramming causes and effects; and using Pareto analysis, histograms, and total quality management) are the two major approaches emphasized.
This is a core course option for the Information Systems Management
major and a supporting elective for the certificates in Computer Applications
and Information Management.
Productivity is one of the hot management topics both in Information Technology and management in general. Companies have spent tens of millions of dollars on IT. But they have questioned how much productivity of their workers has improved. If you look around you, you will see that IT changes the work we have to do each day. In fact it is at times terribly difficult to compare performance pre-IT upgrade and post-upgrade. There are qualitative changes - sometimes dramatic changes - that your managers really like. Such changes may be related to increases in profitable business - or just increases in activity. Managers want to know which one it is. So do we.
Working with people is perhaps the most important activity one does in an organization. Participating in a vibrant team effort gives me a real "high". ("Bad" teams are a real letdown, but they happen.) Improving productivity in an organization setting cannot take place unless others are involved. That means "teams" in most circumstances.
Peter Scholtes and Brian Joiner, two of your authors, are among the most respected work improvement "gurus" around. They have added to our understanding not just of team working but also of quality improvement methods. I know you will enjoy working through their book, jointly authored with Barbara Streibel, The Team Handbook.
But teams by themselves will not generate swift progress. We need a toolkit with specific techniques and methods assembled by experienced managers and engineers. We will clean the rust off some of the tools you already possess and hopefully add others to your toolkit that you will find valuable in the future. The many techniques in The Memory Jogger II provide a focus for this part of our course.
This course is composed of four modules: Processes - What are they? ; Meetings; Leadership; and Scientific Techniques. UMUC course developers have provided both reading and exercise assignments in our WebTycho virtual classroom as you will see in due course.
Brassard, M., & D. Ritter. The Memory Jogger II, (Goal/QPC), ISBN: 1879364441.
Scholtes, Peter, Brian Joiner and Barbara Streibel. The Team Handbook, 2nd ed., (Oriel), ISBN: 1884731112.
This is a classic in the field of teamwork and productivity improvement.
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This practical, discovery class depends upon active, consistent student involvement. Check our WebTycho classroom and your email at least once every two days and respond to queries within one day if possible, two at the maximum (even if just to say when you will be able to give a more complete answer to the request). I will try to allow you time to explore the subject both individually and in small groups while giving you feedback on completed assignments. There will be both individual and small group work. In addition to studying the assigned text, you must satisfactorily complete the following: |
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c. Course Project: Assess, using both qualitative and quantitative techniques, an information systems process or set of processes that need improvement. This will be a group project where possible, an individual project as needed. You will submit a formal report on both the project and the method of determining the suggested improvements; i.e., your formal process improvement report will have both content area and methodological sections. Your report will be fully documented and presented in technical report writing style. (See below.) |
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| We use WebTycho as our virtual classroom. Discussions take place there and documents are posted for exchange there as well. We will use email as our back-up mode of contact send me an email with your current or changed email address. Please place the course designator - ifsm302 - as the first item in the subject line of each email message. | |
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Class Participation: (25% of course grade)
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I will look at these three things that I ask you to do on a continual basis. Each of the course modules has exercises for you to complete and turn in. You will be graded on your consistent, steady progress through this course. |
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Course Project: (20%) In the last half of the course you will apply the techniques you have learned in a practical way.
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Propose your topic and gain approval of it before midterm. Keep it in the information systems arena. If possible, I would like to see teams from the same service or similar work environments collaborate on a process improvement project. Yes, you would be a real team working in virtual space and that will take more effort on your part to understand and share each other's perspectives. I want to have such teams formed by mid-term as well. You may self-select your teams. They will commonly have 5-9 members. Members may be voted on or off the team, but I must approve all such action. If your personal circumstances do not facilitate team participation, you may request an individual project. This will, nonetheless, still involve teamwork. Those not participating in group projects will help each other develop a process improvement plan, review implementation, and conduct analysis in advisory teams. You will, however, have individual reports for each project. |
| Midterm: open-book, take-home (20%). | You will have 48 hours for each of these tests. |
| Final exam: open-book, take-home (35%) . | |
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This is not a correspondence course. Your presence in our virtual classroom is a vital part of the learning experience for everyone in this course. Consequently lack of consistent participation 2-3 times weekly in spite of long hours at work, computer problems, deployments, vacations, business trips, other courses, etc. may earn you a grade of F(n) as such action overrides the grading percentages shown above. |
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| Weekly Assignments, Class Discussion & Journal: | 25% |
| Course Project: | 20% |
| Mid-term Exam: | 20% |
| Comprehensive Final Exam: | 35% |
| Total: | 100% |
| Lack of regular participation is sufficient cause for the award of the grade of F(n) in spite of any other performance you may have in this DE course. | |
I
will try to help every student earn an "A" by demonstrating a mastery
of course concepts. I do understand that students have many other responsibilities,
but it is your responsibility to your own learning and to assisting the learning
of others in this class that I will be most concerned with. I will work with
every student within reason to help her or him complete this course successfully.
I grade each exam and assignment on a relative scale (A-F; 70-0 points typically).
Your final grade is a weighted average of your separate grades in this course
with some allowance made for technical problems imposed by the delivery method
(WebTycho with email backup). It will come as no surprise that for a variety
of reasons a number of students each term choose not to earn an "A".
See also my grading standards published
on my web site.
Consistent, quality participation and effort are essential if both you and the class as a whole are the reach our goals. You must check your WebTycho and your email at least once every 48 hours and respond to queries within one day (even if just to say when you will be able to give a more complete answer to the request). I will try to allow you time to explore the subject both individually and in small groups while giving you feedback on completed assignments.
See the policy and procedure links at the top of this page.
For supplemental material, see the UMUC on-line database and library (linked from our WT classroom) and the resource lists on my web site.
Finally, do not fall behind. Work ahead if possible. Do some work on this course every day or two. Set aside time to do this. If confused, in doubt, or in need of a clarification on any aspect of the course, contact me first.
This,
then, is the plan. Like all plans, it is subject to change during implementation.
| Phil Richardson; prichard@faculty.ed.umuc.edu | Revised 15 April 2003 |