Duration
30h Th, 10h Pr
Number of credits
Lecturer
Language(s) of instruction
English language
Organisation and examination
Teaching in the first semester, review in January
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
The Change Management course aims at offering the students different perspectives regarding the change management issues and challenges.
The course first presents various grids, available in management sciences, in order to describe the change projects, their nature, their scope, their temporalities, etc.
It also highlights how these changes may be explained, by referring to different theoretical approaches and by combining them in an integrated model, called "the five forces model".
The course then explores the way in which change processes may be assessed thanks to a multidimensional grid, directly resulting from the five forces model.
In the same perspective, the course proposes to consider changes as processes likely to be anticipated, via more or less probable scenarios, putting the emphasis on the crucial role played by the management style.
Finally, changes are envisaged as processes to be managed, by exploring diverse concrete avenues of action, linked to the theoretical approaches previously examined, in view of developing a "polyphonic" management style.
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
Students are provided with theoretical and conceptual tools destined to help them 1/ analyze the change management issues and challenges through different perspectives, and 2/ design, in a relevant way, a change management plan.
In line with the key learning outcomes of the Masters in Business Engineering and in Management Sciences, the main objectives of the course are:
- To develop students' skills regarding the establishment and the implementation of a strategy to optimize an organization and/or a project
- To invite students to take into account the legal, social, societal, and technological context of private companies and public institutions in the establishment and in the implementation of a strategy aiming at optimizing an organization and/or a project
- To work on students' capacity to research autonomously and methodically the information needed to solve a complex, transversal management problem
- To boost students' capacity to integrate researched information, tools, knowledge and context to build, propose, and implement original, creative and viable solutions to concrete complex management problems
- To develop students' critical sense (arguing) and to invite them to question their managerial practices with a responsible and ethical mind
- To ask students to show creativity, antonomy and entrepreneurial spirit, especially in the conception of solutions related to innovation project management and change management
- To enhance students' capacity to communicate efficiently about a company and a project through a professional perspective
- To develop students' capacity to work efficiently in a team
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
The "Change Management" course is based on traditional lectures, participatory approaches, and self-learning methods (see below). Students will be invited to read several documents (book chapters, articles, press releases) and to document themselves (a.o. via the Web) on dedicated topics in line with each class session. Course sessions will be organized around lectures, discussions, real case studies, assignments/exercises, and coaching sessions.
Assignments are organized as follows:
- 3 or 4 in-class exercises (under ppt format) (not graded) concerning:
a) The descriptive analysis of a change process exposed by a member of the board of a company
b) The exploration of the explicative approaches underlying the change management methodology exposed by a consultant
c) The evaluation of a restructuring project in an industrial firm (video case study)
d) The analysis of a CEO's - or a project manager's - management style
- 1 final assignment (report to be submitted during the January exam session) (100% of the final grade) consisting of:
The design of an action plan related to the presentation of a change project by a member of the board of a company
Assignments will be realized in teams of 4 students.
Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)
Class sessions combine multiple approaches: theoretical lectures, participatory discussions, case studies, guest speakers' talks, assignments realization, coaching sessions, etc. Lessons will notably offer the opportunity to listen to different guest speakers, exposing concrete cases of change, which will have to be analyzed thanks to diverse theoretical tools. The last plenary session is devoted to the presentation, by a CEO or a member of the board, of a strategic change project that still has to be managed: students will have to design, as final assignment, and according to the methodology detailed during the course, a concrete action plan destined to support the implementation of this project.
A continuous investment, in terms of readings preparation and of assignments realization, is thus required from the students.
Recommended or required readings
Required book:
- PICHAULT, F., CASTRO, J.-L. & CHEVALIER, F. (2022), Towards a Polyphonic Approach to Change Management, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Recommended books:
- KOTTER, J.P. (2012), Leading Change, Boston, Harvard Business Review Press.
- BATTILANA, J. & CASCIARO, T. (2021), Power for All. How it really works and why it's everyone's business, New York, Simon & Schuster.
Diverse documents available on the Lol@ platform: http://lola.hec.ulg.ac.be
1st session:
- realization, by groups of 4 students, of a final assignment (100% of the final grade), that consists in designing an action plan to support a real change project presented by a CEO during the last plenary session
- relative weight of individual assessment: none.
2nd session:
- individual written exam covering the content of the book and of the case studies
- relative weight of individual assessment: 100%.
Work placement(s)
Organisational remarks and main changes to the course
Contacts
Professor:
Olivier LISEIN,
HEC Liège - University of Liege,
Building N1d / LENTIC,
Phone: +32 4 366 30 70,
E-Mail: O.Lisein@uliege.be
Teaching Assistant:
Margaux PERE,
HEC Liège - University of Liege,
Building N1d / LENTIC,
Phone: +32 4 366 30 70,
E-Mail: margaux.pere@uliege.be