The Graduate Certificate in Innovation and Social Change is a 15 credit hour program of study designed to teach students how to deal with large-scale, fast-moving change and innovation in public and common service delivery.
Leading and managing organizational change has been identified as critical challenge for the management of any organization; especially in light of the fact that only 30 percent of all change initiatives are successful. Organizations need employees who are prepared to adapt to a changing environment and successfully adopt and implement new practices or technologies.
This certificate offers students the opportunity to critically review, debate, and examine the theory and practice of social entrepreneurship. It is designed to provide current and future managers and leaders with an overview of important topics in this emerging field and begin to prepare them to develop and lead socially entrepreneurial ventures and initiatives.
Innovation and Social Change certificate program
Curriculum
The 15 credit hour certificate consists of four required courses and one elective.
Required classes (12 credit hours; choose four classes)
Analysis of concepts, methods, and procedures involved in managing public organizations. Problems of organization, planning, decision-making, performance evaluation, and management of human resources are considered. Cases are drawn from a variety of public services found at federal, state, and local levels of government.
An examination of the role of public affairs professionals in policy processes. Focuses on relationships with political actors in various policy areas.
This course provides an overview of theory and practice of organizational change. A particular focus lies on organizational responses to the external environment as well as individual responses to organizational change.
The theory, size, scope, and functions of the nonprofit and voluntary sector are covered from multiple disciplinary perspectives including historical, political, economic, and social.
This course will survey issues in social entrepreneurship and engage students in completing class projects applying principles and practices of social entrepreneurship to problems of nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and social-purpose business.
This course examines the fiscal role of government in a mixed economy; sources of public revenue and credit; administrative, political, and institutional aspects of a budget and the budgetary process; problems and trends in intergovernmental fiscal relations.
Elective (3 credit hours)
Choose one additional O’Neill graduate public affairs course, which cannot include independent research studies, readings, or internship classes.
This course concerns advocacy as practiced by public and nonprofit organizations. Advocacy includes a broad range of activities that attempt to influence a specific policy, legislative, regulatory, or implementation outcome. Advocacy also can include efforts to influence private behavior or encourage individual action.
This course focuses on the interaction between the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to achieve consensus in decision-making to influence federal, state, and local policies. The course conveys theoretical and practical aspects of multisector collaboration to achieve more effective outcomes than each sector could individually conceive.
The study of disparate impact of environmental policies and practices on various population groups, both within the United States and internationally. This course includes studying the role of power, class, race, and politics in the development and enforcement of environmental regulations.