COURSE SYLLABUS

PUBP 710: "Managing Organizational Complexity: Special Readings"

  1. Date: Fall, 1998
  2. Location: George Mason University, Fairfax Campus
  3. Instructor: John N. Warfield, University Professor, Phone 703-993-2994, George Mason University, Mail Stop 1B2, Fairfax, VA 22030-4444.
  4. Course Registration: See Dr. Larrison Jackson, TIPP, 703-993-2280.
  5. Course Outline. You are reading this on the TIPP home page of the World Wide Web at this URL: http://www.gmu/edu/departments/t-iasis. At this same URL you will find a description of the May, 1998, short course offered by Dr. Warfield. All students will be expected to learn the material outlined in the "condensed patterns" shown for the May, 1998, short course.

    Possibilities for research in special readings will be similar to the many shown in the 80 pages of annotated bibliography relating to complexity, appearing at this web site:

    http://www.statewave.com/tiers_1_4/BIBWARF.HTM

    Other bibliography will be distributed to bring the foregoing material up to date, based on work done since 1992.

  6. College Credit. 3 credits.
  7. Hours. The schedule of courses will show 11 AM, Monday, Room 10, North PE Module, but this is just a fiction made necessary by the rigidity of GMU's computer software used for scheduling.
  8. Number Enrolled. Up to 20 students will be accepted.
  9. Course Plan. The class will not meet as a whole, except possibly once at the end of the semester. Students who enroll will schedule meetings with Warfield by email at our mutual convenience and necessity. All students will meet with Warfield some time during the first week to develop an individual study plan/contract on a topic of mutual interest. Thereafter meetings will be arranged individually with each student (and there may be a small number meeting together, depending on arrangements).
  10. Grading. Students who follow the plan/contract faithfully will be graded based on two items: a) Their term paper, 70% and b) Their final oral exam, 30%. Students who do not follow the plan/contract will either have to be diligent in amending it with mutual agreement, or else they will fail the course.
  11. A revised and updated course syllabus (replacing this one) will be prepared at the end of the fifth week, for the purpose of showing the variety of plans/contracts, and the expected term paper titles. Each term paper MUST show how the complexity subjects represented by the "condensed patterns" relate to the chosen public policy topic.

    PLEASE NOTE:

    A second syllabus for the spring course will read just the same except for the title of the course and the dates. The student should find it possible to click on the fall course or the spring course and see them described separately.