This multidisciplinary minor comprises six courses: an introductory course, two additional courses focused on core organizational content, and three electives that address important themes in analyzing organizations.
Spring 2025 Course Offerings
Students must take:
Required Introductory Course
ORGS 201: Introduction to Organizational Studies. This entry-level course in the minor provides a background into the subject matter of organizational studies. Students will learn basic organizational types, read multidisciplinary scholarship on organizations, and use case studies to appraise concepts and theories in action. The overall goal is for students to learn core ideas about organizations to help prepare them for further study of different types of organizations.
The introductory course is one of three core courses that address organizational structures, participants, and processes as central content.
Two courses focusing on organizational structures, participants, and processes
Students must take two courses from the core cluster below, which will be taught regularly.
- A&S 235: Business and Society. This course explores the impact of business upon our culture and the role of business in modern society. Of special interest are the growth and development of capitalism and business thought, the influence of the corporation, and the role of management in society. Case materials are utilized extensively.
- ECON 259: Financial Accounting and Analysis. This course introduces basic concepts and standards for measuring and reporting economic effects on and of organizations.
- ECON 331: Industrial Organization: Market Structure and Strategy. This course integrates microeconomic theory with economic application techniques in an investigation of various market structures, strategic firm interaction, antitrust issues, and economic regulation.
- PSYC 211: Industrial-Organizational Psychology. Industrial-Organizational (I-O) Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes in organizations, especially work organizations.
Three courses that examine cases of organizations in action
These courses share a common feature of focusing on an organization in action. The relevant feature may be in how organizations communicate, organizational design, or different organizational types and services and/or on the impacts that organizations have with consumerism, social problems, and inequality.
Elective courses
- A&S 217: Poverty in America
- A&S 220: Who Gets What and Why
- A&S 226: Race, Racism, and Health
- A&S 231: Anthropology of Education
- A&S 237: Sociology of Consumerism and Marketing
- A&S 242: Transnationalisms
- A&S 245: Mass Communications and Society
- A&S 265: Sociology of Sport
- Econ 223: Money and Banking
- Econ 255: Multinational Business and Corporate Social Responsibility
- Econ 259: Financial Accounting
- Econ 328: Labor Economics
- Econ 336: Experimental and Behavioral Economics
- Econ 342: Public Finance
- Econ 358: Corporate Governance and Ethical Responsibility in the Global Environment
- Econ 360: Industrial Organization: Marketing to Consumers
- Econ 337: Personnel Economics
- Govt 248: Capitalism and its Critics
- Hist 213: Precolonial African History
- Hist 231: Capitalism Takes Command
- Psyc 235: Social Psychology 1
- Psyc 270: Sports Psychology
- Psyc 331: Human Factors and Engineering Psychology
- THTR 270: Topics: Arts Management
- Govt 419: Global Governance
Over time, we hope to include courses from additional departments into the minor.
Multidisciplinary emphasis: Organizational Studies is a multidisciplinary minor that examines organizations from the vantage points of different disciplines. To that end, no more than two courses from the same department can count toward fulfilling this minor requirement. If a student has declared a major in a department offering courses that also count towards this minor, no more than two of those courses can count for both this minor and toward completing that major program. This minor is designed to ensure that students take courses across different contributing departments.
Elective policy: Students may propose one elective not listed here as best fits their interests. This elective must be approved on a case-by-case basis and in advance by the program chair.