Brown University News Bureau

The Brown University News Bureau

1998-1999 index

Distributed October 30, 1998
Contact: Mark Nickel

A worthy successor to OBM

Curriculum Council approves new concentration in organizational behavior

Organizational Behavior and Management, long one of the University's most popular undergraduate concentrations, will be replaced by a new course of study titled Public and Private Sector Organizations. The new concentration will be managed jointly by sociology and public policy.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The College Curriculum Council at Brown University has approved a new undergraduate concentration (academic major) devoted to the study of public and private sector organizations. The new concentration will replace Organizational Behavior and Management, long one of the University's most popular courses of study.

"The new PPSO concentration will build on the success of Organizational Behavior and Management," said Nancy Dunbar, dean of the College. "It will continue the study of management within organizations and will consider a wider array of multiorganizational alliances and networks that are increasingly important to the mission of many organizations."

In addition to the study of private organizations, students in the new concentration will analyze a greater variety of public-sector entities, including government agencies, philanthropic and social service organizations, health and education institutions and other non-governmental organizations.

The new concentration will be managed jointly by the Department of Sociology and the A. Alfred Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions. A five-member faculty advisory committee will be formed to oversee student advising, program direction and coordination across academic departments. Additional faculty will be added; a search for a junior level faculty member with training in organizational theory is underway.

The Organizational Behavior and Management concentration has been graduating more than 60 students annually in recent years and has developed an alumni body of nearly 1,200 since 1973. Barrett Hazeltine, professor emeritus of engineering, who has been most closely associated with the concentration, will continue to offer courses through the 2000-'01 academic year. Students currently concentrating in Organizational Behavior and Management will be able to complete their coursework and earn degrees in that concentration. Students may enter the existing concentration through May 1999. Thereafter, the new Public and Private Sector Organizations concentration will be the only option available.

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