Syllabus (Click here for Study Guide for Quizzes and access to online book explaining: Quantum Physics of Storytelling Consulting to Small Business)

Mgt448/BA448/Mgt548

Small Business Consulting

NM
STATE
UNIVERSITY

 

David M. Boje, Ph.D.
Professor
Management Department
College of Business
( 575-532-1693
*mailto:dboje@nmsu.edu

I. COURSE DATA & SCHEDULE

Semester:                                 Fall 2011: Aug-Dec 2011 4-6:30 PM Mon Where: BC102
           Course Number:                      
            Course Title:                              Small Business Consulting
            Prerequisites:                            none          
            Credit Hours:                             3                                 
            Instructor:                                 David M. Boje, Ph.D.
               E-Mail Address:                      phone boje
               Office Phone:                        575-532-1693
               Office Hours:                         Mon Noon- 2PM in Frenger Food Court or call for appointment
            Teaching Assistant                    Nazanin Tourani
               E-Mail Address:                     nazanin@nmsu.edu  
               Office:                                   Guthrie GU 300
            Where to find things:     Blackboard and at http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/sbc/
                                    Syllabus on line:                        http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/448/448template.htm
                                   
Forms you will need to print out:

Power (utility) bill $750,000 for month at NMSU for August 2010
Green paper ordering - recycled paper option
200 classes at NMSU have sustainability in them

 

SCHEDULE

Mon Aug 22 4-6:30 PM in BC 102 -- 1st class - Introductions and Policies, and to Storytelling Standpoint Methodology and the Socioeconomic Approach to consulting in the textbook.

Aug 29 - Quiz 1 see study guide:for all the answers (please put answers in your notebook to use during quiz) e.g. questions on 3 Axes, 4-leaf ; who is Wilda, Storytelling Standpoint Method (up and down spiral antenarratives), Heart-sword (know the parts of it); the virtue ethics spiral. Please bring completed client application to this or to the next scheduled class.

Sept 5 - Labor Day Holiday - use time to get client application, do interview on site

Sep 12 -Quiz 2 Savall et al (2008) chapters 1-4, virtue ethics, some field notes are used

Sep 19- Quiz 3 on Chapters 5, - bring printout of your black board entry of field notes and storytelling, which has been entered from best two client field site visits. Bring filled in example of Figure 5.1 p. 32 & 5.3 p. 35 (these can be put into mid-term report, so it is good training for that.

Sep 26 - No Class - FIELD WORK WITH CLIENT

Oct 3 - Quiz 4 on Chapter 6, Axis A - especially Mirror effect examples (bring Blackboard field note entries), include MIRROR EFFECT (p. 66), including chart on that page, verbatim quotes from fieldnotes, and your 3 Expert Opinions today. From Virtue Ethics, two examples of virtues your client has or lacks.

Oct 10 - No Class - use time to work on midterm report and be with client. See REPORT OUTLINE to use for Midterm

Oct 17 - Quiz 5 on Chapter 7, Axis B - be able to show examples of 3 tools you used with client. Bring IESAP (5 year goals, the internal actions, & the external ones), and Figure 7.1.a p. 96 PAP all filled in for your client. Plus Figure 7.4, Time allotment chart filled in for your client (and able to name types of tasks from memory). From Virtue Ethics, two examples of generosity.

Oct 24 - NO CLASS - SPEND TIME WITH CLIENT AND GET READY TO DO YOUR REPORT. See REPORT OUTLINE to use for Midterm

Oct 31st - MID-TERM REPORT- Have items completed as possible to submit in writing and as oral presentation. Please have your client attend (or if out of area, a YouTube or video tape of interview - 7 minutes maximum for presentation. Power-Point is permitted only for photos and charts; not for lists of sentences. Each student is expected to share storytelling directly from their own personal 'storytelling notebook.' Teams: Submit 360 team mate review in sealed envelope. Deduction from grade if video or client is not present.Receive results of Mid-Term Project and Presentation.

 

Nov 7 - No Class - Please spend quality time with your client this day - The NMMI team will be going on field rip- leave Sunday evening, spend Nov 7 and morning of 8th at NMMI, and return to Cruces. Other tems work with their client

Nov 14 - Quiz 6 on Chapter 8, Axis C (chart is on p. 26)- bring notes on state of the industry your small business is in. From Virtue Ethics, two examples of virtues your client involving Justice.

Nov 21 - Nov 25 SPRING BREAK - NO CLASS

Nov 28 - Day of any make up quizzes - There are six scheduled quizzes. If you miss one, then please drop that score. If you take all six, then drop the lowest score. If you have a written excused absence from doctor or from sports Athletics Office for missing a quiz, and have already dropped one quiz score (or missed it), then you can have a quiz make-up covering material taken form entire course, on this day only.

Dec 5 - Scheduled Final - you turn in your report, and your client attends formal presentation (business attire); Power-Point is permitted for pictures and images only. Each student is expected to share storytelling directly from their own personal 'storytelling notebook.' And, clients out of Las Cruces, can submit YouTube or video of 5 minute interview about project. Deduction from final grade for no video or client attending. Submit 360 team review in sealed envelope. Be sure to turn in your Savall book or bring $40 cash.

NOTE: Time for final is earlier than regular class time

MGT 448.01 and BA 448.01:  BC 102  Monday, December 5th  3:30pm – 5:30pm
MGT 548.01:  BC 102  Monday, December 5th  3:30pm – 5:30pm

II.         3 TEXTBOOKS

Savall, Henri, Zardet, Veronique, & Bonnet, Marc. (2008). Releasing the Untapped Potential of Enterprises Through Socio-Economic Management. ISBN 978-2-917078-12-9 2nd Revised edition, 2008. London: International Labor Organization and Socio Economic Institute of Firms and Organizations. A copy is available for sign out.  You can have loan of the book for the semester. The book is to be returned by final exam date, or a hold will be placed on your records, or in some cases an incomplete will result. If the book is lost, you are responsible for $45 replacement fee.

Boje, David M. (2011). Quantum Physics of Storytelling. Written as a Free Online text for teaching the relationship of storytelling to small business consulting, with tie ins to to ethics. You can download and print the PDF. There is also an online study guide for the book at http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/448/448LCAS.html

Nicomachean Ethics (aka Virtue Ethics). By Aristotle. (Written 350 B.C.E.). Translated by W. D. Ross. Book is fare on lone. On line version http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.html Virtue ethics is essential to your own consulting practices, and to coaching clients in their ethical practices. For example, the main virtue is happiness, valued more than the accumulation of money, rewards, or pleasures of consumption).

III.        COURSE DESCRIPTION

We will learn Intervention Research (aka Socio-Economic Approach to Management, SEAM). http://web.nmsu.edu/%7Edboje/TDseam.html
Intervention Research using SEAM (Socio Economic Approach to Management, SEAM) means getting into to the field, collecting observations, making verbatim notes from interviews, doing co-designed interventions with clients that add value to the small business.

Service Learning Project: Each year small business consulting teams bring ethical virtue of happiness to clients with free-to-the-public service learning /civic engagement projects with different sectors of the small business economy: restaurants, wellness, hotels, and so forth. This year's focus is sustainability at NMSU and in each small buisness. Please include a section on sustainability in your report.

IV. QUANTUM PHYSICS OF STORYTELLING AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO SEAM http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/448/448LCAS.html (has the online quiz study guides)

QUICK LINK MENU

V. OUTLINE FOR YOUR MID-TERM AND FINAL CONSULTING REPORT

VII. COURSE OBJECTIVES

The primary objective of this course is to conduct 'intervention research' in a small business that makes a value-added difference in lowering costs and enhancing revenue potent ion.  The primary skill focus will be on your field notes kept as an online blog in Blackboard, then analysed in the Mirror Effect section for final term paper. Field notes are ‘direct observations’, ‘interview transcripts’, ‘content analysis of documents’, and ‘diary entries of your reflexivity.’ This will be supported by a series of conversation starters about our primary text: Releasing the Untapped Potential of Enterprises Through Socio-Economic Management.

For All Students: Develop & demonstrate this ability by these metrics:

  1. Develop an appreciation for Principle-Based and Virtue Ethics in small business consulting.
  2. Read, understand & analyze actual experiential field case in small business consulting
  3. Investigate & describe a business situation using socioeconomic tools such as priority action plans, time management, etc.
  4. Develop interpersonal skills in oral and written presentation, and cooperative behavior with consulting clients.
  5. Design meaningful recommendations to problems and feedback to client using Mirror Effect Diagnosis (See Axis A)
  6. Design a useful implementation plan for integrating recommendations into an ongoing business & for controlling the integration & impact of those recommendations (The Implementation)
  7. Perform research of current literature with regard to small business
  8. Study the dynamics of the environment, its history, and develop antenarratives of the future as context to work with client organization.
  9. Listen, analyze, question the storytelling using storytelling standpoint methodology, analysis of costs, and untapped revenue potential, & recommend business objectives, strategies, policies & procedures

 

MBA GOALS (Mgt 548 students)

1. Demonstrate well-developed oral and written communication skills (measured in report & presentations)

2. Demonstrate well-developed critical thinking skills (measured in use of antenarrative, root cause, and intervention)

3. Demonstrate proficiency in quantitative analysis (measured in indicators logged into notebook field notes & report)

4. Demonstrate well-developed interpersonal skills (measured by behavior with clients)

5. Demonstrate proficiency in dealing with ethical and legal issues in business (measured in Axis C - ethical behaviors analysis & in answerability for conduct in consultation).

6. Demonstrate the sustainability improvements achieved in the small business you consult - use the SEAM tools and 3 axes for this.

VIII.   EVALUATION CRITERIA

1)    Clarity of Description in Axis A, B & C in reports and quizzes- Is the organizational storytelling (narrative, living stories, & antenarrative) you do to consult with your client clear Project solution to their dysfunctions (Axis A)?  Is all (and only) the relevant qualimetric data presented in Mirror Effect? Have several Socioeconomic Tools (Axis B) been applied?  Are the implications of the Intervention developed for the industry (Axis C)?

2)    Breadth & Depth of Reflections- Are all viewpoints in the organization presented in a plausible manner? (Is there a Mirror Effect that has field quotes in it from various stakeholders: owner, manager, employees, customers, expert student consultant opinion?)  Are all important terms understood for their various meanings? What are the biases you see operating in the structures & behaviors of the organization?

3)    Concise & Sound Reasoning- Does your central argument address all of the important issues raised in your description & reflections based in your field notes in Notebook, as entered into Blackboard? Do you incorporate all of the various perspectives with sound reasoning (can you listen to clients)?

4)    Powerful, Interesting & Useful Implications- Are the conclusions based on the preceding argument?  Was the central argument powerful, i.e. did it offer leverage for understanding and action? What value-added (lowering costs, raising revenues) happened from the intervention research?

VIII.       GRADING, LATE WORK, AND ATTENDANCE POLICIES (adapted from catalog)

A. Grading Policy


Letter

Description

% Range

A

Excellent

94 – 100

A-

 

90 – 93

B+

 

86 – 89

B

Good

83 – 85

B-

 

80 – 82

F

Failing

0 – 79

 

GRADING WEIGHTS

  1. 30% of Quiz scores (drop lowest of 6 quiz grades)
  2. 50% Mid-term and Final Report & Presentation (Note: low score on mid-term can be replaced by higher score on final report. Note: If you work in team, this grade weighted by peer evaluation. Note: Evaluation of report is done by clients,instructors, and by peer review of presentations).
  3. 20% Active Intelligent Participation in Class, with well prepared- comprehensive Storytelling Notebook achieved.

B. Late Work Policy

C. Attendance Policy

IX.      GENERAL COURSE POLICIES

A. PLAGARISM POLICY

NMSU’s policy on plagiarism: http://lib.nmsu.edu/plagiarism/  .This appears to be a growing problem. It is fairly easy to Google excerpts from papers and assignments to check for plagiarism. If you find any cases, refer to the Academic Misconduct pages in the undergraduate (p. 21) or graduate (p.15) catalog. Thank you for your assistance on this matter. All students are expected to conform to the accepted standards of academic honesty. Any clear violations of these standards, such as cheating, violating copyright laws, or plagiarism are handled promptly, firmly, privately, and fairly by the Professor and may result in sanctions up to and including, receiving an “F” for the course, and dismissal from the University. If you observe cheating or plagiarism, please report it to your Professor, who will promptly notify the University (Dean, Chair, or appropriate academic official) of the discovery of the incident.

Course Policy on doing Your Own Work: Anyone who plagiarizes part of their reports or enters bogus data into the Web CT data archive will be given a “F” for the entire course. Please reference others' work, "put other people's work in quotation marks" and give full citation. An "F" will also be given for anyone who falsifies attendance sheets or for team members who fain to get by on others' work (including members who collaborate in the deception). Each student is responsible for understanding what is plagiarism. Please consult on line Student Policy on plagiarism. http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/plagiarismforstudents.htm

The New International Dictionary of the English Language, (Funk & Wagnalls, c2000, p. 965) defines plagiarize as “to appropriate and pass off as one’s own (the writings, ideas, etc., of another)”.

Plagiarism involves:

B. PROFESSIONALISM POLICY: Professionalism will be determined by classroom and team behavior. Professionalism will include such variables as attendance, participation, teamwork, attitude, ethics, etc. Attendance is required and will be taken at every class meeting (more than 2 absences will be considered excessive). You are expected to participate in classroom discussion and group work activities. Please turn off your cell phone during class.

C. CELL PHONE & LAPTOP POLICY: Turn off cell phones and pagers during class time (each violation lowers your grade by one unit). Do not accept or place calls or text message during class time (no exceptions).  Cell phones will be confiscated and can be retrieved from the Dean's office, the following class day. Use of computers for note-taking is permissible, but surfing or work on other classes during our class time is not allowable. 1st offense implies that you are volunteering in Boje’s improv theatre training or a warning; repeated offense will lower one letter grade.

Use of cell phones, excessive absences or tardiness, sleeping, reading newspapers, failing to participate, whispering in class, and doing assignments for other classes are just some examples of behaviors that would cause you to lose your professionalism points. Turning in false reports on attendance to class sign-in sheets, or claiming attendance falsely in client interviews or consulting events is defined here as academic misconduct. Cheating or plagiarism are also defined as academic misconduct and will result in loss of all professionalism points and failure grade for the written work of the course.

Consult your Student Handbook
http://www.nmsu.edu/~vpsa/handbook.html

D. TEAM POLICY: We recommend you work alone. Teams is an option, and not required or recommended. Teams not working collaboratively will be asked to split up. If you choose to work in a team, then you are responsible for your own work. You are responsible as a team to maintain a healthy team atmosphere free of harassment, free of unprofessional conduct. All team members are accountable to immediately report harassment, unprofessionalism, or a member shirking responsibility for collaborative work to your Instructor. Each team will do a 360 peer review. Those peer reviews will weight the final grade, and can lower individual member's grades. The client also does a final assessment of your project, which weights the final grade. if you have a problem team member, the team may elect to fire them. The fired team member will do their own independent project. Please fire early, to leave individual sufficient time to move along in their growth and development, in doing an individual project.

FINAL 360 TEAM PEER RATING - your final grade is weighting of the 360 team review times your final report score

Your name _______________________ Your Client ___________________ Date _________

Final Grade for you and each team member below; comments are required if scoring less than A; please be honest. Your name will not be used when instructor relays comments to each team member

PICK ONE GRADE: A+ A A- B+ B B- C+ C C- D+ D D- F+ F F-

Comments about your work input, hours of study, contribution to team or any deficiencies in work input, hours of study, lack of attendance to meetings with team, class or client; comments are required if their grade differs from you own, or you get grade they assigned to you.

Do this for each team member and submit it to Instructor in sealed envelope at Mid-Term and Final meeting.

E. Disabilities/Employee Relations Policy: Call the Director of Institutional Equity at 575.646.3635 with any questions you may have about NMSU's Non-Discrimination Policy & complaints of discrimination, including sexual harassment. Call the Coordinator of Services for Students with Disabilities at 575.646.6840 regarding student issues related to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and/or Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. All medical information will be treated confidentially.

Go to Quantum Physics of Storytelling in Small Business Consulting - study guides