Organizational Behavior and Leadership

Course Description

This course will focus on the organization and administration of public, private and not-for-profit sport, park, tourism and recreation (SPTR) agencies. The primary unit of analysis in this class is the SPTR organization and the environment in which it operates. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the structural, human, political, and cultural factors that impact organizational efficiency and effectiveness – specifically focusing on these environments.

Learning Objectives:

Local 4-H’er and County Commissioners pose before YouthVoice.

1. Analyze the environment in which sport, park, tourism and recreation (SPTR) organizations operate
2. Examine key principles related to effective administrative practice 
3. Apply relevant theory, research and practice related to key aspects of organizational behavior in SPTR organizations
4. Evaluate organizational behavior challenges facing SPTR organizations 
5. Demonstrate intervention techniques that can be used to effectively lead SPTR organizations
6. Evaluate critical factors contributing to organizational leadership in SPTR organizations

Reflections and Summary

This course challenged me to take a deeper look into my organization through Bolman & Deal’s structural, human resources, political and symbolic frames. At the beginning of the course, we took a quiz to see which frame we align most with and mine were the human resource and symbolic frames. Though I didn’t naturally lean towards the political and structural frames, I learned how each frame has its strengths and weaknesses and collectively can be utilized to achieve positive outcomes. 

Dr. Bocarro’s course helped me identify strengths and opportunities for growth within myself and simultaneously deepened my understanding of my organization through weekly readings, engaging class discussion, and interviews with leaders in the PRTS field. Through this course, I learned to frame situations differently and began to embrace the unfamiliar political and structural frames as equally important to the human resource and symbolic frames. This course enabled me to analyze my organization more thoroughly than I had before and allowed me to grow in my current position.

Overall this course enabled me to reflect upon what is working well and what can be improved. As I reflected upon my own strengths and learned from opportunities for improvement within myself, I learned how to examine things differently which has helped me become a better leader as well.

Primary Artifact: Organizational Analysis of North Carolina 4-H