Theory-Experience Education

The curriculum of Organizational Dynamics at Penn addresses the sources, nature, meanings, and management of dynamic organizational and multi-stakeholder forces as well as their co-producing effects. The program integrates theories and best practices about organizations with the direct knowledge and experience of people who work in them. By combining theory with practical experience, the Program helps participants to increase analysis, synthesis and understanding of how organizations function within larger social, cultural, geo-political, economic, and environmental systems. Above all, the collaboration of faculty and participants supports the interactive discussions that are at the core of the Program's educational philosophy: faculty provide multi-disciplinary, theoretical and practical underpinning of problems as well as skilled facilitation of discussion of ideas, and participants contribute essential insights based on their first-hand experiences of organizational life. Most important, the diversity of professional, organizational, and educational backgrounds represented in each class lends a richness to the discussions that goes beyond the subject matter, the faculty, or the readings.