Committee Proposal

Sharing knowledge is how learning happens. Therefore, I thought up a way in which I could innovate the capabilities and capacities of my own concentration at the University of Michigan. I concentrate in a discipline called Organizational Studies (OS) which is run through the College of Literature, Science, & Arts. There are two other departments that I think are very similar to OS, but the University of Michigan has not exploited and harnessed their information as best as possible.

Below is a proposal I sent to the Organizational Studies department to consider in the future:

I propose some sort of committee, group, or body of either faculty members or students (or both) that draws together the disciplines of Organizational Studies, Industrial and Operations Engineering, and Operations and Management Science.

In my opinion, these three different departments tackle very similar goals but take their own unique perspective. To elaborate, I think that all three of these fields are in pursuit of making organizations more efficient and work more seamlessly.

Organizational Studies takes a psychological and theoretical approach to this problem. Students from this discipline think about the external and internal levers of organization and what strategies to employ in order to maximize efficiency. Organizational Studies students think about the “culture” of an organization and the “environment” in which it operates.

Operations and Management Science in the Ross School of Business takes a far more structured and business-oriented approach. I envision their methodologies of analysis to be “bottom line” related and in terms of how changes in operations or management affect the balance sheet and income statement. Decisions are not based on feel but rather numbers.

Finally, Industrial and Operations Engineering are involved in how the systems within an organization work, and the ways in which we can measure them as to achieve maximum results. This discipline makes individuals think about the processes that organizations perform.

Looking at this very brief description of these three departments, it is clear to see that all of them emphasize the organization. However, their approaches are significantly different to one another.

I think it would be beneficial to the academic community, as well as, the students at this university if we brought these three groups together and tried to share knowledge. I think that each one of the departments could benefit greatly from hearing a perspective different to their own, but essentially directed to the same result.

It is worth considering in the years to come.