Program Overview

Human and Organizational Development Program

The Human and Organizational Development (HOD) major prepares students to address complex social problems in organizations and communities. The HOD curriculum challenges students to view human problems and their solutions as embedded in broader social ecological systems.

HOD Core Competencies

The program focuses on developing the following core competencies:

1. Written communication: with emphasis on developing a clear, concise, expository style and mastering the practical forms used in professional situations.
2. Oral presentation: with emphasis on making informative and persuasive presentations with the effective use of technology and media.
3. Analytic and critical thinking: with emphasis on data-driven analysis, creativity, and systems thinking to recognize, define, and work to solve personal, professional, organizational, and social problems.
4. Interpersonal communication: with emphasis on inquiry, advocacy, leadership, and conflict resolution skills.
5. Collaborative work behaviors: Group leadership, organizational development, management, and training, with emphasis on motivating others, managing talent, and teamwork.

Curriculum

The curriculum consists of:

• Peabody Liberal Education Core Requirements (40 hours): Provides students with a strong liberal arts foundation, including required coursework from areas such as communications, humanities, quantitative analysis, natural science, social science, and electives.
• HOD Major Requirements (4548 hours): Includes the Human and Organizational Development Professional Core and Domains.
  • Human and Organizational Development Professional Core (15 hours): Introduces students to ecological systems thinking, theories of human, group, community, organizational, and policy development, and quantitative and qualitative approaches to research and problem solving.
  • Human and Organizational Development Domains (18 hours): Students choose courses that help them develop breadth and depth across levels of analysis in topic areas of interest, including:
    • Individual/Interpersonal Domain: Courses delve deeper into personal and professional development, exploring topics such as leadership, professional ethics, youth development, and mental health and well-being.
    • Organizational/Group Domain: Courses explore recent advances in organizational theory and innovative management strategies in for-profit, non-profit, and public sector organizations.
    • Community/Policy Domain: Courses invite students to critically examine the causes and consequences of complex social problems from a systems perspective and explore community- and policy-level approaches to change and intervention.
• Human and Organizational Development Capstone (12 hours for summer; 15 hours for fall or spring): The Capstone is the immersive learning academic semester for junior and senior students, designed for them to apply the core HOD coursework and develop data-driven and research-grounded contributions to address human problems in organizations and communities.

HOD Honors

The 2-semester HOD Honors Program offers HOD juniors and seniors with a 3.6+ GPA an opportunity to develop research, writing, and presentation skills, work with a professor on an empirical project and thesis, and provide a firm foundation for advanced graduate or professional training.

Career Paths

Upon graduation, many students in the program find positions in diverse organizations such as management consulting, advertising, public relations, marketing, policy analysis, government, profit and nonprofit healthcare, and community development agencies.

Faculty

HOD faculty members utilize a variety of pedagogical approaches to engage students fully in the material and encourage students to work together to learn, question, analyze, and experience, in keeping with the majors focus on how people work and behave in groups, organizations, and communities.