Technology Policy Organizations
Course facts
- Payment: Free, no certificate
- Credits: Non Credit
- Learning style: Self-paced, start anytime
- Resources: Lecture Notes
MIT OpenCourseWare details
- As taught in: Spring 2005
- Department: Engineering Systems Division
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How organizations shape technology policy: regulatory, entrepreneurial and multinational types, motivation, teams and stakeholder analysis.
Organizations today are increasingly networked, flat, flexible and diverse, and that shapes whether technology policy succeeds. This class offers a framework for understanding them, looking closely at regulatory, entrepreneurial, multinational and non-profit types, and at motivation, teamwork and systems change. Its core assignment has students interview stakeholders on a pressing policy challenge in one industry and analyze the organizational factors.
What You Will Achieve
- Analyze a policy issue through structural, political and cultural lenses
- Assess a stakeholder’s position through interviews and sources
- Align organizational strategy, structure and process with policy goals
- Draft a consensus policy briefing with a multi-stakeholder team
Program Overview
Organizational Types
After an introduction to analysis methods, the class surveys kinds of organization.
- Industry and organizational policy analysis
- Regulatory organizations and NGOs
- Entrepreneurial organizations
- Multi-national organizations
Organizational Processes
The next sessions consider people, groups and whole institutions.
- Individual motivation and commitment
- Group dynamics and decision making
- Protocols and standards
- Institutional transformation
Integration
The final sessions bring the work together.
- Industry policy project presentations
- Re-engineering technology policy organizations
- Alumni/ae panel
Course Completion
Job Outlook
These skills help people working on technology policy in government, non-profits and industry sectors such as aerospace, utilities, health care and telecommunications.
Good for: Technology policy students and professionals who want to understand how organizations shape policy success.
Keep in mind: Lecture notes and assignment briefs are published. The project depends on real stakeholder interviews and a team, and guest speakers and simulations are not available here.
Bottom line: A structured framework for looking at the organizations behind technology policy, best applied to an industry you know.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the industry policy project?
Students pick a pressing challenge in an industry, analyze it from an assigned stakeholder role with at least one interview, then write a group multi-stakeholder policy briefing.
What are the five lenses?
The schedule lists structural, political, cultural, economic and engineering as five organizational lenses, along with ten organizational sub-systems such as leadership and decision making.
Is there a follow-on class?
Yes. Its sequel is ESD.933, Technology Policy Negotiations and Dispute Resolution, and the two form a sequence on organizational processes in technology policy.
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