Course Title: Transforming Organisations and Applied Human Rights II

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Transforming Organisations and Applied Human Rights II

Credit Points: 12

Course Code	Campus	Career	School	Learning Mode	Teaching Period(s)
HUSO2292	City Campus	Postgraduate	360H Education	Face-to-Face	Sem 2 2009

Course Coordinator: Dr. Liz Branigan

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 3153

Course Coordinator Email:liz.branigan@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Location: 98.1.2D

Course Coordinator Availability: Email for appointment

Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

It is assumed that normally you will have completed Transforming Organisations and Applied Human Rights I or have claimed relevant RPL

Course Description

This core course is a postgraduate level, work integrated learning based intermediate level course. It is designed to assist you to understand and engage in the task of organisational transformation in ways that favour human rights practice in a variety of organisational and professional settings.

Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

Upon completion of this course you will be able to:
• demonstrate an intermediate graduate level understanding of some of the significant aspects of what is meant by a culture of human rights in the workplace;
• identify and comment reflexively on the value of different approaches to organisational change;
• document and evaluate a small example of organisational transformation;
• identify the elements of good practice and good judgment in specific work sites;
• show continuing development of your conceptual and analytical skills, your organisational skills and a graduate level capacity to think critically and be able to engage in evidence-based research activities to inform effective written and oral presentation of your own ideas and arguments.

This course will assist you to continue to develop and understand better what an applied human rights approach means when working with clients, co-workers and fellow citizens. It will help you to continue to develop your understanding of what this requires by way of the theory and practice of policy development, implementation, and evaluation, and the theory and practice of organisational change. It will also assist you in continuing to build on transformative approaches to work place organisations, explore the value of professional development, and identify core issues involved in transforming work practices. It will assist you to reflexively refine your problem solving skills, as well as continue to develop new approaches to working with co-workers and clients in ways that give effect to the Victorian Charter of Rights.

The course will involve you firstly in describing and evaluating the impact of the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities on your workplace. You will then be asked to undertake a small transformative project that is ethically responsible and practicable that gives effect to some aspect of the Charter of Human Rights and which can be evaluated within the time frame of this course. You will be encouraged to pay attention to the vocabulary of human rights, as well as to developing an informed capacity to critically evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches to organisational change. You will also be asked to think about the relationship between a culture of applied human rights, the nature of good judgement and good practice, and what thwarts or supports good practice in specific work sites.

Overview of Learning Activities

This course involves a mixture work integrated learning in which you engage in a project in your own workplace and the opportunity to reflect and debrief in a fortnightly two hour integrative workshop.

Overview of Learning Resources

Learning resource materials will be made available on line.

Overview of Assessment

You will prepare a report of a transformative work based project and an evaluative and/or interpretive exegesis of the project.