MTSU management professor Jackie Gilbert has spent years researching the topics of civility and bullying in the workplace and is building on that expertise with the development of a new online course addressing the unique challenges brought about by the pandemic.

Gilbert and Mary Hoffschwelle, associate provost for strategic planning and partnerships, co-redesigned the Current Issues in Management online course for this spring that focuses on the topics of COVID-19, diversity/inclusion and civility and making companies “future ready.”

“COVID has forced managers to be more employee responsive,” says Gilbert, whose work on bullying has been featured in U.S. News & World Report, The Tennessean and other prominent media outlets. “They can’t just operate on cruise control anymore. They have to consider how employees are feeling, what do they need and how can they change as a result?”

Exponential increases in remote work options along with employee expectations for more flexible schedules, a positive workplace environment and other accommodations brought about by the pandemic has significantly changed power dynamics within the workplace. 

Gilbert wanted to modify her graduate course to address the challenges that students will now face as working professionals. According to CollegeSource, of 7,275  universities, approximately only 32 offer courses that deal with the topic of COVID. 

“The course had to evolve because of COVID,” Gilbert says. “I now focus on three main topics: COVID at work, inclusion in community, and civility within community, and all of those are interrelated because certain people, because of their characteristics, are more likely to be bullied and there also likely to be more impacted by COVID at work.”

‘Higher education … is a workplace’

Hoffschwelle, who is serving as the virtual executive in residence for the course, read through all the materials Gilbert planned to use and provided feedback. She’s now providing feedback to students taking the course to provide “close to home perspective” of the issues being discussed.

“Higher education itself is a workplace and has a workforce, so all these issues really hit home with me, and I was excited to see some of the same sorts of patterns in terms of how employers responded to the needs of their employees. For us, that includes faculty, staff and students,” says Hoffschwelle, who’s responsible for monitoring implementation of the university’s academic master plan.

“Being in academic administration, that does mean we have to think about the impact of our policies and procedures, and that is one of the areas I have a responsibility for — making sure our policies and procedures are appropriate and the way we address our workforce needs and support our workforce.”

Hoffschwelle adds that public perception of higher education is that it typically doesn’t change quickly, but the challenges of the pandemic and the demands for quality remote learning options showed that isn’t necessarily the case.

The online class is offered in the Master of Science in Management, Organizational Leadership programand can be taken for credit or non-credit. The course is asynchronous, with interactions primarily taking place within student discussions, with Gilbert and Hoffschwelle providing feedback throughout.

The 10 students taking the course this semester are divided into three teams, and the semester project is based on what students have learned on the three topics to develop the components of an ideal culture. Gilbert has students looking at “exemplar” companies and considering what the company did well and not so well. 

“Knowing what you know now, how would you redesign your workforce to create the flexibility, while at the same time making people there an integral part of the organizational fabric?” says Gilbert, highlighting the critical thinking students will be required to use during the course.

‘We’re faced with new issues’

Students have a discussion for each topic, and within a specific discussion forum online they can choose which question they’d like to respond to. For example, this question within the bullying policy forum: “What specifically should managers do to prevent bullying from occurring, both on a micro (individual) level and on a macro (organizational) level? What have other companies done?” Discussions usually last a week for each topic.

Students will eventually submit detailed written papers, but the instructors have also asked students to prepare an executive summary that would be akin to a document presented to high level executives that includes info graphics. Hoffschwelle will select the top project.

“We’re faced with new issues that managers had never been faced with before, namely the pandemic,” Gilbert says. “And because of this, I thought, ‘How could I redesign the course to get students this information, and ultimately the managers, because some of them may be managers or aspire to be in management? So how could I give them the tools to be able to navigate in this environment?

“How can they create flexibility while at the same time engaging their employees? That’s a huge issue. That’s a new topic that’s in the course.”

Hoffschwelle adds that today’s workplace is demanding a focus on “people-centered skills … knowing when, how and why you recognize the value of your employees’ work.”

“What we see now is something that COVID has brought to the fore. People’s desire to be recognized and valued for their work. This has moved up on the scale of things that employers pay attention,” she says.

Adds Gilbert: “People want to be heard. They don’t want to be a cog in the wheel. They don’t want to be a tool; they want to be a treasured partner. They want to be someone who has a seat at the table. They want managers to solicit their ideas, and not just solicit them, but they want them to do something with them.”

For more information, students can contact Dan Morrell, program director of the Master of Science in Management, at 615-494-7758 or email Dan.Morrell@mtsu.edu.

— Jimmy Hart (Jimmy.Hart@mtsu.edu)