• Minors
  • Minors in alphabetical order
  • Minors per faculty
    • Erasmus MC
    • Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication
    • Erasmus School of Law
    • Erasmus School of Economics
    • Faculty of Social Sciences
    • Faculty of Philosophy
    • Institute of Health Policy and Management
    • International Institute of Social Studies
    • Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University
      • Deepening minor: Accounting Skills
      • Alternative Investments: Beyond Stocks and Bonds
      • Coherent Organizations: Coordination, Motivation and Cognition
      • CSI Rotterdam: Fraud & Forensic Investigations
      • E-Marketing: Marketing Strategies for Future Success
      • Entrepreneurship & New Business Venturing
      • Experiential Learning: Consulting to Social Entrepreneurs
      • Games and Business Behavior: A General Management Perspective
      • Influencing People: Psychology and Practice
      • Managing Cross-Sector Partnerships
      • Mergers and Acquisitions
      • Neuroeconomics: How the Brain Decides
      • Principles of Negotiation
      • Social Media and Social Networks
      • Strategy Consulting
      • The Business of Family Business
      • The psychology of good and evil
  • Minor outside EUR

Experiential Learning: Consulting to Social Entrepreneurs

Real life consultancy: doing good, done better

Content

In this minor, you will work as consultants to entrepreneurial organizations (mostly social entrepreneurs) located in the Rotterdam area. The course is based upon the principles of experiential learning and service learning, which focuses on drawing connections between literature and practice. Instead of working with fictitious cases, you will be working with real, existing organizations. This will allow you to apply the knowledge that you have gained thus far to a real-life situation. In addition, the work you will be doing is intended to benefit both your client organization and the larger community of Rotterdam.

Learning objectives:

During this course, you will:

1. become familiar with important issues and theories involving consulting, social entrepreneurs, and the non-profit sector, ;
2. develop skills in the application of theoretical concepts to real-life situations;
3. gain experience with actual issues that arise in the course of a consultancy project;
4. be guided through: your first meeting with the client, how to write a consultancy contract and report, the actual process of consultancy, and how to present your recommendations to your client;
5. gain experience in finding, evaluating and applying relevant literature to the specific situation of a client organization;
6. develop and strengthen teamwork, project, communication and presentation skills.

Specific characteristics:

This course is intended to strengthen the skills of students and provides a real life experience. There is no study specific background needed for this course. Students from every discipline can take part in this course. However, an interest in, or experience with (project) management is suggested.

Organization

Overview:

The consultancy project of which the course is built consists of four components:

• Part 1: Introduction to the organization and the problem
• Part 2: Agreements and contract
• Part 3: Interim presentation
• Part 4: Report and recommendations

Although these components do not have separate ECTS, it is required to hand in all assignments as each builds on the previous component. If students do not hand in all assignments, they will not pass for this course. Specific information about the various project components will be discussed in class and posted on Blackboard.

Teaching methods:

A mixture of lectures, intervisions and feedback sessions that start with your experiences with your actual clients in the field.

Teaching materials:

• Book: Block, P. 2000. Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting your Expertise Used. New York: Pfeiffer.
• Reading list will be developed based upon need in the actual projects (see Blackboard)

Contact hours:

• Lectures: 30 hours
• Intervision: 20 hours
• With client in the field: ??

Examination

There is no written exam for this minor. Students have to write an intervention report along with specific learning assignments, which are all compulsory.

Composition of the final grade:

The evaluation (grading) of the course is related to the learning objectives. Grades will be assigned according the quality of the work of the various project teams and the effort and development of individual course participants, and not according to comparisons between students.

Participation in lectures and intervision sessions, effort within the group and self-reflection form the foundation upon which course participants will be evaluated.

• Individual assignment: 10% (0 – 10 points)
• Project components: 40% (average score of 4 components)
  –       0-10 points for each component
• Intervision: 20% (sufficient [5]/insufficient [0] according to 4 sessions; max. 20 points)
• Instructor assessment: 10% (0-10 points)
• Self-assessment: 10% (0-10 points)
• Peer assessment: 10% (0-10 points)

Feedback 

After each assignment, students receive written feedback as well as the opportunity to talk to the teachers about the written feedback

Contact information

Contact person:

Prof.dr. Lucas Meijs
lmeijs@remove-this.rsm.nl
Phone: (010) 408 1921
Room: T7-24

Faculty websites:

Minor website RSM
Erasmus Centre for Strategic Philanthropy