Lauren Pollar

Presenting her Faculty Research Lecture on organizational theory domains, Suzanne Beaumaster, associate professor of public administration at the University of La Verne, shared her research on prominent theories of public organizations, which was part of her sabbatical work to other faculty members in the President’s Dining Room on Feb. 26.

Maxtla Benavides
Staff Writer

Associate Professor of Public Administration Suzanne Beaumaster categorizes organizational theory constructs into four main sectors.

The categories allow students to have a better understanding on how to put the theoretical constructs into effective use.

Before roughly 25 students and faculty in the President’s Dining Room Feb. 26, Beaumaster held a lecture on organizational theory domains.

“I wanted to make organizational theory user friendly for the practitioner,” Beaumaster said.

Beaumaster has been working for the University of La Verne for a little over 10 years and has her Ph.D. in public administration and public affairs.

Her educational background not only gives her the authority to teach on the subject, but also the research and tools she provides to her students makes her an expert on the subject.

“Theory is no good if you cannot do anything with it,” Beaumaster said.
Her goal for making organizational theory more simplistic was so that students could benefit from it and apply it to the real world.

The majority of students who study organizational theory are not your common students.

These students are already working in their profession and are able to understand the theoretical constructs and apply them to their work place.

“Organizational theory has many different views and Beaumaster made it easier to conceptualize what the theorists are saying,” Janis Dietz, professor of business administration said.

Dietz said the lecture was useful to her, since her Ph.D. is in the subject.

She thought that Beaumaster was very inclusive with her audience.

Beaumaster explained that there is too much information on the study of Organizational Theory so she decided to put all these ideas in four categories to help organize them in a way that can be easily memorized.

“I thought the lecture was fascinating,” said Rita Thakur, associate dean of the College of Business and Public Manage­ment.

Thakur liked the way Beaumaster put together all the facets into the particular components.

The organizational theory game show is a game similar to Jeopardy in which students are able to interact and learn while they play the game.

Organizational theory is difficult to understand and difficult to teach.

Beaumaster made this game to help assist students and instructors in understanding the concepts.

This is a new approach to teaching and learning for ULV.

Beaumaster is in the process of working with Blackboard to make the game show accessible from the Web site.

This will give students the opportunity to use the game show as a studying mechanism.

Thakur loved the game show and thought it was a great way for students to connect and remember the material.

“I will be using the game show for my classes in the future,” Thakur said.
Beaumaster has done a lot of research on organizational theory.

Along with the game show, she is also in the process of publishing a handbook.

This handbook will contain her structured ideas of Organizational Theory and will be used along with textbooks as a reference guide to bring students clarity.

Beaumaster's work and research has provided an improved learning environment suited for La Verne students.

Maxtla Benavides can be reached at mbenavides@ulv.edu.