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Steering the Ship
New doctoral program helps professionals navigate challenges and drive success.
From the Spring 2025 issue of Sacred Heart University Magazine
As Professor Anton Shufutinsky takes a sip of coffee, the lettering on his mug is instantly recognizable to a fan of The Office, the popular TV series that spoofed corporate dysfunction. It reads “Dunder Mifflin,” the fictional paper and supplies wholesale company where the show’s characters work.
“I do like the show,” Shufutinsky says when the mug draws a comment. “Ted Lasso, too.”
Shufutinsky is also a fan of efficient, innovative and effective organizations. In 2024, he became founding director of Sacred Heart University’s doctoral program in organization development, change & effectiveness (ODCE). The program addresses strategies, interventions, methods and instruments that can be used to overcome organizational dysfunction—such as systemic disorganization, toxic cultures, chaotic workplaces, destructive leaders or ineffective policies—and lead to organizational success. Students learn, among other skills, how to facilitate strategic change, transformational leadership, organizational design and conflict negotiation methods that drive organizational advancement and mission realization.
“ODCE is often seen as the study of an organization’s structure, such as its hierarchy, but that’s really just a piece of it,” says Shufutinsky, who comes to SHU after a 22-year career in the military, after which he held corporate and consulting positions within the pharmaceutical and defense industries.
Any well-trained or prepared executive should be able to look at what's happening within and outside an organization and properly assess and diagnose what is needed to remain viable and successful.
“Much of what organization development is about is understanding how the parts of a system are intricately interrelated,” he adds. “Any well-trained or prepared executive should be able to look at what’s happening within and outside of an organization and properly assess and diagnose what is needed to remain viable and successful.”
ODCE is grounded in principles from behavioral, social and basic sciences, which feed into, fortify and sustain effective organizational behaviors, designs and policies. The program prepares mid- to senior-level professionals across varied sectors and industries with real-life learning situations, expert instruction and a rigorous academic curriculum. Students are expected to complete the program in about three years, through a blended format of online and on-campus residencies.
For those in the program, it’s often not their first rodeo. They’ve already experienced situations that would make the cut for an episode of The Office. What they seek are skills to better navigate and respond to change by creating and implementing initiatives and policies that not only transform organizations, but also stick. For instance, a hospital administrator who so far has been unsuccessful in getting disparate departments to work together could learn how to foster better collaboration, Shufutinsky says. Or a CEO or top-level manager could learn how to better identify present challenges and predict future ones, as well as more skillfully analyze and assess how those challenges might impact productivity, talent retention, job design and organization culture.
“A good foundational education in organization development really teaches people how to think about and understand the different relationships and social and psychological aspects of work,” he says.
Perceptions are key, he adds. What influences your workforce? Is it internal policies? External forces? How will you address those forces? What are the micro and macro issues facing your organization? How deep is the commitment to change? Has everyone weighed in on future policy or the mission and vision? The answers are key to whether efforts sink or sail.
“Organization development considers the entire organizational system and all of its complexities,” Shufutinsky says. “It’s about understanding how the vision and mission drive the strategy, how the strategy drives the processes and the systems, how the processes and systems drive the behavior of people carrying them out, how all that comes together to impact organizational culture and, ultimately, how effective and successful they will be in fulfilling that vision and mission.”
Of course, all of this might have helped the crew at Dunder Mifflin, but an effective and successful office was never the point of that program.
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