MAN 310 Organizational Behavior

George, Jennifer M. and Jones, Gareth M. Understanding and Managing Organizational Behavior, 6th ed., (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2012).
ISBN-13: 978-0136124436

Students can obtain this text book from the following source:
1)http://www.mypearsonstore.com/bookstore/understanding-and-managing-organizational-behavior-9780136124436?xid=PSED

All reading and (optional) homework assignments referenced in this syllabus refer to this text

2) In addition, it is recommended that students have access to MyManagementLab®, by Pearson.
This can be accessed here:https://www.pearson.com/store/p/understanding-and-managing-organizational-behavior/P100003097278/9780136124436

3) The following study guide will be made available upon enrollment:
George, Jennifer M. and Jones, Gareth M. PowerPoint Presentation for Understanding and Managing Organizational Behavior, 6th ed., (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2012).

Lesson Overview

Lesson 1: Introduction to Organizational Behavior
Read Chapter 1

In this lesson the students discuss organizational behavior and explain how and why it determines the effectiveness of an organization. The students appreciate why the study of organizational behavior improves a person’s ability to understand and respond to events those take place in a work setting. The students differentiate between the three levels at which organizational behavior is examined. The students appreciate the way changes in an organization’s external environment continually create challenges for organizational behavior. The students learn about the four main kinds of forces in the environment that pose the most opportunities and problems for organizations today.

Lesson 2 – Individual Differences: Personality and Ability
Read Chapter 2

In this lesson the students understand the nature of personality and how it is determined by both nature and nurture. The students learn about the Big Five personality traits and their implications to understand behavior in organizations. The students learn to appreciate the ways in which other personality traits influence employees’ behaviors in organizations. The students learn about the different kinds of abilities that employees use to perform their jobs. The students look at how organizations manage ability through selection, placement, and training.

Lesson 3 – Values, Attitudes, and Moods and Emotions
Read Chapter 3

In this lesson the students learn about the nature of work and ethical values and why they are of critical importance in organizations. The students look at why it is important to understand employees’ moods and emotions on the job. The students look at the idea of emotional labor and learn about the nature, causes, theories, and consequences of job satisfaction. The students look at the distinction between affective commitment and continuance commitment and their implications for understanding organizational behavior.

Chapter 4: Perception, Attribution, and the Management of Diversity
Read Chapter 4

In this lesson the students learn about how perception is inherently subjective and how characteristics of the perceiver, the target, and the situation can influence perceptions. The students learn how the use of schemas can both aid and detract from accurate perceptions. The students become aware of biases that can influence person perception without perceivers being aware of their influences. The students understand why attributions are so important and how they can sometimes be faulty. The students appreciate why the effective management of diversity is an imperative for all kinds of organizations and the steps that organizations can take to ensure that different kinds of people are treated fairly and that the organization is able to take advantage of all they have to offer.

Lesson 5: Learning and Creativity
Read Chapter 5

In this lesson the students learn about what learning is and why it is so important for all kinds of jobs and organizations. The students understand how to effectively use reinforcement, extinction, and punishment to promote the learning of desired behaviors and curtail ineffective behaviors. The students look at the conditions necessary to determine if vicarious learning has taken place and appreciate the importance of self-control and self-efficacy for learning on your own. The students learn about how learning takes place continuously through creativity, the nature of the creative process, and the determinates of creativity. The students appreciate what it means to be a learning organization.

Lesson 6: The Nature of Work Motivation
Read Chapter 6

In this lesson the students appreciate why motivation is of central importance in organizations and the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The students learn about motivation from need theories. The students learn about why expectancy, valence, and instrumentality are of central importance for work motivation. The students learn about the importance of equity and the dangers of inequity. The students understand why organizational justice is so important and how to promote it.

Lesson 7: Creating a Motivating Work Setting
Read Chapter 7

In this lesson the students look at the advantages and disadvantages of the scientific management approach to job design. The students learn about the job characteristics model and its implications for using job design to create a motivating work setting. The students understand the implications of the social information processing model. The students look at how organizational objectives can motivate employees and learn about goal setting theory and the kinds of goals that contribute to a motivating work setting.

Lesson 8: Pay, Careers, and Changing Employment Relationships
Read Chapter 8

In this lesson the students learn about the determinants and types of psychological contracts and what happens when they are broken. The students look at the two major roles of performance appraisal and understand the different kinds and methods of performance appraisal. The students look at the importance of merit pay and the choices organizations face in using pay to motivate employees and discuss the importance of careers, different kinds of careers, and effective career management.

Lesson 9: Managing Stress and Work-Life Balance
Read Chapter 13

In this lesson the students learn about how the experience of stress is based on employees’ perceptions and influenced by individual differences. The students look at the fact that stress can have both positive and negative consequences for employees and their organizations. The students become aware of stressors that can arise from employees’ personal lives, their jobs, their work groups and organizations, the pursuit of work-life balance, and uncertainty in the wider environment. The students look at problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies for both individuals and organizations.

Lesson 10: The Nature of Work Groups and Teams
Read Chapter 10

In this lesson the students discuss the different types of work groups and the difference between a group and a team. The students look at the characteristics of work groups and their effect on the behavior of group members. The students learn about how groups control their members through roles, rules, and norms. The students discuss the need for conformity and deviance in groups and why and how group goals need to be aligned with organizational goals. The students examine the socialization process and how socialization tactics can result in an institutionalized or individualized role creation.

Lesson 11: Effective Work Groups and Teams
Read Chapter 11

In this lesson the students discuss learn about the sources of process losses and gains and understand how they affect group or team potential performance. The students look at how social loafing can occur in groups and the steps that can be taken to prevent it. The students differentiate among three forms of task interdependence and discuss the team performance implications associated with them. The students understand the ways in which a group’s cohesiveness affects its performance and explain which level of cohesiveness results in the highest team performance. The students learn about the nature of four important kinds of groups in organizations and how they help an organization achieve its goals. The students learn about the sources of process losses and gains and understand how they affect group or team potential performance. The students learn about the nature of four important kinds of groups in organizations and how
they help an organization achieve its goals.

Lesson 12: Leaders and Leadership
Read Chapter 12

In this lesson the students learn about what leadership is, when leaders are effective and ineffective, and the difference between formal and informal leaders. The students identify the traits that show the strongest relationship to leadership, the behaviors leaders engage in, and the limitations of the trait and behavior models of leadership. The students explain how contingency models of leadership and differentiate between four different contingency approaches. The students discuss why leadership is not always a vital process in some work situations because substitutes for leadership exist. The students also are introduced to the idea of transformational leadership and how it is achieved, explain how a leader’s moods affect followers, and appreciate how gender may affect leadership style.

Lesson 13: Power, Politics, Conflict, and Negotiation
Read Chapter 13

In this lesson the students look at the nature of power and explain why organizational politics exists and how it can help or harm an organization and its members. The students differentiate between the main sources of formal and informal power people can use to engage in organizational politics as well as the sources of functional and divisional power. The students discuss the nature of organizational conflict and the main sources of conflict in an organizational setting. The students learn about a model of the conflict process that illustrates how the conflict process works. The students learn how negotiation can be used to manage the conflict process and resolve disputes between people and groups.

Chapter 14: Communicating Effectively in Organizations
Read Chapter 14

In this lesson the students learn about the four main functions of communication and differentiate among different kinds of communications networks. The students discuss the steps in the communications process and the requirements for successful communication to take place. The students differentiate among the main kinds of barriers to communication and explain how they can reduce the effectiveness of communication. The students identify the main kinds of communication media and explain how they vary along the dimension of information richness. The students discuss the importance of persuasive communication and learn about how to create persuasive messages to influence others.

Chapter 15: Decision Making and Organizational Learning
Read Chapter 15

In this lesson the students learn to differentiate between nonprogrammed and programmed decisions and explain why nonprogrammed decision making is a complex, uncertain process. The students explain the difference between the two main models of decision making and learn about which is the most realistic. The students discuss the main sources of error in decision making. The students learn about the advantages and disadvantages of group decision making and explain the techniques that can be used to improve it. The students look at how organization learning can improve decision making and explain the steps involved in creating a learning organization.

Chapter 16: Organizational Design and Structure
Read Chapter 16

In this lesson the students look at the relationship between organizational design and an organization’s structure. The students explain the main contingencies affecting the process of organizational design and differentiate between a mechanistic and an organic structure. The students look at the advantages of grouping people into functions and divisions and distinguish among the main forms of organizational structure from which an organization can choose. The students learn why coordination becomes a problem with the growth of an organization and differentiate among the three main methods it can use to overcome this problem and link its functions and divisions. The students gain an understanding of the enormous impact modern information technology has had on the process of organizational design and structure both inside organizations and between them.

Chapter 17: Organizational Culture and Ethical Behavior
Read Chapter 17

In this lesson the students distinguish between values and norms and discuss how they are the building blocks of organizational culture. The students look at how a company’s culture is transmitted to employees through its formal socialization practices and through informal “on the job” learning. The students discuss five main factors that shape organizational culture and explain why different organizations have different cultures. The students look at how differences in national culture affect the culture of organizations within a particular society. The students discuss the importance of building and maintaining an ethical organizational culture.

Chapter 18: Organizational Change and Development
Read Chapter 18

In this lesson the students look at the forces that lead to organization change and the various impediments to change that arise during the change process. The students distinguish between evolutionary and revolutionary change and identify the main types of each of these kinds of change process. The students discuss the main steps involved in action research and identify the main issues that must be addressed to manage the change process effectively. The students examine the process of organization development and how to use various change techniques to facilitate the change process.

The student’s final grade will be based on a final examination. Examination questions will cover all topics covered in the readings. Students will have two hours to complete the final examination.  Students will be assigned a number grade from 0-100. A letter grade will also be issued in accordance with the following scale:

90-100 – A
80-89 – B
70-79 – C
0-69 – non passing