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Course 2019-2020 a.y.

30465 - ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

BESS-CLES
Department of Management and Technology

Course taught in English

Go to class group/s: 13

BESS-CLES (8 credits - I sem. - OB  |  SECS-P/08)
Course Director:
FRANCESCA PRANDSTRALLER

Classes: 13 (I sem.)
Instructors:
Class 13: FRANCESCA PRANDSTRALLER


Lezioni della classe erogate in presenza

Mission & Content Summary
MISSION

Although quantitative and analytical skills are crucial for your future job, in your careers you depend on people to accomplish tasks, goals, and projects; you will need to work for other people, with other people, and supervise other people. An understanding of the human side of management is an essential complement to the technical skills you are learning in other core courses. Although we focus on business organizations, you find that the course concepts have valuable applications to any kind of organizations (non-profits, athletic teams, social clubs, religious and political groups). This course provides you with an undergraduate-level introduction to organization behavior and design. The aim is to strength your analytical skills and enable you to assess people behavior in work environments, organizations’ forms and structures and the root causes of their performance. This is a highly useful skill to cultivate for a wide variety of managerial roles and positions and it is indispensable for working in a start-up or in family business, for managing a company, consulting, auditing, and even in investment banking.

CONTENT SUMMARY
  • Human behavior inside an organization.
  •  Individual differences (personality, values, perception, motivations, decisions).  
  • Groups and group dynamics. 
  • Power and leadership.
  • Conflict and negotiation 
  • Organizational structures. 
  • People management.
  • Organizational and international Culture. 
  • Organizational Change.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO)
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
At the end of the course student will be able to...

The course is designed to accomplish three main goals:

  • Increase your knowledge of OB concepts so that you can understand and analyze how organizations and the people within them work.
  • Provide you with opportunities to apply OB concepts to real-world problems faced by managers.
  • Provide the ability to become knowledgeable organization members (development of attitudes).

To effectively work in an organization, you must be able to diagnose problems, communicate clearly,  make effective decisions, motivate and influence  others, manage diversity, and understand organizational structure and change.

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
At the end of the course student will be able to...
  • Understand the functioning of an organizational system, the dimensions of individual and social behavior in an organization, the organizational structure and culture and the main human resource management practices.
  • Apply skills related to Individual Behavior and Group dynamics, effective communication and negotiation.

Teaching methods
  • Face-to-face lectures
  • Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
  • Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)
  • Group assignments
  • Interactive class activities (role playing, business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls)
DETAILS
  • In-class exercises to understand the language and to apply models and theory.
  • Theories and/or case studies discussions (in-class).
  • Group assignments to learn how to apply theories to reality.
  • Interactive activities to learn and practice behavioral skills (communication, team work, negotiation).

Assessment methods
  Continuous assessment Partial exams General exam
  • Written individual exam (traditional/online)
  •     x
  • Group assignment (report, exercise, presentation, project work etc.)
  •     x
  • Active class participation (virtual, attendance)
  • x    
    ATTENDING STUDENTS

    Assessment for attending students consists of their performance in the group field project (40%) and their performance in the final exam (60%).

    • The final exam  (60 % of  final grade) is aimed at verify the basic knowledge of models, theories and concepts explained in class and in the textbook and class materials (slides, case studies, readings) and application of the concepts to concrete situations and examples.
    • The Group Project Report (40 % of  final grade): the goal of this assignment, is to analyze and apply OB concepts in a real organization. Your group’s task are to use concepts from the course to identify, analyze, and develop a plan for resolving a key problem that an organization is facing.
    • The final exam is written and composed of two open questions (5 points each) and a multiple-choice exam of 21 questions with four options each and just one correct answer. The exam consists of a mix of pure theoretical questions and applications of models and theoretical concepts from the course materials , and is “closed-book”, “no-notes” (i.e. no materials can be used during the exam). 
    NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

    For non-attending students, the assessment is based exclusively on their performance in the final exam.

    • The final exam is a multiple-choice test (31 points), and is “closed-book”, “no-notes” (i.e. no materials can be used during the exam).
    • The exam consists of a mix of pure theoretical questions and applications of models and theoretical concepts and case studies from the whole textbooks. 
    • The assessment method for non-attending students is made up of  multiple-choice questions referring to the concepts, models and cases contained in the textbooks and exam materials, aimed at verifying learning of  concepts, notions, theories and models and their correct comprehension and application to concrete examples.

    Teaching materials
    ATTENDING STUDENTS

    The material for this course is made of slides provided by the instructor, and research and practitioner papers, textbook.

    • MCSHANE, VON GLINOW, Organizational behavior, McGrawHill 2018, 8th edition. ISBN 978-1-259-92170-4
    • In class, we use slides to present the main ideas and guide the discussion. The slides and the bibliography of the papers are posted on Bboard. Students can download copies of the slides, but they need to connect to the Bocconi Library to search and download the articles.
    • Note that for attending students this book is not a complete replacement for the assigned papers, lecture notes and slides, as they may follows a different organization: some issues that we cover in-depth in the course in class receive only a brief treatment in the book, and vice versa.
    NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS
    • MCSHANE, VON GLINOW, Organizational behavior, McGrawHill 2018, 8th edition. ISBN 978-1-259-92170-4.
    • STETTNER, Skills for new managers, McGraw-Hill 2014, 2nd Edition.

    The two entire textbook are  mandatory for non-attending students.

    Last change 01/06/2019 09:37