BMGT43620 Organisational Behav (MScBus)

There are three main objectives of this module:

1. To develop your knowledge in the areas of management, leadership and behaviour in organisations. At the end of the module you should have a greater understanding of the theories and concepts used to explain how and why individuals and groups in organisations act the way they do.

2. To develop your analytical/diagnostic skills that enable you to use this knowledge to improve your management abilities. Specifically, these skills include:
• Critique organisational concepts and theories.
• Integrate the diverse concepts and theories.
• Translate these concepts and theories into management practices.
• Analyse a “real life” management situation and make sense of what is operating and why.
• Offer sound recommendations for improving management practices.

3. To develop your ability to apply the learned principles and to make the acquired knowledge meaningful and relevant for your own life and for your own interactions in organisations. These include getting more self- and other-aware and better at collaborative teamwork, giving feedback, self and other motivation, emotional intelligence and decision-making.

I plan the cover the following themes:
1. Introduction to Organisational Behaviour
How do we study organisational behaviour? Define organisational behaviour and trace its history and development. Identify the central concepts of organisation behaviour and their relationship to effective management.

2. The Nature of Individual Differences and Attitudes
Examine the nature of personality, emotions, stress and attitudes and describe how they contribute to individual differences and their implications for management.

3. The Motivation of People at Work
Describe and discuss the content and process theories of motivated behaviour in order to understand what we do, why we do it and the level of effort we invest.

4. Decision Making
Examine and discuss the nature of decision making in organizations in the individual, group and company level and identify common decision making fallacies as well as ways to improve the decision making process.

5. The Nature of Groups
Describe the nature of groups, how they form and develop and their impact on communication, task achievement and effectiveness, motivation, job satisfaction and conformity.

Explore the nature of intergroup competition and co-operation and the managerial strategies necessary for creating more co-operative interactions.

6. Leadership
What is leadership? Provide an overview of the historical development of leadership theories from the traits concept through the behavioural dimensions of leadership, to the contingency models. Describe the situational approaches to the study of leadership and identify the situational factors relevant to leadership effectiveness. Identify and summarise other contemporary approaches to leadership.

7. Power and Politics
Define the nature of power and describe the various sources of power and its use in exerting influence both upwards and downwards in organisations.

Understand the functional and dysfunctional consequences of political behaviour in organisations and identify the appropriate managerial practices for controlling it.

8. Conflict and Negotiation
Examine the nature of conflict and the various methods that may be employed in its resolution.

Understand the importance of negotiating as an important process in organisational behaviour.

9. National and Organisational Cultures and Work Values
Discuss the significance of organisational culture for individuals and organisations and how O.C. interacts with members’ personalities, motivations and behaviours.

Not applicable to this module.

• Group/class feedback, post-assessment

For group presentations / videos I shall provide verbal recorded feedback after module ends. For individual components, a summary feedback of typical class-wide trends will be given to students during term