Understanding and Managing Organizational Behavior Course Description This course is an examination of human relations theory and individuals, group, and organizational performance in relation to organizational structure in contemporary business and public agencies. It is an interdisciplinary field, drawing from on concepts from a variety of subject areas. Covered are personality and attitudes, work motivation, interpersonal and group processes, organizational design and development, and decision making. Completion Deadline & Exam: This course, including the examination, must be completed within one year of the date of purchase. In addition, unless otherwise indicated, no correct or incorrect feedback for any exam question will be provided. Course Level: Overview. This program is appropriate for professionals at all organizational levels. CPE Credits: 14 (CPA) Category: Management Prerequisite: None Advanced Preparation: None Course Learning Objectives Chapter 1: An Introduction to Organizational Behavior 1. Define organizational behavior. 2. Trace the historical roots of organizational behavior. 3. Discuss the emergence of contemporary organizational behavior, including its precursors, the Hawthorne studies, and the human relations movement. 4. Describe contemporary organizational behavior-its characteristics, concepts, and importance. 5. Identify and discuss contextual perspectives on organizational behavior. Chapter 2: Managing People and Organizations
1. Explain managerial perspectives on organizational behavior. 2. Describe the manager s job in terms of managerial functions, roles, and skills. 3. Describe the four main forces in the environment that post the most opportunities and problems for organizations today. 4. Discuss how to manage for effectiveness from the perspective of organizational behavior. Chapter 3: Motivation 1. Define motivation. 2. Explain need hierarchy theory and how it applies in organizations. 3. Describe equity theory's approach to motivation in the workplace. 4. Outline the basic assumptions of expectancy theory and its implications in organizations. 5. Explain how goals can be set to motivate high levels of job performance. 6. Describe ways in which jobs can be designed so as to enhance motivation. 7. State the implications of the social information processing model. Chapter 4: Work-Related Attitudes 1. Define attitude and its three basic components. 2. Describe two theories of job satisfaction. 3. Identify the consequences of having dissatisfied employees. 4. Describe ways of boosting job satisfaction. 5. Distinguish between three fundamental forms of organizational commitment. 6. Identify the benefits of having a committed workforce. 7. Describe ways of developing organizational commitment. 8. Distinguish between the concepts of prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination. 9. State biases that can influence person perception without perceivers being aware of their influences. 10. Demonstrate why the effective management of diversity is 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. 11. Describe the two major forms of sexual harassment and the steps organizations can take to combat sexual harassment. 12. Distinguish between affirmative action plans and diversity management programs. Chapter 5: Organizational Communication and Power 1. Define communication.
2. Describe the various steps in the communication process. 3. Distinguish between different forms of verbal media and their relative effectiveness. 4. Identify the types of formal messages that flow in different directions within an organization chart. 5. Describe how informal communication is different than formal communication in an organization. 6. Identify various methods for improving organizational communication. 7. Define power. 8. Identify the four main types of position power and the four main types of personal power. 9. Define organizational politics. 10. Identify the major forms that organizational politics takes. 11. Describe steps that can be taken to minimize the effects of organizational politics. Chapter 6: Groups and Teams in Organizations 1. Define and distinguish between various types of formal and informal groups. 2. Discuss the role of norms in organizations and how they develop. 3. Explain the social facilitation effect. 4. Describe the social loafing effect and how it may be overcome. 5. Define team and explain what makes a team different from an ordinary work group. 6. Describe the general effectiveness of work teams. 7. Identify ways of overcoming obstacles to team effectiveness. 8. Summarize the nature of four important kinds of groups in organizations and how and why they help an organization achieve its goals. Chapter 7: Leadership 1. Define leadership and distinguish between leadership and management. 2. Describe the trait approach to leadership. 3. Identify the types of behavior that have been most strongly associated with effective leadership. 4. Describe the leader-member exchange model of leadership. 5. Differentiate between charismatic leaders and transformational leaders. 6. Explain how leading teams differs from leading individuals. 7. Describe the basic tenets of LPC contingency theory and how it may be applied. 8. Explain the path-goal theory of leadership. 9. Discuss situational leadership theory. Chapter 8: Prosocial Behavior, Cooperation Conflict, and Stress
1. Describe organizational citizenship behavior and how it may be promoted. 2. Distinguish between prosocial behavior and cooperation. 3. Identify factors that promote interpersonal cooperation. 4. List the causes of conflict in organizations. 5. Identify the positive and negative consequences of conflict in organizations. 6. Outline techniques for managing conflict in organizations. 7. Define stress and identify the various causes of stress in organizations. 8. Discuss the major effects of stress on people in organizations. 9. Identify various ways stress can be managed on the job. Chapter 9: Making Decisions in Organizations 1. Identify the eight steps in the decision-making process. 2. Outline the various categories of decisions that are made in organizations. 3. Distinguish between the rational-economic and the administrative models of decision making. 4. Explain how various cognitive biases operate when people make decisions. 5. Identify various factors that contribute to imperfect decision making in organizations. 6. Describe the conditions under which individuals make better decisions than groups, and vice versa. 7. Describe the phenomenon of groupthink and ways of overcoming it. 8. Demonstrate how the Delphi technique and the nominal group technique are used to improve the quality of decisions made by groups. 9. State why people make unethical decisions in organizations and what can be done about it. Chapter 10: Culture, Creativity, and Innovation 1. Define organizational culture. 2. Distinguish between dominant culture and subcultures. 3. Outline culture's role in organizations. 4. Identify factors that lead to the creation of organizational culture. 5. List the tools through which organizational culture is transmitted. 6. Describe the effects of organizational culture on organizational functioning. 7. Summarize the factors responsible for getting organizational culture to change. 8. Define creativity and describe the basic components of individual and team creativity. 9. Define innovation and identify the basic components of innovation and the various stages of the innovation process. Chapter 11: Designing Effective Organizations
1. Define organizational structure. 2. Distinguish between five aspects of organizational structure that are represented in an organization chart. 3. Distinguish between functional organizations, product organizations, and matrix organizations. 4. Describe the new form of organization known as the horizontal organization. 5. Define organizational design. 6. Distinguish between classical and neoclassical approaches to organizational design. 7. Discuss the contingency approach to organizational design. 8. Define the boundaryless organization. 9. Explain the differences between the five organizational forms identified by Mintzterg. 10. Identify two different types of interorganizational designs. Chapter 12: Managing Organizational Change and Development 1. Distinguish between different types of change in organizations, giving examples of each. 2. Identify the three main ways in which organizations may change. 3. Outline the general conditions under which organizational change is likely to occur. 4. State why people are resistant to change in organizations and ways in which this resistance may be overcome. 5. Define organizational development. 6. Discuss four techniques of organizational development and describe the effectiveness of each. 7. Discuss the sides of the ethical debate with respect to using OD techniques.