THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT GREENSBORO The Bryan School of Business and Economics Department of Business Administration MBA 604.11: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR Office: 364 B & E William L. Tullar Tel: 334-4526 Fall Semester 2008 e mail: wltullar@uncg.edu COURSE OBJECTIVES: To provide students with some fundamental understanding of the causes of certain behaviors, both functional and dysfunctional, which occur in work organizations. CATALOG DESCRIPTION: Study of organizational behavior and theory of complex organizations. Major topics include organizational structure and theory, individual perception and learning, motivation, group relationships, leadership, and decision making. (3:3) TEXT: Managing Behavior in Organizations Jerald Greenberg (4 th Edition) COURSE REQUIREMENTS: MBA 604 is presented through readings, lecture, video, case discussion, and individual and group exercises. Each class will begin with a short quiz on material from the previous class and reading material from the text. I will drop your lowest quiz grade. Classes will involve case discussions and discussions of video clips. Participation in these discussions will be graded. The second half of the eighth class will consist of an integrative test. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION: Final Test.................. 30% Case Analyses.............. 20% Quizzes.....................40% Class Discussion............10% SUGGESTED METHOD TO WORK THROUGH COURSE MATERIALS: Read the chapter and underline and make notes. Write out the answers to each of the quiz questions on the schedule. Put this aside. Next day study your answers. Study your answers before the class. You should have 100% for this portion of your grade. These answers should constitute MOST of your materials to review for the exam. The idea of the quizzes is to distribute the (fairly light) workload over the eight weeks.
2 LEARNING OUTCOMES: 1. The student will be able to explain basic research strategies used in OB and will be able to distinguish between primary and secondary research. 2. The student will explain the basic attribution process including those factors that prompt an internal as opposed to an external attribution as well as the fundamental attribution error. 3. The student will explain the basic theories of motivation including Herzberg s Two Factor Theory and McClelland s Three Needs Theory as well as Expectancy and Goal setting theory. 4. The student will explain the three components of attitudes and outline the importance of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. 5. The student will explain the three stages of socialization and the role of organizational culture in the socialization of employees. 6. The student will distinguish between a group and a team and explain the six key characteristics of teams. 7. The student can explain and contrast the three main types of leadership theories: trait, behavioral, and contingency and can explain the importance of transformational, attributional, and charismatic theories of leadership. 8. The student can identify and define each of the five basic elements of organizational structure: formalization, specialization, hierarchy, centralization, professionalism, and personnel ratios 9. The student can explain the strategic and psychological preparation necessary for an organization to make a merger or an acquisition work. 10. The student can explain the basic approach of organizational development (OD) to changing organizations and can state at least three of the basic values of OD.
3 THE SCHEDULE CLASS #1: 1 ST HALF: What is OB? Reading Assignment: Greenberg Ch. 1 10/23/08 2 nd HALF: Organizational Justice Reading Assignment: Greenberg Ch. 2; Schendler s HBR article on Corporate Social Responsibility Reading Assignment: Greenberg Ch. 1 & 2 1. The student will explain the difference among survey research, experiments, naturalistic observation, and the case study (see p. 6) 2. Provide a working definition of an open system. 3. Explain the basic idea behind contingency theory. 4. Integrate the concepts of procedural and distributive justice. 5. Explain the difference between interpersonal justice and organizational justice. 6. Explain how situational factors can be responsible for unethical behavior. 7. Explain what is meant by corporate social responsibility. CLASS #2: 1 st HALF: Learning, perception, personality, and emotion Reading 10/30/08 Assignment: Greenberg Ch. 3; Amabile & Kramer HBR article 2 nd HALF: Motivation Reading Assignment: Greenberg Ch. 6; 1. List and explain the five dimensions of the Big Five. 2. Define and explain the basic aims of knowledge management 3. Explain self efficacy and indicate how it is a good predictor of work behavior. 4. Explain consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness in the context of attribution theory. 5. Distinguish among positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, and extinction (see ch. 3). 6. How are equity theory and expectancy theory alike? How are they different? 7. List and explain the three principle factors that make for effective goal setting. CLASS #3: 1 st HALF: Work Related Attitudes Reading Assignment: Greenberg Ch. 5; Morrison, Erickson, & Dychtwald HBR article 11/06/08 2 nd HALF: Interpersonal Behavior in the Workplace Reading Assignment: Greenberg Ch. 7 *****************Group Case during second half of the class*******************
4 1. Identify and define the three types of organizational commitment and distinguish among them. 2. Discuss briefly the decision paths of the model of voluntary turnover. 3. Distinguish between the social information processing model and the dispositional model of job satisfaction. 4. Distinguish between transactional and relational psychological contracts. 5. Identify and briefly define the five forms of OCB. 6. Explain at least two positive and two negative consequences of conflict. CLASS #4: 1 st HALF Groups Reading Assignment: Greenberg Ch. 9 11/13/08 2 nd HALF: Groups and Teams Reading Assignment: Chhaptar HBR article 1. Explain how the presence of others can sometimes facilitate and sometimes inhibit task performance. 2. Distinguish between norms and status. 3. Differentiate between a work group and a work team. 4. Cite and explain at least four reasons why teams fail.. CLASS # 5: 1 st HALF Leadership Reading Assignment: Greenberg Ch. 11 Greene, Nunes, & Shill HBR article 11/20/08 2 nd HALF Leadership individual case in class 1. Explain the differences among trait, behavioral, and contingency theories of leadership. 2. Explain the theory behind 360 degree feedback. 3. Cite and explain briefly at least three characteristics of transformational leaders 4. Outline the basic features of the trait theory (great person) of leadership. 5. List the two main factors and explain the thinking behind the behavioral theory of leadership. 6. Explain how LMX theory works. 7. Identify LPC and explain how LPC contingency theory works
5 CLASS #6: 1 st HALF: Creativity and innovation Reading Assignment: Greenberg Ch. 12; Picking Winners HBR; May2007, Vol. 85 Issue 5, p121-126, 6p 12/04/08 2 nd HALF: Organizational Theory Reading Assignment: Greenberg Ch. 13 1. Explain the three vital functions performed by organizational culture. 2. Explain the four types of organizational culture found in the competing values framework. 3. Cite and briefly explain four ways that people can be trained to be more creative. 4. Distinguish among three bases for departmentalization. 5. Briefly explain the contingency approach to organizational design. 6. Define and explain the benefits of vertical integration CLASS #7: 1 st HALF: Organizational Change Reading Assignment: Greenberg Ch. 14; 12/11/08 2 nd HALF: Test (7:00 p.m. to 9:50 p.m.) N.B. The test for this class will be integrative and will be part of the second half of the class.