1/15/18
BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY
BUS 120a – ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR IN BUSINESS
SPRING 2018
Time: Thursdays 6:30 – 9:20 pm
Place: Mandel Center for the Humanities, G12
Professor: Nancy Katz
Email:
Skype: nancy.katz44
Office: Sachar 0012G
Office hours: Thursdays4:00 – 6:00 pm and by appointment
Teaching Assistant:Annabelle Zhang
Email:
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is about how you deal with people in the workplace and over the course of your career. Your future success depends not only on your analytical and technical skills, but also on your ability to work effectively with others. Do you know how to bring out the best in other people – and yourself?
We employ the “case method” of learning, as is common in graduate schools of business. A case tells the real story of a manager or leader who faces a challenge at their job or in their career. We read the case, analyze the person, the problem, and the context, and then generate answers to the question: What should he/she do now?
Learning by case method requires a high level of investment. You will need to prepare for each class session carefully and thoroughly. If you do, our case discussions will be lively, enlightening, and fun.
In addition to Harvard Business School cases, our learning tools will include lectures, readings, videos, self-assessments, in-class exercises and role-plays.
LEARNING GOALS AND OUTCOMES
As a result of taking this course, you should be able to apply theory about human dynamics in organizations to practical situations. This means, for example:
- Appreciating the role that “human relations” play in the workplace
- Understanding the conditions that foster productivity and satisfaction
- Learning concepts and frameworks that will help you make sense of complex situations, and develop appropriate solutions
- Understanding cultural differences and the role they can play in the workplace
- Developing knowledge and skills you need to effectively manage yourself and others
IMPORTANT DATES
February 15 – Quiz #1
March 15 – Quiz #2
April 19 – Quiz #3
May 3 – Final Paper Due
PREREQUISITE
BUS 10a.
COURSEMATERIALS
Study questions and cases are available through LATTE. Other readings are available in the course packet at the Brandeis bookstore. The book Difficult Conversations is available for purchase at the bookstore or online.
REQUIREMENTS
Course requirements include:
- Responses to weekly study questions
- Attendance and classparticipation
- Three in-class closed-book quizzes
- Final paper
These elements will be weighed as follows in determining your grade in the course:
- Study question responses20%
- Class participation25%
- In-class quiz #1 10%
- In-class quiz #2 10%
- In-class quiz #3 10%
- Final paper 25%
Preparation
You are required to post on the LATTE Forum, no later than noon pm on the day of the class, brief answers to the assigned study questions. This will require you to read carefully both the case and any additional readings in LATTE or in the course packet available through the bookstore.
Attendance and Participation
Class meets on Thursdays from 6:30 pm to 9:20 pm, in room G12 at the Mandel Center for the Humanities. We take a 10 to 15-minute break at approximately the midpoint of the class.
Please display a name card at your seat, and sign your name on the class attendance sheet, at every session during which you are present.
You are expected to come to all classes on-time, having done the reading, completed and posted your answers to the study questions, and ready to present your ideas to your classmates.
Valuable contributions to class discussion:
- Build on prior comments
- Provide a useful perspective
- Integrate the concepts and vocabulary from the reading
- If they mention a personal experience, do so in a way that illuminates the ideas being discussed
Comments that areunrelated to the current topic, disrespectful of others, or without sufficient foundation are strongly discouraged.
Policy on Missed Classes
You are allowed 1 absence, no questions asked. Any additional absence will result in your participation grade being reduced by a half‐step, e.g., A‐ becomes A‐/B+; B becomes B/B‐. Incurring an excessive number of absences will put you at risk of failing the course.
Policy on Technology
The use of laptops, cell phones, and all other technology in the classroom is prohibited. Please keep all your technology turned completely off and stowed away during class.
In-class Quizzes
These 3 closed book, in-class quizzes will consist of short answer questions. They will cover material drawn from lectures, class discussions, and readings up to that point in the course. If you miss a quiz, you get a zero on that quiz; there are no make-up quizzes.
Final Paper
The final paper involves applying the course concepts to your own life, distilling their personal implications, and experimenting with new behaviors. Sample topics:
a. Take an educated guess as to the Myers-Briggs personality type of several people who are important in your life. What is the concrete basis for your educated guess? How does the combination of your type and their type affect the dynamics and effectiveness of the relationship? With the other person’s Meyers-Briggs type in mind, what new behaviors should you cultivate in this relationship, to make it smoother and more effective? Try doing so, and describe the results.
b. Examine your networks, and your implicit assumptions about “networking.” What sorts of relationships do you form easily, and what do those relationships provide? What sorts of relationships are relatively lacking in your life? What new relationships should you cultivate, in light of your present goals? Try actively cultivating several such relationships, and describe the results.
c. Examine the functioning of a team you belong to. Assess the team’s group process, focusing on effort, knowledge, and task strategy. To what extent is the team set up for success, in the sense of having the necessary features of the task, team, and environment in place? Identify a range of interventions you could make to enhance the team’s performance. Choose one intervention, try it out, and describe the results.
The final paper is due on Thursday May 3. It should be no longer than 8 pages, in font size 12.
DISABILITIES
If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please see me within the first two weeks of the course.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
You are expected to be honest in all of your academic work. Please consult Brandeis University Rights and Responsibilities at
for all policies and procedures related to academic integrity. Students may be required to submit work to TurnItIn.com software to verify originality. Sanctions for academic dishonesty can include failing grades and/or suspension from the university.
Citation and research assistance can be found at LTS Library guides at
WORK EXPECTATION
Success in this 4-credit course is based on the expectation that you will spend a minimum of 9 hours of study time per week in preparation for class (including reading, studying for quizzes, and writing final papers).
SCHEDULE
SESSIONDATETOPICCASE
1Thurs Jan 11 `Introduction
THINKING ABOUT INDIVIDUALS
2 Thurs Jan 25 PersonalityMyers-Briggs Type Inventory
3 Thurs Feb 1Emotional IntelligenceSumiko Ito
4 Thurs Feb 8 Motivation & InnovationJohn Sylvan
THINKING ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS
5 Thurs Feb 15**Social Identity Claude Grunitsky
6Thurs Mar 1Difficult Conversations
7 Thurs Mar 8Power Margaret Thatcher
8Thurs Mar 15**Networks Heidi Roizen
THINKING ABOUT GROUPS
9Thurs Mar 22Leading Teams Overhead Reduction Task Force
10Thurs Mar 29EmpowermentTeams at 35,000 Feet;
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
THINKING ABOUT ORGANIZATIONS
11 Thurs Apr 12OrganizationalCulture Workplace Safety at Alcoa
12 Thurs Apr 19**Organizational Change Black Caucus Groups at Xerox
THINKING ABOUT SOCIETIES
13 Thurs Apr 26Crossing Cultures Ellen Moore
** QUIZ
1