Organizational Behavior

Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business 70-311, Summer 2010

Instructor: Uriel Haran E-mail: uharan@cmu.edu Office: Posner 242 Class meetings: Monday-Friday 10:30am 11:50am Porter Hall 126A Office hours: Thursday/Friday, 11:00am 12:00pm Additional office hours by appointment
COURSE SYLLABUS

Catalog description: This course examines the factors that influence individual, group and firm behavior. Topics covered include perception, group behavior, decision making, motivation, leadership and organization design and change. Overview of course: The goal of this course is to teach you the skills essential to effective management in todays business environment. As a manager, you will have a challenging job. You must coordinate people, information, and processes to accomplish organizational goals; you must make things happen, and often not under conditions or timeframes of your own choosing. This course focuses on increasing your problem diagnosis and problem solving skills related to the major challenges managers face in contemporary organizations: building and sustaining high performance organizations in a global marketplace. The course introduces insights and tools from the behavioral and social sciences that will improve your ability to analyze organizational dynamics and to take effective action. Specifically, this course will provide tools, skills, and strategies for: Think about yourself and your development as a leader Enhancing your managerial judgment. Controlling and designing organizational units and their activities.

Course materials: The courses textbook is Essentials of Organizational Behavior (10th Edition) by Robbins and Judge. It will be available at the bookstore or can be purchased online at places like Amazon and Ecampus. You can also purchase an e-version at

http://www.coursesmart.com/9780136077695 for $60.00. There will be additional readings that will be made available throughout the course. The readings cover only a part of the course material. The rest will be covered in the lectures. There will be relatively little overlap between the lectures and the readings. Assignments and grading: Your final grade will be composed of: 1) 2) 3) 4) Course contribution Case analyses Exams Team Challenge 15% 30% 45% 10%

You will notice that these percentages add up to 95%. The remaining 5% of your grades will be decided upon together by you and me.

Course Contribution (15%) Every session of the course involves interaction in the form of class discussion and exercises, which are an important part of the learning process. To attain a rich and flexible understanding of the concepts, engage the material before class by thoughtfully reading the articles and cases. In other words, be actively involved in the learning process. Attendance: As Woody Allen said, 90% of life is just showing up. If youre not here, you cant contribute much to class discussion. Thus, any absence will have a negative impact on your grade. If you need to miss class for a foreseeable reason (i.e., job interview, athletic competition), it is essential that you notify me at least 24 hours in advance so I can make arrangements for any in-class exercises. You will be responsible for getting any materials distributed during class. Participation: Your grade on class participation will be based not only on the frequency of participation (neither too much nor too little) but also on the quality of your contributions to the ongoing discussion and your success in leading the discussion in productive, analytical directions. Comment quality will be assessed using the following criteria: Relevance: Logic: How is the comment related to the current discussion? Is it related to ideas in the course readings or prior discussions? Do you explain the reasoning behind your comment using clear evidence and coherent arguments?

Integration: Does your comment move the discussion forward by building on previous contributions with new insights? Individuality: Does your comment contribute a new perspective to the discussion, or does it simply repeat what others have already said? You will get the most out of this course if you share your perspectives with one another. I expect each of you to participate fully in all class exercises and to voice your views in class discussions. I also expect you to ask questions about things that you dont understand, which can be an intimidating thing to do. However, asking questions in class not only helps you, but it also helps your classmates by moving the discussion forward in a new direction.

Case Analyses (Three cases, 10% each, 30% total) In this course, you will read and analyze three cases- one case every other week. These are real-world cases, which you will analyze using the knowledge and skills you have learned in class up to that point. I will provide more specific guidelines of what I expect with the first case assignment. In general, I will ask you to take the role of a consultant writing a report of your findings and recommendations. All assignments must be emailed to me before class on the date they are due. Grades on late assignments will be penalized by 10% for each calendar day they are late. Exams (Three exams, 15% each, 45% total) Exams will be open-book. I am not interested in how much information you can cram into your head the night before an exam. However, I strongly advise you to study well for each exam, as you will not have sufficient time for searching for answers in the textbook and write adequate answers. The exams will include multiple choice and essay questions, and will focus on application of the material we have learned in class. Exams will not be cumulative.

Team Challenge (5%) Before the second exam, we will have an in-class team challenge. You work in teams to find, and turn in, solutions to a series of problems I will give you. The goals of this exercise are: 1) to apply the concepts we have covered in class to find creative solutions to organizational problems, and 2) have fun working together as a team.

Extra credit You can earn extra credit to improve your grade in this course by participating in experimental research at Tepper. Much of what we know about human behavior has come from experimental research and participating in it can help you understand the uses of experimental methods. For more information about participating in experiments, you can visit the following web site: http://sds-tepper.sona-systems.com. You will earn 1 course percentage point of extra credit for each hour of research participation. If you participate in a total of three hours, you could earn an extra 1 point, bringing your total up to a maximum of 4 percentage points of extra credit for the course. An alternative to this is to complete an additional case write-up of a real negotiation situation, which is worth up to the same amount of credit. Grading Policies
1. Your final grade will be based on the weighted average of your scores on your

course contribution, case analyses, exams and team challenge, plus any extra credit you may have. There will be no curve. 2. To appeal a grade, including exam grades, submit a typewritten request explaining your position (along with the original assignment) within 7 days of receiving your grade. Document your points with the appropriate course material. After reviewing your explanation I will either award you additional points or schedule a meeting with you to discuss the disputed issue(s). I reserve the right to re-grade the entire assignment when an appeal is submitted. This can result in a lower grade.

HONOR CODE All members of the Carnegie Mellon community -- the faculty, the staff, and the students -- are expected to abide by a code of ethics befitting a quality academic institution. Honesty and trust are the cornerstones of such conduct. Members of this community manifest their confidence in the honor system by maintaining the highest standards of personal conduct; by voicing their commitment to ethical behavior; and by refraining from extraordinary precautions and other distrustful behavior. Furthermore, community members contribute to an atmosphere of trust by preventing temptations for dishonesty. Should the behavior of either an individual or a group appear questionable, it will be evaluated within the guidelines of fair and just procedures to determine the appropriate actions.

The honor code applies to all activities in this course. Please review it at The Word: http://www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu/theword/

Course Schedule
EOB = Essentials of Organizational Behavior. BB = Blackboard.

Class Number 1 2

Date

Topic

Readings & Assignments EOB Ch. 1 EOB Ch. 4

5/17/2010 Introduction to OB and Management 5/18/2010 Job Attitudes

5/19/2010 Motivation I

EOB Ch. 5 Myers, D.G. (2000) The funds, friends, and faith of happy people. [BB] EOB Ch. 6 Complete Organizational Measures Survey I Submit Karen Leary Case Analysis Bazerman, M. H., & Moore, D. A. (2008). Common biases. EOB Ch. 8 (pp. 122-128) Complete Organizational Measures Survey II This American Life, Episode 405 Inside Job, Act One: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radioarchives/episode/405/inside-job Bazerman, M. H., Loewenstein, G., & Moore, D. A. (2002). Why good accountants do bad audits.

5/20/2010 Motivation 2 5/21/2010 No class Prepare Karen Leary Case

5/24/2010 Individual Decision Making

5/25/2010 Group Decision Making

5/26/2010 Business Ethics and Moral Judgment

5/27/2010 No class Prepare for exam I 5/28/2010 Exam I 5/31/2010 No class Memorial Day 8 9 6/1/2010 Personality 6/2/2010 HRM Decisions EOB Ch. 2 Highhouse, S. (2008). Stubborn reliance on intuition and subjectivity in employee selection. [BB]

10

6/3/2010 Leadership 6/4/2010 No class Prepare SG Cowen Case

Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. E. (1998). The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology. [BB] EOB Ch. 11

11

6/7/2010 Power and Influence

Submit SG Cowen Case Analysis EOB Ch. 12 Krackhardt, D., & Hansen. (1993). Informal networks: The company behind the chart.

12 13 14

6/8/2010 Social Networks I 6/9/2010 Social Networks II 6/10/2010 Team Challenge and Review for Exam II 6/11/2010 Exam II 6/14/2010 Obedience to Authority 6/15/2010 Groups and Teams 6/16/2010 Teamwork and Interdependence

15 16 17

EOB Ch. 8 (pp. 112-122) EOB Ch. 9 Gittell, J.H. (2000). Paradox of coordination and control. [BB] Negotiation Case EOB Ch. 13

18

6/17/2010 Negotiation I

19

6/18/2010 No class Prepare Army Crew Team Case 6/21/2010 Negotiation II

Submit Army Crew Team Case Analysis Negotiation Case Thompson, L. (2001). Preparation: What to do before negotiation. [BB] EOB Ch. 14 EOB Ch. 15

20 21

6/22/2010 Organizational Structure 6/23/2010 Culture 6/24/2010 No class Prepare for Exam III 6/25/2010 Exam III