MANAGEMENT 301ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIORFall 2017Dr. Katerina BezrukovaUniversity at BuffaloTuesday and Thursday- 3:30 pm - 4:50pm. Frnczk 454 Instructor: Katerina BezrukovaE-mail: y [email protected]: Jacobs Management Center 274Office hours: Before and after the class and by appointment TA: Ernie Wang Email: [email protected] Office: Jacobs Management Center 263Office hours: Thursday 8:30am to 9:30am and by appointmentCourse DescriptionThis course is designed to provide you with an introduction to the field of organizational behavior. The course explores the systematic interrelation of economic, technological, psychological, and sociological variables useful in observing, predicting, and influencing organizational behavior. Students develop ways of thinking about organizational problems to increase their effectiveness as administrators. Topics include psychology of industrial and humanrelations; job analysis and design; worker morale, motivation, and efficiency; group work, organizational conflict, and workplace diversity; leadership and top management teams; training and development; organizational decision making; occupational health and stress; and others.This course has a significant experiential element to it. In addition to reading about and discussing major topic areas in organizational behavior, you will, as part of the requirements for this course, experience groups and organizations in two ways. First, you will be a member of a work team within the course, and the majority of your course grade will be based on the performance of this team. Second, you will choose an on-going group/organization outside of class and study it as part of this course.Course objectives include:1. To develop your thinking about your own behavior and the behavior of others in organizations by introducing you to basic models of leadership and behavior.2. Develop your ability using behavioral concepts and theories as a leader in work organizations.3. Develop your ability to effectively write and speak about organizational issues.The assigned readings are:1- A bulk pack of assigned readings, available from the University Bookstore. These readings include short articles from professional and academic journals, chapters from books, cases and exercises.- Additional handouts and papers available from UB Learns.AdministrationYour grade will be determined much as employee performance is evaluated in high performance organizations. That is, your grade will be based partly on your individual participation in class, but mostly on the performance of your entire work team.In particular, your grade will be based upon a maximum of 100 points, distributed as follows:Class participation (10%); evaluated individuallyQuizzes (20%); evaluated individuallyExam (20%); evaluated individuallyGroup Papers (20%); evaluated as a teamFinal Project (30%); evaluated as a teamClass participation (including attendance). The class participation grade will consist of 2 parts:- Contributions to class discussion (worth 3%) will be evaluated based on your involvement in class activities, where exemplary participation involves applying the reading for the day in an active and constructive manner. I will also consider how activelyyou participated in the reading discussion held in Q&A form, and how thought-provokingand insightful your questions on class materials and other opinions, suggestions, ideas are; how actively you contribute your thoughts in your small group discussions; how actively you participate in presenting your group's ideas to the rest of your classmates.- Your team allocation of 100 points based on group’s evaluation of your teamwork (worth 5%).- Research credit (2%). See more detail on the UB Learns.Quizzes (including in-class activities). This includes your individual performance on occasional surprise quizzes in class. Quizzes will be given to check your understanding of the assigned readings and lecture notes. If you are late or absent to class you will not be allowed to make up the missed quiz, but your lowest quiz score will be dropped when calculating your final overall quiz score. - Team Formation: Four- or five-person research teams will be formed the second day of class. Your research team will be responsible for all team-based course work. As a manager, learning to perform effectively in groups is a critical skill; thus, it is important for you to experience this type of situation. Given the frequent interaction among your team members, you need to work out any conflicts or problems as soon as possible and, if necessary, see me. It may also be useful for your team to select a facilitator who coordinates the team 2meetings. Each team is required to submit to me a “team contract.” All team members must sign this contract. When designing your contract, think about the type of ‘social contract’ that you want to establish with each other. Such a contract should help mediate conflict later in the quarter. Exam. One midterm exam will cover material discussed in class before the exam and will consist of primarily multiple choice, and possibly short answer type questions. All material covered in the text and class discussion before the exam is considered “fair game” for the exam.Group Papers. Each team will prepare two brief team papers. The papers will assess your ability to analyze the characteristics of your MGI/MGB 301 team and evaluate the other in-class team. More details will be given later in the course of the semester. Group Project. This project will require your work team to choose an on-going group or organization to observe and analyze. I will be happy to meet with you during office hours or by appointment to help you select an appropriate group/organization to study. Your team will make an in-class presentation at the end of the quarter that summarizes your study findings, including your recommendations to increase the studied group/organization’s effectiveness, and will turn ina written project report. Your grade will be based on your team’s performance both on the presentation and the written report. A short (one-page) proposal of the group/organization your team wishes to study, and your plan for analyzing this team/organization, will be due mid quarter(see below for a specific date). The ppt slides for your final presentation should be submitted to me the night before your actual presentation via email.