07269 - Psychology of Organisations

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students will know and understand: main theories in Organizational Psychology; main psychosocial processes implied in organizational behaviours of individuals, groups, and organizations themselves; main goals of psychologist's professional activity in such domains.

Course contents

The course is given in the 1st term (End November 2015 to February 2016)

The course aims to improve students' theoretical knowledge on organizations. Main content areas:

1. The role of theories in the analysis of organizations.
2. Organizational strategies, structures & processes: A glossary.
3. Classical and contemporary organizational theories.
4. Organizational climate and culture.
5. Recent developments in organizational behaviour.

Readings/Bibliography

Reference texts are listed below (an asterisk means that a deep and detailed knowledge is not requested, although reading is highly recommended). Other documents will be used to enrich learning and knowledge according to opportunity, and will be communicated during classwork.

Bonazzi, G. (2006). Come studiare le organizzazioni. Bologna: Il Mulino.

(*) Hatch, M. J. (1999). Teoria dell'organizzazione. Tre prospettive: moderna, simbolica, postmoderna. Bologna: Il Mulino. Original publication: Organization Theory: Modern, Symbolic and Postmodern Perspectives, 1997, New York: Oxford University Press.

Schneider, B., Ehrhart, M.G., MacEy, W.H. (2013). Organizational climate and culture. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, pp. 361-388.

Teaching methods

Important Notice:

Our “Laurea Magistrale” grade has a pre-professional character. According to such character, students are expected to give active participation and to attend lessons. Full presence at lessons is not mandatory by law, but highly recommended.
Please consider also that Italian law states that credits at universities are obtained both through individual and classroom work.

Students not able to regularly attend classes are kindly requested to get in touch as soon as possible with the teacher or the programme tutors, in order to plan how to get the max. benefit from the course.

Methods:

Teaching methods that will be used are: lectures & questions, practitioner's report / guest lec­ture, and student reading. & reporting.

Methods that will be used to improve skills are: discussion meeting, student assignments, student group assign­ments, student oral presentation, student paper, and case studies.

The Moodle platform is the dedicate tool for exchange. Students are kindly invited to register and to put their picture in the profile, as soon as they hold the credentials for UniBO digital identity.

Assessment methods

Given the interactive nature of the course, the work itself that will be done by students (reading, discussing, writing and presenting papers) will give the opportunity to make a learning assessment. More in detail, two assignments (discussion papers about a proposed topic, one of them to be presented and discussed in the classroom) will be used for both learning and assessment goals.

Students not attending classes regularly will be requested to pass a written exam (closed and open questions) concerning the texts listed in the dedicated section.

Teaching tools

Classes, guided discussions, speechees from experts, movies.

Office hours

See the website of Marco Depolo