36258 - People Management

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student is able to: - Identify the main factors shaping individual motivation at work - Analyze the factors that favor innovation and collaboration in groups - Analyze leadership styles that facilitate the achievement of organizational and personal goals and aspirations - Understand the tools needed to promote an agile work organization

Course contents

This course aims at helping students understand why managing people has become one of the most strategic challenges in today's organizations. It explores how people management is shifting from control toward empowerment, looking at motivation, the needs of new generations, agile teams, and psychological safety. Students engage with contemporary leadership, performance management, and people analytics, learning to move from intuition to evidence-based decisions. Through real cases and guest lectures, the course connects theory with practice. It combines readings, discussions, role plays, and team exercises, and concludes with a final lab in which students redesign a traditional organization along Agile principles.

List of the topics:

• Introduction: the evolution and growing importance of people management
• Future competences and emerging people management models
• Psychology of organizations: from control to empowerment
• Motivation and new generations' work preferences and needs
• Agile team dynamics and high-performing teams
• Psychological safety
• Contemporary leadership theories: from directing to enabling
• Performance management and evaluation systems
• People analytics and evidence-based decision-making
• Collaboration and communication in agile systems
• Organizational structure and networks
• Agile organizational design and decision-making processes
• Real-world case studies and dialogue with corporate guests
• Final LAB: diagnosing and redesigning a "machine organization" along Agile principles

Readings/Bibliography

Aghina W., De Smet A., Lackey G., Lurie M., Murarka M. (2018), The Five Trademarks of Agile Organizations, McKinsey & Company.

Ryan R.M., Deci E.L. (2000), «Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being», American Psychologist, 55, 1, pp. 68-78.

Readings and scientific articles will be distributed in class and on the website: virtuale.unibo.it

Teaching methods

Assignment of theoretical readings (HBS articles & other publications), case method, simulations, discussion, role playing, group/team projects (including final project/case). Students will be expected to participate during class and be able to draw upon and apply their work experiences. A final project (carried out and delivered in groups) will be presented during the last class meeting.

Assessment methods

Assessment and Grading

The assessment depends on whether or not the student decides to attend the course.

Attending students — The final grade is based on two components of equal weight:

• Final LAB in class (50%) — A group activity held in the last session of the course. Students analyze a traditional "machine organization," diagnose its structural and people-related problems, and redesign it according to Agile principles, covering team structure, roles, processes, leadership model, and a practical transition plan. Duration: 3 hours.
• Written exam (50%) — 15 multiple-choice questions, each with one correct answer out of three alternatives. No penalty for wrong answers. An additional final question is used to award distinction (lode) and is considered only if all other questions have been answered correctly.

Non-attending students — The assessment is based on:

• Written exam (100%) — The same 15 multiple-choice questions.
• Mandatory oral interview, to be taken on the same day as the written exam.

Oral interview — The oral interview is mandatory for all students who have not completed the Final LAB. It may also be requested by attending students who wish to improve their final grade.

Teaching tools

Slide, articles and additional material will be available online on the institutional platform.

Office hours

See the website of Marcello Russo