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34434 - Organisational Behaviour (Graduate Course)

Academic Year 2017/2018

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Engineering Management (cod. 0936)

Learning outcomes

The course of Organizational Behavior and People Management (12 CFU) aims to provide students with basic management concepts to better understand organizational behaviour and human resources managenment. Lessons, discussion of case studies, and practice will focus on topics concerning individuals, groups, and organizational processes in work settings, as well as human resources management. More specifically, this integrated course is meant to provide theoretical concepts and managerial tools to (a) understand and analyze the main models underlying organizational behavior and people management; (b) develop and increase critical skills in decision making through the analysis of the impact of theories; c) identify problem solving approaches through discussion of case studies and meetings with human resources management professionals and consultants.

Furthermore, this course intends to develop and practice teamwork skills by examining complex situations, identifying common action plans, and coming up with solution during projects. In order to do so, work groups will be set up.

Course contents

  1. Introduction
    • 1.1.What is Organizational Behavior?
    • 1.2.The different levels of analysis of organizational action
    • 1.3.Major fields inspiring organizational behavior
    • 1.4.Role and function of management
  2. The Individual in Organizations:
    • 2.1.Individual differences: personalities and skills
      • 2.1.1.Definition of personality
      • 2.1.2.The Big Five model
      • 2.1.3.The most relevant personality traits
      • 2.1.4.Personality assessment
      • 2.1.5.Skills: Cognitive and physical skills
      • 2.1.6.Sources and assessment of skills
      • 2.1.7.How to manage skills in organizations: Selection, positioning, and development
    • 2.2.Values, attitudes, moods and emotions
      • 2.2.1.The nature of values, attitudes, moods and emotions
      • 2.2.2.The relationships between values, attitudes, moods and emotions
      • 2.2.3.Job satisfaction

        2.2.4. The main theories of job satisfaction

        2.2.5. How to measure job satisfaction

        2.2.6. Potential consequences of job satisfaction

        2.2.7. Organitazional commitment: affective commitment and its consequences

        2.2.8. Organizational identification and its consequences

        2.3. Perceptions and attributions

        2.3.1. Perception process

        2.3.2. Characteristics of the perceiver, target, and situation

        2.3.3. Perception biases

        2.3.4. Attribution theory

        2.3.5. Attribution biases

        2.4. Organizational learning

        2.4.1. Learning in organizational settings

        2.4.2. How to increase the likelihood of positive behaviors and decrease the likelihood of negative behaviors

        2.4.3. Social learning theory

        2.5. Motivation at work

        2.5.1. What motivation in work settings is: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

        2.5.2. Why people act the way they act: Motivational theories

        2.5.3. Maslow's theory of needs

        2.5.4. Expectancy theory

        2.5.5. Equity theory

        2.5.6. Procedural justice theory

        2.6. Job design and goal setting as motivational tools

        2.6.1. Job characteristics model

        2.6.2. Social information processing model

        2.6.3. Goal setting

        2.7. Performance assessment, compensation, and career management as motivational tools

  3. Group and Team Processes
    • 3.1.Work groups
      • 3.1.1.Different kinds of work teams and the 5-stage development model
      • 3.1.2.Team characteristics
      • 3.1.3.Rules, norms, and roles in teams
      • 3.1.4.Relationship between cohesiveness and performance
      • 3.1.5.Socialization processes
    • 3.2.Team effectiveness
      • 3.2.1.How to measure team effectiveness
      • 3.2.2.Team dysfunctional processes
      • 3.2.3.The main work groups operating in organizations
    • 3.3.Leadership
      • 3.3.1.Personal trait theory and behavioral theories
      • 3.3.2.Fiedler's contingency theory
      • 3.3.3.Path-goal theory
      • 3.3.4.Vroom e Yetton's theory
      • 3.3.5.Substitutes for leadership

Readings/Bibliography

  • The handbook for this part of the course is:
    • Stephen P. Robbins, Timothy A. Judge, Domenico Bodega (2016). Comportamento organizzativo. Conoscere e sviluppare competenze organizzative. Milano: Pearson Italia (Capitoli: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14)
  • Case studies, literature (book chapters and international papers), and further material available on the Internet will be provided on the website on https://campus.cib.unibo.it, handed over or suggested during class activities.
  • Other interesting readings:
    • Noe A, Hollenbeck J. Et al. (2012). Gestione delle risorse umane. Apogeo education.
    • Prandstraller F. e B. Quacquarelli (2011). Risorse Umane internazionali. Cultura, competenze, strategia. Milano: APOGEO.
    • Knights D. e H. Willmott (2009). Il comportamento organizzativo. Organizzazione aziendale e management. Milano: ISEDI.
    • Jones, G.R. (2007), Organizzazione. Teoria, progettazione, cambiamento, Milano: Egea.
    • Grandori, A. (1999). Organizzazione e Comportamento Economico, Bologna: Il Mulino.
    • Brown, R. (2000). Psicologia sociale dei gruppi, Bologna: Il Mulino.
    • Daft, R. L. (2001). Organizzazione aziendale, Milano: Apogeo.
    • Pilati M. e H. Tosi (2008). Comportamento Organizzativo – Terza edizione. Milano: Egea (Capp. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10 12)
    • Kreitner R. e A. Kinicki. (2013). Comportamento Organizzativo. Milano: Apogeo. (Capp. 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16).

Teaching methods

  1. GROUP PROJECT

Group dimension and composition: There wil be minimum 5 and maximum 6 members for each group. Students will form groups on their own with the only aim of guaranteeing heterogeneity in terms of individual characteristics. For this purpose the following procedure has to apply:

  1. All the students have to fullfill an online survey (BRAIN BRIEF PROFILE) that allows them to determine their own profile. The link to the survey will be provided on https://campus.cib.unibo.it [https://campus.cib.unibo.it/]; the survey addresses participants to the projects only, students must not share the link with others;
  2. Within each group, no more than two individuals holding the same profile are allowed;
  3. Each group has to choose its name and a spokesperson. The spokesperson (using the Excel file available on https://campus.cib.unibo.it [https://campus.cib.unibo.it/] ) will communicate via mail the name of the group and name, surname, ID number and individual profile of every member of the group to the email address disa.progettiorganizzazioneaziendalem@unibo.it [mailto:disa.progettiorganizzazioneaziendalem@unibo.it] by not later than midnight of Saturday October 14, 2017 using the Excel file cited above;
  4. All the communications with the instructors, included the transmission of the final report, will involve only the spokesperson;
  5. In order to ease communication, it is mandatory that every email sent follows this format: the subject recall the «Group Name» and «Content of the message » (e.g., Group Alpha: Composition; Group Beta: Final report)

(*) There are 8 possible profiles in terms of brain style: Scientist – Visionary –Inventor – Guardian – Strategist – Superhero – Deliverer - Sage

The project will concern the application of themes and tools learned during the course to the analysis and the identification of problems and subsequent elaboration of solutions for one of the Companies ranked by MIT Technology Review. The link to the ranking is as follows:

https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/companies/2017/

Please notice that Facebook cannot be analyzed.

First assignment: please send a document accounting for the reasons that have led you to select the company and presenting an outline of the project draft by Tuesday October 31, 2017.

Meeting day: On Wednesay November 15 or on Thursday November 16, 2017 alternatively, all the groups will be required to discuss their project outline with the instructors (s) [the exact date and order of the presentations will be communicated via distribution list]. The meeting will last 20 minutes. Each group spokesperson will have to send a one-page project summary to disa.progettiorganizzazioneaziendalem@unibo.it [mailto:disa.progettiorganizzazioneaziendalem@unibo.it] by no later than Tuesday, November 14.

Report required: All groups have to write a final report of the work, including multimedia contents, written in Word by the end of Monday December 18, 2017. The report has to be sent to the following email address: disa.progettiorganizzazioneaziendalem@unibo.it [mailto:disa.progettiorganizzazioneaziendalem@unibo.it].

Assessment criteria: The main criteria will be: quality of the project; analysis capabilities; problem identification and problem solving capabilities. Each criterion has the same weight, 10/30.

b) INDIVIDUAL TEST OF BUSINESS ORGANIZATION M

The individual test consists of 30 multiple choice questions, which will be assessed according to the following criteria:

  • +0,30 for every right answer
  • -0,15 for every wrong answer
  • -0,10 for every missing answer

The individual test will take place in Lab 6 (located in via Terracini); dates will be set based on the official calendar, and will be communicated on AlmaEsami ( https://almaesami.unibo.it ). Students are required to sign up for each test on AlmaEsami exclusively (no email or other sign-up will be acknowledged). The minimum score to pass this test must be at least 15/30.

c) INDIVIDUAL REPORT ABOUT THE PROJECT

The individual report is based on the teamwork carried out during the project. Every report will include:

- A critical analysis of the group experience and of the group dynamics through the lens of the models and the tools learnt in class. In particular, each student is expected to delve into the points of strength and weakness of her/his team experience, what problems have been addressed and how, what s/he would have done differently if possible, her/his role in the project team.

- One page of “executive summary” in which all the main themes and the takeways learnt from the teamwork have to be addressed.

- A relevant title and subtitle of 140 types as a summary of the report.

Report format: All the students have to respect the following directions:

Report written in Word, 6-page maximum length, executive summary included, (Style Times: New Roman 11; line spacing: 1.5; page margins: 2.5 cm)

Submission date is Sunday, January 8, 2018 to the email address disa.progettiorganizzazioneaziendalem@unibo.it [mailto:disa.progettiorganizzazioneaziendalem@unibo.it].

Assessment criteria: The main criteria will be: quality of the project; analysis capabilities; problem identification and problem solving capabilities. Each criterion has the same weight: 10/30.

Assessment methods

The final exam of the overall course consists of three parts:

a) Group project

b) Invididual multiple choice test

c) Individual report

The final grade is calculated as the weighted average of the three above parts:

- 50% is the weight of the project grade (the same for all the group members)

- 25% is the weight of the individual multiple choice test grade

- 25% is the weight of the individual report grade

If the final average is decimal, there will be an arithmetic rounding.

Rewards and incentives are available for excellent outcomes in the three parts: if the grade in each part is at least equal to 27/30, the final average grade will be increased by 7%; if the grade in two of the three parts is at least equal to 27/30, the final grade will be increased by 3%.

The final grade must be registered compusorily within 3 months from passing the individual test. Once per month a specific date for registering will be set. During office hours registering will not be possibile, as that time is devoted to clarify the topics and the themes studied in class. Registration dates and all information about the course will be communicated only via distribution list (maria.tagliaventi.OrganizzazioneAziendaleM2017-18) available on https://www.dsa.unibo.it..The password for the subscription to the list will be communicated in class.

Teaching tools

The course tutor is Dr. Donato Cutolo (donato.cutolo@studio.unibo.it)

Office hours

See the website of Maria Rita Tagliaventi