90451 - COMPORTAMENTO ORGANIZZATIVO NEI SERVIZI

Academic Year 2021/2022

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Sociology and Social Work (cod. 8786)

Learning outcomes

The course aims to provide students with basic concepts to better understand organizational behavior. Lessons, discussion of case studies, and practice will focus on topics concerning individuals, groups, and organizational processes in work settings. More specifically, this 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.

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. The Individual in Organizations:
    • 1.1.Individual differences: personalities and skills
      • 1.1.1.Definition of personality
      • 1.1.2.The Big Five model
      • 1.1.3.The most relevant personality traits
      • 1.1.4.Personality assessment
      • 1.1.5.The development of cognitive skills
    • 1.2.Values, attitudes, moods and emotions
      • 1.2.1.The nature of values, attitudes, moods and emotions
      • 1.2.2.The relationships between values, attitudes, moods and emotions
      • 1.2.3.Job satisfaction
      • 1.2.4.Potential consequences of job satisfaction
    • 1.3.Perceptions and attributions
      • 1.3.1.Perception process
      • 1.3.2.Characteristics of the perceiver, target, and situation
      • 1.3.3.Perception biases
      • 1.3.4.Attribution theory
      • 1.3.5.Attribution biases
    • 1.4.Motivation at work
      1.4.1.What motivation in work settings is: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
      • 1.4.2.Why people act the way they do: Motivational theories
      • 1.4.3.Goal setting, performance assessment, compensation, and career management as motivational tools
  2. Group and Team Processes
    • 2.1.Work groups
      • 2.1.1.Different kinds of work teams and the 5-stage development model
      • 2.1.2.Team characteristics
      • 2.1.3.Team effectiveness
      • 2.1.4.How to measure team effectiveness
      • 2.1.5.Team dysfunctional processes
      • 2.1.6.Virtual teams
  3. Decision making processes
    • 3.1.Types of decisions
    • 3.2.Decision making process:
      • 3.2.1.The rational model
      • 3.2.2.Bounded rationality
      • 3.2.3.The Carnegie model

  4. Power, Politics and Conflicts
    • 4.1.Sources of individual formal and informal power
    • 4.2.Sources of organizational units' power
    • 4.3.Politics as the exercise of power in organizations
    • 4.4.Conflict in organizations
    • 4.5.Sources of conflict in organizations
    • 4.6.Pondy's model of organizational conflict
Tacticts to handle conflict in organizations

Readings/Bibliography

The handbook of the course is:

  • Pilati M. e H. Tosi. Comportamento Organizzativo – 3rd edition. Milano: Egea (Chapters. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9). The digital version is available at http://www.egeaeditore.it/ita/catalogo/risultato-ricerca.aspx?Testo=pilati%20tosi

 

Additional References:

· Robbins S.P., Judge T.A., Bodega D. (2016). Comportamento organizzativo. Conoscere e sviluppare competenze organizzative. Milano: Pearson Italia (Chapters: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13). The digital version is available at https://www.pearson.it/opera/pearson/0-6288-comportamento_organizzativo

§ Kreitner R. e A. Kinicki. (2013). Comportamento Organizzativo. Milano: Apogeo (Chapters: 1, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13).

Teaching methods

The course will consist of interactive lessons, discussion of case studies and media material, and group activities.

Registering dates and all information about the course will be communicated only via https://virtuale.unibo.it/.

Assessment methods

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

a) Group project

b) Individual test based on tree open questions

There will be minimum 3 and maximum 5 members for each group. Students will form groups on their own with the only aim of guaranteeing heterogeneity in terms of individual characteristics. 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 a case study or a movie assigned by the instructor.

All groups will have to write a final report of the work, including multimedia contents, written in Word by Friday January 14, 2022. The report has to be sent to the instructor’s email (maria.tagliaventi@unibo.it [mailto:maria.tagliaventi@unibo.it] ), detailing both in the message body and in the file group name and group members.

The same procedure applies to students who cannot attend classes: in this case, students will carry out their own project autonomously.

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

The final grade will be calculated based on 50% of the individual test grade and 50% of the group project grade. Algebraic approximation will be applied: grades up to 0.49 will be approximated to the lower integer number, whereas grades higher than 0.50 will be approximated to the upper integer number.

Students who will get at least 27/30 grade in both the individual test and the group projects will be rewarded with an extra 3% (before approximation).

The same procedure (individual test and project) applies to students who cannot attend classes. They are kindly required to contact the instructor to know about the project content.

Teaching tools

Case studies, literature (book chapters and international papers), and further material available on the Internet will be provided on the website on https://iol.unibo.it, handed over or suggested during class activities.

Office hours

See the website of Maria Rita Tagliaventi

SDGs

Good health and well-being Decent work and economic growth Peace, justice and strong institutions

This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.