82179 - Management Skills

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to provide students with the theoretical and practical framework related to the profile Staff, Competencies, Motivations and performance required to top managers and middle managers. At the end of the course students are able to: (a) understand the key issues related to the evaluation of managers and curricular components; (b) analyze the management's aspects linked to the business dimension, to the phase of life cycle and to the strategic focus in connection with the elaboration and management of business plans; (c) evaluate and use the potentialities of the networking approach in project and business networks development.

Course contents

The basic principle of the course is the so called ‘flipped classroom’: students are requested to prepare each lesson in advance, downloading slides and reading the related paper(s), following this course breakdown:

Introduction: what management skills are?

Skills and personality: the DISC model

Improving Organizational Justice

Managing conflict and aggression

Leading Positive Change

Evaluating People Performance

Time Management skills

Problem-solving and Decision-Making Skills

Readings/Bibliography

In order to prepare the written exam, students will read all the following papers:

Susan Schor, Joseph Selzer, and James Smither , Management Skills Book (6th ed), pp.1-10 (Introduction)

Inscape Partners, DISC Theory background

Cropanzano Et Al (2007), The Management of Organizational Justice, Academy of Management Perspectives, November, 34-48.

Colquitt et al. (2013), “Justice at the Millennium, a Decade Later: A Meta-Analytic Test of Social Exchange and Affect-Based Perspectives”, Journal of Applied Psychology Vol. 98, No. 2, 199–236

Hershcovis, M. S., Turner, N., Barling, J., Arnold, K. A., Dupré, K. E., Inness, M., . . . Sivanathan, N. (2007). “Predicting workplace aggression: A meta-analysis”. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 228–238

Thundiyil et al (2015), Cynical about change? The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science , Vol. 51(4) 429– 450

Holt, D. T., Armenakis, A. A., Feild, H. S., & Harris, S. G. 2007. “Readiness for organizational change: The systematic development of a scale”. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 43: 232-255.

Latham G., Mann S. (2006) “Advances in the science of performance appraisal: implications for practice”, International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology 2006, Volume 21.

Rao M.S. , (2014),"Timeless tools to manage your time", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 46 Iss 5 pp. 278 – 282.

Dobbins R., Pettman B.O., (1997),"Manage Your Time Well", Management Research News, Vol. 20 Iss 5 pp. 15-24

Further materials and papers to prepare for the exam will be added before the beginning of the course

All papers and materials are will be available for download from the On-Line section of this course, including slides

Teaching methods

The approach is strongly interactive.

Teaching methods consist of face-to-face lecturing, role plays, case studies, video analysis and simulations.

Assessment methods

The learning material will coincide with the slides, papers and readings uploaded on On-Line section of the course.

The written exam will consist of 20 brief open questions to complete in 45 minutes. In order to help students in preparing the exam, a list of (possible) questions will be available for download from the On-Line section of this course in due time.

Office hours

See the website of Filippo Ferrari