Course syllabus

Course-PM

TEK407 Organizational behavior, orientation lp2 HT24 (7.5 hp)

Course is offered by the department of Technology Management and Economics

Contact details

Examiner:                             

Professor Susanne Ollila, susanne.ollila@chalmers.se                                               

Course leaders:                      

Professor Susanne Ollila

Course administration:      

Carina Jogevik carina.jogevik@chalmers.se

The course is held by the department of Technology Management and Economics, Division for Entrepreneurship & Strategy, situated in Building 3 (south), floor 4, Vasa.

Course purpose

This course deals with human behavior in organizations and provides knowledge on how teams as well as individuals act and communicate in their organizational context. As such the course provides an opportunity to investigate and learn about topics whose basis can be found in the applied behavioral and social sciences and that have relevancy to management. The course will explore the interactions between individuals and the systems in which they live and work. Individual, group and organisational levels of analysis are included in covering topics such as motivation, perception, group dynamics, group performance, work design, leadership, and organizational culture.

Schedule

The course is scheduled in Block C:

Mondays 13:15 - 17 Whole class together

Thursdays 8:00 – 11:45 Half class 8-9:45 and the other 10-11:45 (teacher will assign to you a time slot and you will keep the same slot for your team the duration of the course)

Nota Bene! No OB classes on Nov 21 and Nov 28, scheduled for individual and/or group work

Following classes are compulsory as they include examination:

November 14 (Multiple choice test 1)

December 5 or 12 (Presentation and opposition of group work, teams will be assigned one of the dates)

December 19 (Multiple choice test 2)

Attendance in class on the non-compulsory lectures on Mondays including pre-class preparation will give 1 credit point per day.

TimeEdit

Course literature

Main course textbook:

Buchanan, D. A., & Huczynski, A. A. (2023). Organizational behaviour (11th Ed.). Pearson education. Available as both physical and e-book.

Further reading non-mandatory texts are listed in Module "Further reading".

Course design

The underlying assumption is that organizations are living, open systems and that learning is best acquired by multiple means. Monday lectures including group activities, and case discussions where the course instructors will provide conceptual input and engage the students in interactive discussions are central to the course. Content of the selected chapters in the textbook will be partly covered, but the students need to study the literature and be sure to prepare at least one question for each Monday session. Thursdays will be dedicated to examination as well as self and group studies. Throughout the course, individual and team activities are used to illustrate the core ideas of the topics covered.

It is important to consider that in this course, much of the learning will take place in class and it will therefore benefit your learning to

  1. attend all scheduled classes,
  2. be fully prepared for class, and
  3. contribute to the team and class discussions.

Each student will be assigned to a team by the course instructors. Team formation will be presented on Monday Nov 4th. Teams will be kept for the duration of the course, but due to incoming and leaving students minor changes to the team constellation is unavoidable. The purpose of the teams is to provide a vehicle for learning about human behavior in organizations. During the course, the teams will conduct a mini study on organizational behavior (see more information in Module Examination and Assignment).

The Canvas page is structured as follows:

  • Modules: One Module for each study week including Monday and Thursday lectures for that week. Here you will find suggestions for further non-compulsory reading mention in class, ppt-files used in class (uploaded after each class),  and other information relating to the classes. For pre-class preparation and description of examination you need to look in Assignments, more about this in the next point).
  • Assignments: Two sub-folders -  pre-class preparation informing about what chapters in the textbook need to be studied before class and other preparation, examination providing details about what is part of examination, instructions on what you need to do.
  • Files: 4 sub-folder examination includes information about the examination (same as in Assignments Examination) in pdf format, Deep dive includes suggestions for further reading, Ppt-files includes all power point presentations used in class (uploaded after class), and Tools includes tools that can be used to improve group dynamics in your group.
  • Discussions: Used as part of the Attendance examination of minimum 4 p and maximum 6 p (one 1 p per Monday session except for Monday Nov 4). There is one Discussion for each Monday session (except for Nov 4). Students need to individually post a question related to the reading for each Monday respectively by replying to the discussion for that particular Monday. This needs to be done no later than 10:00 on the Monday of the session (more information is provided in the Pre-class preparation and Examination). There is one Discussion dedicated for tutoring of the mini-studies, where students can post questions and read answers.

No extra assignments will be provided to compensate for absence or missed deadlines in relation to the Monday sessions. Absence from Thursday classes which are part of examination will be handled case by case.

Experience has shown that teams are effective if they:

  • Attend class and engage in group discussions and activities
  • Schedule times and places for team meetings early in the course and observe those meeting times. You might need to schedule additional meeting time outside of class.
  • Provide time for socializing with team members; task teams that focus exclusively on the task without building interpersonal relationships tend to experience problems later on.
  • Meet in a place that is appropriate to the purpose of the meeting. A pizza place may be a good place to build social relationships, yet many teams will find that it is not the best place for working sessions.
  • Ask for instructor’s consultation if your efforts fail to solve a team problem or if you have questions about the assignments.

Learning objectives and syllabus

After completion of the course the student should:

a. be able to explain and utilize a selection of some of the most important concepts and theories within behavioural science
b. understand the role of leadership in different situations
c. have insights into management skills related to team settings
d. be able to utilize your knowledge of small team dynamics in participating and performing in a team 
e. understand core elements of work design and organizational culture from a human perspective
f. be able to evaluate and adjust your own behaviour in different situations due to increased knowledge of yourself and team dynamic processes 

Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen.

https://www.chalmers.se/en/education/your-studies/find-course-and-programme-syllabi/course-syllabus/TEK407/?acYear=2024/2025

 

Examination form

The course will be examined on individual and group levels with the assignments listed below. To pass the course you must score a minimum level of points on the multiple choice tests (minimum 18 p in total) and the term paper including presentation, opposition and attendance and questions (minimum 22 p in total). A pass overall requires 40 points or more. Grade 4 and 5 requires 60 and 80 points respectively. The individual multiple choice tests account for 2,5 hp and the written and oral assignments for 5 hp. If deadlines are missed points might be reduced. More details and instructions for the assignments that will be examined is found in Assignments Examination.

Individual level examination

Multiple choice test 1 on Thursday Nov 14. The first test accounts for maximum 20 p and material for the first individual multiple choice test will come from the textbook (Buchanan, D. A., & Huczynski, A. A. (2023). Organizational behaviour (11th Ed.) chapters 1, 7, 8, 9, and 10.

Multiple choice test 2 on Thursday Dec 19. The second test accounts for maximum 25 p and material for the first individual multiple choice test will come from the textbook (Buchanan, D. A., & Huczynski, A. A. (2023). Organizational behaviour (11th Ed.) chapters 4, 11, 12, 13, 18, 20 and 22.

Points from multiple choice test 1 and 2 will be summarized and the total score will be the basis for grade 3, 4 or 5 on 2,5 hp of the 7,5 hp of the course. Both tests are pen and paper tests and will be conducted in class. The purpose of the multiple choices tests are to learn about theoretical concepts used in the field of Organizational Behavior.

Written opposition is due Dec 4 at 17:00. The individual written opposition accounts for maximum 10 p. Each student will be assigned a group to conduct and written opposition on their interim term paper based on the Mini Study on Organizational Behaviour they have carried out. The purpose with the written opposition is to get insights into a broader set of examples of organizational behavior and critically evaluate the application of theories in the field. An individual oral opposition based on the handed in written opposition will be conducted (see more information on the point Presentation and individual opposition).

Presentation and oral opposition on Thursday Dec 5 or Dec 12. The individual presentation of own group’s interim term paper and the oral opposition and discussion of another group’s interim report (the same as for the written opposition) account for maximum 5 p. This part aims to provide deeper insights into practices and theories in the field of organizational behavior. The grade for this part is pass or fail.

Attendance and questions on every Monday session. The attendance and posting of one question per each Monday session (except for Nov 4) will provide 1 p. This means that in total 6 p can be gained from attendance and questions, but only 4 p are needed for the maximum of 100 p in the course. Questions need to be posted before deadline each Monday at 10:00. The purpose is to reflect around the topics covered in the course.

Group level examination

Term paper is due Jan 14 at 23:59. The term paper accounts for maximum 36 p. All group members need to actively participate in carrying out the mini study and writing the paper as each student need to be able to present it and discuss the content with the opponent. Learn about team dynamics and get insights about self while learning jointly about organizational behavior. ChatGPT or other similar tools cannot be used to generate content.