Course syllabus
Course-PM
TEK407 Organizational behavior, orientation lp2 HT25 (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
Thursdays 9 – 11:45
Nota Bene! No classes on Monday Dec 8 and Monday Dec 15, scheduled for individual and/or group work
All classes will be held in room Vasa 6 except for class on Thursday Dec 11 which will be in Vasa 7.
Following classes are compulsory as they include examination:
November 17 (Multiple choice test 1)
November 24 (Literature seminar on power and organizational politics)
December 4 (Case work on AI and Human interaction)
December 11 (Presentation and opposition of team paper)
December 18 (Multiple choice test 2)
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 mandatory reading (for literature seminar and case work) are available in respective modules for those classes.
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. 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. 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
- attend all scheduled classes,
- be fully prepared for class, and
- 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 10. 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).
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.
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 hand in of answers and reflections to the literature seminar and part of tutoring of the mini-studies, where students can post questions and read answers.
Absence from mandatory classes which are part of examination will be handled case by case.
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.student.chalmers.se/sp/course?course_id=41471
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) as well as the assignments including the term paper presentation, opposition and hand-in, literature seminar and case work (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 17. 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 18.
Multiple choice test 2 on Thursday Dec 18. The second test accounts for maximum 25 p and material for the second 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, 17 and 20.
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.
Presentation and oral opposition on Thursday Dec 11. Each student will individually present their group’s interim term paper based on their mini study and conduct an oral opposition and discussion of another group’s interim report. This part accounts for 5 p and the grade is pass or fail. The purpose with the presentation and opposition is to get insights into a broader set of examples of organizational behavior and critically evaluate the application of theories in the field.
Literature seminar on Monday Nov 24. The attendance and posting of answers to/reflections on two questions before deadline Monday Nov 24 at 09:00 will provide 5 p. Grade is pass or fail. The purpose is to reflect around and discuss a complex topic of organizational behavior to get deeper understanding.
Case work on Thursday Dec 4. The attendance and hand-in of answers to questions related to a case on AI and Human interaction. The case is provided in class on Thursday Dec 4 and the hand-in will be done in class the same day. This part provides maximum 8 p. Grade is 3, 4 or 5. The purpose is to learn about the latest research on AI-human collaboration and apply the knowledge to a practical case.
Group level examination
Term paper is due Jan 14 at 23:59. The term paper accounts for maximum 37 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.