NEW  YORK  INSTITUTE  OF  TECHNOLOGY

school  of  management

 

mgmt 605

 

organizational behavior

DR. STEPHEN  W. HARTMAN

MBA PROGRAM

NO PREREQUISITES

3  CREDITS

FALL, 2009

VANCOUVER PROGRAM

 

Dr. Hartman

Organizational Behavior Website

 

INTRODUCTION

This graduate seminar presents a review of organizational theory and the dynamics of the participation of management and employees in modern organizations.  It deals with the areas of authority and power, decision making, communication, interpersonal relations, organizational change, and conflict resolution.  Special consideration is given to group participation in terms of its contribution to the process of problem solving and decision making.  Human values, motivation, and morale are also reviewed particularly as they relate to the influences of supervision and productivity expectations.

 

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY AND PLAGIARISM POLICIES

Each student enrolled in a course at NYIT agrees that, by taking such course, he or she consents to the submission of all required papers for textual similarity review to any commercial service engaged by NYIT to detect plagiarism.  Each student also agrees that all papers submitted to any such service may be included as source documents in the service’s database, solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers.

 

Plagiarism is the appropriation of all or part of someone else’s works (such as but not limited to writing, coding, programs, images, etc.) and offering it as one’s own. Cheating is using false pretenses, tricks, devices, artifices or deception to obtain credit on an examination or in a college course. If a faculty member determines that a student has committed academic dishonesty by plagiarism, cheating or in any other manner, the faculty has the academic right to 1) fail the student for the paper, assignment, project and/or exam, and/or 2) fail the student for the course and/or 3) bring the student up on disciplinary charges, pursuant to Article VI, Academic Conduct Proceedings, of the Student Code of Conduct. The complete Academic Integrity Policy may be found on various NYIT Webpages, including: http://www.nyit.edu/about/administration/academic_affairs/academics/resources_faculty.html

 

LIBRARY

All students can access the NYIT virtual library from both on and off campus at www.nyit.edu/library.  The same login you use to access NYIT e-mail and NYITConnect will also give you access to the library’s resources from off campus. 

 

On the left side of the library’s home page, you will find the “Library Catalog” and the “Find Journals” sections.   In the middle of the home page you will find “Research Guides;” select “Video Tutorials” to find information on using the library’s resources and doing research. 

 

course objectives

1) Provide the student with an appreciation of organizational behavior, and see its emergence as a research field.

 

2) Broaden the understanding of basic theories of human development and interaction within the organization.

 

3) Develop an understanding of the administrative processes and change producing forces of an organization by systematically analyzing its processes and subsystems.

 

4) Study the dynamics of the organization and operation of small groups and assess their impact on the super ordinate organization.

 

5) Increase the "Human Skills" of the student, which are so necessary in the modern organization.

 

6) Understand the role of the manager as it is actually experienced in an organizational setting by completing a course research project.

 

course procedure

 

This seminar will be an interactive process providing exposure to readings, forum discussions, and research.  Students are expected to do the readings, view the chapter PowerPoint presentations and Chapter Lectures, take the chapter quizzes, complete the research project (see research project at the end of this course outline starting on pg. 7) and the final examination.  Additionally students will have exercises that must be completed in the Discussion Forum in Blackboard.

 

STUDENT PARTICIPATION

 

As graduate students it is expected that you participate in class discussion.  Toward this end students are asked to bring in a current article every day of class that relates to organizational behavior.  Students can use Canadian newspaper articles, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, as well as articles from the Internet.  Students are asked to include a brief summary of the article (can be in handwriting) as well as the article.  These will be collected and used both as attendance and evidence of completing the assignment.  These articles are a major component of your student participation grade.

 

 

Blackboard Discussion Forum

Students are required to perform three separate analyses relating to the subject of organizational behavior during the semester in the Blackboard Discussion forum.  These consist of an analysis of a Case, a Business Week Article, and an Internet Exercise.  The cases are found under the Course Documents tab, while the Business Week Article and Internet Exercise will be chosen from any chapter listed under the Course Documents tab.  All Blackboard assignments are due by November 20, 2009 posted in the Discussion Forum under the respective topics. 

 

required readings

 

McShane, and Von Glinow, Organizational Behavior, 4/e (New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 2008).  ISBN: 0073049778.  You can also download the book through McGraw-Hill’s eBook and save over 50%.

 

examinations

 

There will be practice chapter multiple choice quizzes as well as the final examination based upon the readings in the text and lecture material.  The quizzes consist of 10 multiple choice questions with a 30 minute timed answer period.  At least one quiz should be completed weekly. 

 

The final examination will be a 50 multiple choice question exam with a 2 ˝ hour timed answer period.  When the timed period expires for both the quizzes and the final examination respectively, the exam closes. 

 

RESEARCH PAPER

Students are required to do a research project using the Mintzberg research paradigm.  See the end of the course outline starting on page 7.  See sample research project at MGMT 605 Course Website.  The link is at the bottom of the menu.

 

grade weighting

 

Final Examination   30%

Term Paper      30%

Blackboard Discussion Assignments 30%

Class Participation (Articles) 10%

grading

90-100 = A

86-89 = b+

80-85 = B

76-79 = c+

70-75 = C

0-69 = F

 

 

a  B AVERAGE IS A PASSING GRADE 

IN ALL graduate courses.

STUDENTS WHO DO NOT PASS the

EXAMINATIONS WILL NOT PASS THE COURSE!

 

reading assignments

Students are expected to complete the reading assignments prior to the class. 

 

November    CHAPTER

 


2          Chapter 1   Introduction to the Field of Organizational Behavior

3          Chapter 2   Individual Behavior, Values, and Personality

 

4          Chapter 3   Perception and Learning in Organizations

 

5          Chapter 4   Workplace Emotions and Attitudes.  Chapter 5   Motivation in the

            Workplace.


6         Chapter 6      Applied Performance Practices.


7          Chapter 7     Work-Related Stress and Stress Management

 

9          Chapter 8     Decision Making and Creativity


10        Chapter 9     Foundations of Team Dynamics.   Chapter 10.  High Performance

            Teams


11       Chapter 11    Communicating in Teams and Organizations. Chapter 12 Power

            and Influence in the Workplace.

 

12       Chapter 13.  Conflict and Negotiation in the Workplace

 

13       Chapter 14    Leadership in Organizational Settings

 

12        Chapter 15 Organizational Structure.  Chapter 16    Organizational Culture.

 

13       Chapter 17 Organizational Change.  TERM PAPER IS DUE November 30th,

            2009!  ALL LATE PAPERS ARE REDUCED BY AT LEAST ONE FULL

            LETTER GRADE!!  Please email the papers to Dr. Hartman.  The final exam

            will be administered Monday, November 16, 2009.  It will consist of fifty multiple

            choice questions based on all of the assigned chapters. 

 

reference

 

Dictionary of Business Terms, Third Edition (New York: Barrons Educational Series, Inc., 2000).

Dictionary of International Business Terms, Third Edition (New York: Barrons Educational Series, Inc., 2004).

Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses and Dissertations Turabian Academic Reference Guide.

bibliography

 

Argyris, Chris. Personality and Organization.  New York: Harper Torch Books, 1957.

Argyris, Chris & D. A. Schon. Organizational Learning: A Theory of Action Perspective. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1977.

Bennis, Warren.  On Becoming a Leader. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1989.

Cascio, Wayne F. Managing Human Resources. NY: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1986.

Fayol, Henri.  General and Industrial Management, Constance Storrs (trans.).  London, England: Pitman, 1949. 

Fiedler, Fred E.  A Theory of Leadership Effectiveness.  New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967.

Friedman, Thomas, Up the Ladder: Coping with the Corporate Climb. NY: Warner Books, 1986.

Hersey, Paul and Blanchard, Kenneth H.  Management of Organizational Behavior, 4th ed.   Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1982.

Lawler, Ed, Motivation in Work Organizations. Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishers, 1973)

Likert, Rensis.  The Human Organization.  NY: McGraw-Hill, 1967. 

Lodge, George C., The American Disease. NY: New York University Press, 1986.

Maslow, Abraham H., Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper & Row, 1970.

    Mintzberg, Henry.  The Nature of Managerial Work.  NY: Harper & Row, 1973. 

Organization theory: from Chester Barnard to the present and  beyond.  New York  Oxford University Press, 1990.   89-38918:

Rosen, Robert H.  The Healthy Company. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher / Perigee Books published by The Putnam Publishing Group, 1991.

Thompson, Victor A., Modern Organization: A General Theory. NY: Alfred Knopf Inc., 1961.

   

 

scholarly  management  journals

 

Academy of Management Journal

Academy of Management Review

Administrative Science Quarterly

Decision Sciences

Industrial Relations

Journal of Business

Journal of Business Communication

Journal of Business and Psychology

Journal of Business Research

Journal of Management

Journal of Management Studies

Journal of Occupational Psychology

Journal of Organizational Behavior

Journal of Organizational Behavior Management

Management Science

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

Personnel Psychology

Public Administration Review


research  project

what  do  managers  do?

interviewing  questionnaire

 

At least three different managers, preferably from three different organizations, should be interviewed for the purpose of this paper.  The managers should have positions of as great authority as possible.  Describe in the paper what their positions are, what their responses are to the questionnaire, how the three different managers compare in terms of their respective responses, and what you learned from doing the exercise.  These papers will be discussed in class.  ALL PAPERS SHALL BE TYPED!  

 

Based on research managers have been shown to perform at least ten roles.  Not every manager performs every role; not every role is equally important in each manager's job.  There may be things managers do that are not included on this list.  Indeed, there is an "Other" category for including those things which are not found in this exercise.

 

The object of this assignment is to provide an experience in which you can collect some information on what contributions managers make to achieving organizational goals.  For purposes of this study, a manager is anyone whose job consists primarily of supervising other people in organizations.

 

Since so many of our students are using word processing to prepare their research papers, I strongly recommend students use the spelling checker option to reduce the number of spelling and typographical errors and the use of a Grammar Checker to check the grammar of all written work.   Grammar and spelling will be a factor in the grade for all papers!   

Instructions

 

1.  Find three managers and conduct the interviews, using the attached form as a guide.  Obtain numerical answers, using the scale provided, for all of the questions, and place their answers in the suggested summary sheet at the end of this outline.  Determine:

 

a. Which are the most important roles-those which contribute to effective performance on the job?

b.  Which are the most time-consuming?

c.  Ask the manager to give an example of the role in question.

 

2.  Discuss the results with the manager. Ask: Were there any roles that you had expected to be more (or less) important before the interview?  Were there any roles where the time consumed seemed disproportionate to the importance of the role? 

 

3.  Take notes on the interview and bring them with you to class for reference in the class discussion when the project is considered.

 

4.  You do not need to supply the name of the manager interviewed.  We are only interested in developing a sample of managerial views of their job.  The responses will be anonymous, and you should treat the interview as a confidential communication.

 

The ten roles and the typical activities involved in them are listed below, together with a space for you to list items that may be important but not provided for.  For each role, enter the appropriate numbers based upon the following scale. 

 

For the category "Importance", enter a number reflecting how important the role is to effective job performance for the manager.  The scale of values for this category are: 1 = of no importance; 2 = of minimal importance; 3 = of some importance; 4 = of considerable importance;   5 = of very high importance.

 

The next category, "Time", describes how time-consuming the role is for the manager.  The scale values for this category are: 1 = no time consumed; 2 = minimal time consumed; 3 = some time consumed; 4 = considerable time consumed; 5 = a very high amount of time consumed.

 

Finally, in the category "Example" briefly note an example of the job duties performed in fulfilling this role.  Complete each of these categories for the three managers even if examples are difficult.

 

1.  Acts as legal and symbolic head; performs obligatory social, ceremonial, or legal duties (retirement dinner, luncheon for employees, plant dedication, annual dinner dance, civic affairs, signs contract on behalf of firm etc.)

 

Importance ______   Time  ______   Example ____________________________

 

_________________________________________________________________

 

2.  Motivates, develops, and guides subordinates; staffing, training, and associated duties (management by objectives, provides challenging assignments, develops people, selects personnel, encourages subordinates, trains new employees)

 

Importance ______   Time  ______   Example ____________________________

 

_________________________________________________________________

 

3.  Maintains a network of contacts and information sources outside own group to obtain information and assistance (attends staff meetings, takes customer to lunch, attends professional meetings, meets with manager of department X, keeps abreast of upcoming design changes etc.).

 

Importance ______   Time  ______   Example _____________________________

 

_________________________________________________________________

 

4.  Seeks and obtains information to understand organization and environment.  Acts as nerve center for organization (charts work flow, work-place meetings, audits expense control statements, reviews exception reports, reviews quotations, meets with production control)

 

Importance ______   Time  ______  Example _____________________________

 

_________________________________________________________________

 

5.  Transmits information to subordinates within own organizational area of responsibility (workplace meetings, disseminates results of meetings, transmits policy letters, briefs subordinates, sends out copies of information, posts schedules and forecasts).

 

Importance ______   Time  ______  Example _____________________________

 

_________________________________________________________________

 

6.  Transmits information to persons outside of organizational area of responsibility (works with product committee, prepares weekly status reports, participates in meetings, deals with customer's coordinator, field sales).

 

Importance ______   Time  ______  Example _____________________________

 

_________________________________________________________________

 

7.  Searches organization and its environment for "improvement projects" to change products, processes, procedures, and organization.  Supervises design and implementation of change projects as well (cost reduction program, plant trip to X Division, changes forecasting system, brings in subcontract work to level work load, reorganizes department.

Importance ______   Time  ______   Example ____________________________

 

_________________________________________________________________

 

8.  Takes corrective action in time of disturbance or crisis (handles union grievances, negotiates sales problems, redistributes work during "crash programs," handles customer complaints, resolves personal conflicts, assigns engineers to problem jobs).

 

Importance ______   Time  ______   Example ____________________________

 

_________________________________________________________________

 

9.  Allocates organizational resources by making or approving decisions.  Scheduling, budgeting, planning, programming of subordinate's work, etc. (budgeting, program scheduling, assigns personnel, strategic planning, plans manpower load, sets objectives).

 

Importance ______   Time  ______   Example ____________________________

 

_________________________________________________________________

 

10.  Represents organization in negotiating of sales, labor, or other agreements.  Represents department or group negotiating with other functions within the organization (negotiates with suppliers, assists in quoting on new work, negotiates with union, hires, resolves jurisdictional dispute with department X, negotiates sales contract)

 

Importance ______   Time  ______   Example ____________________________

 

_________________________________________________________________

 

11.  Other:

 

Importance ______   Time  ______   Example ____________________________

 

_________________________________________________________________

 

The Mintzberg roles are given - though not labeled - on the questionnaire in the following order:

 

Interpersonal Roles                       Information Roles               Decisional Roles

 

1.  Figurehead                                  4.  Monitor                             7.  Entrepreneur

2.  Leader                                          ("Nerve Center"                    8.  Disturbance

3.  Liaison                                          in Mintzberg)                              Handler

                                                5.  Disseminator                   9.  Resource Allocator

                                                6.  Spokesperson                                                                                                                                                                        10.  Negotiator         

 

In the body of the paper compare and contrast the different managers in terms of the importance rating and time consumed for each of the management functions.  Do this by function rather than by manager, i.e., compare all three managers' responses functionally.  Use the examples they gave you to document your  conclusions.  Discuss any differences and the "other" category.  Original methods of interpreting and analyzing your data are encouraged.

 

Summarize the report in terms of why you believe the managers agreed and disagreed on the importance rating and time consumed for the functions discussed.  Be prepared to discuss your results in class.

 

Please use the following suggested Report Format for summarizing your interviews.  Please average the importance and time categories for your three managers.  This will provide an index of the most important and time consuming functions as well as giving an overall importance/time indicator.

 

report format

importance rating and time consumed

for managers interviewed by function

(i = importance rating

t = time consumed)

                                                                                                                                       Functional

                                                                                                        Average    Avg.   Ratio

Role                            Manager A  Manager B   Manager C  Importance Time   I / T

 

Interpersonal Roles

 

Figurehead               I   T                  I   T                  I   T                  AVG.      AVG.   I / T

Leader                        I   T                  I   T                  I   T                  AVG.      AVG.   I / T

Liaison                       I   T                  I   T                  I   T                  AVG.      AVG.   I / T

 

Interpersonal Role

Averages                   I   T                  I   T                  I   T                  AVG.      AVG.   I / T

 

INFORMATIONAL ROLE

 

Monitor                       I   T                  I   T                  I   T                  AVG.      AVG.   I / T

Disseminator                        I   T                  I   T                  I   T                  AVG.      AVG.   I / T

Spokesman               I   T                  I   T                  I   T                  AVG.      AVG.   I / T

 

Informational Role

Averages                   I   T                  I   T                  I   T                  AVG.      AVG.   I / T

 

 

 

DECISIONAL ROLE

                                                                                                                                       Functional

                                                                                                        Average    Avg.   Ratio

Role                            Manager A  Manager B   Manager C  Importance Time   I / T

 

Entrepreneur                            I   T              I   T                  I   T                 AVG.      AVG.   I / T

Disturbance Handler     I   T           I   T                  I   T                 AVG.      AVG.   I / T

Resource Allocator      I   T              I   T                  I   T                 AVG.      AVG.   I / T

Negotiator                      I   T              I   T                  I   T                 AVG.      AVG.   I / T

 

Decisional Role

Averages                       I   T              I   T                  I   T                 AVG.      AVG.   I / T

 

Total Average               I   T              I   T                  I   T                 AVG.      AVG.   I / T

 

Manager I / T Ratio      I / T              I / T                  1 / T    

 

In the body of the paper compare and contrast the different managers in terms of the importance rating and time consumed for each of the management roles and functions.  Use the examples they gave you to document your conclusions.  All papers will include a research report as detailed above.   Discuss any differences and utilize the "other" category.  Do not simply itemize each manager.  It is ESSENTIAL to compare and contrast all three managers functionally by incorporating the overall findings from your research report.  What is required here is critical comparative thinking.  Use the I / T ratio to compare the managers in terms of the importance they give to an individual function and the time they actually spend doing it. 

 

Summarize the report in terms of why you believe the managers agreed and disagreed on the importance rating and time consumed for the functions discussed. Draw conclusions as to why the managers reached the judgments they did.  Be prepared to discuss your results in class.