MBA 7630, Organizational Behavior and Theory

Spring 2006

Last Updated: April 6, 2007

Instructor: Dr. Mel Schnake Office: 208 Pound Hall Phone: 245-3822

Office Hours: 1:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.,Tuesday and Thursday; 1:00 to 3:00 Wednesday; 6:00 to 6:30 on Tuesday, and by appointment. Most questions can usually be handled via email..

Required Texts:

MGNT760 Primus Custom Text, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2006, ISBN: 0-390-76030-7

Course Description

Large and small scale organizations - both business and government - are the major factors influencing the social and economic well-being of contemporary society. They have become the dominant tool for both defining, solving, and creating problems in virtually every sphere of human endeavor. One consequence of this realization is an increasing demand for an understanding of organizational behavior and theory to increase the overall effectiveness of organizations and the competence of management--in other words, to enhance the performance of individuals, work groups, and organizations as a whole. This course seeks to integrate the theory of human behavior and complex organizations with the practice of managing individuals, work groups and organizations.

To really appreciate the art of managing individuals and groups in complex organizations, you may have to adopt a different perspective from the one you have used in most of your previous business courses. Managing complex organizations is not like accounting or finance or even human resource management. You can not plug numbers into a formula and expect things to run like clockwork. Complex organizations are not entirely rational entities. They are filled with uncertainty, ambiguity, and irrational political behavior. This subject matter is not neat and tidy. It does not lend itself to traditional linear approaches. There are no quick fixes and there are no easy answers. Problems such as improving human performance are typically very "messy." They seldom lend themselves to pre-packaged solutions. As H.L. Mencken once said, "There is always an easy solution to every human problem---neat, plausible, and wrong." When you are dealing with people and human systems, there are usually several right answers, and many more wrong ones.

Managing requires hard work, discipline, integrity, self-esteem, and a fair amount of personal courage. Being a successful manager in this era of rapid change also requires conceptual ability and aptitude to deal with uncertainty and complexity.

Format of the Course

The format of this course can be described as a graduate seminar. This type of material makes heavy participation and discussion of multiple viewpoints critical for maximum learning. Reading assignments will be discussed in class, and students will present additional material.

Grading

Midterm (essay exam)................................................................................................100 points

Final (essay exam)......................................................................................................100 points

Participation ("citizenship," questions, comments, examples).....................................50 points

Team Presentation......................................................................................................100 points

AME Article presentation............................................................................................50 points

Readings Article lead discussion...................................................................................25 points

Total possible points = 425

A = 90% to 100% B = 80% to 89% C = 70% to 79%

D = 60% to 69% F = Below 60%

AME Article Presentation

Much has been said about the gap between research and practice. The Academy of Management has designed one of its three journals to bridge this gap, the Academy of Management Executive. Students will select a current (e.g., 1998-2007) article from this journal and present it to the class to increase our understanding of a topic covered in the assigned readings. Some articles in AME describe scientific research in practitioner language and are ideally suited to this assignment.

Team Project

Your Instructor will assign individuals to teams early in the semester. You team assignment will be to thoroughly analyze an organizational behavior issue and present the "current state of knowledge" on this topic at the end of the semester. You must read all the research published to date on this issue, summarize the findings, and present (1) what we've learned so far on this issue, (2) what we still need to know, (3) managerial implications. A few minutes toward the end of each class session will be devoted to team meetings. During this time, the Instructor will spend a few minutes with each team discussing what you've discovered so far. The topic for Spring 2006 is "Organizational MisBehavior (OMB) (organizational deviant behavior)." As you will learn, OMB is related to many topics within organizational behavior, including leadership, motivation, communication, personality, etc.

Participation/Citizenship

Participation points may be earned by asking questions, making useful comments, and offering examples from your own work experience. For example, if a particular theory seems to fit something that's happening in your work place, the class will benefit from you sharing this example. Or, if a particular theory seems to run counter to something in your experience, a discussion of this apparent contradiction may be particularly helpful to the class. Quality is emphasized in assessment, not just quantity.

Special Services

Students requesting classroom accommodations or modifications because of a documented disability must contact the Access Office for Students with Disabilities located in room 1115 Nevins Hall. The phone numbers are 245-2498 (voice) and 219-1348 (tty).

Tentative Schedule of Assignments

Jan 9 - Introduction to the Course. Introduction to the field of Organizational Behavior/Theory.

MBA7630 - OB Introduction- Organizational Behavior: The Science Behind Management, O. Behling.

Jan 16 - MGNT7630 - Personality- Personality and Attitudes, Pam Perrewe

Fischer, Cynthia D. (2003) Why do lay people believe that satisfaction and performance are correlated? Possible sources of a common sense theory. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 24(6): 753-777.

MBA7630 (p. 598-609) Participation, Satisfaction, and Productivity: A Meta-Analytic Review.

Saari, Lise M. and Timothy A. Judge (2004) Employee attitudes and job satisfaction. Human Resource Management, 49(4): 395-407.

Schappe, S.P. (1998) The influence of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and fairness perceptions on organizational citizenship behavior. Journal of Psychology, 132(3): 277-290.

Jan 23 - Wood, AME Article: Perrewe, P.L., G.R. Ferris, D.D. Frink, & W.P. Anthony (2000), Political skill: An antidote for workplace stressors. Academy of Management Executive, 14(3): 115-123.

MGNT7630 - Rewards (pp. 158-163)

MBA7630 (p. 164) - E.E. Lawler, III The Design of Effective Reward Systems

MBA7630 (p. 186) - S. Kerr, (1995) On the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B. Academy of Management Executive, 9: 7 - 14.

MBA7630 (p. 194) - Jone L. Pearce, Why Merit Pay Doesn't Work: Implications from Organizational Theory

MBA7630 ( p. 201) - Jeffrey Pfeffer, Six Dangerous Myths About Pay, (1998) Harvard Business Review, May-June, 109-119.

MBA7630 (p. 213) - W. Jack Duncan, Stock Ownership and Work Motivation, Organizational Dynamics (2001), 30(1), 1-11.

Kenneth W. Thomas (2000) Intrinsic motivation and how it works. Training, 37(10): 130-135.

Fred Luthans and Alexander D. Stajkovich (1999) Reinforce for performance: The need to go beyond pay and even rewards. Academy of Management Executive, 13: 49-57.

Jan 30 - MBA7630 (pp. 225-227) - Punishment

MBA7630 (p. 228) - Jennifer George, Asymmetrical Effects of Rewards and Punishments: The Case of Social Loafing

Steven J. Karau & Kipling D. Williams (1995) Social loafing: Research findings, implications, and future directions. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 4(5): 134-140.

Jackson: MBA7630 (p. 239) - Butterfield, Trevino & Ball, Punishment from the Manager's Perspective: A Grounded Investigation and Inductive Model

Atkins: Schnake, M.E. (1986) Vicarious punishment in a work setting. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71(2) 343-345.

Jacobs AMP Article: Litzky, Eddleston & Kidder (2006) The good the bad and the misguided: How managers inadvertently encourage deviant behaviors. Academy of Management Perspectives, 20(1): 91-103.

Feb 6 - MBA7630—(p. 265) Intrinsic Motivation and Cognitive Evaluation Theory

Haretos: AME Article: Mitchell, Holtom & Lee (2001), How to keep your best employees: Developing an effective retention strategy, Academy of Management Executive, 15(4): 96-108.

Crisler: MBA7630—(p. 268) Why Volunteer to Suffer?

Haretos: MBA7630—(p. 322) Stop De-motivating Your Employees!

Jackson, AME Article: Dessler, Gary (1999), How to earn your employees' commitment, Academy of Management Executive, 13(2): 58-67.

Atkins, AME Article: Moss, S., & Sanchez, J. (2004). Are your employees avoiding you? Managerial strategies for closing the feedback gap. Academy of Management Executive, 18(1), 32-44.

Feb 13—Haretos: AME Article: Mitchell, Holtom & Lee (2001), How to keep your best employees: Developing an effective retention strategy, Academy of Management Executive, 15(4): 96-108. (carryover from previous week).

MBA7630—(p. 326-352) The Work Group

MBA7630 (p. 353-402) Group and Team Dynamics

Hikmatoolo: MBA7630 (p. 403-414) Cohesiveness in Groups

MBA7630— (p. 415-435) Differentiation in Groups

Ward: Nancy Katz (2001) Sports teams as a model for workplace teams: Lessons and liabilities. Academy of Management Executive, 15: 56-69.

Crisler, AMP Article: Romero, Eric J. & Kevin W. Cruthirds (2006), The Use of Humor in the Workplace. Academy of Management Perspectives, 20(2): 58-69.

Bridges, AME Article: Forrester & Drexler (1999) A model for team-based organizational performance. Academy of Management Executive, 13(3): 36-49.

Feb 20—Crisler, AMP Article: Romero, Eric J. & Kevin W. Cruthirds (2006), The Use of Humor in the Workplace. Academy of Management Perspectives, 20(2): 58-69. (carryover from Feb 13

MBA7630 (p. 436-) Developing Group Effectiveness

MBA7630 (p. 275-278) The Role of Social Influences in Motivation

Winfield: MBA7630 (p. 279-287) Ways Groups Influence Individual Work Effectiveness

MBA7630 (p. 307-319) Recasting Janis’ Groupthink Model: The Key Role of Collective Efficacy in Decision Fiascoes

DiChiara: MBA7630 (p. 458-461) Why Some Teams Succeed, and So Many Don’t

MBA7630 (p. 462-465 How To Kill a Team’s Creativity

Bridges: Leigh Thompson (2003) Improving the creativity of organizational work groups. Academy of Management Executive, 17(1): 96-111.

MBA7630 (p. 466-470) Are You Rewarding Solo Performance at the Team’s Expense?

Keesling, AME Article: Leadership group coaching in action: The Zen of creating high performance teams. By: Kets de Vries, Manfred F. R.. Academy of Management Executive,Feb2005, Vol. 19 Issue 1, p61-76.

Gung, AME Article: Nahavandi, Afsaneh; Aranda, Eileen, (1994) Restructuring Teams for the Re-structured Organization. Academy of Management Executive , 8(4): 58-68.

Feb 27 - Midterm Examination

Mar 6—Prosocial Behavior, Extra–Role Performance, Organizational Citizenship

Wingfield: Organ, D.W. (1997) Organizational citizenship behavior: It's construct clean up time. Human Performance, 10(7): 85-97.

Anit Somech and Anat Drach-Zahavy (2004) Exploring organizational citizenship behavior from an organizational perspective: The relationship between organizational learning and organizational citizenship behavior. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 77: 281-289.

Schnake, M.E. and M.P. Dumler (2003) Levels of measurement and analysis issues in organizational citizenship behavior research. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 76: 283-302.

Wood: Mark C. Bolino and William H. Turnley (2003) Going the extra mile: Cultivating and managing organizational citizenship behavior. Academy of Management Executive, 17: 60-71.

MBA7630 (p. 287-) Misbehavior in Organizations: A Motivational Framework

DiChiara, AMP Article: Anand, V., Ashforth, B.E. & Joshi, M. (2005) Business as usual: The acceptance and perpetuation of corruption in organizations. Academy of Management Perspectives, 19(4): 9-23.

Hettinger, AME Article: Pearson and Porath (2005), On the nature, consequences, and remedies of workplace incivility: No time for “nice”? Think again. Academy of Management Executive, 19(1): 7-18.

Mar 13 - Spring Break

Mar 20 - MBA7630 (p. 471-515) Leadership and the New Organizational Realities

MBA7630 (p. 517-553) Great Leaders: Styles, Activities, and Skills

MBA7630 (p. 611-615) Leadership Substitutes, Neutralizers, and Enhancers

MBA7630 (p. 616-625) Substitutes for Leadership: Their Meaning and Measurement

MBA7630 (p. 626-633) Substitutes for Leadership: Effective Alternatives to Ineffective Leadership

Biro: MBA7630 (p. 634-638) Making Every Leadership Moment Matter

Temples, AME Article: Kets de Vries, Mandfred (1994) The Leadership Mystique. Academy of Management Executive, 8(3): 73-89.

Thiele AMP Article: Javidan, Dorfman, de Luque & House (2006) In the eye of the beholder: Cross cultural lessons in leadership from Project GLOBE, Academy of Management Persepctives, 20(1): 67-90.

Zakatsiolo, AME Article: Pearce, Craig L. (2004), The Future of Leadership: Combining Vertical and Shared Leadership to Transform Knowledge Work, Academy of Management Executive, 18(1): 47-57.

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Mar 27 - (carryover) Thiele AMP Article: Javidan, Dorfman, de Luque & House (2006) In the eye of the beholder: Cross cultural lessons in leadership from Project GLOBE, Academy of Management Persepctives, 20(1): 67-90.

(carryover) Zakatsiolo, AME Article: Pearce, Craig L. (2004), The Future of Leadership: Combining Vertical and Shared Leadership to Transform Knowledge Work, Academy of Management Executive, 18(1): 47-57.

MBA7630 (p. 639-642) Dysfunctional Aspects of Leadership

Keesling: MBA7630 (p. 643-648) The Dark Side of Leadership

Thiele: MBA7630 (p. 649-) Narcissism and Leadership: An Object Relations Perspective

MBA7630 (p. 660-663) Does Leadership Really Make a Difference?

Whitney Jacobs: MBA7630 (p. 664-670) The Ambiguity of Leadership

Gung: MBA7630 (p. 671-677) Executive Leadership and Organizational Performance

Zakatsiolo: Conger, Jay A. (2004) Developing leadership capability: What's inside the black box? Academy of Management Executive, 18(3): 136-139.

Hikmatolo, AME Article: Rowe, W. Glenn , (2001) Creating wealth in organizations: The role of strategic leadership. Academy of Management Executive, 15(1): 81-94.

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Apr 3—MBA7630 (p. 793-821) Decision Making

Holton: MBA7630 (p. 822-835) What You Don’t Know About Making Decisions

Kumar, AME Article: Paul C. Nutt, (1999) Surprising but true: Half the decisions in organizations fail. Academy of Management Executive, 75-90.

E. Sadler-Smith & E. Shefy (2004) The intuitive executive: Understanding and applying "gut-feel" in decision making. Academy of Management Executive, 19(4), 76-91.

Paul C. Nutt (2004) Expanding the search for alternatives during strategic decision making. Academy of Management Executive, 19(4): 13-28.

Waters: MBA7630 (p. 556-576) Empowerment and Participation

Temples: MBA7630 (p. 577-581) Participative Leadership

Hettinger: MBA7630 (p. 588-597) Leadership and the Decision Making Process

Biro AME Article: Miller, C.Chat and Ireland, R. Duane (2005), Intuition in strategic decision making: Friend or foe in the fast-pasted 21st century? Academy of Management Executive, 19 (1):19-30.

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Apr 10 - MBA7630 (p. 678-713) Organization Theory and Design

MBA7630 (p. 714-734) Organization Structure

Kumar: MBA7630 (p. 781-792) Do You Have a Well-Designed Organization?

Ward, AME Article: Dees, Rasheed, Laughlin & Prine (1995) The new corporate Architecture. Academy of Management Executive,

Holton: Mitroff & Mason (1994) Radical surgery: What will tomorrow's organizations look like? Academy of Management Executive.

Waters, AME Article: Keidel, Robert W. (1994) Rethinking organizational design. Academy of Management Executive, 8(4): 12-28.

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Apr 17 - Presentations

Apr 24 - Presentations

Final Exam: Thursday, May 3, 2007, 7:15 p.m. to 9:15 p.m. Room 202 Pound Hall