The first class session is Wednesday, May 30, 2001.

 

Course Syllabus

 

Course Number:	MNGT 5590	Term:	Summer I 2001
Course Title:	Organizational Behavior and Leadership	Site:	Greenville, SC #98
Instructor:	Steven H. Kaminski, Ph.D.
Phones:	Work: 751-4411	e-mail:	SHKaminski@yahoo.com
	FAX:  242-0467
	Home: 244-4966
Course web site:	TBA

 

1. Course Description: This course examines the need for individuals to identify, comprehend, and maximize various aspects of proactive leadership devices such as organizational development, decision making, influence techniques, and total quality management. The focus is directed toward the basic concepts of motivation, control, change, and team building and toward developing effective relationships in a diverse work environment.

 

2. Incoming Competency of Student Expected by Instructor: Successful completion of MNGT 5000 or a waiver of the MNGT course. Student should have ability to apply managerial theories and techniques to common middle management situations as well as the ability to effectively engage in oral and written communications.

 

3. Course Objectives:

Ultimately, this course should make the students better managers. To accomplish this overall goal, the course will pursue the following general objectives: 1) to acquaint the students with the basic issues and theories of organizational behavior, 2) to equip students to make connections between these basic theories and issues and their own organizations, 3) to teach students to develop effective solutions based on these basic theories. The readings, discussions and assignments in this class are designed to support these objectives. As a result of this course, the student should be able to:

a.      identify the major issues and theories affecting organizational behavior

b.     explain how an organizational and group contexts affects individual behavior

c.      identify the limits of traditional and alternative theories of organizational design

d.     select theories that appropriately explain specific behaviors in organizations

e.      explain organizational behavior using the appropriate theories

f.       construct fitting solutions to organizational problems based on the appropriate theories

 

4. Method of Instruction: The class activities will involve the following learning methods: readings from the text and other sources, oral and written analyses of certain readings, class discussions, lectures, oral and written presentations, exercises and examinations.

5. Schedule:

The work for this course will involve the following items, each of which are listed on the attached schedule:

Ÿ  Chapters from the Text

Students should have these chapters read by the time the class meets on the day assigned. We may or may not discuss the textbook readings in detail. However, since the textbook provides a helpful overview of the key concepts in this discipline, students are still responsible for these readings.

Ÿ  Topics for Lecture and Discussion

We will discuss these topics on the day assigned along with additional topics that may arise out of the assigned reading or activities. These topics are to some extent tentative and may change due to meet the students’ needs and interests.

Ÿ  Activities to be Discussed in Class

These activities are generally discussion subjects taken from the text. Students should formulate their opinion on the issues and be prepared to give good reasons to defend their position before coming to class. We will discuss the students’ opinions in class. Some activities may require the student to apply certain concepts to practical situations they discover from new sources or their experience.

Ÿ  Exercises

The exercises are generally taken from the self-assessment CD-ROM that accompanies the text. Students should complete the exercise, print out any results and be prepared to discuss the results.

Ÿ  Readings

In addition to the textbook, students will have additional outside readings that will generally be provided by the instructor. The student should have these items read before class on the day they are assigned. There readings will provide essential topics for the class discussions.

Ÿ  Midterm and Final Exams

The midterm and final exams will be largely short-answer and essay and will stress the student’s understanding application of the material and topics discussed in class.

Ÿ  Research Paper and Oral Presentation

The research project for this class will be a paper that demonstrates your ability to apply the theories of organizational behavior and leadership to an organization or group with which you work. In other words, you should use what you've learned in this class to better understand and influence a group that you work with. Consider this to be a case study. This assignment will include a précis to prepare for the paper, an oral presentation and the paper itself. See additional materials for details.

 

 

6. Textbook: Robbins, Stephen P. Organizational Behavior. 9th Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2001. (ISBN 0-13-016680-4)

 

7. Supplemental readings and materials: Supplemental readings and materials will be provided by the instructor and will include the following:

Robbins, Stephen R. Ed. The Prentice Hall Self-Assessment Library. CD-ROM.

“Task Force 5” Report

Collins, James C. and Jerry I. Porras. Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. First Paperback Edition. New York: Harper-Collins, 1997. 219-239.

Greenwalt, Crawford H., "The Individual in the Organization." Princeton, NJ, 1961.

Kotter, John P. Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Business School P, 3-31.

Kuhn, Thomas. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 1996.

Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Discourses. New York, Penguin Books, 1970, 459-472.

Mickelthwait, John and Adrian Wooldridge. The Witch Doctors: Making Sense of the Management Gurus. New York: Times Books, 1998, 12-17, 55-60.

Petzinger, Thomas. "A New Model for the Nature of Business: It’s Alive!" Wall Street Journal February 26, 1999, B1.

Senge, Peter. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of The Learning Organization, 1990, p. 51-52.

Taylor, Frederick Winslow. Principles of Scientific Management. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1998.

Whyte, David. The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America. New York: Doubleday, 1994. 1-30.

 

8. Visual Aids: The instructor will employ transparencies, videos and other technological aids when appropriate to augment the class activities.

 

9. Course Requirements:

See the schedule for a more detailed discussion of each type of assignment.

Item	Percentage of Grade
Activities	15
Midterm	20
Final	20
Research Paper	20
Oral Research Presentation	15
Participation	10
Total	100

 

10. Grading Scale:

95-100	A
90-94	A-
87-89	B+
83-86	B
80-82	B-
70-79	C
0-69	F
	I (to be awarded when work is not complete, to be changed at the completion of the required assignments by a specified date agreed upon between the instructor and the student)

11. Attendance: Students should attend every scheduled class meeting and should be prepared for the material to be covered at each meeting and should participate in each class. More than one absence during a term may result in a reduced final grade. Students should receive the instructor's approval in advance for any absence.

 

12. Cheating/Plagiarism Policy: Students discovered cheating or committing plagiarism will given a failing grade for the course, and may be subject to dismissal or further discipline.

 

Note: Course Syllabus is subject to change without notice.

 

Approved by:____________________________________________        _____________________

            Faculty Coordinator                                                         Date