Module BUSS41015: Organisational Behaviour

Department: Business School (Business) [Queen's Campus, Stockton]

BUSS41015: Organisational Behaviour

Prerequisites

• None.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• This module aims to cover key issues concerning the behaviour of individuals in organisations.

Content

• Introduction to organisational behaviour.
• Individual differences: personal and mental ability.
• Management of attitudes and work motivation.
• Leading others.
• Organisational culture.
• Managing group dynamics and teamwork.
• Decision-making in organisations.
• Trust within organisations.
• An introduction to the management of change.

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of the module students should:
• Have a critical understanding of why employees display different attitudes and patterns of behaviour in the organisational environment.
• Have a critical understanding of how individual-level processes (e.g. personality) and group-level processes (e.g. culture) interact to produce organisational level outcomes.
• Have a critical understanding of the link of major processes, such as leadership, motivation and trust, with individual and organisational outcomes.
• Have a critical understanding of the importance of careful and informed planning and preparation for the success of human resource interventions.
• Have a critical awareness of the fact that appropriate design must be accompanied by careful implementation for the success of a human resource system.

• By the end of the module students should:
• Be able to use key organisational behaviour techniques (e.g. goal setting theory of motivation) to design human resource systems that improve individual (e.g. productivity, well-being) and unit (e.g. team cohesion) outcomes.
• Be able to evaluate the merit of academic and professional publications from both a scientific and a practitioner’s point of view.

• Written communication; planning, organising and time management; problem solving and analysis; using initiative; computer literacy.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• The module will be taught in 3-hour blocks to allow a greater level of engagement with students and to enable a flexibility of approach as appropriate. The teaching blocks will comprise a balanced mix of lecture-type teaching, group work, case studies, discussion and seminar style working such as will enable the learning outcomes to be met.
• The summative assessment will take the form of an in-depth, essay-style report analysing a detailed 'OB' case study, using a range of theories encountered on the module. The second half of the report will require students to generate a set of credible and feasible change management interventions to address the issues in the case, thus demonstrating their understanding of key issues and techniques.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

1500-word essay. In addition, seminar exercises will be used to give students an opportunity to explore, discuss, critique and apply the key topics in practice.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University