OB 6301.

502 INTRODUCTION TO ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR, Fall 2006

Time: Wednesday 07.00 to 09.45 PM
Place: SOM 2.717
Instructor: Padmakumar Nair, SOM 4.208
Telephone: 972-883-6264
Email: padmakumar.nair@utdallas.edu

Office hours: Tuesday 05.00-06.30pm or by appointment

TEXT BOOK and READINGS

The text book is available at the UTD Bookstore or at Off Campus Books on Campbell Road.
(a) Text: Organizational Behavior, 11th ed., Hellriegel and Slocum, South-Western.
(b) Readings can be downloaded from the library website (go to eJournals:
http://www.utdallas.edu/library/collections/journals.htm )
(c) Other cases / readings will be assigned during the semester.

INTRODUCTION
A good knowledge of Organizational Behavior is important for all of us. This is because we all are
members of some kind of organizations. The smallest organization we belong to is our family!
In this course we will focus our attention on creating, fostering and managing organizations in
which people thrive and perform at their best. The core premise of our approach is that managerial
excellence (individual achievement) is fundamentally tied to creating/enabling organizational
contexts that build human strengths and unlock the positive dynamics of vibrant human
communities.

Historically, the field of organizational behavior has accumulated almost 90 or more years of
experience in studying and explaining organizational life. OB addresses topics such as: how
organizational cultures and subcultures affect organizational performance, how to motivate and
reward people, what makes work groups function effectively, the impact of leadership styles and
communication, how to gain power and influence, how to diagnose need for change, how to create
change, and how to design jobs and organizations.

Traditionally OB literature focused on three levels of analysis, individual-level, group-level and

organization-level. In our discussions we will introduce a fourth level of analysis, the societal-level.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Students will learn to analyze leadership issues and evaluate
organizations with the aim of developing the appropriate leadership style
given the situation.
2. Students will evaluate the differences between motivational approaches
and be able to assess the efficacy of motivational programs.
3. Students will be able to create effective high performance teams by
assessing the needs of stakeholders and developing effective team
processes.
 4. Students will learn to recognize the need for decision making and be able
to analyze the situation, evaluate alternatives and select the most
appropriate course of action.

Achieving the Objectives

You will be required to complete several activities in order to achieve the identified objectives:

1. Contribute to in-class discussions of chapters, cases and readings by exhibiting an

understanding of the information presented.

2. Attendance is required at all class sessions to fully make use of and participate in all class
discussions. That being said, I recognize that, at times, professional and personal
emergencies may arise which may prevent one from attending class. Let’s all be
intrinsically motivated to contribute and learn from each other! Everyone should strive to be
off to a “fast start” by being enthusiastically and actively engaged.

Overview of the Assignments

In the first day of the class twelve groups with 6 members in each will be formed for the group
assignments. Please “self-select” into your groups.

Please do not rely too much on the Internet for your research. Spend some time in the library—
there are greater opportunities for serendipitous results.

Assignment 1: Reading / case discussion (Group Activity)

Class discussions are based on the readings / cases assigned to specific groups. The discussion
should include:
1. Key ideas discussed in the paper
2. Why these ideas are important and any points in the reading (article), which you disagree
with?
3. How can the useful ideas discussed in the paper be translated into actual practice?
4. What is the best way to teach these ideas in practice (in class or at work)?

The major aim of this exercise is to initiate a good class discussion. All of you SHOULD read
ALL these readings / cases thoroughly before every class. In every class, two groups will
facilitate the discussions around readings and cases, which are assigned to them. These
discussions could take about 20 to 30 minutes in duration. We will keep the duration of the
discussion flexible depending on how well it develops.

Assignment 2: Individual “Scholarly-Practitioner” paper (Individual)

Students should word or power point document on a selected OB topic [I will help you decide a
topic]. This assignment is to give you an opportunity to understand scholarly writings in OB and use
it to address real life organizational issues.

The key question you should answer in this assignment is “How best can I apply this knowledge to
solve a real problem in an organizational setting?”
 Suggested topics (or any other topic of your interest):
1. Big-Five personality
2. Motivation
3. Decision Making
4. Job satisfaction and performance
5. Big-Five and Goal setting
6. Personality and Decision Making
7. Culture and Decision Making
8. GLOBE culture
9. Group and Social Processes
10. Any other topic of your interest

Assignment 3: Mid-term Exam (Multiple Choice) on October 25th 2006

Class schedule and reading assignments

Week Date Topics Textbook
Chapters
Week 1 08/23 Syllabus Chapter 1

Class Expectations

Career Decision Making Assessment

Week 2 08/30 Individuals and Organization Chapters 2,
Personality, Perception and Well-Being 3 and 7

Readings / Cases:
K. Ludeman and E. Erlandson, “Coaching the Alpha
male, HBR, May 2004 (Group 01)

T. Casciaro and M. Sousa Lobo, “Competent Jerks,

Lovable Fools, and the Formation of Social Network”,
HBR June 2005 (Group 02)
Week 3 09/06 Individuals and Organization Chapters 2,
Personality, Perception and Well-Being 3 and 7

Readings / Cases:
W.H. Starbuck, “Why I stopped trying to understand
the real world”, Organization Studies, 25(7), 1233-
1254, 2004 (Group 03 and Group 04)
Week 4 09/13 Motivating you and others in Organizations Chapters 4,
Learning and Motivation 5 and 6

Movie: 12 Angry men

Readings / Cases:
 D.L. Coutu, “Losing it”, HBR, April 2004 (Group 05)

F. Herzberg, “One More Time: How Do You Motivate

Employees?”, Harvard Business Review, Jan. 2003
(Group 06)
Week 5 09/20 Motivating you and others in Organizations Chapters 4,
Learning and Motivation 5 and 6

Readings / Cases:
Bartlett, C.A. & Ghoshal, S. 2002. Building competitive
advantage through people. Sloan Management Review,43-2:
34-41. (Group7)

S. Kerr, “On the Folly of Rewarding A while Hoping for B”

Academy of Management Executive, 9(1): 7-15, 1995
(Group 8)
Week 6 09/27 Motivating you and others in Organizations Chapters 4,
Learning and Motivation 5 and 6

Readings / Cases:
B. Fryer, “The Micromanager”, HBR, September 2004
(Group 9)

C.M. Christensen and M.E. Raynor, “Why Hard-Nosed

Executives Should Care About Management Theory”,
Harvard Business Review, Sept. 2003 (Group 10)
Week 7 10/04 Decision Making in Organizations Chapter 13

Readings / Cases:
I. Royer, “ Why Bad Projects are So Hard to Kill”, HBR, Feb.
2003 (Group 11)

J.J. Janney and G.G. Dess, “Can Real-Option Analysis

Improve Decision-Making? Promises and Pitfalls” The
Academy of Management Executive, vol.18, No.4, Nov. 2004
(Group 12)
Week 8 10/11 Decision Making in Organizations Chapter 13

Readings / Cases:
D.A. Garvin, “All the Wrong Moves”, HBR, Jan. 2006
(Group 1)

E. McNulty, “They Bought it in…”, HBR, Dec. 2003 (Group 2)

Week 9 10/18 Group and Social Processes in Organizations Teams, Chapters 8,9
communication and conflict and 12
 Readings / Cases:
Kirkman, B. L. & Colleagues. 2002. Five Challenges to
Virtual Team Success: Lessons from Sabre, Inc. Academy
of Management Executive, 16 (3): 67-79 (Group 3)

P. Evans and Bob Wolf, “Collaboration Rules”, HBR

July-August 2005 (Group 4)
Week 10 10/25 Mid-Term Exam
Week 11 11/01 Organizational Culture and Learning Chapter 15

Readings:
Nonaka and Takeuchi, “The Knowledge creating company”
HBR, Nov-Dec. 1986 (Group 5)

S. Wetlaufer, “The Team That Wasn’t” HBR, Nov-

Dec. 1994 (Group 6)
Week 12 11/08 Creating and Leading Organizational Stability and Chapters 10,
Change 11 and 16

Readings:
Ram Charan, “Home Depot Blueprint for Culture”, HBR, April
2006 (Group 7)

Jim Collins, “Triumph of Humility and Fierce Resolve”, HBR,

Jan. 2001 (Group 8)

Assignment 3: “Scholarly-Practitioner
PAPER DUE TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Week 13 11/15 Creating and Leading Organizational Stability and Chapters 10,
Change 11 and 16

Readings:
G. Hamel, “Waking-Up IBM” , HBR, July-August 2000
(Group 9)

Mayer, J. D. and others. 2004. Leading by Feel. Harvard

Business Review, 82 (1): 27-35 (GET all the
pages from 27 to 35) (Group 10)
Week 14 11/22 “Friendly Fire” HBR Case--- discussion [Please get this case
from Harvard Business School Press]
Publication Date: Jan 20, 2004
Authors: Scott A. Snook, Leslie J. Freeman, L. Jeffrey
Norwalk
 Readings:
J.A. Conger and R.M. Fulmer, “Developing your leadership
pipeline” HBR Dec. 2003(Group 11)

J.P. Kotter, “Leading Change”, HBR March-April 1995

(Group 12)
Week 15 11/29 No Final Exam

GRADING

The grades in the activities in which you will be participating will be combined to determine your
final course grade. Please note that items 1 and 2 below will be multiplied with a peer evaluation
multiplier* to get your effective grade. The relative weights are as follows:

1. Class Participation (this includes the case / reading discussion facilitation) 40%
2. Individual assignment (research paper) 30%
3. Mid-term exam 30%
--------
Total 100%

* Peer Evaluations (to be completed at the end of the final class meeting)

All group members are expected to do their fair share of work on the assignments. Fortunately, in
about 85 to 90 percent of the groups this is not the case. Unfortunately, that leaves (historically)
approximately 10-15 percent of the groups in which inequities occur. Since I do not know which
groups have such a problem, I will use peer evaluations for all groups. For such a system to work,
everyone must be honest and fair. First, if a group member(s) is making only a nominal contribution
and/or is overly difficult to work with, the other group member(s) may expel them/her/him from the
group and this individual must complete the assignment individually within two weeks after the due
date. Second, all groups members should assign a certain points to themselves and to other group
members based on the following three dimensions:

1. Contribution (this includes data collection and time spend on constructive discussions)
2. Command over the subject matter
3. Team work

A final grade-multiplier will calculated based on the total points every individual gets from self and
other group members.
EXAMPLE: You should start with a total point of 100 x (number of members in the
group). If your group has 8 members, start with 800 points. Distribute 800 points to your
group based on the above three dimensions. If a person gets 100 each from every other
member including herself, then her grade-multiplier will be 1 (800/800 = 1). If another
person gets a total of 780, then his grade-multiplier will be 0.975 (780/800 = 0.975). If
your total point is 900, then your grade-multiplier will be 1.125 (900/800 = 1.125).