Organization Behavior

COMPETENCES AND SKILLS THAT WILL BE ACQUIRED AND LEARNING RESULTS.
In this course the student will learn to appreciate the diversity and complexity of the behavior of people in organizations. The learning objectives can be aggregated into three levels: individual, group and organization.

KNOWLEDGE:

1) At the individual level:
- Learn the basic elements of the perception process and how to anticipate them in communication and decision making.
- Using the different models of decision-making, analyze the effect of different individual characteristics and processes on productivity, absenteeism turnover and job satisfaction.
- Describe the process of motivation and its applications to different real-life situations

2) At the group level:
- Identify the key factors that explain group behavior.
- Summarize the conclusions from the different theories of leadership.
- Be able to analyze the communication process and its components in order to apply them to real-life situations.

3) At the organizational level:
- Analyze the process of conflict and identify its causes.
- Analyze the elements of organizational culture their influence on organization ethics.

SKILLS:
- Develop the ability to work autonomously under pressure in the solving of real cases.
- Develop teamwork skills and learn to use techniques that optimize group decision-making.
- Develop the ability to lead and motivate others.

ATTITUDES
- Build a solid ethical background for decision making and conflict management.
- Learn how to increase employee commitment in organizations.
- Develop an entrepreneurial attitude with respect to organizational change.

DESCRIPTION OF CONTENTS: PROGRAMME
1. Foundations of organizational behavior.
2. Perception and decision-making.
3. Values, attitudes and satisfaction.
4. Basic concepts of motivation and their applications.
5. Group dynamics and teamwork.
6. Leadership.
7. Communication.
8. Power, conflict and negotiation.
9. Organizational culture.
10. Organizational change and development.

LEARNING ACTIVITIES AND METHODOLOGY
Knowledge and attitudes will be acquired by students in lecture classes, in the solving of homework cases (graded by the professor and discussed in the classroom) and in classroom cases. The development of skills will take place in the process of individual and group work in the solution of cases.

The coursework will have the following structure:
- Students receive three sets of course materials:
(1) Theory Slides,
(2) Cases to be solved and
(3) Readings from specialized newspapers and journals Cases and readings are related with the different parts of the course syllabus, as described in the detailed syllabus.

- Homework cases will be handed in to the professor before the class, so that they can be corrected properly. Students are also motivated to prepare the classroom cases beforehand.
- The detailed program specifies when classroom cases and homework cases take place.
- The 6 ECTS credits are approximately broken down into 3 credits of class-work, 2 credits of personal work in case-solving and 1 credit of group work in case-solving.
- The objective of lecture classes is to obtain the necessary knowledge. The comprehension of such knowledge is consolidated with the work on cases and readings.

ASSESSMENT SYSTEM
The final assessment will be:
- A final exam which corresponds to a 50%.
- A mid-term exam accounting for a 15%.
- A final project with an oral presentation worked in group out of 25%.
- Resolution of practical cases with a 10% of the value.

As a requirement, the minimum grade for the final exam should be 4.
% end-of-term-examination: 50
% of continuous assessment (assigments, laboratory, practicals?): 50