Postgraduate Course: Organisational Behaviour (CMSE11089)
Course Outline
| School | Business School |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 15 |
ECTS Credits | 7.5 |
| Summary | Organisational Behaviour (OB) focuses on how people behave in organisations and how their behaviour and a variety of organisational characteristics affect organisational performance and effectiveness.
Management involves getting things done by working with and through others, so a good understanding of organisational behaviour is essential to those considering a career in management.
The social, problem-solving, and analytical skills gained in OB complement technical skills derived from subjects such as economics, accounting and finance.
|
| Course description |
This course is about organisations and the factors that make them work effectively and about why, in some cases, organisations fail to work effectively. The course starts from the position that organisations are about harnessing human effort and ingenuity to produce particular outcomes - and that, under certain conditions, this can be a formidable challenge.
A wide range of topics relevant to effective organisation are covered, including: perceiving and making sense of reality; making effective decisions; building and operating high performance teams; coping with pressure; guiding and directing others and understanding their behaviour; energizing and mobilizing people; setting the tone of the organisation (culture); managing organisational politics and conflicts.
Syllabus
Organisational behaviour and organisational issues
Understanding individual behaviour: perception and sensemaking
Decision-Making
Group behaviour and team working
Stress at work
Leadership
Motivation, commitment, narratives and identity
Culture
Power and Conflict
Student Learning Experience
The course is delivered via a mix of lectures, workshops, cases and a substantial business simulation.
Learning will take place through a variety of methods. These include formal lectures, interactive workshops, and analyses of case studies, a business simulation and guest speakers from industry.
The lectures are designed to provide an introduction to the topics covered, and to outline key ideas in a clear, structured format that enables students to understand key concepts and frameworks.
Cases will be used to illustrate how particular ideas apply in practice. Workshops offer students the chance to apply concepts and frameworks to their own experiences and case study examples.
Guest speakers provide illustration of real-world problems and situations. The emphasis throughout the course is on enabling students to apply the ideas analytically.
|
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | For Business School PG students only, or by special permission of the School. Please contact the course secretary. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2019/20, Available to all students (SV1)
|
Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
150
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 4,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 8,
Summative Assessment Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 3,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
113 )
|
| Additional Information (Learning and Teaching) |
63hrs reading advance of lecture and Production Game, 20hrs on essay, 30hrs on exam revision
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
40 %,
Coursework
55 %,
Practical Exam
5 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Coursework(60%)
-Strategic Plan (Group Assessment) 10%: links to LO2, 4, 5.
-Group Presentation (Group Assessment) 5%: links to LO1, 2, 3, 5.
-Peer Evaluation (Production Game) 5%
-Individual Report (Production Game) 40%: links to LO1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Exam (40%): links to LO1, 2, 3, 4, 5. |
| Feedback |
Feedback includes:
In-class feedback on class exercises and discussions
Immediate feedback on contributions to workshops
Substantive feedback on the first assignment
Feedback on group strategic plans and production game presentations
Provision of team performance data from the Production Game
Summary of general class performance in the examination
|
| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Hours & Minutes |
|
| Main Exam Diet S1 (December) | Organisational Behaviour | 2:00 | |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Explain and discuss key concepts from the field of Organisation Behaviour
- Understand and discuss the importance of underlying assumptions to problem-solving
- Understand and evaluate models and major theories of phenomena such as individual behaviour, group dynamics, decision-making, occupational stress, leadership, culture and conflict and how these are put into practice by organisations
- Compare and contrast alternative perspectives on complex organisational issues
- Apply concepts and ideas to real-world issues and problems.
|
Reading List
| Huczynski A A & Buchanan D A (2013) Organisational Behaviour (9th edition), FT/ Prentice Hall, Harlow |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Cognitive Skills:
Understand how different models and assumptions may be used to analyse organisational issues and make interventions
Stand back and view complex situations from different perspectives
Summarise complex ideas, synthesise the results of research, communicate ideas to others, and apply their knowledge to address real organisational problems.
Subject Specific Skills:
Understand how to operate effectively within group settings
Apply different models of decision-making to different contingencies
Debate and critically evaluate the characteristics of effective leadership
Recognize the influences on organisational processes
Diagnose the root cause of a variety of organisational problems
Produce well-informed analyses of issues of contemporary significance within the subject area.
|
| Keywords | MGMT-OB |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Nick Oliver
Tel: (0131 6)50 3811
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Lauren Millson
Tel: (0131 6)51 3013
Email: |
|
|
University Homepage