Overview

To succeed in today’s knowledge intensive organizations managers need to understand how individual differences in personality, learning style and cultural values, group dynamics, organizational culture, and human resource management policies shape employee attitudes and behaviors. This course teaches managers creative problem-solving and ethical decision-making, change management, leadership techniques for enhancing social capital and influencing other organizational members, and management tools for multicultural and geographically dispersed teams. Pre-Requisites: None Required Textbook: Organizational Behavior. (2017). University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing Edition. Open Textbook Library, https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/30 Other Required Materials: Articles from academic journals and other reputable sources. Software Requirements: Microsoft Office Suite & Google WorkSpace.

Syllabus

Module 1: Leaders vs. Managers

Welcome to Leadership and Organization Design! This module examines the best practices and historical evolution of management, alongside the concept and effective behaviors of leadership. It delves into both classic and contemporary theories of leadership, addressing the challenges contemporary leaders face and the impact of contextual factors. Additionally, it introduces evidence-based management and the actionable steps for its implementation, providing a comprehensive understanding of leadership in the modern era.

Module 2: Understanding Your Workforce – Differences of Personality & Cultural Values

Module 2 focuses on recognizing individual differences and their impact on employee attitudes and behaviors, exploring research-based frameworks of personality and the limitations of personality testing. It also delves into Hofstede’s model of societal culture, the concept of cultural intelligence, and strategies for managing cultural differences. This module equips students with the knowledge to assess and enhance their cultural intelligence and effectively manage diverse workforces.

Module 3: Understanding Your Workforce – Surface level Diversity and Employment Relationship

This module explores the complexities of managing a diverse workforce, distinguishing between deep-level and surface-level differences, and understanding the challenges diverse individuals face. It provides strategies for managing contemporary employment relationship and effective techniques for leading a diverse workforce, using a multigenerational workforce as an exemplar.

Module 4: Power & Politics

Module 4 covers the bases of power and specific persuasion techniques to develop influence in the workplace. It includes strategies for effective communication and navigating workplace politics, the role of political skills, and the importance of building social capital, addressing contemporary challenges related to social networks in the workplace.

Module 5: Decision-Making Process, Ethical Considerations, & Managing Stress/Emotions

This module examines the different types of decisions leaders make, major decision-making models, and perceptual biases that hinder effective decision-making. It also addresses ethical considerations within decision-making processes. Additionally, it discusses the antecedents and outcomes of workplace stress, strategies for stress management, the impact of emotions on employee attitudes and behaviors, and the importance of managing emotional labor.

Module 6: Motivation

Module 6 delves into classic and modern theories of motivation, identifying employee needs and applying this knowledge to motivate employees in the workplace. It covers goal setting, fairness perceptions, rewards and punishments, and unique employee motivation techniques. Additionally, it explores job and incentive design principles and their application in motivating individuals and teams.

Module 7: Team Leadership & Conflict Resolution

In this module, students will learn about group processes and effective team leadership, including contemporary team structures and the ethical considerations in teams. It discusses the forms and consequences of conflict, strategies for conflict resolution, and specific approaches for managing conflict in virtual/global teams.

Module 8: Organizational Culture, Structure, & Change Management

Module 8 focuses on the core tenets of organizational culture, its importance, and strategies to create and maintain a unique culture. It explores different types of organizational cultures, person-organization fit, and the relationship between culture, strategy, and structure. The module also addresses change management, the drivers of resistance to change, and techniques for leading change, alongside fostering individual and team creativity and innovation.

Summative Course Assessment

This module contains the summative course assessment that has been designed to evaluate your understanding of the course material and assess your ability to apply the knowledge you have acquired throughout the course. Be sure to review the course material thoroughly before taking the assessment.