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Academic staff member responsible for the design of the course syllabus
(name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature)
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NA
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Main Course Lecturer (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address
and signature) and Office Hours:
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Assoc.Prof.Dr. Xhimi Hysa xhhysa@epoka.edu.al
, By appointment
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Second Course Lecturer(s) (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email
address and signature) and Office Hours:
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NA
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| Teaching Assistant(s) and Office Hours: |
NA
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| Language: |
English
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| Compulsory/Elective: |
Compulsory
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| Study program: (the study for which this course is offered) |
Bachelor in Business Administration (3 years)
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| Classroom and Meeting Time: |
N/A
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| Code of Ethics: |
Code of Ethics of EPOKA University
Regulation of EPOKA University "On Student Discipline"
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| Attendance Requirement: |
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| Course Description: |
This course defines organizations as work settings. It is focused on the linkage between the individual,
the group, and the whole organization. Specifically, the course describes the value of the correlation
between work and family, individuals and teams, organizations and society in the quest of future
prosperity. It plays a crucial role on determining students’ capabilities that help them choose the right
way and course of action with the intention to contribute the most on their individual and organizational
performance throughout their career. The teaching methodology and pedagogy are multidisciplinary
and relies on different methods and techniques. The classical theoretical part is integrated with the
practical one. The later includes case studies, teamwork exercises, self assessment and “meaning
catch-out” (including articles, videos, etc). The main objective is to acknowledge the students about the
importance of the human behaviors and their commitment in the organizations. Also to increase their
knowledge, perspective, abilities and skills in order to be prepared on becoming the leaders of
tomorrow’s people in organizations.
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| Course Objectives: |
Give students an appreciation of the unique nature of human beings as employees; Ensure that students know the main independent and dependent variables of organizational behavior; Help students be productive team members and/or team leaders; Share with students the body of theoretical and practical knowledge that is necessary for understanding employees' personalities, perceptions, and motivations; Build teams that enjoy high cohesion, satisfaction, and performance; Design complex-adaptive organizations through effective mechanisms of communication, conflict management, and inclusive leadership.
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BASIC CONCEPTS OF THE COURSE
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| 1 |
Individual dynamics
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| 2 |
Team dynamics
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| 3 |
Organizational dynamics
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| Week |
Topics |
| 1 |
Introducing Organizational Behavior (This chapter provides an introduction to the field of organizational behavior. Organizational behavior is important because virtually everyone works with other people in some organized capacity, whether for monetary gain or voluntarily. An understanding of the principles of organizational behavior will not only help people to become better employees and managers, but will also help people become more astute observers of the organizational world, in general, and the business world, in particular. PP 3-26) |
| 2 |
Diversity, Personality, and Values (This chapter addresses the nature of individual differences and describes why understanding and valuing these differences is increasingly important in today’s workplace. The chapter begins with a description of individual differences and awareness of self and others. It describes self-concept as the view individuals have of themselves as physical, social, and spiritual or moral beings and discusses whether individuals develop based on heredity or on the environment. The chapter presents a discussion of diversity and why is it important in the workplace. PP 27-50) |
| 3 |
Perception, Attribution, and Learning (This chapter focuses on perception and attribution. The chapter begins with a discussion of the perceptual process and the factors that influence that process. Because people tend to perceive things differently, the same situation may be interpreted and responded to differently by different people. The roles of the perceiver, the setting, and the perceived in the perceptual process are discussed. The specific stages of the perceptual process - attention and selection, organization, interpretation, and retrieval - are examined. Perception as it relates to the world of social media is also discussed. The chapter then moves on to review common perceptual distortions, including stereotypes or prototypes, halo effects, selective perception, projection, and contrast effects. PP 51-74) |
| 4 |
Emotions, Attitudes, and Job Satisfaction (This chapter focuses on emotions, moods, attitudes and job satisfaction. It begins with the foundations of emotions and moods. The functions served by emotions are covered as well as the major emotions and their subcategories. The second part of the chapter explores how emotions and moods influence behavior in organizations. The third section covers attitudes. Attitudes in the workplace include job satisfaction, job involvement, organizational commitment and employee engagement. The chapter concludes with a discussion of job satisfaction and it implications. PP 75-98) |
| 5 |
Motivation Theories (The chapter begins with a definition of “motivation,” followed by a description of the differences between the content and process theories of motivation, as well as how motivation differs across cultures. The chapter then covers the different approaches of the needs theories: the hierarchy of needs theory, the ERG theory, the acquired needs theory and the two-factor theory. The equity theory of motivation is then covered through social comparisons, the predictions of the theory and the link to organizational justice. The chapter closes by examining the expectancy theory of motivation and the goal-setting theory of motivation. PP 99-118) |
| 6 |
Motivation and Performance (The chapter begins with the link between motivation, performance, and rewards, including an integrated model of motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, pay for performance, and pay for skills. The chapter then turns to the essentials of performance management, including the performance management process, performance measurement methods, and performance measurement errors. The next section of the chapter focuses on job design and a description of the various job-design approaches, including scientific management, job enlargement, job rotation, and job enrichment. The chapter concludes with a discussion of alternative work schedules, including compressed workweeks, flexible working hours, job sharing, telecommuting, and part-time work. PP 119-140) |
| 7 |
Midterm exam |
| 8 |
The Nature of Teams (This chapter focuses on the nature of teams in organizations. The chapter begins by defining the term “team,” as a group of people working together to achieve a common purpose for which they hold themselves collectively accountable. It discusses how teams in organizations serve different purposes—some teams run things, some teams recommend things, and some teams make or do things. The chapter then discusses when a team is effective by achieving high levels of task accomplishment, member satisfaction, and viability to perform successfully over the long term. The stages of team development – forming, storming, forming, performing, adjourning – and their somewhat distinct management problems are covered followed by a description of how teams work. PP 141-162) |
| 9 |
Teamwork and Team Performance (This chapter focuses on teamwork and team performance. Most students have some experience working in teams. As a result, this should be a high-interest chapter that stimulates interesting classroom discussion. The chapter begins by describing virtual teams. Virtual teams are groups whose members collaborate across time, geographic or organizational boundaries. . The chapter continues by detailing what are high performance teams and how to build them. High-performance teams have core values, clear performance objectives, the right mix of skills, and creativity. The chapter also focuses on ways to overcome issues in team processes including entry problems, task leadership, role difficulties and norms. The importance of good team communication is emphasized through a discussion of networks, information technology and proxemics. The chapter concludes with a section on group decision making, its problem areas and techniques for improving creativity. PP 163-188) |
| 10 |
Conflict and Negotiation (This chapter focuses on conflict and negotiation, which are important topics in organizational behavior. The chapter begins by defining conflict, identifying different types and levels of conflict, differentiating between functional and dysfunctional conflict, and exploring cultural differences in conflict and conflict management. The second section of the chapter focuses on various aspects of managing conflict. Included among the topics in this section are stages of conflict; causes of conflict; the indirect conflict management approaches of reduced interdependence, appeals to common goals, hierarchical referral, and altering scripts and myths; and the direct conflict management approaches that include lose-lose conflict, win-lose conflict, and win-win conflict. PP 213-234) |
| 11 |
Communication and Collaboration (This chapter focuses on the important topics of information and communication. The chapter begins by describing the communication process and examining each of its components in some detail as well as including a section on non-verbal communication. Next, the barriers to effective communication are explored including interpersonal, physical, semantic and cultural barriers. The next section of the chapter focuses on the nature of communication in organizations, including communication channels, flows, status differences, and voice and silence. The next section of the chapter explores communication in relational contexts. The section focuses on relationship development and maintenance, supportive communication principles, and active listening. The chapter concludes with a further examination of the role of feedback in communication such as developmental feedback, feedback seeking and finally feedback orientation. PP 235-258) |
| 12 |
Power and Politics (The chapter begins by examining power and its importance. It goes on to explain the difference between power, force, and social power. The chapter delves into dependencies and how to manage them along with the problem of powerlessness. Further the chapter talks about empowerment and how to restore power balances. The next section of the chapter talks about sources of power and influence including position and personal power and the five bases of power under them as well as other forms of power that play important roles in organizations. Next, the chapter focuses on responses to power and influence. The section talks about the two main responses of conformity and resistance then goes on to explain the way power can be harmful. The chapter goes on to talk about understanding organizational politics; why we have them and why they are important. Then political climates and perceptions of organizational politics are explained. The chapter concludes by examining the political landscape which includes building power bases and developing political skills. PP 259-280) |
| 13 |
The Leadership Process (The chapter begins by examining leadership and the leadership process which includes formal and informal leadership followed by leadership as social and identity construction. Next, the chapter talks about implicit leadership theories followed by a section on followership including how followers view their roles and how leaders view follower’s roles, which then leads to a section examining leader-follower relationships. This section analyzes the leader member exchange and social exchange theories including Hollander’s Idiosyncrasy credits. The chapter concludes by taking a look at collective leadership which includes distributed leadership and shared leadership concepts. PP 281-300) |
| 14 |
Review Session |
