Organisational Behaviour

Recommended Prerequisites

Reading knowledge and understanding of English. 

Teaching Methods

Encourage to reflect critically on:  the relation between analytic and intuitive thinking in management decision-making; within the constraints of their organizations, to gain deeper recognition of the importance of drawing on tacit knowledge and implicit learning; to relate planning or project planning in small and medium firms, with theory/policy and principles/practice in a world which flexibility and creativity are crucial both for organizational competitiveness and individual self-fulfillment at work.

Learning Outcomes

Debates about organisational flexibility on employment relationship, tacit knowledge and implicit learning, contributes to recognise how managers and other employees can develop a talent for intuition and insight. This implies an understanding of management policies and practices from the perspectives of organisational culture, power dynamics, organisational learning and the relation of this to the challenge of achieving both higher performance and positive psychological well-being.  This has become especially relevant in the context of managing change and whether this is based on stakeholder rather than only shareholder values. This recognises that successful implementation of change needs to involve and motivate employees at all levels. This shows how tacit rules and implicit norms of individual and group behaviour may facilitate or frustrate operational and organisational learning and outlines the implications for higher organizational performance and psychological well-being.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

I - Organizational flexibility and contemporary trends in the employment relationship; 1.1 Flexible Institutions: 1.2 High performance and commitment; 1.3 Psychological contract; 1.4 Intellectual and human capital; 1.5 Human and social value; 1.6 Implications and challenges for management; II - Managing Change, tacit knowledge and implicit learning; 2.1 The Change process; 2.2 The intuitive mind; 2.3 Policies and practices for people management; III - Operational and Organizational Culture; 3.1 Climate in the workplace; 3.2 Motivation and performance; IV - Power and Organizational Politics; 4.1 Power dynamics and relevance to organizational change; 4.2 Political skills; 4.3 Understanding resistance; 4.4 Transactional and transformational leadership; V - Organizational Learning;  5.1 Learning organization; 5.2 Organizational and operational efficiency.

Head Lecturer(s)

Teresa Carla Trigo de Oliveira

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Periodic or by final exam as given in the course information: 100.0%

Bibliography

EDELMAN, Gerald M. - Bright air, brilliant fire : on the matter of the mind. New York : BasicBooks, 1992. [BP 316.6 EDE]

FURNHAM, Adrian - People management in turbulent times. Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. [BP 65.01 FUR]

Guest, D.E., Paauwe, J., & Wright, P. (2013). HRM and Performance: Achievements and Challenges.  Chichester: Wiley

HANDBOOK of  top management teams. Edited by Frank Bournois [et al.]. Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. [BP 657 HAN]

HUME, David - A treatise of human nature : a critical edition. Edited by David Fate Norton and Mary J. Norton. Oxford : Clarendon Press, 2011. 2 vol. [BP 165 HUM]

IDENTITY and the modern organization. Edited by Caroline A. Bartel, Steven L. Blader, Amy Wrzesniewski. Mahwah : Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2007. [BP 65.01 IDE]

INTUITIVE (THE) practitioner : on the value of not always knowing what one is doing. Edited by Terry Atkinson and Guy Claxton. Reprinted. Maidenhead : Open University Press, 2008. [BP 159.9 INT]