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Organisational Behaviour

Module description

Summary:

Organisational Behaviour (OB) is an interdisciplinary field of study, which explores individual, group and organisational behaviour and the impact of individuals, groups, organisations and society in creating, shaping and controlling behaviours. The managerial viewpoint seeks to understand behaviour in order to manage more effectively and, hopefully, more ethically – understanding the fundamentals of behaviour in organisations enables better practices to be developed and implemented. The critical viewpoint seeks to view the organisation from the perspective of employees and asks questions about the impact of managerial practice and their experience of work more broadly – including the role that their peers may play in shaping their experience of work. This module builds on BEM1016 Theory and Practice of Management and draws on your own experiences of organisations and institutions. It challenges you to embrace ambiguity and ambivalence: there are no well-defined answers to understanding and managing behaviour, which is what makes behaviour such an interesting and challenging field of study and should help you as a future employee and manager.

Module aims - intentions of the module

• To introduce students to the subjects of organisational behaviour 
• To develop a critical orientation toward the subject matter and an awareness of the complexity of managerial and organisational problems.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. demonstrate an understanding of key theories and perspectives in organisation studies, and an awareness of how these theories of organisational behaviour compare and contrast
• 2. make theory-practice links by applying the concepts and perspectives introduced to organisational case studies

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. demonstrate the ability to critically evaluate concepts, theories and techniques
• 4. develop effective arguments

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. demonstrate the ability to work independently and be self-motivated
• 6. work effectively in a group
• 7. demonstrate effective independent study

Syllabus plan

• introduction to module; individuals at work
• identity, personality and perception
• motivation and engagement
• organisational culture, power and politics
• groups and teams
• sustainability- employee happiness and wellbeing
• organisational change
• leadership and management
• revision

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

There is no requirement for students to purchase a core text, however I recommend King, D. and Lawley, S. (2016) Organizational Behaviour, Oxford: Oxford University Press, which is available to purchase from the bookshop. 

Other texts which students might like to consult, include:

Buchanan, DA and Huczynski, A (2017) Organizational Behaviour, 9^th ed., Harlow: Pearson.Knights, D. and Willmott, H. (eds) (2012) Introducing Organizational Behaviour and Management, London: Thompson.

Grey, C. (2017) A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book About Studying Organizations, 4^th  edition,London: Sage.

Mullins, L.J. (2016) Management and Organisational Behaviour, 11^th ed., Harlow: Pearson.

Robbins S.P. and Judge, T.A. (2016) Essentials of Organizational Behaviour, 13^th ed., Harlow: Pearson

Wilson, F. (2018) Organizational Behaviour and Work: A Critical Introduction, 5^th ed., Oxford: OUP