Course Outline

RSM 260H1 F
Organizational Behaviour
Fall 2015
Course meets:
L0101 Monday 9am-11am Christianson (WO25)
L0201 Tuesday 1-3pm Oesch (WO30)
L0301 Wednesday 2-4pm Radie (WO25)

Instructor:

Marlys Christianson: [email protected]

John Oesch: [email protected]
Amal Radie: [email protected]

Office Hours:
For L0101, office hours (Christianson) on Wednesday from 1:30-2:30pm & by appointment
(South Rotman building, RT 6028). Please note that I will also be more readily available by
phone and email at this time.
For L0201, office hours (Oesch) on Tuesdays noon-1:00pm in Rotman 6030.
For L0301, office hours (Radie) on Wednesdays from 4:305:30 pm
Course website:
Text website:

http://portal.utoronto.ca
http://www.pearsoned.ca/highered/divisions/myOBlab/index.html
The text contains useful information that complements lectures. In
particular, the text includes definitions of the key concepts, and practice
essay/application questions for each chapter. Please note that My OB
Lab is a supplemental study guide that comes with the text. Previous
students have not found it particularly helpful and it is not required for the
course. [if you need the course ID for the website it is: christianson19866]

Please note: If you have questions about the class, please check the syllabus first, as we
have tried to answer as many questions as possible here.

Course Scope and Mission

This course is designed to provide you with an in-depth introduction to the broad range of theory,
research, and practice in organizational behaviour. Organizational behaviour is the study of how
individuals and groups impact the behaviour within an organization. As managers or as
employees, you will encounter issues ranging from the individual level to the group level and the
organizational level, and you will need to be aware of how these areas fit into your working life.
Topics in this course include understanding individual differences, motivating and leading
employees, working in effective groups, ethics and negotiations, among others.
Our goal in this course is for you to become familiar with organizational behaviour research and
theory, and to be able to think critically about organizations and their effectiveness. We
encourage you to think of yourself not as a student in a course but as a manager in training to
get the most out of this course.
Since your organizational experience is somewhat limited at this stage, we will do our best to
create activities that help you apply your learning to the real world. Our goal is that you learn as
much as possible about organizational behaviour that you can actually use in your own life.
Course Prerequisites:
RSM100Y1
Course Exclusions:
IRE260H1, PSY332H1, WDW260H1
Required Readings
G. Johns & A. M. Saks. (2013). Organizational Behaviour (9th edition). Toronto: Pearson
Prentice Hall. This is the best textbook for an introductory organizational behaviour course.
Designed more for a two-term course instead of one, you will be reading selected chapters.
NOTE: In the past, some students have asked whether they could use older versions of this
textbook. We recommend the current version (9th edition) because it is the most up-to-date, but
the material in older versions of this textbook is fairly similar to that in the current version. Please
note that content does not change much year to year, but it will be your responsibility to figure
out what page numbers and chapters the readings cover in these old versions.
Expectations:
Students will be proactive and will seek out resources to help facilitate learning. I am
happy to help you identify resources; however, if you have specific questions about the
class, please check the syllabus before asking questions as I have tried to answer most
of them here.
Students will learn to act professionally as they would with coworkers and with
supervisors/superiors. Therefore, you will learn to communicate professionally (including
email), work professionally in groups, present knowledge gained, equitably and fairly
distribute work, as well as meet strict deadlines as you would in any modern
organization.
Students will demonstrate familiarity with the major concepts, theoretical perspectives,
empirical findings, and historical trends in Organizational Behaviour (OB).
Students will use critical and creative thinking skills, skeptical inquiry, and the scientific
approach to solve practical problems in organizations.
Students will understand and apply OB principles to personal, social, and organizational
issues.
Students will develop insight into their own and others behaviour and mental processes

and apply effective strategies for self-management and self-improvement.

Students will develop realistic ideas about how to implement their OB knowledge and
skills in occupational pursuits in a variety of settings.

Evaluation and Grades

Grades are a measure of the performance of a student in individual courses. Each student shall
be judged on the basis of how well he or she has command of the course materials. Last day to
drop this course from academic record and GPA is November 8, 2015.
Assignment
Class participation
Group project proposals
Group project presentation
Group project reports
Midterm test
Final term test

Due dates (Subject to change)

5%
Ongoing
5%
Oct 9, 2015 by 5pm
2% (pass/fail)
Week 11, during class
15%
Week 12, at the beginning of class
30%
Oct 15, 2015 7-9pm*
40%
Will be scheduled during the Faculty of
Arts & Science Final Examination period
Research Credit
3%
December 1, 2015
*The midterm location is on Oct 15th from 7-9pm in SF2202 and SF3202. If you have another
class at this time you must inform your instructor by Oct 1, 2015. Otherwise, you are expected to
be present for the midterm on Oct 15th and, if not, are subject to either a zero for the test or, in
the case of a properly documented emergency, taking the final at 70% of your grade.
What Do Grades Mean?
Percentage
Grade Value

Value

Definition

90-100
85-89
80-84

A+
A
A-

4.0
4.0
3.7

Excellent

77-79
73-76
70-72

B+
B
B-

3.3
3.0
2.7

Good

67-69
63-66
60-62

C+
C
C-

2.3
2.0
1.7

Adequate

57-59
53-56
50-52

D+
D
D-

1.3
1.0
0.7

Marginal

0-49

0.0

Wholly inadequate

COURSE FORMAT AND EXPECTATIONS

More detail about how each form of evaluation in the course can be found below:

Class Participation (5% of grade)

You will be graded based on the value your participation provides to other students in the
class. You begin the semester with 2.5 out of 5 points and gain points by increasing the
value of the course for other students. Students have previously increased value for other
students in the following ways:
Offered comments in class that clarified issues pertaining to the material.
Asked questions that prompted the instructor to clarify complex material.
Discussed with the instructor ways to enhance any component of the course.
We will make notes of any student behaviour that increases the value of the course for other
students. You can lose points by decreasing the value of the course for other students. For
example, students in the past have decreased the value for other students in the following
ways:
Attended sections in which they were not registered. This decreases value for other
students because of overcrowding (students sitting on floor, crowded space), distraction,
and, ironically, larger classes decrease class participation.
Arrived to class late or left early. It is disruptive for students who arrive and attend class
on time.
Absent from class.
Had cell phones ring in class.
Made inappropriate comments or behaviours that distracted from the learning
environment.
Students can also gain or lose points in other ways. Please talk to instructor if concerned about
this grade.
Group Project (22% of grade = 5% for proposal + 2% for presentation + 15% for final
report)
You will form groups of approximately 7-8 members. Your group members must be in your
RSM260 section. Your team is to conduct an analysis of a real organization, exploring an
aspect of organizational behaviour that interests you and that is relevant to the
organization(s) you are studying. Your study should be analytical and issue-oriented, not
merely descriptive. You will adopt the position of a management consultant, endeavouring to
understand the organization and to propose actions that solve problems. The group project is
a central component of the course and worth a significant portion of your grade. You should
therefore begin thinking about possible organizations to study now, and begin working on the
project as soon as your team has been formed. Specifically, you should do the following:

To Complete Group Proposal (5%)

a. Select an organization to study. The organization can be for-profit or non-profit and

consist of employees, volunteers, students, or hobbyists. An important criterion to
consider in choosing your organization is accessibility you need to have a contact
person who will cooperate with your study and give you access to needed information
and people.

b. Establish a contact person. Find someone in the organization who can grant you
access to organizational information and members. Explain how you wish to study
their organization for class and obtain written permission to do so. We strongly
suggest you write a letter that the contact person will sign stating that you are allowed
access to the organization to collect information for your project. Please give us a
copy of the letter for our files. If you have a problem or issue in mind, see if your
contact person is comfortable letting you study it. If your contact person says no or
you do not have a problem or issue in mind, ask the contact person for suggestions.
Consent form is posted on Portal.

c. Select an issue. The range of options is large. It needs to involve organizational

behaviour topics that are relevant to the organization you select. You can choose
among topics discussed during lectures (on page 13 of this syllabus) and/or in the
textbook. For example, students in the past have studied the association between (a)
the quality of work relationships and job satisfaction, (b) goal commitment and job
performance, and (c) the personality trait of extraversion and sales. It is very
important that you focus your analysis on one core issue. Papers that attempt to do
too much typically lose their focus and receive low marks. We encourage you to
contact us to discuss your ideas for topics.

d. Write a proposal. Finally, turn in the project proposal, worth 5% of your total grade,
online through Portal by 5pm Oct 9, 2015. The proposal should list the class section,
group number, group members, the organization(s) you are studying, the name and
job title of your contact person(s), and a one-page description of the issue you will
study. The proposal should clearly describe why your study will help to improve our
understanding of how people act and work in organizations this is the information
that you will summarize in a one page description. In addition, you can include an
appendix which describes how you will gather the information and the data that is,
indicate the expected number of respondents and include the survey and/or interview
questions. Your instructor will give feedback to help you conduct the best project
possible. The proposal must be on 8.5x11 paper, with 1-inch margins, in 12pt Times
New Roman font. The group proposal can be single spaced. Your appendices are not
graded, but will provide the opportunity for the instructor to give you feedback on
these attachments.

To Complete Group Presentation (2%)

a. Prepare for a short in-class presentation: All groups will present their group projects
during class (Week 11). This type of assignment is a way to practice presentation
skills, which are important in the workplace, in a safe and supportive environment.
More information about the format of this presentation will be shared with students
during lectures leading up to the group presentations. The presentations will be
graded on a pass/fail basis (for 2% of final grade) in order to minimize the pressure
associated with public speaking. Many students find this one of the most enjoyable
and rewarding aspects of the course.

To Complete Group Report (15%)

a. Gather relevant information and data. You have several options for gathering
information and data. You may create and administer a survey or you may interview
key informants from the organization you are studying. You may observe workers.
Use any data collection procedure that will help you achieve your goals.

b. Analyze your problem or issue. Using the information you have gathered about the
organization, draw some conclusions about the issue you are studying. Draw on the
organizational behaviour literature relevant to your topic to help you analyze it. Your
analysis should be clear, logical, and based on what you have learned from your
data, the class, the text, and other readings. It is often helpful to include tables and
figures in the report to clarify your analyses.

c. Generate suggested solutions. Given your analysis of the problem, generate key
steps an organization can take to improve any problems and build on any strengths.
Your suggestions should involve things an organization could actually do given
constraints. It might be helpful to first lay out all possible solutions, including ideal
ones in a world without constraints, and then select from those, attempting to
approximate the ideal ones. Your suggestions should be based whenever possible on
general and guiding principles of organizational behaviour learned in the course.

d. Final paper formatting. The final project report should be up to 10 typed, doublespaced, and numbered pages of text, plus references, tables, figures, and
appendices. The paper must have 1-inch margins on 8.5x11 paper, with 12pt
Times New Roman font. Please write clearly and concisely and follow APA
guidelines when it comes to the format of your paper, including how you format your
references. The following website is a great resource for the APA guidelines:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/.
More precise grading criteria will be posted on the course website. Below are the
main sections to be covered in the paper I encourage you to use these italicized
labels as headers for each section of the paper. The introduction, method, results,
and discussion sections are the most important (and these sections together can be
at most 10 pages). Typically, students fail to put sufficient information in the
introduction and discussion sections.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Title page: please include the following:

- paper title, Instructors name, section #, group number, date, authors and student #s
Executive summary: a 150-word paragraph overview of the entire report (new page)
Introduction: organizational issue studied, relevance to organizations (new page)
Method: description of organization, contact person, data collection procedures
Results: analysis of aggregate data
Discussion: make conclusions, alternative explanations, suggest solutions
References (new page)
Tables (new page)
Figures (new page)
Appendices (new page)

Note. Do not put page breaks between Introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion
sections.
e. Submit final paper: Please submit both a hard copy and an electronic copy (through
Portal) by the beginning of the lecture on Week 12.
IMPORTANT NOTE ON MANAGING YOUR GROUP:
Your group project requires students to work in teams. Learning to work together in teams is an
important aspect of your education and preparation for your future careers. That said, project-

based teamwork is often new to students; to work well in teams, it helps to follow a set of core
expectations to best succeed at your team projects.
1. Read the document entitled, Working in Teams: Guidelines for Rotman Commerce Students
which is available on the RC portal under the Academic Services tab.
2. When working in a team, Rotman Commerce students are expected to:

Treat other members with courtesy and respect;

Honour the ground rules established by the team;
Contribute substantially and proportionally to the final project;
Ensure enough familiarity with the entire contents of the group project/assignment so as
to be able to sign off on it as original work;
Meet the project timeline as established by the team.

3. Resolving conflicts:
Conflicts are part of the teams process of learning how to work together. When handled well, it
can generate creativity and bring-multiple perspectives to the solution.
Student teams are expected to work through their misunderstandings as soon as they arise (and
prior to submission of the final project). When teams are unable to arrive at a solution that works
for all members, the team must meet with the Rotman Commerce Team Coach** as soon as
possible. The Coach will listen to the team and help develop options for improving the team
process. All members of the project team must commit to, and, utilize their action plans.
** For an appointment with a Rotman Commerce Team Coach, please contact Elaine
Zapotoczny at [email protected]. Elaine is highly skilled at facilitating team
dynamics and collaboration. Note that the Team Coachs role is to provide guidance, support
and advice on team matters not to formally evaluate or assess teamwork for academic
purposes.
4. Coordinating activities in the team: There are often difficulties in coordinating tasks within
teams. To help your team stay "on track, you should assign multiple assignments to each
individual due at regular intervals during the semester. A problem arises if you assign one
person to do the theoretical work, another to collect information, two people to analyze data and
to write your results, and one person to put the whole package together. You can tell how well
the first few people are working out early on, but you cannot tell how the final person is doing
until it is much too late! So, try not to organize the work like that.
During the last week of class, we will collect confidential information from each of you about the
contribution of each group member. In cases where it is clear that an individual has made little or
no contribution to the group work, we will adjust that individual's mark on the project to a mark
less than that given to the group as a whole.
Note: the group project requires that you undertake research with human participants. Please
note that research of this nature requires treating participants ethically, according to established
standards and practices. Please consult with your instructor before commencing your research
to ensure that your research activities comply with the applicable policy and procedure.
Examinations (70% = 30% midterm exam + 40% final exam)

Midterm Exam (30%): It will be a two hour common midterm (Oct 15, 2015 7-9pm)
covering material from readings and lectures up to and including the lecture in Week 4,
and will be common for all sections. There will be NO class the week of the exam. If you

cannot complete the midterm exam because of an approved absence (see pp. 9-10 of
syllabus), the value of the midterm exam (30% of your final grade) will be transferred to
the final exam that will then account for 70% of your final grade.

Final Exam (40%): The exam will be a two hour exam covering material from readings
and lectures for the entire semester. The final exam will take place during the Faculty of
Arts & Science Final Examination period.

Research Participation (up to 3%)

Marketing and Organizational Behaviour researchers develop hypotheses and run experimental
studies to test these hypotheses against actual behaviour. The research requirement in this
course is intended to supplement the material on marketing and organizational behaviour by
giving you more direct exposure to research in marketing and organizational behaviour. Once
you complete this research requirement, you will be given 3 points toward your grade in this
course. In order that you might better understand the research process, you may fulfill this
requirement by:
1. participation in three hours (credits) of research studies or
2. analysis of three articles that report research studies or
3. a combination of research studies and article analyses.
Participation in research studies. To participate in a research study, sign up for the research
participation website (https://rotman-credit.sona-systems.com) and read the descriptions of
research studies that are posted there. Once you identify a study in which you would like to
participate, choose a time slot in which to participate. Studies usually take place in the
behavioural lab in the Rotman building, but some studies may run online or in another physical
location. Participation in the actual research will take between 45 and 60 minutes for a 1 credit
study or between 15 and 30 minutes for a 0.5 credit study. You will be debriefed at the end of
the study, and you will be asked to answer a question about some aspect of the study. Once
you correctly answer the question you will be given credit. You must complete three credits
worth of studies to fulfill your research participation requirement in this course. Participation in
research studies will take place from September 21 - December 1, 2015.
Analysis of articles. To analyze an article, go to the Robarts library and find a copy of one of
the approved journals. If you are in a marketing course, you may use the Journal of Consumer
Research, the Journal of Marketing, or Marketing Science. If you are in an organizational
behaviour course, you may use the Academy of Management Journal, the Journal of Applied
Psychology, the Journal of Organizational Behavior, or Personnel Psychology. Look through the
articles from the previous three years until you find one that interests you. Read the article.
Write a summary of: 1) the objectives and hypotheses of the article; 2) the importance of the
issues to the marketing or organizational behaviour community; 3) the research reported in the
article, including the design of the study, the sample, and the materials (stimuli) used in the
study, 4) the key results, 5) strengths and weaknesses of the study, and 6) the usefulness of the
results to marketers or organizational behaviour practitioners. The analysis will be graded on a
pass/fail basis. You will need to review three articles to complete your research requirement.
Please contact the Behavioural lab manager, Robert Latimer (416-978-4196,
[email protected], Rotman 547), if you would like to analyze research articles
to fulfill your research requirement. The analysis will be graded on a pass/fail basis. Please
submit your summaries to Robert Latimer by December 1, 2015.
Other Important Information:
The role of the instructor is to create an atmosphere conducive to learning and to give
students the best opportunity to succeed.

The role of the student is to be open to the opportunity to learn.

This is a dynamic setting. Changes to the course may occur during the semester. I
welcome your feedback about how to enrich the course.
Students with disabilities or special needs are asked to inform the instructor as early as
possible in the term in order to facilitate appropriate accommodation.

Please be prompt for class and expect to stay for the entire period.
Lecture outlines will be posted on Blackboard but please note that these are only
guidelines, and they are meant to be supplemented with your own note-taking.

Please note that clear, concise, and correct writing will be considered in the evaluation of
all written assignments. That is, you may lose points for writing that impedes
communication: poor organization, weak paragraph development, excessive wordiness,
hard-to-follow sentence structure, spelling mistakes, and grammatical errors. Students
who require additional support and/or tutoring with respect to their writing skills are
encouraged to visit the Academic Success Centre (www.asc.utoronto.ca) or one of the
College Writing Centres (www.writing.utoronto.ca/writing-centres). These centres are
teaching facilities not editing services where trained staff can assist students in
developing their academic writing skills. There is no charge for the instruction and
support.

There is no extra credit for this course.

A student who believes that an individual item of term work has been unfairly marked
may ask the person who marked the work for re-evaluation. Re-marking of finals will
follow university proceduresplease note that the entire work (i.e., test, proposal,
project) will be re-evaluated.
Final grades will not be changed except for computational error.

Submission of Assignments
Assignments are due as indicated in the syllabus both in hard copy at the time of class as well
as electronically through Turnitin.com (through Portal). Normally, students will be required to
submit their course essays to Turnitin.com for a review of textual similarity and detection of
possible plagiarism. In doing so, students will allow their essays to be included as source
documents in the Turnitin.com reference database, where they will be used solely for the
purpose of detecting plagiarism. The terms that apply to the University's use of the Turnitin.com
service are described on the Turnitin.com web site.
POLICY AND PROCEDURE
Missed Tests and Assignments (including midterm examinations)
Students who miss a test or assignment for reasons entirely beyond their control (e.g. illness)
may submit a request for special consideration. Provided that notification and documentation are
provided in a timely manner, and that the request is subsequently approved, no academic
penalty will be applied.
In such cases, students must notify Rotman Commerce on the date of the missed test (or due
date in the case of course work) and submit supporting documentation (e.g. Verification of
Student Illness or Injury form) to the Rotman Commerce Program Office within 48 hours of the
originally scheduled test or due date. Students who do not provide Rotman Commerce or the
instructor with appropriate or sufficient supporting documentation will be given a grade of 0
(zero) for the missed test or course deliverable.

Note that the physicians report must establish that the patient was examined and
diagnosed at the time of illness, not after the fact. Rotman Commerce will not accept a
statement that merely confirms a report of illness made by the student and documented
by the physician.
If a student misses the midterm exam for an approved absence, the final exam will be
reweighted and will count for 70% of the total grade. Any other issues that arise will be
addressed on an individual basis at the discretion of the instructor.
Late Assignments
Assignment grades will normally be reduced by 5 percentage points (e.g., from a 75% to a 70%)
if the assignment is not received by the specified time, and by an additional 5% points for each
additional day late. However, late submission by itself will not result in a grade being reduced
below 50%. The instructor reserves the right to refuse to grade any assignment that is more than
two weeks late, in which case a grade of 0% will be assigned for that part of the course grade. If
the delay is the result of illness or domestic affliction, the individual involved must contact the
instructor BEFORE the due date of the assignment and explain the position. A medical certificate
or other supporting evidence will be required, although if necessary these may follow after the
due date.
Students who, for reasons beyond their control, are unable to submit an assignment by its
deadline must obtain approval from the instructor for an extension. Supporting documentation
will be required as per the policy on missed tests and assignments.
Accessibility Needs
The University of Toronto is committed to accessibility. If you require accommodations for a
disability, or have any accessibility concerns about the course, the classroom or course
materials, please contact Accessibility Services as soon as possible:
[email protected] or http://www.accessibility.utoronto.ca/.
Academic Integrity
Academic Integrity is a fundamental value essential to the pursuit of learning and scholarships at
the University of Toronto. Participating honestly, respectively, responsibly, and fairly in this
academic community ensures that the UofT degree that you earn will continue to be valued and
respected as a true signifier of a student's individual work and academic achievement. As a
result, the University treats cases of academic misconduct very seriously.
The University of Torontos Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters
http://www.governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/policies/behaveac.htm outlines the behaviours that
constitute academic misconduct, the process for addressing academic offences, and the
penalties that may be imposed. You are expected to be familiar with the contents of this
document. Potential offences include, but are not limited to:
In papers and assignments:
Using someone else's ideas or words without appropriate acknowledgement.
Submitting your own work in more than one course without the permission of the
instructor.
Making up sources or facts.
Obtaining or providing unauthorized assistance on any assignment (this includes
collaborating with others on assignments that are supposed to be completed individually).
On test and exams:
Using or possessing any unauthorized aid, including a cell phone.

Looking at someone else's answers

Misrepresenting your identity.
Submitting an altered test for re-grading.

Misrepresentation:
Falsifying institutional documents or grades.
Falsifying or altering any documentation required by the University, including (but not
limited to), medical notes.
All suspected cases of academic dishonesty will be investigated by the following procedures
outlined in the Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters. If you have any question about what is
or is not permitted in the course, please do not hesitate to contact the course instructor. If you
have any questions about appropriate research and citation methods, you are expected to seek
out additional information from the instructor or other UofT resources such as College Writing
Centres or the Academic Success Centre.
Email
At times, the course instructor may decide to communicate important course information by
email. As such, all UofT students are required to have a valid UTmail+ email address. You are
responsible for ensuring that your UTmail+ email address is set up AND properly entered on the
ROSI system. For more information please visit http://help.ic.utoronto.ca/category/3/utmail.html.
Forwarding your utoronto.ca email to a Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo or other type of email account is
not advisable. In some cases, messages from utoronto.ca addresses sent to Hotmail, Gmail or
Yahoo accounts are filtered as junk mail, which means that important messages from your
course instructor may end up in your spam or junk mail folder.
Blackboard and the Course Page
The online course page for this course is accessed through Blackboard. To access the course
page, go to the UofT Portal login at https://portal.utoronto.ca/ and log in using your UTORid and
password. Once you have logged in, look for the My Courses module where youll find the link to
all your course websites. If you dont see the course listed here but you are properly registered
for the course in ROSI, wait 48 hours. If the course does not appear, go to the Information
Commons Help Desk in Robarts Library, 1st floor, for help, or explore the Portal Information and
Help at www.portalinfo.utoronto.ca/students and review the Frequently Asked Questions.
Recording Lectures
Lectures and course materials prepared by the instructor are considered by the University to be
an instructors intellectual property covered by the Canadian Copyright Act. Students wishing to
record a lecture or other course material in any way are required to ask the instructors explicit
permission, and may not do so unless permission is granted (note: students who have been
previously granted permission to record lectures as an accommodation for a disability are, of
course, excepted). This includes tape recording, filming, photographing PowerPoint slides,
Blackboard materials, etc.
If permission is granted by the instructor (or via Accessibility Services), it is intended for the
individual students own study purposes and does not include permission to publish them in
anyway. It is absolutely forbidden for a student to publish an instructors notes to a website or
sell them in any other form without formal permission.

Your Objectives: How Can You Succeed in this Course?

We will do everything possible to create conditions that will allow you to succeed. Ultimately,
though, your success depends on your personal effort. To help you succeed, we recommend the
following guidelines:
1. Complete assigned readings AFTER class. You will be most comfortable when you have
completed readings/exercises after the days lecture; that way, you will have familiarity with
the main concepts.
2. Check on and read EMAILS or WEB ANNOUNCEMENTS. Vigilantly check for email and
postings on the course web site as additional information will be sent to you regarding the
class throughout the term.
3. Write thoughtfully. You will be happiest with the evaluation of your performance on your
writing assignments when your work is grammatically correct, free of spelling errors, logically
organized, concise, clear, and creative. Thoughtfully written work is the most persuasive and
defensible.
4. Attend class sessions regularly. You will get the greatest benefit from this course when you
commit to attend every lecture. I aim to design lectures that make your attendance worthwhile
and interesting. Lectures are designed to complement and extend the textbook. We will do
exercises, discuss cases, and view videos that will demonstrate the real life importance of
the concepts discussed in the textbook. Some exam questions will cover the exercises,
cases, and videos from class.
5. Participate in class. An important part of class sessions will be the dialogue between you,
your classmates, and your instructor. Questions will be posed in a friendly and nonconfrontational manner. Further, we will use these classroom conversations to help you
discover new ways of thinking about the material you have studied, rather than as tests of
whether you can recite a specific set of facts. As much as possible, I want to create a
classroom environment that allows you to actively participate in learning about organizational
behaviour. Toward this end, I encourage you to interact both formally and informally with me
and with your classmates. In addition to lectures, we will also spend some of our class time
working on applied cases, exercises, and demonstrations, analyzing real world issues.
6. Keep me informed. I encourage students to visit me for feedback and answering questions
about projects and examinations. Please do not hesitate to come to my office hours to
discuss any aspect of the course. Also, you are responsible for notifying me immediately
about problems or issues. Please do not assume that I know if something is bothering you
tell me.
7. Writing aids. The website Writing at the University of Toronto at
http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/home includes many specific files of advice on academic
writing which might be of great value to students. Also, writing workshops are frequently
made available at your college.
8. If English is your second language: Of particular interest might be the following link to
Online Resources for Students of English as a Second Language:
http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/further-resources/online-esl-resources

Weekly Schedule
(Tentative subject to change depending on the progress of the class)
Week

Date

Topic

Sept 14/15/16

Sept 21/22/23

Introduction to Organizational
Behaviour
Job Satisfaction, Motivation,
and Job Design

Sept 28/29/30

Personality and Perception

Intro to Group Projects

Oct 5/6/7

Oct 15

Course Feedback and

Midterm Review
Midterm: Oct 15, 2015 7-9pm
SF2202 and SF3202

Readings and
deliverables*
Ch 1 and Appendix
(pp. 603-618)
Ch 4 and 5
Ch 6 (only pp. 200210)
Ch 2 (only pp. 41-51)
and Ch 3
Group membership
due by Oct 2nd (5pm)
Group proposal due
Oct 9th(5pm)

Organizational Communication and

Ch 8
Socialization
Midterm and Group Proposal
Ch 9
Feedback
7
Oct 26/27/28
Leadership and Culture
Power and Ethics
Ch 12
8
Nov 2/3/4
Group Project Work Time
NOTE: November Break means there will no Mon/Tues classes on Nov 9 and 10
Nov 11 (L0301)
Ch 11 and 13
9
Nov 16 and 17
Decision Making and Negotiation
(only pp. 452-464)
(L0101/L0201)
Nov 18 (L0301)
10
Nov 23 and 24
Group Dynamics and Teams
Ch 7
(L0101/L0201)
Nov 25 (L0301)
-Group Presentations
11
Nov 30 and 31
(L0101/L0201)
Dec 2 (L0301)
Group papers due at
12
Dec 7 and 8
Final Review
beginning of class
(L0101/L0201)
Final examination period:
-FINAL
TBD
Dec 11-22, 2015
6

Oct 19/20/21

Note: You will have time in class in Week 3 to select your own group (see syllabus for details). If you miss this class,
you must email your instructor and indicate group membership by Oct 2nd 5pm at the latest. Group proposals will be
submitted online through Portal and will be due Oct 9that 5pm. Group papers are due at the beginning of class in
Week 12 (hard copy + electronic copy on Portal).
*Assignments are due both in hard copy to your instructor at the BEGINNING OF CLASS time as well as an electronic
copy (posted on Portal) unless indicated otherwise. If you do not meet or exceed this deadline, you are subject a zero
without sufficient documentation of legitimate excuses (i.e., documented illness or emergency).