John Molson School of Business - Department of Management

GDBA 533 - MANAGING PEOPLE IN ORGANIZATIONS

Course Outline – Winter 2024

General Information

Instructor: Ana Marinescu, MBA

Class: Section A, Wednesday 2:45 pm - 5:30 pm
Office location: Online
Office hours: Upon request
E-mail: [email protected] (best way to reach me)

Course Description
This course is designed to provide students with an opportunity to study individual
behaviour in formal organizations. Through theoretical, case and experiential
approaches, the focus of instruction progressively moves through individual, group and
organizational levels of analysis. Topics in the course include perception, learning,
personality, motivation, leadership, group behaviour, and organizational culture.

Learning Objectives
At the end of this course, you should be able to:

• Use OB terminology correctly and explain the major concepts relating to human
behaviour in
organizations, including the interrelationships among them.

• Analyze organizational situations and make recommendations related to human

behaviour by
applying material learned in the course.

• Work effectively in teams.

• Effectively communicate ideas related to organizational behaviour

• Understand and appreciate the importance of ethical issues in organizations

related to organizational behaviour.

Course materials

• Textbook
Essentials of Organizational Behaviour, 3e Canada Version by Stephen P. Rob-
bins, Timothy A. Judge, Katherine Breward ISBN-13: 9780137845729
The book is an online e-book that is also delivered through Pearson’s REVEL
platform; access to the online e- book and platform can be purchased through
this link:
https://console.pearson.com/enrollment/osp08h

2
 The link takes you directly to the Pearson website. You will have access to the
online e-book for 12 months. If you wish to have a paper copy of the book that
you can keep, you can request that a loose-leaf (unbound) version be sent to you
after you have purchased the online e-version. The book publisher (Pearson) will
send the paper copy directly to your house/mailbox for a limited additional cost.
For the REVEL platform, once you purchase the access code, you can register
through your Moodle section - I will provide the link directly in Moodle.

If you have trouble registering for the e-book or logging on the REVEL platform, please
click the following link to reach Pearson support 24/7 before you contact your instructor:

https://www.pearsonhighered.com/revel/students/support/

Please do not purchase your access code before we start the class and until you are
sure that you want to remain in this course. Normally, once you pay for your access
code and register with REVEL, Pearson will not offer a refund if you decide to drop this
course.

Other Materials

Class PowerPoints will be posted on Moodle prior to class. Other information on the
course, such as information about assignments, grades, and messages from the in-
structor, will also be posted on Moodle. It is the student’s responsibility to obtain infor-
mation and documents regarding this course that are posted on Moodle. Claiming that
you were “uninformed” will not be accepted as justification for being unprepared for
class, for not meeting the requirements of an assignment, or for handing in assignments
late.

NOTE: Changes to this document will be announced in class or posted on MOODLE.

However, it is the student’s responsibility to keep informed of what is said and done in
class. ANY announcements made in class become your responsibility. Student absence
from the live lectures IS NOT a valid excuse for not keeping informed.

EVALUATION

• Written Personal Reflection (15%) - due Feb. 21

• Written Individual Project (15%) - due April 3

• Team Project: Report & Presentation (30%) - due April 10

• Final Assessment (40%) - during exam period

3
GRADING

A+ 90-100% A 85-89% A- 88-84%

B+ 77-79% B 73-76% B- 70-72%

C 60-69% F 0-59%

LEARNING PLAN

Class Date Topic/Readings Due dates

1 Jan 17 Ch 1 : Introduction
2 Jan 24 Ch 4: Attitudes, Emotions, Moods
and Stress Management
3 Jan 31 Ch 5: Personality and Values

4 Feb 7 Ch 6: Perception and Individual

Decision Making
5 Feb 14 Ch 7: Motivation
6 Feb 21 Ch 8: Foundations of Group Written Personal
Behaviour Reflection due
Ch 9: Understanding Work Teams
7 March 6 Ch 11: Leadership

8 March 13 Ch 12: Power and Politics

9 March 20 Ch 13: Conflict and Negotiation

10 March 27 Ch 2: Organizational Culture

Ch 3: Diversity in Organizations
11 April 3 Ch 14: Organizational Change Individual Project due
12 April 10 Group Research Presentations Team Project Report due

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY AND THE ACADEMIC CODE OF CONDUCT

The Code of Conduct (Academic) at Concordia University states that “the integrity of
University academic life and of the degrees, diplomas and certificates the University
confers is dependent upon the honesty and soundness of the instructor-student learning
relationship and, in particular, that of the evaluation process. As such, all students are
expected to be honest in all of their academic endeavors and relationships with the Uni-
versity,” (Academic Code of Conduct, art. 1).

4
All students enrolled at Concordia are expected to familiarize themselves with the con-
tents of this Code. You are strongly encouraged to read the pertinent section in the
Concordia Graduate Calendar Graduate Calendar available only at http://graduatestud-
ies.concordia.ca/publications/graduatecalendar/current/ and visit the following web ad-
dress: http://provost.concordia.ca/academicintegrity/ , both of which provide useful in-
formation about proper academic conduct.

The most common offense under the Academic Code of Conduct is plagiarism, which
the Code defines as “the presentation of the work of another person as one’s own or
without proper acknowledgement.”

The most common offense under the Academic Code of Conduct is plagiarism, which
the Code defines as “the presentation of the work of another person as one’s own or
without proper acknowledgement.” This includes material copied word for word from
books, journals, Internet sites, professor’s course notes, etc. It refers to material that is
paraphrased but closely resembles the original source. It also includes for example the
work of a fellow student, an answer on a quiz, data for a lab report, a paper or assign-
ment completed by another student. It might be a paper purchased from any source.
Plagiarism does not refer to words alone –it can refer to copying images, graphs, tables
and ideas. “Presentation” is not limited to written work. It includes oral presentations,
computer assignment and artistic works. Finally, if you translate the work of another
person into any other language and do not cite the source, this is also plagiarism.

In Simple Words: Do not copy, paraphrase or translate anything from anywhere without
saying where you obtained it!

(Source: The Academic Integrity Website: concordia.ca/students/academic-integrity)

Words and ideas taken from published or unpublished sources must be properly refer-
enced both within the text of an assignment and on a reference list. Failure to place
quotation marks around, and to provide a reference for, the exact words (including text,
tables, figures, and graphs) of a published or unpublished source constitutes plagiarism.
Failure to reference the source of ideas, and/or the interpretation of ideas, that have
been paraphrased from a published or unpublished source also constitutes plagiarism.

If you paraphrase someone else’s words of ideas, then you must reference the source
of those ideas immediately following their presentation. If you copy or make a verbatim
translation, then you must indicate (a) the material that was copied of translated by
putting quotation marks around it, and (b) including the reference with relevant page
numbers immediately following the copied material. If you take words or ideas from
someone else, you need to acknowledge this and give them credit.

Please refer to the American Psychological Association Publication Manual (available at

the library) for guidelines on how to properly reference different sources.

DISCLAIMER

5
The instructor reserves the right to change or update this outline, and any other course
related materials, as required. The student will be informed in a timely manner through
Moodle and/or announcements during class.

DETAILS OF COURSE EVALUATION COMPONENTS

1) Personal Reflection (15%)

Objectives of the assignment are for students to:

• Demonstrate knowledge of fundamental OB concepts and theories

• Apply knowledge of OB to understand and/or solve real-world problems

• Express ideas about OB, professionally and concisely, in writing

This assignment will involve writing a personal reflection on how OB applies to
you in your work/career. These reflections should clearly identify one relevant is-
sue, describe its meaning and relevance to you in the context of your experience,
and use OB knowledge and concepts to explain the situation. You can talk about
a situation at work that you experienced in the past or something that you are
currently experiencing; it could also be something that you anticipate will be an
issue in your future career. A reflection might describe a situation where you were
particularly successful at dealing with a certain issue or a situation where you
had particular difficulty dealing with a certain issue. In those cases, you would
explain the situation and apply relevant theories that could explain your success
or failure. You could also describe what you would do differently (if anything) if
you were faced with the same situation today and why that course of action
would be effective based on what we have learned. A reflection could also de-
scribe a situation that you found confusing when it occurred, but that makes
sense to you now that you have more knowledge about people and their be-
haviour. In that case, you would explain the situation and explain how you have
made sense of it based on specific OB theories and concepts. Another type of
reflection would be to ask yourself: what is the biggest challenge that I have
faced/will face with respect to this issue? What have I learned in this class that
can help me overcome this challenge? The goal of the assignment is to apply
knowledge from the class to your own experiences at work.
Your reflection should be 7 pages long (double-spaced, 12-point Font, 1” mar-
gins) and will be worth 15% of your final grade. It should focus on 1 or 2 issues
so not to dilute your efforts.
Reflection topics sample
1. Dealing with diversity in the workplace
2. Understanding/improving your motivation at work 3. Motivating your subordi-

6
 nates at work
4. Working in a team
5. Alternative work schedules

• The assignment will be graded based on the following criteria:

• Clarity in the description of the personal situation

• Clarity in the explanation of relevant concepts

• Completeness of theoretical applications (e.g., analyzing a problem based on

expectancy theory would require discussing expectancy, instrumentality and
valence; omitting one of these elements would be incomplete)

• Alignment between the described situation and the chosen topic theme (e.g.,
analyzing a motivational problem using a conflict-based explanation would be
misaligned, whereas analyzing a motivational problem using motivation theo-
ries is aligned)

2) Individual Project (15%)

Objectives - At the end of this project, you should know how to:

• Find peer-reviewed research articles on a topic relevant to organizational be-

haviour (OB).

• Identify, extract, and integrate meaningful information from those articles and
other relevant sources (e.g., newspapers).

• Generate recommendations for managers that are substantiated by scientific

theories and data.

• Express ideas on your topic of choice, professionally and concisely, orally and in
writing.

• Managers and employees of the future will be required to understand basic facts
related to organizational life and to transfer that knowledge to the unique situa-
tions they face. This project is designed to help you identify how real-life organi-

7
 zations integrate OB concepts in their daily activities as well as help you under-
stand why some organizations are more successful because of the way they use
these concepts.

• For this project, you will research any organizational behaviour (OB) topic using
peer-reviewed research that looked at existing organizations. You will compare
and contrast 2 companies on the basis of this topic in order to develop a recom-
mendation list of the “top 5 things companies should do” when it comes to the
topic of your choice based on your findings.

• Your project should be a MAX of 8 pages long, not including bibliography and
appendices (double-spaced, 12-point Font, 1” margins), and will be worth 15% of
your final grade.

• Sample topics could include but are not restricted to:

1. Leadership Styles
2. Decision-Making
3. Change Management 4. Employee Motivation 5. Stress Management
6. Minorities at Work

3) Team Project (30%, 25% written and 5% presentation)

• Objectives of the team project are for students to:

• Acquire knowledge from scholarly sources on a current issue in OB

• Acquire information about current organizational issues using interviews.

• Analyzing the source of problems or opportunities using theories discussed

and data gathered

• Integrate information to develop knowledge-based recommendations for solv-

ing the
issues that arise when managing people in organizations

• Express ideas about OB orally and in writing to an informed audience

8
 • Collaborate with team members

Unlike the individual project in which you will be analyzing organizations using published
information, here you are a group of managerial consultants (5-6) who have been hired
to analyze a set of problems/issues that an organization or workgroup is experiencing.
You are to develop your own original case report by describing this real organization’s
work situation, detailing the problems /issues that exist, diagnosing the causes, and
recommending solutions or strategies for change. You are writing the report knowing
that it is to be delivered to a senior manager of the organization.

The source for these issues will be organizational members. Members are expected to
use an interview from which the groups can discover, analyze, and give recommenda-
tions to organizational issues.

Details and other requirements for this assignment will be posted on Moodle

Peer Evaluation:

Using this peer evaluation form (instructions to be posted on Moodle), you are asked to
evaluate each person’s contribution. The purpose of this evaluation is to prevent free-
riding; therefore, this form is not about how well a peer is liked by the team, it is about
them contributing their fair share of the workload and fulfilling their obligations to the
team project.

Peer evaluation will have an effect on your group work’s mark. Students can gain or
lose up to a max of 10% of the mark for group work based on their peer’s evaluations.

Final Assessment is cumulative and worth 40% and is scheduled during the regular final
examination period. The final exam will be an in-person case-based exam and will also
include multiple choice questions. You will have 3 hours to complete the exam. The
exam will include short cases and a series of critical thinking questions about the cases.

More information on this will be shared during the semester.

For your submissions, your professor will be using the software Urkund / Ouriginal. It
uses text matching technology as a method to uphold the University’s high academic
integrity standards to detect any potential plagiarism. Urkund / Ouriginal is integrated
into Moodle. For the assignments and assessments set up to use Urkund / Ouriginal,
the software will review your paper when you upload it to Moodle. To learn more about
Urkund’s privacy policy please review its Privacy Policy. Thr program will compare your
work to other students’ work from the current and previous semesters and to online ma-
terial (e.g., tutoring websites etc.)
https://www.concordia.ca/ctl/digital-teaching/Urkund.html

OTHER CLASS POLICIES

9
A. Assignments
Late assignments will not be accepted unless an extension is granted by the professor.
If you need to request an extension in the case of illness or compassionate grounds,
you should notify me at least the day before the due date. Depending on the circum-
stances, valid documentation may be required to receive an extension on the due date
of an assignment.

B. Re-evaluation
Requests for re-evaluation of assignments or presentations must be made in writing.
For written assignments, your written request must accompany the original assignment,
and you must clearly indicate the place(s) on the original where you feel marks were in-
correctly or unfairly allocated. For all requests, you must include a detailed explanation
of the reasons why you believe marks were incorrectly or unfairly allocated. Please note
that when an assignment or presentation is accepted for re-evaluation, the entire as-
signment or presentation wi l be re-evaluated and it is possible for grades to go down,
as well as up.

C. Requests for Grade Increases

Supplemental work and/or re-weighting the evaluation components of the course will not
be allowed to make up a low grade that is obtained for any reason. Consistent with Uni-
versity regulations concerning final exams, if a student completes an examination or as-
signment, even though he/she is ill or faced with other personal problems or situations,
the subsequent grade obtained on the examination or assignment will stand and the
weight of that component of the course will not be adjusted. Petitions on the grounds of
illness or compassionate reasons will not be considered after the fact. If you are ill or
experiencing difficulties, please contact me prior to handing in work that you feel is sub-
standard. In the case of personal problems and situations, you are also encouraged to
consult with Concordia Health Services or Counseling Services.

D. Language of Instruction and of Work

In accordance with Academic Regulations for graduate students, all materials will be
presented in English, including exams. Students are permitted to hand in written as-
signments and to respond to exam questions in French.

E. Behaviour

All individuals participating in courses are expected to be professional and constructive

throughout the course, including in their communications. Concordia students are sub-
ject to the Code of Rights and Responsibilities which applies both when students are
physically and virtually engaged in any University activity, including classes, seminars,
meetings, etc. Students engaged in university activities must respect this Code when
engaging with any members of the Concordia community, including faculty, staff, and
students, whether such interactions are verbal or in writing, face to face or online/virtual.
Failing to comply with the Code may result in charges and sanctions, as outlined in the
Code.

F. Extraordinary Circumstances

10
In the event of extraordinary circumstances, the university may modify the delivery, con-
tent, structure, forum, location and/or evaluation scheme. In the event of such ex-
traordinary circumstances, students will be informed of the changes.

11