Students

BBA 111 – Organisational Behaviour

2014 – MQC1 Day

General Information

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Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit Convenor
Adrineh Mitchell
adrineh.mitchell@mq.edu.au
Contact via adrineh.mitchell@mq.edu.au
Moderator
Senia Kalfa
senia.kalfa@mq.edu.au
Contact via senia.kalfa@mq.edu.au
Credit points Credit points
3
Prerequisites Prerequisites
Corequisites Corequisites
Co-badged status Co-badged status
Unit description Unit description
Organisational behaviour considers how individuals behave in organisations. The unit provides an overview of major topics in organisational behaviour including: individual differences in people and their performance; motivation; learning and self-management; culture and organisations; leadership; group dynamics; teams and team building; negotiation; and decision making.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  • Understand classical and contemporary OB theory. Topics covered include motivation, learning, culture, and teamwork.
  • Understand the relevance of OB theories and concepts for modern organisations. Topics covered include ethics, rationalisation, power and politics and aesthetic labour.
  • Apply OB concepts to case studies so as to appreciate the nexus between theory and practice
  • Develop teamwork and presentation skills

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Due
Essay Plan 10% Week 5
Essay 30% Week 9
Student presentations 20% Weeks 10-13
Final Examination 40% University examination period

Essay Plan

Due: Week 5
Weighting: 10%

Students are required to submit the plan of their major essay. This plan will form the basis for your essay. Details and marking criteria will be provided in the lecture.

Late submission of the Essay Plan:

Students seeking Special Consideration for late submission of the essay plan must apply in advance of the due date. Tutors cannot grant extensions.

For essay plans submitted after the due date, a penalty of 10% per day late will apply up to five days late. Zero marks will be recorded after a five day delay. 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Understand classical and contemporary OB theory. Topics covered include motivation, learning, culture, and teamwork.

Essay

Due: Week 9
Weighting: 30%

Students are required to submit a 2,500 word essay. Details and marking criteria will be provided in the lecture.

Late submission of the Essay:

Students seeking Special Consideration for late submission of the essay must apply in advance of the due date. Tutors cannot grant extensions.

For essays submitted after the due date, a penalty of 10% per day late will apply up to five days late. Zero marks will be recorded after a five day delay.  
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Understand classical and contemporary OB theory. Topics covered include motivation, learning, culture, and teamwork.
  • Understand the relevance of OB theories and concepts for modern organisations. Topics covered include ethics, rationalisation, power and politics and aesthetic labour.

Student presentations

Due: Weeks 10-13
Weighting: 20%

In the last 4 weeks of the session, students will conduct 25 minute presentations in groups of 4-5. Details and marking criteria will be provided in the lecture.

PARTICIPATION IN PRESENTATIONS: 

All students are expected to participate in their group's presentation. 

EXTENSIONS:

No extensions are available for presentations
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Understand classical and contemporary OB theory. Topics covered include motivation, learning, culture, and teamwork.
  • Understand the relevance of OB theories and concepts for modern organisations. Topics covered include ethics, rationalisation, power and politics and aesthetic labour.
  • Apply OB concepts to case studies so as to appreciate the nexus between theory and practice
  • Develop teamwork and presentation skills

Final Examination

Due: University examination period
Weighting: 40%

In the final week of the semester students will be given a case study to prepare. During the exam they will demonstrate they can apply OB concepts and theories to this pre-prepared case.

Absence from the final examination:

Students who are unable to attend the Final Examination should apply for Special Consideration in advance of the exam date.
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Understand classical and contemporary OB theory. Topics covered include motivation, learning, culture, and teamwork.
  • Understand the relevance of OB theories and concepts for modern organisations. Topics covered include ethics, rationalisation, power and politics and aesthetic labour.
  • Apply OB concepts to case studies so as to appreciate the nexus between theory and practice

Delivery and Resources

Classes:

  1. The subject consists of a weekly 3 hour teaching block
  2. Students must attend 80% of all tutorials to complete this unit, i.e. miss no more than 2 tutorials, including medical absences. A log will be taken to record attendance. Medical certificates are required for medical absences.
  3. Students are expected to arrive on time, certainly before five minutes past the hour and not to leave until the class ends.
  4. Mobiles should be turned off during classes, not simply set to silent. Texting or other mobile phone activity during class is distracting to the student concerned, the lecturer and other students and is strictly forbidden. Students violating this requirement will be asked to leave the class.
  5. Photography as well as audio and video recording by students is not permitted.

 

Required and recommended texts and/or materials

TEXTBOOK: King D and Lawley S (2013) Organizational Behaviour. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Students will be given scholarly articles as stretch readings in the lectures.

Technology used and required

  • Students are required to familiarise themselves with iLearn (https://ilearn.mq.edu.au/login/MQ/)
  • iLearn will be used to post course material, announcements, student grades and as a means of communication between staff members and students
  • Students are expected to check their university email account and contact the teaching staff through it. Gmail, hotmail and other personal email accounts are often blocked through the university's spam filter; communicating through those risks that your query will not be answered. 

Unit web page

Course material will be made available on iLearn (https://ilearn.mq.edu.au/login/MQ/)

  • This course outline, lecture slides, assessment details and other useful material will be made available from iLearn. If you have difficulties logging on to iLearn, please contact the university's technical support staff. Do not contact the lecturer or the tutors as they will not be able to help you with technical queries. 
  • You are expected to print copies of the lecture slides and bring them along to the lectures
  • All important announcements will be made on iLearn and you are expected to view the announcements page of the course website at least once per week

Teaching and Learning Strategy

The topics outlined in this unit are best explored through active participation and experiential learning. Classes therefore will involve tutorial activities such as case study analysis, debates, discussion groups and presentations so that participating in this unit is an interesting, challenging and fun experience. Core topics will be discussed in an integrated lecture environment, where you are encouraged to question and comment on aspects of each topic.

Changes since last offering

This semester the book has changed as well as the format of the exam (from short-answer questions testing knowledge to case study analysis testing application). 

Unit Schedule

 

Week

 

Topic

1

 

Introduction to the course & to case analysis

2

 

Organisational design and bureaucracy

3

 

Rationalization in organisations

4

 

The social organisation: Hawthorne studies/ groups and teams

5

 

Organisational culture

6

 

Motivation
   

 

7

 

Learning

8

 

Leadership

9

 

Organisational Change

10

 

Power and politics

11

 

Ethics

12

 

The service and leisure economies

13

 

Conclusion and exam prep

 

 

 

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central. Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Academic Honesty Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/academic_honesty/policy.html

Assessment Policy  http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy.html

Grading Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grading/policy.html

Grade Appeal Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/gradeappeal/policy.html

Grievance Management Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grievance_management/policy.html

Disruption to Studies Policy http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/disruption_studies/policy.html The Disruption to Studies Policy is effective from March 3 2014 and replaces the Special Consideration Policy.

In addition, a number of other policies can be found in the Learning and Teaching Category of Policy Central.

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/support/student_conduct/

Student Support

Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/

Learning Skills

Learning Skills (mq.edu.au/learningskills) provides academic writing resources and study strategies to improve your marks and take control of your study.

Student Services and Support

Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Service who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies.

Student Enquiries

For all student enquiries, visit Student Connect at ask.mq.edu.au

IT Help

For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://informatics.mq.edu.au/help/. 

When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.

Graduate Capabilities

Discipline Specific Knowledge and Skills

Our graduates will take with them the intellectual development, depth and breadth of knowledge, scholarly understanding, and specific subject content in their chosen fields to make them competent and confident in their subject or profession. They will be able to demonstrate, where relevant, professional technical competence and meet professional standards. They will be able to articulate the structure of knowledge of their discipline, be able to adapt discipline-specific knowledge to novel situations, and be able to contribute from their discipline to inter-disciplinary solutions to problems.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Understand classical and contemporary OB theory. Topics covered include motivation, learning, culture, and teamwork.
  • Understand the relevance of OB theories and concepts for modern organisations. Topics covered include ethics, rationalisation, power and politics and aesthetic labour.
  • Apply OB concepts to case studies so as to appreciate the nexus between theory and practice
  • Develop teamwork and presentation skills

Assessment tasks

  • Essay
  • Student presentations
  • Final Examination

Problem Solving and Research Capability

Our graduates should be capable of researching; of analysing, and interpreting and assessing data and information in various forms; of drawing connections across fields of knowledge; and they should be able to relate their knowledge to complex situations at work or in the world, in order to diagnose and solve problems. We want them to have the confidence to take the initiative in doing so, within an awareness of their own limitations.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Understand classical and contemporary OB theory. Topics covered include motivation, learning, culture, and teamwork.
  • Understand the relevance of OB theories and concepts for modern organisations. Topics covered include ethics, rationalisation, power and politics and aesthetic labour.
  • Apply OB concepts to case studies so as to appreciate the nexus between theory and practice
  • Develop teamwork and presentation skills

Assessment tasks

  • Essay Plan
  • Essay
  • Student presentations
  • Final Examination

Effective Communication

We want to develop in our students the ability to communicate and convey their views in forms effective with different audiences. We want our graduates to take with them the capability to read, listen, question, gather and evaluate information resources in a variety of formats, assess, write clearly, speak effectively, and to use visual communication and communication technologies as appropriate.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Apply OB concepts to case studies so as to appreciate the nexus between theory and practice
  • Develop teamwork and presentation skills

Assessment tasks

  • Essay
  • Student presentations
  • Final Examination

Research and Practice

This unit draws on extensive research from sources outside the textbook. Students will be provided with stretch readings for every week that will allow you to considerably expand your knowledge of OB.

Such readings are for example:

Christensen CM and Raynor ME (2003) Why hard-nosed executives should care about management theory. Harvard Business Review 81(9): 66-74

Jaques E (1990) In praise of hierarchy. Harvard Business Review 68(1): 127-133

Conducting research independently is strongly encouraged for this unit and is rewarded. 

This unit will give you extensive practice in applying theoretical knowledge on case studies.