Faculty Contact Information:
Instructor: Dr. Brett Hamilton
Mailing Address: Am Borngraben 10, 65510 Idstein-Walsdorf,
Email Address: Novantiq@aol.com
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Consultation:
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Tel and Fax: 06434-6222 (1100 hrs - 2100 hrs, 7 days)
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Required Texts and Readings:
Text used exclusively in this course--
Robbins, S.R. 2003. Organizational behavior (10th ed.). Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Texts used in multiple courses --
Ott, J.S., Parkes, S.J. & Simpson, R.B. 2003. Classic readings in
organizational behavior (3rd ed.). Toronto, Ontario: Thomson Wadsworth.
American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication manual of the
American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington DC:
Author.
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Supplementary Readings:
All graduate students should be prepared to utilize the
UMUC online library. The library contains a large number of full text academic journals that are free of charge and immediately available. The library homepage also contains a number of links related to improving students' research and writing skills.
Supplementary Readings:
Janis, I. (1982). A perfect failure: The Bay of Pigs. In I. L. Janis, Groupthink (pp. 14-47). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
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Recommended Journals:
A variety of full-text, online, free-of-charge and pay-per-view academic journals are listed on the PA Webboard (http://webboard.ed.umuc.edu/~pa). The Journal of Organizational Behavior is especially useful in this course.
Recommended Journals:
Leadership Quarterly
Journal of Communication
Academy of Management Review
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
Management Review
Harvard Business Review
Journal of Organizational Behavior
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Course Description:
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Prerequisite: Undergraduate principles of management or permission of the program director. Presents basic concepts of formal organizations. Students become acquainted with the major conceptual models that purport to explain organizational behavior, acquire an understanding of the methods used to study organizations, and analyze research that has been produced. While the emphasis is placed on critical analysis of literature that deals with "what is," attention is given to views about "what should be" in order for people to derive maximum satisfaction and other benefits from organizational activity.
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Course Goals:
As one of three foundations courses in the MPA program, a requirement for the Certificate in Public Management, and an elective in the MIS program, this course introduces and analyzes major theories of organizational behavior and the ways in which theses theories inform management of organizations in the public, private and non-profit sectors. Particular attention is given to theories focusing on:
- Individual and group behavior in relation to each other and larger organizations
- Leadership styles, principles and contingencies
- Motivation and Reward Systems
- Values, Attitudes and Job Satisfaction
- Organizational Communication
- Organizational Culture
- Organizational Development and Change
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Course Objectives:
At the conclusion of this course the student will be able to:
- Analyze case material, web sites, public law, and research articles related to organizational behavior and organizational change
- Investigate the relationship between historical and current issues in organizational behavior
- Utilize electronic resources to find primary source documents, data, statements on best practices and research articles related to issues in organizational behavior and organizational change
- Develop and present written and oral arguments, case studies, and/or research papers on current issues in organizational behavior that make reference to and build on factual and expert information.
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Grading Information:
Grades for this course will be assigned as follows:
A 90%
B 80 – 89%
C 70 – 79%
F Below 70%
Please note that Bowie State University does not use "D" for graduate students. The grade F is used to designate academic failure. F(n) is used to designate failure for non-completion. Grades of Incomplete or Withdrawal are governed by UMUC-Europe policies. For further details, please refer to the UMUC-Europe Graduate Catalog. Hard copies of the catalog are available in your local Education Center.
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Course Requirements:
Midterm Examination: ................................20%
Final Examination: ..................................20%
Project: ............................................20%
Class Participation .................................20%
Assignments (Internet, case studies) ................10%
End of Chpt Quizzes .................................10%
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Description of Course Requirements:
Successful graduate students in American universities dedicate approximately three hours of preparation/study time for every hour spent in the face-to-face classroom. Thus, the following course requirements were developed on the assumption that students would be prepared to spend approximately 150 hours of their own time working on them. In an 8-week term, that is the equivalent of a half-time job. Most 14-week graduate distance education courses require at least 10 hours per week of dedicated time, plus time spent in the virtual classroom.
Participate in classroom discussions: You are expected to come to class prepared to engage in all discussions in a professional and informed manner.
Write graduate level papers or case studies: You are required to conduct professional-level research, including appropriately citing works of others and avoiding plagiarism. Resubmission of course work from previous classes (whether or not taken at UMUC, UMUC-Europe or BSU), partially or in its entirety, is not acceptable in this course and will result in an automatic failure on the assignment.
Orally/visually present prepared material: You are required to present your research in a professional manner. In a face-to-face course, this typically means an oral presentation accompanied by appropriate visual material. In a DE class, this means creating a visual/textual presentation for your instructor and classmates.
Complete one or more written examination(s): The examination process in this class will assist you in developing the writing and critical thinking skills necessary to successfully passing the comprehensive exam required of all graduate students. The questions used for this course will either be taken directly from past comprehensive exams or written as though to be included on a comprehensive exam.
Project Description:
For our term project, you will identify a real-world organizational problem in your own environment or experience and then act out the role of a paid consultant (human resources management specialist, training officer, executive officer or other "hired gun") brought in to solve the problem.
You will analyze the organizational situation within frameworks developed in class and in the readings, propose alternative solutions to the problem, and then select a change plan or intervention appropriate to the situational analysis.
To do this you will have to state the problem in such a way that evaluation criteria acceptable to the "client" can be developed. Your evaluation criteria will serve in demonstrating that the planned strategy did, in fact, succeed or was effective. To give an example here: Before your intervention, something was either happening that should not have been happening or not happening that should have been happening. Your task is to identify the "gap," perform a discrepancy analysis and propose a solution.
The project deliverable is a proposal to include:
a statement of the problem
analysis of dynamics of the problem
theoretical support and defense of intervention strategy
approach strategy
implementation plan
evaluation plan.
Student and instructor will work together to select an organizational problem.
The project will count toward 20% of your final grade.
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Course Schedule:
WEEK ONE 29 Aug-4 Sept 05
1) Read Robbins Chapter 1.
2) Post Short Bio.
3) Explore Webtycho classroom
4) Answer the Random Fifty End-of-Chapter Exam questions to be found in the Course Content Area. Submit answers under the appropriate tab (answers only) in your assignment submission area.
WEEK TWO 5-11 Sept 05
1. Read Robbins Chapters 2,3
2. Read Appendix B (pp. 606-613
3. Read Ott: "Introduction" pp. 1-28.
4. "The Hawthorne Experiments" pp. 142-151.
5. Begin Thinking about Topic Choice for Paper #1.
6. Check Conferences Week Two for an Internet Assignment.
7. Private Log or Workbook: Prepare answers to Self-Study Questions at end of Chapters 2 and 3:
[Suggested answers for Self-Study Questions will normally be released into Course Content area one week following the assigned Chapters.
8. Answer Random Fifty End-of-Chapter exam questions for Chapters 2 and 3 to be found in the Course Content area.
WEEK THREE 12-18 Oct 05
Note: The Ott reading assignments follow. I shall post study questions for them. There is NO specific DUE DATE for their reading yet I will want you to respond to topics I bring up in the conference area that bear on the readings.
1. Robbins, Chapters 4,5.
2. Ott: "Effects of Group Pressure Upon .." pp. 313-320.
3. Select paper #1 topic if possible.
4. Self-Study questions at chapter end.
5. Ott: "A Theory of Human Motivation" pp. 152-162
6. Answer Random Fifty exam questions to be found in Course Content area.
WEEK FOUR 19-25 Sept 05
1. Robbins, Chapters 6,7.
2. Ott, "The Human Side of Enterprise" pp. 163-168.
3. End of Chapter exams for 6 and 7
4. Self-Study questions.
WEEK FIVE 26 Sept- 2 Oct 05
1. Robbins, Chapter 8.
2. Ott, "The Motivating Effect of Cognitive Dissonance" pp. 169-174.
3. Ott, "Work and Motivation" pp.175-181.
4. Ott, "One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?" pp.182-190.
5. Ott, "Work Motivation: The Incorporation of Self-Concept-Based Processes" pp. 191-207.
6. Chapter 8 exam items.
7. Self - Study questions.
8. Internet Assignment due 27 February.
WEEK SIX 3-9 Oct 28 05
1. Robbins 9, 10.
2. Ott, "Self-Set Goals and Self-Efficacy as Mediators of Incentives and Personality" pp. 210-218.
3. Self-Study questions.
4. Chapter exam questions.
WEEK SEVEN 10-15 Oct 05
1. Read Case Study: "Bing and Hart"
in Conference area.
2. Self Study questions.
3. Catch up.
4. Midterm Exam
15-23 Oct 05 [TERM BREAK -- !!]
WEEK EIGHT 24-30 Oct 05
l. Robbins, 11.
2. Self Study questions.
3. Chapter Exam questions.
4. Ott: The following readings are pertinent to the next weeks. Read them in any order you like. I'll provide a few conference questions for us. If you have any issues you would like to discuss, bring them to the conference area and create a topic to which we can respond.
Pp. 56-64, "Life Cycle Theory .." (Hersey/Blanchard)
Pp. 65-75, "..Contingency Model.." (Fiedler)
Pp. 77-86, " .. Call for Transformational LDR." (Tichy/Ulrich)
Pp. 87-95, "..Learning Leader .." (Schein)
Pp. 97-104, "What Makes a Leader?" (Goleman's EQ hypothesis)
Pp. 105-112, "Leadership as the Legitimation of Doubt." (Weick)
WEEK NINE 31 Pct-6 Nov 05
1. Robbins, 12,13
2. Chapter Exam Questions
3. Self Study questions.
4. Ott: Pp.114-128, "Efficacy and Effectiveness: Integrating Models of Leadership and Intelligence." (Chemers)
WEEK TEN 7-13 Nov 05
1. Robbins, 14,15.
2. Chapter Exam questions
3. Self Study Questions.
4. Conference area topics and excercises.
WEEK ELEVEN 14-20 Nov 05
1. Robbins, 16,17.
2. Chapter Exam questions
3. Self Study questions.
4. Conference exercises
5. Term Project due 8 May.
WEEK TWELVE 21-27 Nov 05
1. Robbins, 17,18.
2. Chapter Exam questions
3. Self Study questions.
4. Conference exercises.
4. Conference area activities.
WEEK THIRTEEN 28 Nov - 4 DEC 05
1. Robbins, 19, 20 (App A), 21 (App B)
2. Review and wrap-up of all chapters and issues.
3. Catching up.
4. Conference exercises.
5. Chapter Exam questions
6. Term Project Due 4 Dec
WEEK FOURTEEN 5-11 Dec 05
Continue wrap-up Activities
WEEK FIFTEEN 12-17 Dec 05
Final Exam Week
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Academic Policies:
The University has a license agreement with Turnitin.com, a service that helps prevent plagiarism from internet resources. I may be using this service in this class by either requiring students to submit their papers electronically to Turnitin.com or by submitting questionable text on behalf of a student. If you or I submit part or all of your paper, it will be stored by Turnitin.com in their database throughout the term of the University's contract with Turnitin.com. If you object to this temporary storage of your paper, you must let me know no later than two weeks after the start of this class. Please Note: If you object to the storage of your paper on Turnitin.com, I may utilize other services to check your work for plagiarism.
The official university policy on Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty can be found at http://www.umuc.edu/policy/aa15025.shtml. Section I.C. states: Faculty may determine if the resubmission of course work from previous classes (whether or not taken at UMUC), partially or in its entirety, is acceptable when assigning a grade on that piece of course work. Faculty must provide this information in their written syllabi. If the resubmission of course work is deemed to be unacceptable, a charge may not be brought under this Policy and will be handled as indicated in the written syllabi.
Please refer to Description of Course Requirements for specific information on how resubmissions will be treated in this course and to the UMUC-Europe Graduate Catalog for information on the following:
Academic Integrity
Course Load
Exception to Policy
Grade Appeal Process
Make-up Examinations
Nondiscrimination
Students with Disabilities
Hard copies of the catalog are available at your local Education Center.
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Faculty Bio:
Dr. Hamilton provides organization development and management consulting services to civilian, military and academic organizations. He has conducted training research and development in the aerospace industry as well as basic learning research in education. He has delivered OD training for organizations in the United States, Europe and the Middle East.
His twelve year university teaching experience includes the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Maryland, Boston University and the Army Management Staff College. At the graduate level he taught organizational psychology, research methods for the behavioral sciences and program evaluation methods as well as core courses in Business Management including leadership, organizational communication, and organizational change processes. His research at UCLA centered on the cognitive development in children and he has applied this work to the design of computer-assisted-learning strategies as well as to the development of educational toys.
His work history includes design and development projects with organizations such as Thiokol Chemical, Ampex Computer, McDonnell-Douglas Space Systems Center, Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools, Kettering Foundation, Mattel Toys, Quark Express, Army Management Staff College, International Training Consultants (Teheran, Iran), the U.S. Army Europe, and the American Postal Corporation.
Now living in Germany, Mr. Hamilton provides management consulting services in change management, personal productivity, and instructional system design. His recent consulting activities have focused on creative decision processes and the role of managers in conducting these processes while building and maintaining working environments supportive of innovation. He completed both undergraduate work in Psychology and graduate work in Education at UCLA.
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