Behaviour in Organisations

Overview

All organisations, irrespective of size, sector or ownership, play an important part of society and serve many important needs. They vary greatly in size, complexity and the activities they undertake. To achieve organisational goals effectively, people working in organisations have to be managed. The module explores three key areas. Firstly, the factors that influence individuals such as personality, attitudes, perception, motivation, learning, communication and job satisfaction. Secondly, the factors that influence the nature of groups and teams and the importance of leadership. Thirdly, the module explores the nature of organisations by analysing issues such as goals, structure, design, control, culture and development

Learning Objectives

Upon successful completion of the module students should be able to:

Understand and analyse the role and importance of Organisational Behaviour (OB): paid work, individual behaviour and group processes in organisations.

Analyse and evaluate Individuals in the workplace and invisible “differences”: How individual traits and characteristics (such as personality, identity, perceptions and emotions) influence individual behaviour in organisations, including motivations, incentives and ways of learning.

Analyse and evaluate visible “differences” in individuals in the workplace: race, gender, disability and age, and how these “diversity factors” might influence individual behaviour and group processes, such as inequalities.

Explore the role of people management and diversity management: How organisations can effectively manage individuals and their differences.

Analyse and critique group dynamics and management processes: How individuals behave in teams, communicate in teams, how supervisors effectively lead teams, how teams make decisions and how individuals solve conflicts within teams.

Explore the role of organisational design and change: How organisational culture and structure as well as the implementation of (new) technology and organisational change processes can influence the behaviour of individuals and teams, including resistance to change

Skills

• Critically evaluate information and its veracity in relation to organisational behaviour
• Apply logic and reasoning to scenario based situations and problem solving
• Communicate ideas, critique theoretical frameworks and discuss their strengths and shortcomings in a range of business environments. Communication will be in both written and presentational forms
• Use ICT software effectively
• Work both independently (summative assessment) and in groups (formative assessment)
• Manage own time and workloads effectively
• Pursue independent enquiry

Assessment

Students must achieve an overall mark of 40% in the module to pass