MGT 513:

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR & MANAGERIAL

SKILLS
MON 5:45-8:35 PM-BA227
PROF. PAUL MIESING
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS FALL, 2008

Bulletin Description: This course provides a basic understanding of individual, group, and organizational
processes and their effectiveness. The emphasis is on building diagnostic skills
needed to understand organizational processes and the administrative and
interpersonal skills needed to carry out key responsibilities in any type of management
position. [These] will be demonstrated through the use of cases, role-plays, and
simulations.
Prerequisite: Open only to part-time evening MBA students
Office/Telephone: BA-315 / 442-4942
Office Hours Monday before and after class; by appointment
E-Mail: The best way to reach me is at paul.miesing@albany.edu. I usually respond quickly at
any reasonable time, seven days a week.

TEXTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS

Text: Bowditch, Buono, & Stewart, A Primer on Organizational Behavior (John Wiley & Sons, 2007, 7 th Ed.) ISBN:
9780470086957
Supplementary Materials: Articles, cases, and Web sites are available at Electronic Reserves
http://eres.ulib.albany.edu.libproxy.albany.edu/eres/coursepage.aspx?cid=1318 (with password OBMS)

COURSE PURPOSE
Organizational Behavior and Managerial Skills is designed to enable professional MBA students to attain the
programmatic learning goal of improving business-related behavioral skills in order to work with others, including
leadership, organizational, interpersonal, team, and life-long learning skills. To achieve this goal, we will present the
basic tools necessary to understand most aspects of managing people and processes in organizations. My intent is
to provide you with a broad overview of the vast and varied literature concerned with the nature of management
and organizations. The course focus is on theory, research, and application to assist managers in understanding
human behavior as individual, inter-personal, and systemic processes and provide an opportunity for you to apply
your learnings. My objective is to enable you to do the following at the conclusion of the course:
understand, critically analyze, and manage human behavior issues in various organization settings;
know how organizations operate so as to make them more effective and change them in desired ways;
define and explain key terms, concepts, and theories of Organizational Behavior; and
improve your managerial, interpersonal, and diagnostic skills

LEARNING ASSESSMENT
I intend to achieve these objectives and evaluate your performance through discussing the text, readings, cases,
videos, and current events; engaging in role plays, self-assessments, and experiential exercises; examinations; and a
final group report. There is a maximum value of 100 points per student. Final letter grades will be based on a
relative curve of all points, awarded as follows:
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AND MANAGERIAL SKILLS PAGE 2

Max. Value
Class Participation and Contribution 20
Examinations (3 @ 20 points each) 60
Group Project (presentation and paper) 20
Total Possible Points 100

All of these activities will expose you to the major issues, problems, challenges, frustrations, and (hopefully)
realities in managing within an organization. I will assume that you have read and understood the material, and the
classroom time will be an opportunity to discuss, experience, and apply these concepts. Therefore, attendance and
class participation are essential. We will form groups to discuss the various self-assessments throughout the
semester as well as prepare the final project. Everyone is expected to participate in all group and classroom
activities. Hence, I will also subjectively assess your class participation and contribution.

TENTATIVE OUTLINE
Personally, I want to facilitate a class that is interesting, fun, and very influential in developing your managerial skills
even organization survival! Yet, I do not want to sacrifice rigor. My teaching philosophy is that since you have
much to offer, I create a learning environment where you, the students, can learn in your own unique ways. The
basic requirements are: Prepare for every session, Share your ideas and experiences actively, Compare your
analysis with your classmates, and Apply by using your learnings.

OVERVIEW
AUG. 25 TOPIC #1: INTRODUCTION TO OBMS
Read: this syllabus (you are responsible for all the information it contains!); Ch. 1
Assignment: Form teams of approximately five members in each (the instructor retains the
prerogative to switch members if necessary); Send an e-mail message to the instructor that
briefly addresses the following in your own words: What is organization behavior? What do
managers do?

LEVEL OF ANALYSIS I: INDIVIDUAL PROCESSES

SEP. 8 TOPIC #2: PEOPLE, PERCEPTION , AND PERSONALITY
Read: Ch. 2; Butler & Waldroop, Understanding People People, HBR June 2004
HBR Case Analysis and Discussion: What a Star What a Jerk HBR September 2001

SEP. 15 TOPIC #3: MOTIVATION CONCEPTS AND APPLICATIONS

Read: Ch. 3; Nicholson, How to Motivate Your Problem People, HBR January 2003; Nohria, Groysberg, & Lee,
Employee Motivation: A Powerful New Model, HBR July 2008
HBR Case Analysis and Discussion: The Best-Laid Incentive Plans HBR January 2003

SEP. 22 TOPIC #4: INDIVIDUAL VALUES, BUSINESS ETHICS, AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Read: Badaracco, We Dont Need Another Hero, HBR September 2001; Gardner, The Ethical Mind, HBR
March 2007; Khurana & Nohria, Its Time to Make Management a True Profession, HBR October 2008; Teal,
The Human Side of Management, HBR November-December 1996
Case Analysis and Discussion: The CEOs Private Investigation HBR February 2008
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AND MANAGERIAL SKILLS PAGE 3

OCT. 6
Exam #1 5:45-6:45 pm

6:45-7:00 Exam review

7:00-7:30 Orientation to team building (pizza in BA 220)
7:30-9:00 Parsons REACH program http://www.parsonscenter.org/pages/services/rsREACH.asp

LEVEL OF ANALYSIS II: INTER-PERSONAL PROCESSES

OCT. 13 TOPIC #5: H IGH-PERFORMANCE WORK TEAMS, GROUPS DYNAMICS, AND CREATIVE DECISION
MAKING
Read: Chs. 5 & 6; Eisenhardt, Kahwajy, & Bourgeois, How Management Teams Can Have A Good Fight, HBR
July-August 1997; Gratton & Erickson, Eight Ways to Build Collaborative Teams, HBR November 2007;
Katzenbach & Smith, The Discipline of Teams, HBR July-August 2005
HBR Case Analysis and Discussion: Should This Team Be Saved? HBR July-August 2001

OCT. 20 TOPIC #6: COMMUNICATIONS , CONFLICT, AND FEEDBACK

Read: Ch. 4; Tannen, The Power of Talk: Who Gets Heard and Why, HBR September-October 1995; Williams
& Miller, Change the Way You Persuade, HBR May 2002
HBR Case Analysis and Discussion: Bobs Meltdown HBR January 2002

OCT. 27 TOPIC #7: LEADERSHIP EXERCISING INFLUENCE , POWER, AND EMPOWERMENT

Read: Ch. 7; Eisenstat, Beer, Foote, Fredberg, & Norrgren, The Uncompromising Leader, HBR July 2008;
Goleman, What Makes a Leader? HBR January 2004; Kotter, What Leaders Really Do, HBR December 2001
HBR Case Analysis and Discussion: The Micromanager HBR September 2004

NOV. 3
Exam #2 6:00-7:00 pm

Teams meet to discuss final project

LEVEL OF ANALYSIS III: SYSTEMIC PROCESSES

NOV. 10 TOPIC #8: ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND CULTURE
Read: Chs. 9 & 10; Leavitt, Why Hierarchies Thrive, HBR March 2003; Manville & Ober, Beyond
Empowerment: Building a Company of Citizens, HBR January 2003
HBR Case Analysis and Discussion: The Cost Center that Paid its Way HBR April 2002

NOV. 17 TOPIC #9: ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS , LEARNING , AND CHANGE

Read: Ch. 11; de Geus, The Living Company, HBR March-April 1997; Edmondson, The Competitive
Imperative of Learning, HBR July 2008; Nonaka, The Knowledge-Creating Company, HBR July-August 2007;
The Vasa Syndrome
HBR Case Analysis and Discussion: Welcome Aboard (But Dont Change a Thing) HBR October
2002

NOV. 24 TOPIC #10: CROSS-CULTURE VALUES AND MANAGEMENT

Read: Ch. 8; Black & Gregersen, The Right Way to Manage Expats, HBR March-April 1999; Early &
Mosakowski, Cultural Intelligence, HBR October 2004
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AND MANAGERIAL SKILLS PAGE 4

Case Analysis and Discussion: The Case of the Floundering Expatriate HBR March 2005

DEC. 1
Exam #3 6:00-7:00 pm

Teams meet to discuss final project

DEC. 8 G ROUP PROJECT PRESENTATIONS
DEC. 15 GROUP PROJECT PAPERS DUE

EVALUATION

CLASS PARTICIPATION AND CONTRIBUTION

Eighty percent of success is showing up.

Woody Allen

Due to the complex nature of the materials, the real value from this course will occur in the classroom. The time
spent in class will include discussion and group work related to the self-assessments, readings, cases, and lectures.
Obviously, intelligent, active, and meaningful class participation is essential. It is necessary that each student be
committed to the 4 Professional Ps of student involvement for the course to be successful: preparation, presence,
promptness, and participation. I expect you to arrive on time ready to go and remaining engaged throughout the
entire session, which can only occur if you have done the homework in advance, are attentive, and avoid being
preoccupied with an electronic gadget (e.g., laptop, cell phone, iPod, etc.). Your classmates deserve your thoughtful
opinions, analyses, and reasoning you can contribute these (and in turn understand those of others) only if you
are present in class and adequately prepared! Appropriate classroom etiquette is also part of your participation
grade. This means all of us must be respectful of others, constructive in our comments, and open to alternative
views.
Your participation in group and class discussions will be subjectively assessed to determine your class performance.
Examples of contribution to class discussion include answering a question, furthering a point brought up, taking a
leadership role, offering personal examples, or supporting another class member. Comments should be directed
toward the entire class. I will try to record class participation following each session. The following guideline will
determine your overall class contribution:
A students make things happen by always seizing the initiative (17-20 points)
B students know what happened and frequently provide insight (13-16 points)
C students watch things happen and occasionally participate (9-12 points)
D students, while appearing observant, typically ask: what happened? (5-8 points)
F students dont care if anything happened (0-4 points)
Be forewarned: Everyone starts at ground zero and has an equal opportunity to work up to the maximum points
available. Final class participation will be ranked, with the average grade a 16 and very few 20s and Fs are
options!
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AND MANAGERIAL SKILLS PAGE 5

EXAMINATIONS
As long as learning is connected with earning, as long as certain jobs can only be reached through exams,
so long must we take this examination system seriously.

E.M. (Edward Morgan) Forster (18791970), British novelist, essayist; New York Times (November 24,
1963) review of Walter Pater, Appreciations, With an Essay on Style

There will be three (3) examinations, one for each Part (Level of Analysis). Each exam will cover only the material in
the respective Part, consist of objective questions (i.e. true/false and multiple choice), be based on the text
material, and must be taken on the assigned date and class time: no make-up will be offered unless there is a clear
and urgent situation. Each exam will last one hour, and you may not leave the room during that time. Every exam
will be curved on a 20-point scale. You will be provided with a coding sheet for your answers that require your
name and 9-digit myUAlbany ID on the back of it please bring it with you! The computer cannot provide a score
for blank or partial names/IDs, poor or incomplete erasures, or random marks. We will review the answers in class.

GROUP CONSULTING PROJECT

Tell me and Ill forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and Ill understand.

Native American proverb (erroneously attributed as an anonymous Chinese proverb)

The Group Project ideally applies your class learnings about personality, motivation, ethics, teams,
communications, leadership, structure, culture, and change to an actual example. Apply any three topics one per
level of analysis and try to integrate them and apply them to a group members organization. This assignment
must be typed using Times-Roman 12 pt font, single-spaced, 1-inch margins all around, and conforming to APA
style and format for all sections (see http://www.apastyle.org/). Include a title page, executive summary, tables,
figures, or references as necessary. Staple your work but do not include a folder or plastic cover. Content and style
are evaluated, including grammar, spelling, and punctuation. (See Appendices A-C for further guidance.) Here are
some specific questions your presentation and report should address:
1) Literature Review: Focus on one aspect for each of your three topics. Based on your independent research
and experiences, does your team believe best practices exist in these areas? If so, please provide some
ideal examples. If not, what are the barriers? Your paper should be based on a minimum of ten academic
articles, all cited in the paper.
2) Practical Problem: Select one focal company that a team member works for as a specific example of how
an organization obtains, develops, and/or applies its management practices. What management and
organization problems does it face? Based on your literature review and data analysis, where does this
company stand using global best practices as a standard?
3) Recommendations: Explain the extent to which global best practices are or are not applicable to your focal
company and perhaps even the other companies your team members work for. What are some constraints
or contexts that facilitate or inhibit applications (e.g., industry, leadership, history and legacy, ownership,
etc.)? How can the company improve its performance in these three areas?
4) Generalizations: What are some of the general management trends you see over the next five years,
overall and in your companies? How will you prepare for them? What are your overall learnings and take-
aways of these three topics?
The evaluation objectives are Critical thinking, Creativity, Collaboration, and Communication. As this is a group
project, team dynamics and relationships among members will be important. Your group is likely to contain
divergent viewpoints, values, and insights. However, remember that good decisions (and thorough analysis of
complex issues) are usually the synthesis of several ideas and that is precisely the reason to form groups.
Compromises may often be necessary to arrive at a solution acceptable to everyone. It is hoped you can learn from
and help your teammates: Use each other to seek help; challenge ideas, assumptions, and arguments
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AND MANAGERIAL SKILLS PAGE 6

constructively; and learn how to accept advice on controversial, perhaps emotionally-charged, issues. Remember
that working with others is the major programmatic learning goal of this course!
Not everyone should make the actual presentation but everyone should be prepared to answer questions. Please
limit your presentations to no more than a dozen overheads in total. Avoid repeating what was repeated in class;
instead, try to tell the class something they dont already know. To help keep groups on track, I will notify you of
remaining time. Please submit a handout to the instructor prior to the presentation, and a hard copy of the final
report one week later.

EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISES
Know thyself.

Delphi Oracle

This is the Managerial Skills application of this OBMS course. Your group will engage in an experiential exercise
for the first part of every class, during which you will be expected to share your reflections and insights. Try to apply
the readings and cases and relate to your personal experiences. Also consider examples of how the exercise has
come up at work and how you might have thought and behaved differently than you did in the past, or how you
expect to act differently in the future. Since we might be dealing with some sensitive issues in our exercises, I
expect everyone to agree to the following guidelines:
Honor confidentiality (anything shared in this room stays within this group; if you discuss this experience with
others at a later time, you must omit any identifying characteristic when discussing the other participants)
Unconditionally respect yourself and others
Speak only for yourself
Actively listen; consider other peoples words as gifts
No put-downs or hostile analysis; avoid interpreting other peoples experiences
Give caring feedback
Engage in dialogues, not debates (there are no winners or losers in these exercises)
Everyone has the right to pass on a decision or opinion
It is okay to express your emotions
No rescuing others members
Take responsibility for you own learning ask for what you need!

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES ON PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT

This is your captain speaking. This class airplane will depart on time. The class doors are shut; please turn
off all electronic devices. This is a no smoking flight. Please do not attempt to deplane while we are in
flight (unless you must go to the rest room). We will do our best to arrive at our destination safely,
together, and on time. Have a safe and enjoyable flight!

I apologize in advance to the majority of MBAs who are mature, thoughtful, and diligent. As a precaution to the
others, I am compelled to make this statement. (The Evening MBA Handbook is available on ERES.)
1) The following University policies apply:
attendance by all graduate students must be regular;
the University reserves the right to exclude from a graduate program, course, or final examination
students whose attendance is unsatisfactory to their instructors;
permission to make up missed work is not automatic; and
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AND MANAGERIAL SKILLS PAGE 7

regulations concerning attendance in a particular course are at the discretion of the instructor.
To avoid any misunderstandings, here are Miesings rules:

attendance for the entire session at every class is mandatory (I round down partial attendance);
should an emergency situation arise, students must notify me as soon as possible; and
absences, early departures, or persistent tardiness will require handing in a make-up assignment.
2) Late arrivals and early departures are disrespectful to fellow classmates and disrupt the class. So is
side-talking during class (you have no idea how your voice carries in a classroom). Please refrain
from writing and passing notes or participating in other distractive behaviors. And do not pack up
preparing to leave towards the end of the class until it is clear the session is over and we are through.
In addition, please disable all electronic and mobile devices (e.g., laptops, cellular telephones, audible
pagers, iPods) while in attendance.
3) According to University policy, you may not eat, drink, or smoke in classrooms. Smoking is not
permitted in this building, and you may not bring food or drinks into this room.
4) Ethical behavior is an important part of the course not only as it relates to professional conduct but
also for your personal development. Consequently, I expect you to conduct yourselves in an honest,
dignified, and professional manner. Academic dishonesty of any sort will not be tolerated. This is
clearly stated in University and School policy. You are responsible for knowing the policies and
adhering to them.
To avoid any misunderstandings, here are Miesings rules:

an atmosphere of mutual respect is in order for the rights of others and the diversity of other
cultures, nationalities, and beliefs;
work submitted for other classes or other purposes may not be re-submitted (in part or whole)
for credit in this class; and
you will be held responsible for complete and active participation in group meetings or projects
academic and professional integrity means contributing your fair share.
5) Although collaboration is encouraged and even required for much of the course assignments, I expect
you to uphold the highest standards of academic integrity. This means you will perform individually
where specified in this syllabus. You must abide by University policy on academic dishonesty, including
plagiarism, sabotage, falsification of material or information, bribery, as well as theft, damage, or
misuse of University resources. Plagiarism and cheating indicate a lack of respect for ethical
considerations and peer responsibilities. These practices will not be tolerated. Plagiarism, either
intentional or unintentional, will result in a grade of zero for the assignment. Cheating will result in
being dropped from the course with a letter grade of F. Violations can also result in University
sanctions, including being expelled.
6) Your enrolment in this class acknowledges your accepting personal responsibility for fulfilling its
requirements and attaining its objectives. You are responsible for knowing what others expect of you
as well as what you must contribute to further our shared learnings.

Have a pleasant semester!