The Lee Kong Chian School of Business

Academic Year 2015 /16

Term 1

OBHR 101 MANAGEMENT OF PEOPLE AT WORK

Instructor
Title
Tel
Email
Office

: Ma Kheng Min
: Senior Lecturer of Organisational Behaviour & Human Resources
: 6828 0406
: makhengmin@smu.edu.sg
: LKCSB #5078

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course focuses on managing people in the workplace. Students learn theoretical and conceptual foundations for
understanding people, groups, and organizations, and practical tools for accomplishing personal, group, and
organizational objectives. Topics include work motivation, decision making, organizational culture, organizational
change and stress management, power and politics, personality and individual differences, and work values, attitudes,
and emotions, among others.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
Define key organizational behavior terms
Identify organizational behavior constructs in organizational settings
Analyze organizational problems using major organizational behavior theories
Put organizational behavior theories into practice to address organizational problems
Search OBHR-discipline specific databases to locate scholarly articles from key journals

PRE-REQUISITE/ CO-REQUISITE/ MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE COURSE(S)

Please refer to the Course Catalogue on OASIS for the most updated list of pre-requisites / co-requisites for this
particular course.
Do note that if this course has a co-requisite, it means that the course has to be taken together with another
course. Dropping one course during BOSS bidding would result in both courses being dropped at the same time.

ASSESSMENT METHOD
Essay (Individual)
Class Participation
Weekly Quiz
Group Presentation
Final Exam
Total

10%
20% (includes 3% OB Research Participation)
20%
20%
30%
___
100%

Academic Integrity
Students are responsible for honest completion and representation of their work. There will be zero tolerance for
infractions, and penalties will be applied. If you believe there has been an infraction by someone in the class, please
bring it to my attention.
All acts of academic dishonesty (including, but not limited to, plagiarism, cheating, fabrication, facilitation of acts of
academic dishonesty by others, unauthorized possession of exam questions, or tampering with the academic work
of other students) are serious offences.
All work presented in class must be the students own work. Any student caught violating this policy may result in
the student receiving zero marks for the component assessment or a fail grade for the course. This policy applies to
all works (whether oral or written) submitted for purposes of assessment.
Where in doubt, students are encouraged to consult the instructors of the course. Details on the SMU Code of
Academic Integrity may be accessed at http://www.smuscd.org/resources.html.

INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS AND EXPECTATIONS

Class Participation
Participation is a central part of the learning process for you and your classmates. When you contribute, you help
others learn. Your Class Participation grade reflects your contribution to your classmates learning. This includes
attendance, full preparation prior to class including reading assigned materials and completion of assignments, and
active participation in class discussions and group activities.
Class Sessions
All class sessions will be interactive and experiential. A large portion of class time will be spent interacting with one
another in a variety of learning activities. These include small group work, case analyses, video-based discussions
and experiential activities. The in-class activities are designed to allow students to develop skills, gain experience
and insights in selected areas of OB. The Prof will facilitate a brief plenary discussion of the concepts and ideas
covered in the assigned readings prior to the start of in-class activities. Mostly, students are expected to have read
the text (chapters) and journal articles assigned prior to attending the class, so that they are well prepared to apply
the concepts/ideas and learn from their active engagement in all in-class activities. Readings and assignments will be
posted on eLearn prior to class.
Research Participation
As one of your requirements for this course, you are expected to participate in research studies being conducted by
the Organizational Behaviour faculty at SMU. Each student is expected to complete three units of research
participation during the term; each unit typically involves one hour of participation. (Therefore, your total
requirement is three hours for the term). Each unit of participation is worth 1 percentage point (or 3% for all three
units) out of a possible 100% total in this course. Please note that there are penalties for no-shows.
Information regarding, and opportunity to sign up for, research studies will be provided throughout the term on the
Business Schools online SPS at https://mercury.smu.edu.sg/PrjgSPS.
Besides contributing to the specific research project, and ensuring that you receive your full participation credit points
for MPW, there are several other benefits of participating in research studies. First, note that all the knowledge you will
encounter in MPW is derived from research. By participating in research, you are able to contribute back to, and
further build, that knowledge base. Second, by participating in research you gain insights into the nature of scientific
investigation and the research process, which constitutes a valuable way of learning to improve organizational practices.
And third, note that SMU aspires to excellence in teaching and research. For most of you, participating in research is
one of the few opportunities you will have to contribute to the research mission of the university.
If for any reason you do not wish to participate in research studies, you can write 3 short research papers instead.
Each paper (each of which reviews one research article) completed is worth one unit. This involves obtaining scientific
articles related to organizational behaviour and that are not related to your other projects in this course. These articles
should not be completely opinion or discussion, but rather must be articles that describe scientific studies. After you

obtain the articles, answer the following questions: What was the purpose of each study? What were the hypotheses?
What was manipulated and/or measured? What were the results of this study? What are the implications of this studys
findings? If you have any questions about the Subject Pool, feel free to contact Prof Michael Bashshur at
mbashshur@smu.edu.sg.
Examinations
There will be session quizzes and a cumulative final examination paper. Both the session quizzes and final
examination are open-book, to be completed online in class. The quizzes and final examination will focus on the
materials covered in class. No make-up exams will be allowed.
I expect all of you to follow the schools examination policy. Among other things, you need to bring your own
laptop to class for the weekly quizzes and for the final exam. Note that the weekly quizzes and final exam can only
be accessed via the Lockdown exam browser, so you must install the Lockdown browser prior to taking the weekly
quizzes and final exam. You also need to have your cell phone switched off at all times and keep it away from the
desk during the weekly quizzes and final exam.

CONSULTATIONS
Consultation hours will be announced in class. I am also readily available via email.

CLASS TIMINGS
The course is taught in three 3-hour sessions per week.

RECOMMENDED TEXT AND READINGS

Steven L. McShane & Mary Ann Von Glinow. Organizational Behavior: Emerging knowledge, global reality. Global
edition, 7/e. 2015.
(ISBN: 98145429)
Additional readings will be assigned. Students are expected to keep abreast of current developments in the AsiaPacific region by reading leading business dailies/weeklies like the Asian Wall Street Journal, Far Eastern Economic
Review, The Economist, Business Times and Business Week.

LESSON PLAN
Session

Topic

Reading and Preparation

Introduction to MPW
Introduction to OB

Text: Ch 1 Introduction to the field of Organization Behaviour

Organizational Structures

Text: Ch 13 Designing Organizational Structures

Organizational Culture

Text: Ch 14 Organizational Culture

Organisational Change

Text Ch 15 Organizational Change

Individual Behaviour

Text: Ch 2 Individual Behaviour, Personality and Values

Text: Ch 3 Perceiving Ourselves and Others in Organizations

Emotions & Stress

Text Ch 4 Workplace Emotions, Attitudes, and Stress

Employee Motivation

Text: Ch 5 Foundations of Employee Motivation

Text: Ch 6 Applied Performance Practices

Term Break

Decision Making

Text: Ch 7 Decision Making and Creativity

10

Communications

Text: Ch 9 Communicating in Teams and Organizations

11

Power and Influence

Text: Ch 10 Power and Influence in the Workplace

12

Conflict and Negotiation

Text: Ch 11 Conflict and Negotiation in the Workplace

13

Revision and Course Review

14

Self-Study

15

Final Examination