Managing Human Behaviour at Work

(Module –II)

Course Outline

Facilitator: Gloryson Chalil Email: gloryson@xlri.ac.in

Course Objectives:
Organizations are omnipresent and influence every aspect of human existence from
birth to death. OSDC as an introductory course, assist you in understanding these
organizations with an emphasis on the patterns, causes and management of
organizational design and structure.

The domain of this course includes topics dealing with the impact of environment on
organizations, various types of organizational structures and its determinants,
organizational culture, relationship between organizational strategy and structure, and
an introduction to organizational processes and organizational change.

Major objectives of this module are:

 To familiarize the participants with different concepts and terminology related
to macro level analysis of organizational behaviour
 To develop an understanding of the nature, functioning and design of the
organizations
 To examine the reciprocal relationship between organizational characteristics
and managerial behavior

Methodology:
A mix of illustrated lectures, case studies, in-class activities, individual readings and
team projects will be used. Participants are expected to attend all classes with
sufficient preparation (based on session-wise readings for the class) to develop a
critical sense of the concepts and applications that cannot be achieved through
memorizing of the text book.

Recommended Text:
Jones G R (Latest available edition), Organizational Theory, Design and Change,
Pearson Education
Grading:

The grading for this module will be for a total of fifty marks distributed among
following components

Component Weight

Class Activities 10

Quiz 10

Individual Project 20

Application Exercise (Group) 10

Individual marks across all components will be converted into percentile

scores for this module before determining the final grade.

Quiz: Closed book exam in MCQ format covering both theoretical and application
aspects. Wrong answers will result in 0.25 negative marks.

Application Exercise: Details will be provided 1-2 sessions before the exercise. All
members will be evaluated on the basis of the respective group performance.

Individual Project (Analyzing the organization): You need to answer given

questions in the course outline based on the role you are having in Tata Steel and the
department you are associated with unless specifically asked for.

You are also expected to provide a two-page description about role you are holding in
Tata Steel now and the department you associated with. Evaluation of this component
is done based on the logical consistency and theoretical relevance of the submissions
rather than the accuracy of data. Feel free to withhold sensitive information by
providing slightly distorted data. You are expected to submit answers for each
question within five days of the completion of the relevant session.

Questions for Individual Project (Ideal length 1.5 pages for each Qn.)

1. Compare the inputs, conversion process and output of your role with another
employee of your own level in some other department. Whether the
components of each of these stages follow same ranking order? What are the
reasons? Can we follow same approach to measure the effectiveness of both
departments? (Based on Chapter I).
2. Identify any recent organizational conflict wherein you have got an
undesirable outcome, despite your effort for an outcome that could have
helped the organization. Apply the learnings from stakeholder theory
 (coalitions, inducement, contributions etc.) to ensure the desirable outcome
that benefit the organization. (Based on Chapter II).
3. Choose any two positions in your organization and explain the differences in
implementation of four design challenges explained in chapter IV. You need
to choose one position that can be categorized as mechanistic, while the other
should be organic. Also explain the variations of people and reward dimension
of star model across these two positions. (Based on Chapter IV)
4. Relate the existing structure of your department to any structure discussed in
chapter VI. Has it changed recently (last 3-5 years) and explore the influence
of environment in those structural changes.
5. What are the unique aspects of culture in your department? Do you prefer
some changes in the existing culture and how to measure it? How much of the
cultural elements followed in Netflix (based on slides uploaded in AIS) is
applicable to your role. Give reasons (Based on Chapter VII).
6. Do the nine tests of organizations design and check the improvements
required for organizational design in your department. Explain them from
STAR model perspective (Based on article Do you have a well-defined
structure).
 Managerial Behavior at Work – (Module I1)
Session-wise Details of Readings

Session & Date Topic Essential Reading(s)

Session 1 & 2 Introduction to Organizational Theory Jones Ch. 1, Star Model, Competing Value Framework
Organizational Effectiveness

Session 3 Stakeholders of Organization Jones Ch. 2

Session 4 Managing Organizational Environment Jones Ch. 3

Session 5 Organizational Design: Basic Challenges Jones Ch. 4 (Case on Acme and Omega)

Session 6 Organizational Design: Vertical Differentiation Jones Ch. 5

Session 7 Structural Configurations Jones Ch. 6

Session 8 Organization Design Exercises

Session 9 Strategy-Structure Linkages Jones Ch. 8

Session 10 - 11 Organizational Culture Jones Ch.7, Informal Network, Netflix Article

Session 12 Midterm Exercise Newspaper based exercise

Session 13 Integrating Case Case will be shared later

Do You Have a Well Defined Structure?