Trinity Business School

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BUU22510 Organisational Behaviour

(5 ECTS)

Lecturer:

Dr Steven Kilroy

E-mail: kilroyst@tcd.ie 
Office Hours: By appointment only
Module Tutor: Anika Nawar Oishi

Available to exchange Students

Pre-Requisite: 

BUU11510 - Fundamentals of Management & Organisation

Module Description:

Organisations of one form or another 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 people working in organisations have to be managed. This requires understanding the behaviour of the individual in the workplace. 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.

Teaching Approach:

All students must take an active role in achieving the learning outcomes by engaging with the module in at least three ways: preparing for lectures by critically engaging with the recommended readings; punctual and actively present at all lectures and tutorials by responding to critical questions and participating in peer discussions; and presenting your written work in a structured and precise manner. 

The module is taught through a plenary lecture complemented with tutorials. The plenary lectures and tutorials provide the opportunity for the students to move from a level of knowing about the theories and concepts, through their reading the recommended core text book and suggested readings, to building a comprehensive framework of OB for application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. 

Individual requirements: I invite students with individual requirements related to this module to contact me in confidence as early as possible to discuss ways of dealing with any potential difficulties.

Any student not attending lectures for the whole module (e.g., visiting students; TCD students planning to leave for part of the semester) must make contact via email to discuss any special arrangements that may be required.

Module Level Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the module the student will:

  • Understand a range of psychological factors that influence the behaviour of individuals in organisations such as personality, perception, communication, motivation and learning.
  • Understand a range of factors that influence the behaviour and development of groups and teams in organisations and be aware of the nature of leadership.
  • Understand the nature and complexity of organisations by exploring issues such as goals, strategy, structure, design, control and development.
  • Apply scientific theories and research to analyze organisational, team, and individual performance.
  • Possess an awareness of the changes that continually impact on individuals and groups and influence the nature of organisations.
  • Understand the internal dynamics of organizations including issues such as power and politics, decision making, and ethical/corporate social responsibility.
  • To explain the concept of evidence-based management and to find, understand and use research papers to formulate evidenced based management interventions.  

Skills

During the module the student will be given the opportunity to:

  • Develop written and oral communication skills;
  • Develop cooperation and teamwork skills;
  • Develop analytical, critical and problem solving skills;
  • Develop consulting skills.

Relation to Degree

This module supports six learning goals for the following programmes: Global Business, Business Studies & Language, BESS, Computer Science & Business, and Law & Business, as follows: 

  • Identify, critically evaluate, and synthesise the substantive theories, frameworks, and models, both qualitative and quantitative, that are used in fields of enquiry related to business, management, and the social sciences.
  • Analyse and solve a variety of problems in the private and public sectors from a multi- disciplinary knowledge basis of theories, tools and techniques in business and the social sciences.
  • Communicate effectively in oral and written modes in professional and academic settings.
  • Apply knowledge and understanding of the social and ethical dimensions of management and research in both the public and private sectors of society and to apply this knowledge effectively in management and research contexts.
  • Work effectively as an individual and in teams.
  • Demonstrate the ability to engage productively with a changing social, cultural, and technological environment.

Indicative topics to be covered

  • Introduction to Organisational Behaviour: paid work, individual behaviour and group processes in organisations.
  • Individuals in the workplace and invisible “differences”: How individual traits and characteristics (such as personality, identity, perceptions and emotions) influence individual psychological and behavioural reactions in organisations, including motivations, incentives and ways of learning.
  • Individuals in the workplace and visible “differences”: race, gender, disability and age, and how these “diversity factors” might influence individual and group processes, such as inequalities.
  • Individual differences and diversity: How individual characteristics and experiences can influence individuals reactions in organisations and what role do people management practices play in promotiing equality, diversity and inclusion.
  • 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.
  • Organisational design and change: How organisational culture and structure as well as the implementation of organisational change processes can influence individuals and teams, including resistance to change.

Recommended Texts/Key Reading

Bratton, J. (2015). Introduction to Work and Organisational Behaviour (3rd Edition). London: Palgrave

The new edition of the book is available as an e-book and can also be used. 

General Supplemental Readings

Additional literature Additional readings for each lecture will be provided. However, if you are interested in reading further material and you are interested in specific academic discussions of the topics that we cover in class, you can have a look at the following academic journals, which publish up-to-date academic studies and articles on topics around Organisational Behaviour. Please ask me if you have any questions about this. This is a list of journals that might be of interest:

Journal of Organizational Behavior (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/%28ISSN%291099-1379)

Organization Science (http://pubsonline.informs.org/journal/orsc)

Personnel Psychology (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/%28ISSN%291744-6570)

Information and Organization (Information and Organization | All Journal Issues | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier)

Leadership Quarterly (Open Access Articles - The Leadership Quarterly - Journal - Elsevier)

Human Resource Management Journal (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/%28ISSN%291748-8583)

Human Resource Management (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/%28ISSN%291099-050X)

Human Relations (http://hum.sagepub.com/)

Work, Employment and Society (http://wes.sagepub.com/)

Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/20448325)

Journal of Applied Psychology (https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/apl/)

Etc. (please let me know if you need any advice or tips on additional literature) 

Additional Articles not covered in book

Brennecke, J., and Stoemmer, N. (2018). The Network-Performance Relationship in Knowledge-Intensive Contexts-A Meta-Analysis and Cross-Level Comparison. Human Resource Management, 57(1), pp. 11-36.

Cunningham, I. (2002). Developing human and social capital in organisations. Industrial and Commercial Training, 34(3), pp.89-94.

Morgan, P. (2005). Structural vs. relational embeddedness: social capital and managerial performance. Strategic Management Journal, 26(12), pp. 1129-1151.

Assessment and Examination:

The evaluation for this module is based on continuous assessment.

Individual Multiple Choice Exam (MCQ). Exam will take place on campus in exams week when the course is over. The exam is worth 50% of the overall module score.

Group based report: This involves an assignment whereby groups (approx 5 students per group) have to answer questions from two separate case studies. The group based report assignment is worth 50% of the overall module score (25% for each case study). *Please note that the groups will be allocated by the lecturer at the beginning of the course.

Contact Teaching Methods

The course will consist of both a lecture (10 in total) and a tutorial (6 in total). Note that tutorials will NOT commence until the fifth week (Week 7). The lectures and tutorials will be delivered in class (on campus) each week. The lectures will provide students with the relevant theoretical background and explain core concepts, and will allow students the opportunity to discuss practical questions related to the topics. The tutorials will allow students to engage in more in-depth discussions about the material learned, for example through case studies and group work. The tutorials will also aim to prepare students for their group assignment and exam.

Non-contact Teaching Methods

Blackboard will be used to administer the course in general and provide students with supplementary teaching materials and learning opportunities. Students will also be expected to undertake significant reading to supplement their learning during contact hours. For each topic, one key reading/video is usually supplied to students. Students should supplement this with additional reading.

Module Assessment

Module assessment will be in the form of:

  • Individual Multiple Choice Exam (MCQ). Exam will take place on campus in exams week at the end of the course (Exams Week). The exam is worth 50% of the overall module score.
  • Group based consultancy report: This involves an assignment whereby groups (approx 5 students per group) have to engage in evidence-based management in a real organisation to solve a pressing organisational behaviour issue. The analysis and recommendations are detailed in an overall report comprising 2,500 words. The group consultancy report is worth 50% of the overall module score.

*Please note that the groups will be allocated by the lecturer at the beginning of the course.

Biographical Note

Dr Steven Kilroy is an Associate Professor in Human Resource Management at Trinity Business School and also is the Director of the Full-Time MBA programme. He holds a BA, MBS and PhD in Human Resource Management. He has held previous positions as an Assistant Professor of HRM at Queens University Belfast and Tilburg University in the Netherlands. Steven’s primary research focuses on the relationship between HRM practices, employee well-being and performance. He explores how and when high performance work practices lead to employee wellbeing and performance outcomes. He is also interested in the topics of burnout, leadership and change management as well as new employment relationships and how they affect workplace commitment. Steven’s work appears in high-profile journals such as Human Resource Management, Human Resource Management Journal, the International Journal of Human Resource Management, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology and the Journal of Business Research, among others. In addition to research, Steven teaches in the areas of strategic HRM, organisational behaviour, and occupational/organisational psychology. He has extensive and international experience teaching undergraduate, postgraduate and executive education in these areas.