Advanced Organizational Behavior - (B-E-F-M)

Organizational behavior (OB) is concerned with the understanding, prediction, and control of human behavior in organizations. It is an area of study investigating how individuals, groups, and structures impact organizational behavior.Whereas foundational OB courses tackle the basics of this area,this Advanced OB course goes into more detail by using evidence on recent work- and people-related topics to introduce you to key debates in OB theories and concepts.

Although skills in finance, accounting, marketing, operations, and strategy are crucial for organizational success, the ability to manage an organization, its groups, and its individuals is equally important. Understanding the “messy" human side of management is an essential complement to the technical skills you learn in other core business courses.This course thus equips youwith the ability to understand and respond torecentorganizational challenges,providing clear, managerially relevant solutions.The coursewill develop a critical mindset built from a strong understanding of organizational theory to enable youto be effective future leaders.

Although our perspective will be primarily sociological, we will encounter ideas that emerged in various disciplines, such as psychology, economics, and management. While the course focuses on business organizations, you will find that the course concepts have valuable applications to other types of organizations, including non-profits, sports teams, or political groups.Finally, the course aims to familiarise you with contemporary qualitative empirical research.

The course strikes a forward-focussed relevant balance between technical skills and essential theoretical grounding.The course is thus designed as a set of lectures covering key areas followed by case assignments. Case assignments are carried out in groups, requiring youto cooperate in teams.

I. Content-related

Understanding core OB concepts (e.g., related to the future of work).

II. Skills-related

Designing qualitative research designs to be able to collect evidence on an OB-related topic of interest.

Combining data (obtained from interviews) and relevant evidence (from research) to deliver theoretically sound and practically relevant recommendations for solving OB-related business challenges.

III. Attitude-related

Developing an evidence-oriented mindset to shape organizational issues.

Being able and willing to critically reflect upon the validity of evidence and current debates in the OB field.