About BUS 2300 A

How people in organizations think and behave. Focuses on how leadership and motivation affect individuals and teams in the workplace and a global business context. Prerequisites: BUS 1110 or BUS 1120 or ECON 1400 or ECON 1450 with a minimum grade of C-, or Instructor permission; Business Administration, Computer Science & Information Systems, Engineering Management, Dietetics, Nutrition & Food Sciences major; Business Administration minor, Sports Management minor or Instructor permission; minimum Junior standing.

Notes

BSAD, CSIS or EMGT majors or business minors only; DNFS majors and SMGT minors by instructor permission. For permission email gsbcss@uvm.edu; Minimum junior standing; Prereqs enforced by the system: BUS 1110 or BUS 1120 or ECON 1400 or ECON 1450 with a minimum grade of C-; Open to Degree and PACE students.

Section Description

TEXTBOOK: Colquitt, Lepine, & Wesson. (2021). Organizational Behavior: Improving Performance and Commitment in the Workplace (8th Edition). McGraw-Hill. Hardcover ISBN-10: 126412435X (or, ISBN-13: 9781264124350) Loose-leaf ISBN-10: 1265368589 (or, ISBN-13: 978-1265368586) E-book rental or purchase: 1265709963 (or, ISBN-13: 9781265709969) Note: Only the loose-leaf version is available at the UVM bookstore. The other editions can be purchased through the publisher, McGraw-Hill, or through third parties such as Amazon. COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course is about the behavior and psychology of people in the workplace. People who work for an organization with whom they have an employment relationship, and who work in an organizational context with other employees, team members and managers, and the leaders among them who influence others to achieve work-related goals. Through this course, students will develop understanding of how and why employees and team members behave as they do, and the ways they tend to perceive, evaluate, and react to leadership and managerial practices and events. Emphasis is placed on applying principles of organizational behavior to develop and use teamwork and leaderships skills to influence the behaviors and positive psychological experiences of others, and achieve personal and organizational goals. Course material is grounded in decades of rigorous scholarly research, well developed and tested theories, established “best practices,” and recent insights from innovative work in organizational behavior and management disciplines (and, in some cases, disciplinary siblings, like human resource management, organizational development, and applied social psychology). I embrace an evidenced-based philosophy of teaching and practice that guides the concepts, theories, and frameworks I cover (and don’t cover). In-class activities and discussions provide opportunities for students to practice and plan where and how they can apply course material to hone their self- and other-awareness, and inform mindful efforts to interact and collaborate, and lead and be led by others. The content and delivery of course material is designed to help students develop a foundation on which they can continue to build interpersonal, teamwork, and leadership skills; that is, if they are determined to do so. For most people, achieving meaningful improvements in such skills is hard work, requiring ongoing practice and a long-term commitment to continuous self-improvement. Nearly everyone I’ve known to have invested serious time and intention to practice and continuous improvement would tell you it was worth the effort. Course material is organized within three Units that respectively focus on Employees, Teamwork, and Leadership. Following completion of a test associated with each Unit, a class meeting is devoted to a Team Challenge based on one of three integrated cases associated with the material covered in that Unit. The culminating capstone learning experience is a team presentation of analyses of events described in the three integrated cases involving multiple employment relationships in the context of an organization undergoing change. Students can apply course material covered in each of the three Units in numerous ways to diagnose, explain, and recommend what managers and team members could have done differently or should do now to achieve their objectives. Students will need to apply teamwork and collaboration skills to effectively plan, coordinate, and conduct thoughtful analyses of the case(s), and develop an approach to present their work in a manner that demonstrates a deep understanding of course material and an ability to apply it in insightful ways.

Section Expectation

The learning objectives offer a veritable roadmap to guide where you direct your time and energy to focus on learning the material that matters most. To help students and teams deliver a high-quality Case Analysis Presentation and earn the grades they deserve, I will post materials to Bb that describe the exact grading criteria and other advice, and I invite teams and individual students to schedule an optional presentation feedback session. I also invite students to connect with me for any reason (even just to chat) during office hours.

Evaluation

My ultimate goal as a teacher is to set high performance standards in relation to specific learning objectives, and to support each student’s ability to achieve them as best they can in accordance with whatever they are willing and able to do. This goal is embedded in the design of every graded activity, and motivates a great many things I say and do in this course. Most students who regularly attend and remain engaged in class consistently outperform most of those who do otherwise. I encourage and reward attendance and engagement in multiple ways, such as periodic in-class opportunities to earn bonus points applied to test grades. Some students respond best to extrinsic incentives, intrinsic motivations, or both; so I strive to use an ‘all of the above’ approach while providing tools to facilitate students’ ability to learn the core material and earn high grades. I will always provide information to help you understand what to expect on every test and quiz. At the top of the Bb content area for each Unit is a link to the learning objectives for each of the 7 numbered topics, which are respectively included in each folder and the associated “About the X# Quiz” document.

Important Dates

Note: These dates may change before registration begins.

Note: These dates may not be accurate for select courses during the Summer Session.

Deadlines
Last Day to Add
Last Day to Drop
Last Day to Withdraw with 50% Refund
Last Day to Withdraw with 25% Refund
Last Day to Withdraw

Resources

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