NEW JERSEY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
School of Management
Course
Title
Prerequisites
Organizational Behavior
Upper division standing
Number
Semester
HRM 301-451
Fall 2011
Instructor
Name
Email
Office
Office Hours
Jose C. Casal, Ph.D.
Jose.C.Casal@njit.edu
973-596-3254
Telephone
CAB 3013
Monday, Tuesday 1:30 PM - 4:00 PM, Wednesday 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
and at other times by appointment.
Class Schedule
Time
There is no specific meeting time for the course
but you are responsible for keeping up with what
is posted on the course site and of course for
doing and submitting all work on time.
Place
Online: moodle.njit.edu.
Course Materials
There is one required textbook for the course that students need to acquire. Additional
course materials will be made available on the course website. The textbook information is as
follows:
Author(s)
Title
Version
Publisher
ISBN-13
Bauer, T. and Erdogan, B.
Organizational Behavior
1.1
FlatWorld Knowledge
Black & white 978-1-4533-0084-8
Color 978-1-4533-0085-5
There are several alternatives to buying the text. It is available for free to read online, and for a
fee (less than buying the bound book) the material can be printed or bought as an eBook. Check
it out here: http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/pub/organizational-behaviorv1.1/204267?course=584766.
Updated 8/7/11
HRM 301 451 Syllabus
Prof. Casal
Fall, 2011
Course Description
Your work life is likely to involve organizations. You may work for an organization
others created and own. You may create your own business enterprise and have others work for
you. Even if you take a career path that keeps you out of business organizations, it is likely that
you will interact with them.
The study of organizational behavior will help you understand how people and
organizations function. Organizational behavior is the study of individuals and groups in
organizations and includes such topics as: organizational structure, power and politics in
organizations, organizational culture, employee attitudes and motivation, decision-making and
leadership.
Course Objectives
The goal of this course is to help you effectively manage your relationships with
managers, coworkers and subordinates. At the end of the course, you should have a better
understanding than you did at the beginning of:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
What the organizations we work in are like, their structure, politics and culture
What we bring to work- our individual differences
How we react to work- our attitudes and emotions
What motivates us
How decisions are made in organizations
The different forms leadership can take
How all of the above can impact organizational performance.
Course Outline
This outline provides an approximate schedule for the course. Minor adjustments to the
assignments should be expected since the pace of a course is difficult to predict. More exact
dates are on the course website. All readings are from the text except where otherwise noted.
Week
Topic
Reading
1
Introduction
2
3
Organizational structure
Syllabus
Ch. 1
Ch. 14
Organizational power and politics
Ch. 13
4
5
6
Organizational culture
Ch. 15
Individual differences
Ch. 2
Tests
Hand-In
Assignments
Test 1
Test 2
Ch. 3
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HRM 301 451 Syllabus
Prof. Casal
Fall, 2011
Week
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
Topic
Reading
Work behaviors, work attitudes
and emotions
Ch. 4
Ch. 7
Ch. 5
Ch. 6
Handouts
Ch. 11
Ch. 12
Motivation
Careers
Decision making
Leadership
Course wrap up
Tests
Hand-In
Assignments
Test 3
Assignment 1
Test 4
Assignment 2
Test 5
Assignment 3
Required Work and Grading
% of
Grade
Tests
70
Assignments
24
Participation
6
Tests
There are 5 tests in this course, each worth 14 % of the course grade. Each test will cover
about two topics (in terms of the text, two chapters). The tests consist of multiple-choice
questions and are online. Details as to the tests are on the course website.
Curve: Tests will be curved by adding to each test the difference between a perfect score and the
highest grade.
Make-Ups: Missed tests cannot be made up. Exceptions will be made in the case of extraordinary
circumstances.
Assignments
There are three assignments in this course together worth 24 % of the course grade
(approximately 8 % per assignment). Details as to the assignments are on the course website.
Curve: Assignment grades will not be curved.
Late Assignments: Assignments will be accepted up to three calendar days late (Saturday,
Sunday and holidays count) at the cost of 3 1/3 points off per day late. Assignments will not be
accepted more than three days late. Exceptions will be made in the case of extraordinary
circumstances.
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HRM 301 451 Syllabus
Prof. Casal
Fall, 2011
Make-ups: Missed assignments cannot be made up. Exceptions will be made in the case of
extraordinary circumstances.
Participation
Participation in the class is worth 5 % of your course grade. Throughout the semester,
there will be activities posted on the course website for you to do, e.g. answer a questionnaire,
comment on a topic in the discussion forum. Some of the activities are set before the beginning
of the semester, others are triggered by events during the semester and so I can't tell you how
many there will be. You will have at least a week to engage in the activity. Participation is
graded pass (you did what I asked) or fail (you didn't do what I asked). The percentage that you
passed of all the activities posted will be your grade.
Curve: Participation is not curved.
Late or Missed activities: Missed activities must be done on time and cannot be made up.
Exceptions will be made in the case of extraordinary circumstances.
Attendance
Because this is an online class, attendance takes refers to logging in to the course website
at least once a week. Attendance itself is not graded but your work is likely to suffer if you are
not keeping up with the course.
Grading Scale
The conversion of percentage points to letter grade is as follows:
A
B+
B
C+
C
D
F
89.9 up to 100
86.9 up to 89.9
79.9 up to 86.9
76.9 up to 79.9
69.9 up to 76.9
59.9 up to 69.9
0 up to 59.9
Course Policies
E-mail communication
Students are to use their NJIT e-mail (ucid@njit.edu) and no other e-mail provider
(Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.) in communicating with the instructor.
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HRM 301 451 Syllabus
Prof. Casal
Fall, 2011
Computer Requirement and Access to the Internet
NJIT requires all students to have access to a computer at their place of residence. Details
as to this requirement may be found on the college’s website on the page describing NJIT’s
Undergraduate Student Computer Requirement.
Access to the Internet is required for this course. NJIT provides on campus access to the
Internet to all students. Details as how to access the Internet as well as other resources at NJIT
may be found in the Student Quick Start Guide.
Deadlines/Late Work/Make-ups
Specific policies concerning the acceptance of late work and make-ups are discussed in
the sections covering course requirements. In general, work will not be accepted late and makeups will not be given. Exceptions will be made when extraordinary circumstances were
responsible for work not being completed on time. Students may need to contact the Dean of
Students’ office and have it determine that the reasons given for not doing the work on time are
valid.
Extraordinary Circumstances
The predictable demands of family, work and other courses do not constitute
extraordinary circumstances. Students are expected to be able to balance these with this course’s
demands.
Students are also expected to take reasonable steps to deal with problems that may arise
and to prevent them from arising. Chief among these is not to procrastinate. Murphy’s Law that
“anything that can go wrong will go wrong” frequently holds true.
Being locked out of the class because of late paying tuition is not considered an
extraordinary circumstance beyond a student’s control unless it can be documented that the
Bursar’s Office or Financial Aid has made an error.
Inability to access the Internet or Moodle is not considered an extraordinary circumstance
beyond a student’s control unless the outage is for 12 hours or more and due to a failure of
NJIT’s systems, not the student’s Internet service provider or computer.
Incompletes
Incompletes will be given only to students who cannot finish the course on time due to
major reasons outside of their control (e.g. illness, family tragedy, military service). Students
may need to contact the Dean of Students’ office and have it determine that the reasons given for
not doing the work on time are valid.
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HRM 301 451 Syllabus
Prof. Casal
Fall, 2011
Students with disabilities
Students with disabilities needing accommodations of any nature so as to have a fair
opportunity to perform in the class need to contact the counseling center. Staff at the
counseling center will determine what constitutes a reasonable accommodation and inform
the instructor of what it is.
Honor Code
You are required to follow NJIT’s honor code, which can be found at
http://www.njit.edu/doss/policies/honorcode/.
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