LEE KONG CHIAN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
Year 2006/7 Term 1
MGMT101: MANAGEMENT OF PEOPLE AT WORK
Instructor:
Wei HUA
Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior
Tel:
Email:
Office:
6828-0732
huawei@smu.edu.sg
Room 5049 Lee Kong Chian School of Business Level 5
COURSE DESCRIPTION
How do you manage your boss, your colleagues and of course, your subordinates in the
organization you choose to work for? How should you expect to be managed? This course is
designed to answer these questions. Managing people is both a skill and an art. I want you to
leave this course understanding the complexity and ambiguity of management practice, with a
better idea about what it depends on when you get the answer “well it depends.”
REQUIRED TEXT AND READINGS
1. Psychological dimensions of organizational behavior, 3rd Edition, Barry M. Staw,
Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-040654-6.
2. Course packet.
ASSESSMENT METHOD
Quiz: 30%
Rob Parson Case Analysis Write-up and Presentation: 20%
Term Paper or Final Exam: 25%
Participation: 17%
Feedback: 5%
Research Participation: 3%
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COURSE METHODS
My teaching philosophy is that you learn what you want to learn in a way you find the
most effective for you. Self discipline and motivation, rather than imposed monitoring
from the instructor, determines what you gain from the time you invest in this class. I will
provide some incentives and structures to facilitate your study.
A variety of materials and methods are used in this course. Readings are drawn from
scholarly, professional and business journals, reflecting a mix of disciplinary and issuebased perspectives. Several cases, drawn from various industry and organizational
settings, are also used in the course. Emphasis will be placed on the application of
concepts drawn from the readings or presented in class by the instructor to "real world"
situations, including those contained in the cases.
I believe that learning should be fun. We will have role play, video, group games,
simulation, and other experiential activities. I have also arranged for a guest speaker from
the “real world” to talk about leadership in this class.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR YOUR ASSIGNMENTS
Participation: 17%
For the course to work well, you must actively participate in class sessions to facilitate
peer learning. All readings and cases should be completed prior to the classes in which
they will be discussed. We will use a lottery system to randomly assign you to one
reading (either from the textbook or from the course packet), and you are responsible to
deliver a 5 minute presentation which summarizes the reading in class. A 15-minute
Question and Answer session follows the presentation, which is used to field
questions/challenges from the instructor and the class. The presentation and Q&A session
will be evaluated by the instructor and a randomly selected panel of your classmates on a
7 point scale and count for 7% of your course grade.
The other 10% of your participation credit is subject to the instructor. I will evaluate your
contribution by looking at your comments in class, your questions during the
presentations, and the quality of the quiz questions you write, as detailed below.
Quiz: 30%
Each week an open-book online quiz on the readings in the same week will be scheduled
first thing in the class—feel free to come in late, if you feel that you need less time than
your classmates to finish the quiz. We will go over the answers to the quiz right after you
submit your answers. The quiz will be conducted online through SMUVista, so please
make sure you have your laptop with you.
Each quiz will be evaluated on a percentage basis. The total grade will be weighed as
30% of your overall course grade. No make-up quiz available.
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Term paper/Final Exam: 25%
At the end of the term, a comprehensive and in-depth paper (double spaced with 12
points font face, 1 inch margin all around, and no more than 15 pages) should be
completed individually or by a group of no more than four members to answer the three
questions in the course description:
• Why do people behave in certain ways in organizations? (Focus on 1 behavior
that you are interested in.)
• How do you manage your boss, or your colleagues, or your subordinates in the
organization you choose to work for? (choose 1 from the three options)
• How should you expect to be managed?
Make sure that you refer explicitly to relevant concepts from your readings in your paper.
Groups will be self selected, or you may choose to work alone. Those who think that they
perform better in exams have the option to take an open book final exam rather than the
term paper.
I suggest that you keep a weekly journal with your answers to these three questions after
each of our class discussion. Be ready to discuss your paper to the class upon request.
Rob Parson Case Analysis Write-up and Presentation/Role Play: 20%
Toward the end of the term, you are expected to apply what we have discussed in class to
a Harvard Business School case (The Firmwide 360 Performance Evaluation Process at
Morgan Stanley: #9-498-053 & Rob Parson at Morgan Stanley (A) #9-498-054 & (C) #9498-056). This is a group assignment and an opportunity to be creative in the presentation
of your analysis.
You may choose to analyze the case from the perspective of Rob Parson, or his boss, or
his peers. You are also free to choose course concepts that you feel most relevant to the
case scenario. Explicitly state your perspective and focus in the beginning of the paper.
There are two deliverables for this assignment: a case analysis write-up (double spaced
with 12 points font face, 1 inch margin all around, and no more than 6 pages) and a
power point presentation (no longer than 15 minutes). You may want to include role play
in your presentation of the case. The presentation will be peer evaluated on a 10 point
scale, and the quality of the write-up counts for another 10 points.
Feedback: 5%
Feedback for your classmates (for their presentations) and for the instructor (about the
course design and teaching style) is a required assignment. Specific examples and
suggestions about how things could be improved are particularly helpful.
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Research Participation: 3%
Research participation is also required for this class, detailed as follows.
As one of your requirements for this course, you are expected to participate in research
studies being conducted by the Organizational Behavior faculty at SMU. Each student is
expected to complete three units of research participation during the term; each unit
typically involves one hour of participation. (Therefore, your total requirement is three
hours for the term). Each unit of participation is worth 1 percentage point (or 3% for all
three units) out of a possible 100% total in this course.
Information regarding, and opportunity to sign up for, research studies will be provided
throughout
the
term
on
the
Business
School’s
online
SPS
at
https://mercury.smu.edu.sg/PrjgSPS.
Besides contributing to the specific research project, and ensuring that you receive your
full participation credit points for MPW, there are several other benefits of participating
in research studies. First, note that all the knowledge you will encounter in MPW is
derived from research. By participating in research, you are able to contribute back to,
and further build, that knowledge base. Second, by participating in research you gain
insights into the nature of scientific investigation and the research process, which
constitutes a valuable way of learning to improve organizational practices. And third,
note that SMU aspires to excellence in teaching and research. For most of you,
participating in research is one of the few opportunities you will have to contribute to the
research mission of the university.
If for any reason you do not wish to participate in research studies, you can write a short
research paper instead. This involves obtaining 3 scientific articles related to
organizational behavior and that are not related to your other projects in this course.
These articles should not be completely opinion or discussion, but rather must be articles
that describe scientific studies. After you obtain the articles, answer the following
questions: What was the purpose of each study? What were the hypotheses? What was
manipulated and/or measured? What were the results of this study? What are the
implications of this study’s findings? Each paper (each of which reviews 3 research
articles) completed is worth one unit.
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CLASS SCHEDULE
Week
No.
Topic
1
Introduction
2
Readings (tba)
Readings from the
supplemental readings
packet
Get into touch with your authentic self: Human
“
Differences and Career Management
3
Why and how we work: Motivation, Satisfaction and
Emotions at Work
“
4
Diversity & Cross-cultural Simulation: Bafa Bafa
“
5
Social Cognition
“
6
Group decision making: Cascade Survival Simulation
“
7
Organizational culture, power, influence and
interpersonal attraction
“
8
Mid-term Break
9
Leadership & Feedback
“
10
Video case on group dynamics: 12 Angry Men
“
11
Interacting with others: Social and group processes
“
12-13
Integration: Case presentation and role play
“
14
Study week
This class outline and description is subject to change. Changes will be announced in class.
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