The Lee Kong Chian School of Business
Academic Year 2014 /15
Term 3B
OBHR 101 MANAGEMENT OF PEOPLE AT WORK
Instructor Name
Title
Tel
Email
Office
: Dev Bhave
: Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour & Human Resources
: 6808 5371
: dbhave@smu.edu.sg
: LKCSB #5050
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course focuses on managing people in the workplace. Students learn theoretical and conceptual
foundations for understanding people, groups, and organizations, and practical tools for accomplishing
personal, group, and organizational objectives. Topics include work motivation, decision making,
organizational culture, organizational change and stress management, power and politics, personality and
individual differences, and work values, attitudes, and emotions, among others.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
 Define key organizational behaviour terms
 Identify organizational behaviour constructs in organizational settings
 Analyze organizational problems using major organizational behaviour theories
 Put organizational behaviour theories into practice to address organizational problems
PRE-REQUISITE/ CO-REQUISITE/ MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE COURSE(S)
Please refer to the Course Catalogue on OASIS for the most updated list of pre-requisites / co-requisites
for this particular course.
Do note that if this course has a co-requisite, it means that the course has to be taken together with
another course.
Dropping one course during BOSS bidding would result in both courses being dropped at the same time.
ASSESSMENT METHODS
Team Project
Case Study
Final Exam
Class Participation
OB Research Participation
Total
27 %
15 %
40 %
15 %
3%
100
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Team Project
Overview
You will undertake this project in a team. The objective of the project is for your team to increase your
understanding of the applications of organizational behavior (OB) concepts to organizational problems. In
order to do so, you will need to report on the “best practices” of contemporary organizations in a
particular area of OB. You can choose any of the topics that we cover in class (e.g., decision making,
stress, motivation). In your project, you will highlight what at least 3 successful organizations are doing in
managing their people that contributes to their success. The organizations you select can be in any
industry, in the private or not-for-profit sector, local or global. Be sure, however, to include at least one
organization that is located in Singapore. For your presentation, draw on research findings and
organizational applications from academic and business-oriented journals. Additionally, please interview at
least one person from any one of the organizations that you select. Each team will present their analysis
and observations in a 12-minute presentation followed by 5 minutes of questions.
Deliverables
1) A copy of the powerpoint slides
a. Please print slides in the handout format – 6 slides per page – and in black and white
b. Include your references toward the end of your presentation
c. Please include any secondary information from the organizations in an appendix
d. Please keep this appendix at a reasonable length; it is not required to include an
appendix
2) A one-page executive summary
a. Use short paragraphs, headings, bullet points, tables, figures, etc., as appropriate
b. Please use reasonable font sizes and page margins (e.g., 12-pt TNR, 1” margins)
3) Avoid the use of plastic folders and other paper-holding materials—stapling the report will be
sufficient.
All deliverables are due on the day of the presentation at the beginning of class
Case Study
As a team you will present your case analysis for one case. Each case analysis presentation will be led by
two teams. Each team member should present at least a portion of the case analysis. The rest of the class
will conduct a short Q&A of clarifying questions after the presentation.
Teams can use the questions at the end of each case to structure their case analysis. Each case analysis
presentation should be for a maximum of 12 minutes. You do not need to turn in a written report but
you will have to turn in a copy of your PowerPoint slides at the beginning of class on the day of your case
presentation.
Additional Guidelines for the Team Project and Case Analysis
1) I will provide additional guidelines for the Team Project and the Case Analysis, including the
grading criteria, in class.
2) Please use the APA-style to cite all references. If you would like additional details about the APA
style, please refer to: http://researchguides.smu.edu.sg/apastyle
Final Exam
The exam will be closed-book and will test your comprehension of the course concepts based on the
textbook, class discussions, and the assigned articles. The exam may contain questions using a variety of
formats: multiple choice, true/false, fill in the blank, short answer, and essay. There will be no make-up
exams. You must take the exam at the scheduled place and time. Make-up exams will be arranged only
with university excused absences. I will provide additional details about the final exam in class.
Class Participation
This course requires a significant amount of student involvement and participation. As adult learners, I
believe you have a responsibility for your own learning and involvement in class activities. I will grade
participation based on both the quality and quantity of your contributions. Please note that attendance is a
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prerequisite but contributes very minimally toward the class participation grade. Finally, in order to not
distract your classmates or me, please do not use any electronic devices (e.g., laptops, cellphones, tablets,
and recording devices) during class time.
OB Research Participation
As one of your requirements for this course, you are expected to participate in research studies being
conducted by the Organisational Behaviour 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 research studies will be provided throughout the term on the Business School’s
online SPS at https://mercury.smu.edu.sg/PrjgSPS. You also sign up for studies conveniently through the
same website.
We try to post 75% (more or less) of the research slots by Week 10, so that can be a rough
guide to you in terms of plotting out when studies will be made available. In other words, if it’s
Week 11 and you haven’t done any studies yet, there’s a good chance you won’t see many more studies
posted and you may want to consider the research article option (detailed below). Please note, however,
that we cannot guarantee that you will be able to get the full three credits if you are picky
about the specific dates and times you sign up for sessions. Study slots that are not taken by
participants are essentially lost opportunities to get credits, and there may not be slots offered to offset
these missed opportunities.
In order to enable smooth and efficient data collection, it is important that you show up for study
sessions you signed up for. You cannot show up late – late students will NOT be admitted to
the study so this is the same as missing the study. Thus, plan to arrive 10 minutes before the
start time of a study to give yourself a buffer. Cancellations need to be made via the SPS as soon as
possible and at the latest by the time specified in the SPS for that particular study. Should you fail to show
up for a session you signed up for (and did not cancel in time), one percentage point will be deducted
from your account. This is our policy and will be applied uniformly to all absent and late
students (unless you have a medical certificate, which should be sent to the
experimenter).
To make sure you are credited the number of percentage points you deserve, it is your responsibility to
check via SPS by the day before finals week that your participation has been correctly recorded in the
SPS. If you suspect that there has been a mistake, immediately contact the SPS administrator or your
instructor. Any complaint received after that time will be considered only at our absolute discretion as
grades may have been submitted already.
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 two scientific articles related to organisational behaviour and that are not
related to your other projects in this course. The papers should be written by SMU OBHR faculty (check
SMU’s website for their CVs and download the papers from the library databases). 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? You may discuss the two papers sequentially. The paper needs to
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be four pages minimum, with 1.5 line spacing. Each paper (each of which reviews two research articles)
completed is worth one unit.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
All acts of academic dishonesty (including, but not limited to, plagiarism, cheating, fabrication, facilitation
of acts of academic dishonesty by others, unauthorized possession of exam questions, or tampering with
the academic work of other students) are serious offences.
All work (whether oral or written) submitted for purposes of assessment must be the student’s own
work. Penalties for violation of the policy range from zero marks for the component assessment to
expulsion, depending on the nature of the offence.
When in doubt, students should consult the course instructor. Details on the SMU Code of Academic
Integrity may be accessed at http://www.smuscd.org/resources.html.
INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS AND EXPECTATIONS
Students learn through a combination of lectures, required readings, team project, interactive discussions,
and a range of class activities, potentially to include cases, video-based discussions, self-assessment, etc.
You are expected to attend all class meetings, to read the relevant chapters of the textbook and course
materials in advance, and to participate in class activities, in addition to the projects and exams.
CONSULTATIONS
If you need to see me for consultation, please contact me to make an appointment. My office and contact
information are listed at the top of this course outline. I am also readily available by email.
CLASS TIMINGS
The course is taught in one 3-hour session per week.
RECOMMENDED TEXT AND READINGS
Johns, G., & Saks, A.M. (2014). Organizational Behaviour. 9th edition. International Edition. Pearson.
Please purchase a copy of the book by Johns and Saks (2014) because you will need to refer to each topic
in the book as you work on the assignments and exercises throughout the course. The textbook is
available at SMU’s bookshop: Booklink Pte Ltd (located at SMU’s Concourse near SOA), Tel: 6883 2095.
Other Reference Materials
Please access course-related readings through the eLearn system.
References for this course outline
The structure and content of this course outline draw heavily (and in some cases are verbatim) from the
syllabi of Professors Gary Greguras, David Wagner, and Michael Johnson (Washington) as well as a variety
of organizational behavior textbooks.
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WEEKLY LESSON PLAN*
Week
Topic
Assignments
Week 1
Organizational Behavior and Management
(Ch. 1; p. 1 – 15; 19 - 25)
Week 2
Personality and Learning (Ch. 2; p. 41 - 64)
Week 3
Perception, Attribution, and Diversity (Ch. 3; p.
78 – 100)
Week 4
Values, Attitudes, and Work Behavior (Ch. 4; 118141)
Week 5
Theories of Work Motivation (Ch. 5)
Week 6
Motivation in Practice (Ch. 6)
Week 7
Organizational Culture (Ch. 8, p. 264 – 265;p. 280
- 289 )
Decision Making (Ch. 11)
Week 8
Mid-term Break
Week 9
Power, Politics, & Ethics (Ch. 12)
Week 10
Meetings for Team Project**
Week 11
Conflict and Stress (Ch. 13; p. 452 – 459; 464 –
481)
Week 12
Group Project Presentations
Teams 5 - 8
Week 13
Group Project Presentations
Teams 1 - 4
Week 14
Study Week
Case Study: Datatronic,
Teams 1 & 2
Case Study: Chang Koh Metal,
Teams 3 & 4
Case Study: Standard Media Plan,
Teams 5 & 6
Case Study: OrangeWerks,
Teams 7 & 8
Final Examination
*This course description and outline are subject to change; I may revise elements of this course and
will announce the changes in class. Relevant page numbers are included for some chapters. Note that the
material at the end of each chapter will also be included.
**I will let you know the meeting time during class.
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