UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Course Outline

Haas School of Business Administration Fall, 2007

BA 105: Organizational Behavior

http://courses.haas.berkeley.edu/fall2007/ugba105/

INSTRUCTOR: Professor James R. Lincoln, F499 Haas School of Business, 642-3657 (also, Institute of Industrial
Relations, 2521 Channing Way, 643-5863). Email: lincoln@haas.berkeley.edu. Office hours: 3:30-4:30 Th or by
appointment.

GRADUATE STUDENT INSTRUCTORS: Peter Martelli (martelli@berkeley.edu); Taekjin Shin

(tshin@berkeley.edu; Atul Teckchandani (Teckchan@haas.berkeley.edu).

TIME AND PLACE:

105-1 M 12:30-2:00PM F295 J. Lincoln

105-101 W 8:00-9:30AM F320 T. Shin
105-102 W 9:30-11:00AM F320 A. Teckchandani
105-103 W 11:00AM -12:30PM F320 A. Teckchandani
105-104 W 11:00AM- 12:30PM C125 P. Martelli
105-105 W 12:30- 2:00 PM F320 T. Shin
105-106 W 12:30- 2:00 PM C125 P. Martelli

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Managing a modern organization, whether a Fortune 500 company, an e-business
startup, or a not-for-profit, is the leading, motivating, and coordinating of an interdependent and often highly diverse
set of people. It is also the design and cultivation of jobs, teams, networks, hierarchies, incentives, and value systems
for accomplishing those tasks. These are the themes of this course.

Much business school education is about mastering the tools of a functional specialty. You will use those tools in
your management career, but you won't use them in a vacuum; you'll be part of an organization-- or at least a
network-- of people whose work is interdependent with your own. Moreover, if your career is going anywhere, you
are apt to discover early on-- whether you are growing your own business or rising within someone else’s -- that
most of what you do consists of leading and organizing the work of others. You'll do less of the specialist work;
you'll hire the specialists. Most of your day will be spent on people problems of one sort or another, and the farther
up you are in the organization, the more that will be true. Learning to work with and through people is arguably the
most important business skill you'll ever acquire.

Moreover, good people management requires systematic thinking: principles of leadership, design, motivation, and
the like, from which practical guidelines flow. Sheer hands-on, seat-of-the pants intuition is not likely to succeed
over the long haul. The proliferation of fads and gimmicks in people management is testimony to managers' ongoing
search for easy and complete solutions. Executives are often quick to embrace the latest guru's best-selling formula
for visionary leadership, strong culture, or exotic structure in hopes of driving their organizations to new peaks of
competitive success. Wall Street fuels this tendency by favoring companies that make big, flashy, and trendy
changes—TQM, reengineering, and the like. Fads are sometimes useful for identifying and spreading best practices,
but they can also lead organizations dangerously astray. We search in this course for general principles of
management that meet the criteria of internal consistency and "fit" to an organization's environment, strategy, tasks,
and people. But every organization is unique to some degree, and often the principles don't exist or they don't suit the
problem at hand. So we also seek to develop a tolerance in managers for ambiguity and uncertainty; a sensitivity to
the tradeoffs in any solution; and a critical and analytical eye to problems of people and organization.

Book and classroom learning is no substitute for hands-on experience. At the same time, hands-on experience is no
substitute for what business education has to offer: exposure to management theory and research; teamwork and
discussion with smart colleagues; and the time and resources to step back and think broadly and analytically beyond
what is usually possible under the day-to-day pressures of life on the job. The success and value of this course,
perhaps more than some others, depend on the extent to which you are engaged in it and support it.
BA105: Organizational Behavior, Fall 07, Lincoln

COURSE FORMAT: In general, each week will address a separate topic. At the Monday lecture Professor Lincoln
will introduce the topic and lecture/lead a discussion regarding it. At the following Wednesday discussion section
the GSIs will typically discuss a management case study that bears on that topic and to which the lecture and reading
materials apply. In most weeks, this will be one of the written cases included in your reader. However, in some
weeks we will also see and discuss videos of management situations in particular firms. The discussion section will
also be the time to clarify and debate points in the lectures and reading, address concerns about the course, and work
on team projects.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

A. Readings. An understanding of the literature on management and organizational behavior comes from reading
broadly and analytically, not committing to memory everything a textbook. The course reader is organized with that
in mind.

• Electronic Course Reader on Study.Net. Login to http://catalyst.haas.berkeley.edu and then click

on the Study.Net button to access the course reader.
• Additional readings are posted on the website http://courses.haas.berkeley.edu/fall2007/ugba105/
or will be handed out in class

B. Assignments (approximate weight toward final grade is in parentheses):

1. Class participation: (15%). High-quality student participation is essential to the success of the class. The
evaluation of your class participation has multiple components:

a. Preparation, attendance, and discussion: You are expected to be prepared for each class session.
Assignments should be read in advance of the class that will discuss them. We will typically
analyze one case per week, and you will be called on (maybe even cold-called!) to contribute to the
case analysis. The evaluation of this part of your participation will be based on your ability to
contribute comments that are insightful, relevant, and progressive (e.g., comments that move the
discussion along, rather than restate what has already been said). Please try to keep your
comments succinct and to the point. You may have lots of good thoughts that you’d like to express
at once, but it’s important to give others a chance to participate. Also, please do draw on your own
experience—the whole class will benefit—but make your comments relevant to the topic.

As a matter of good citizenship, there are also some things you should NOT do in class time:
arriving late or leaving early without first notifying the instructor, chatting with your neighbour;
sleeping; reading the newspaper, surfing the web, or using a cell phone. These activities are
annoying to your classmates and disruptive of the classroom process.

b. Team oral presentation: Your class participation grade will also be partially determined by your team
project oral presentation (see below). Team presentations should be planned so that each group
member has an opportunity to contribute to the presentation. The instructor and GSI will evaluate
and provide feedback on the group and individual presentations.

c. Team member ratings: Each project team member will anonymously evaluate all members’ (including
him or herself) contribution to the group project.

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2. Exams (50%). The midterm and final exams will count approximately the same toward the final grade
(~25%). However, the final may be weighted somewhat more if improvement is shown.

a. Midterm. The midterm exam will be a take-home essay, 800 words maximum. It will pertain to a case
that will be announced on Wednesday, October 3. The exam question will be posted on the course
website at 2PM Monday, October 8. The question will require that students apply the concepts and
lessons of the course to an analysis of the case. Specifically, students must demonstrate how organizational
design principles, teamwork, leadership and/or culture help to analyze and to critique the organization and
management described in the case. Students may utilize class notes, reading material and discussion
notes. However, the strongest case write-ups will emphasize original, critical analysis and not rehashing of
course materials. A hard copy of the the take-home essay exam must be turned in at the beginning of
your section meeting on Wednesday, October 10.

b. Final. The final exam will have the same format as the midterm (take home essay on a case), but will
focus on the second half of the course. The case will be announced on Wednesday, December 5. The exam
question will be posted on the course website at 2PM on Monday, December 17. A hard copy of take-
home exam answer must be turned in at 5PM on Wednesday, December 19 (the officially scheduled
final exam time for the course). Details will be discussed in class.

c. Grading. The midterm and final essay exams will be evaluated approximately as follows:

Grasp of case issues and details; documentation: 30 %

Analysis and creativity: 30 %
Logic and coherence; writing: 10 %
Application of course materials: 30 %

3. Team project: (30%). Students will be randomly assigned to project groups of 4-5 persons each. Each
group will jointly conduct the project, coauthor a term paper, and make a presentation to the class. All members
of the group will in general receive the same grade. However, as noted, members will rate one another's
performance on the project, and those ratings will impact your class participation grade. Don’t be a free rider!!
If your teammates rate you as one, it will have a strong adverse effect on your project grade.

The group project is to study a real organization making use of the concepts and methods of the course. You
should choose an aspect of organizational behavior that interests you and is addressed by the course.
Possibilities include organizational design, motivation, leadership and supervision, group dynamics, power and
politics, and organizational cultures. Whatever topic you pick, you will need to address its “fit” or “congruence”
with the rest of the organization’s architecture. Your study should be analytical and problem-oriented, not
merely descriptive, although good description making use of course concepts is an important component. You
should adopt the clinical pose of a management consultant, endeavoring to understand the organization, to
identify its strengths and weaknesses, and to propose actions that solve problems and raise performance.

Specifically, you should do the following:

a. Establish a contact person in the organization you select.

b. Familiarize yourself with the organization. You may want to ask your contact person for various
materials, including organization charts, demographic characteristics (e.g., size, number and organization of
departments, personnel classes), annual reports, statements of corporate goals, and any other information,
which is relevant and accessible.

c. Select a problem or issue (or set of related problems or issues). The range of options is large. The most
important criteria for problem selection are that it: (a) concerns organizational behavior; (b) is both relevant

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and important to the organization you select; (c) is timely (i.e., of current concern to the management of the
organization). Some sample problems or issues are the following:

* Low commitment or motivation among employees

* Low productivity or innovativeness
* Conflict or tension among employee groups
* Poorly defined or organized tasks
* Inadequate training or socialization
* A particularly successful training program or other intervention
* Problems in the performance of teams
* Problems in communication and knowledge management
* Analysis of a particularly strong or weak culture
* Analysis of the OB reasons behind superior or inferior quality
* Success or failure in the management of employee diversity
* Stresses and tensions resulting from downsizing or restructuring
* Challenges in managing rapid growth or restructuring
* Evaluation of a total quality or other new management program
* Problems in congruence or fit between; e.g., people and culture; leadership and structure
* Evaluation of a new organizational design; e.g., matrix; team-based
* Managing an executive succession
* Managing the transition from entrepreneurial to mature organization
* Increasing flexibility and responsiveness in a public sector organization
* Motivation and coordination problems with a part-time, contract, or volunteer workforce

d. Once you have chosen an organization to study and an issue or problem to explore, your analysis should
be clear, logical, and based on what you've learned from the class. Each group will turn in one paper, which
should have the following elements:

* A brief description of the organization in organizational terms: What business is the organization in?
How is it structured?
* A description of the issue(s) or problem(s): Is it a matter of success (worries about sustainability) or
failure (poor performance, morale, etc.). Where is it centered: some or all departments?
* A clear analysis of the problem(s)/issue(s): Why is it occurring? What is the causal chain feeding into it?
Who is paying attention to it and how are they dealing with it?
* A description of your client: Who are you working for? How might that influence the suggestions you
make and the perspective you take?
* A detailed plan of action or a remedy: What should be done? What could have been done better? Who
will gain from the plan you suggest? Who will lose from the plan? What are the potential benefits
of the plan you propose? Why will it solve the problem or address the issue? What course
materials provide evidence that your plan will work?
* An analysis of the constraints you might encounter were you actually to implement the changes: Where
might such limitations arise? Who in the organization might resist your suggestions and why?
What alternatives would you propose to address these constraints?

The paper should be 12 - 15 pages and is due on Monday, December 10, 5PM. On Wednesday, October 3
you will submit a one-page proposal that lists your group’s members, the organization you are studying, the job
title of your contact person, and a brief description of the issues you wish to research. Project papers from
previous years will be put on reserve or posted on the course website.

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4. Participation in Research Experiments (5%)

a. Description: Throughout this class, you will be studying topics our knowledge of which was generated by
studies of organizational behavior. Many of these studies have included laboratory experiments with students
like you. You can gain an inside perspective and understanding of the social scientific research process
involved in the study of organizational behavior by being a participant in them. By doing so, you also
contribute to the ongoing production of knowledge about organizational behavior.
You will be required to complete a premeasure questionnaire packet (to be administered in class) and 3 hours
of organizational behavior studies. Haas faculty and graduate students will conduct these studies. At the end of
these studies you will be debriefed and given time to ask questions about the study. In some cases,
experimenters may explain the purpose of their studies to the class after they have been completed, providing
you with an opportunity learn more about the topic being studied.
Approximately 3 different experimental studies will be run during the semester, each lasting one hour. Thus,
each study is worth 1 experimental credit. You will be emailed by Catalyst when an experiment is about to be
run so that you can sign up to participate in it. You are allowed to participate in up to 3 different BA 150
studies. You are not allowed to participate in the same study more than once. If you sign up for a study you
have already completed, you will not receive credit for participation. If you fulfill all of your required
experimental hours, you will receive 100% credit; if you fulfill only a portion of your required experimental
hours, you will receive credit only for the portion you completed.
If you decline participation in the experimental studies, the alternative option by which you can fulfill the
research requirement is to write one 3-page paper (double-spaced) on an organizational behavior topic of your
choice for each hour you do not participate in a research experiment. Some students have written on leadership,
job design, or done case studies. These alternative papers are due by the day of your FINAL EXAM and should
be turned into the subject pool coordinator’s mailbox. No email submissions will be accepted.

b. Signing-up, rescheduling, or canceling information:

All sign-ups, cancellations and rescheduling will be completed through an online system. You will be receiving
detailed instructions on how to use the system shortly.
• If you would like to reschedule an appointment, you must do so at least 48 hours in advance of your session.
If you can’t reschedule 48 hours in advance of your session, you should cancel your appointment.
• You must cancel an appointment at least 24 hours in advance of your sign-up time. If you fail to cancel an
appointment, you will be considered a no-show and given a penalty.
• The penalty for no-shows is that you will be required to complete an additional hour of experimental
participation. If there are only 3 experimental studies being run, then you will have to write the alternative
3-page paper to fulfill this requirement.
• Please be courteous to your fellow students and the researchers in selecting a sign-up time. Several of these
studies involve groups and if one person does not show, we will not be able to run the study and the session
may be cancelled.
• If our experimenters need to cancel an experimental session, we will notify you 24 hours in advance. You
will not receive experimental credit for a cancelled session unless we fail to notify you 24 hours in advance.

c. The experimental session:

• All sessions start on the hour (NOT at Berkeley time) and you must be on time. Once a session has started,
latecomers may be considered no-shows (and assigned a penalty).
• Participation in these experimental studies is voluntary. You are free to decline to be in an experimental
session at any point. However, you will not receive the one-hour credit if you do not complete the study. If
you participate throughout the study, you may refuse to answer any questions that make you feel
uncomfortable and still receive full credit.

d. Checking your experimental participation status:

You can check how many and which experiments you have participated in as well as any assigned penalty
hours by logging on to the coordination website.

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COURSE SCHEDULE AND READINGS

Week Date

1 Mon 8/27 Syllabus and overview

1 Wed 8/29 Introduction to discussion section

2 Mon 9/3 No class – Academic Holiday

2 Wed 9/5 Discussion: the manager’s job; analyzing organizational behavior

Kotter: “What effective general managers really do”

Questions for discussion: What are the advantages and disadvantages of the managerial
styles described by Kotter? How have organizations changed since Kotter did his
research (1981), and does it make any difference in how people manage? What does
Kotter’s paper have to say on this point? What are the key managerial roles according to
these writers, and how should they be ordered or prioritized? Do Kotter’s views square
with your own perceptions and experience?

3 Mon 9/10 Organization design: From vertical (mechanistic) to horizontal (organic). Lecture

Ancona: “Managing for the future: The organization as strategic design”

Ancona: “Managing for the future: “The new organization”
Business Week: “The horizontal corporation” (website)
Dilbert: “Engineers think the same as marketers” (website)
Dilbert: “Business units” (website)

3 Wed 9/12 Organization design:From vertical (mechanistic) to horizontal (organic). Discussion

***Assignments to project teams***

“Allentown Materials (A): The Electronic Products Division”

Describe Allentown's structure and its problems. Assess the “fit” among the various
pieces of Allentown’s organizational architecture. Discuss the roles of the business
environment and the corporate culture in shaping Allentown’s structure. How did the
management styles of, first, Bennett and then Rogers impact the problems in the structure
(e.g., mitigate or exacerbate)? What kind of redesign/restructuring or adjustments to the
broader organizational architecture would you recommend?

4 Mon 9/17 Managing teams. Lecture

Wageman: “Critical success factors for creating superb self-managing teams”

WSJ: “How a company made everyone a team player” (website)
“The terrors of teamwork” (website)

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4 Wed 9/19 Managing teams. Discussion

Wetlaufer: “The team that wasn’t”

What’s wrong and what’s right with this team? Do the problems lie with the people, the
team’s mandate and design, or what? What would you do to fix them?

5 Mon 9/24 Leadership. Lecture

Kotter: “What leaders really do”

Articles on heroic and post-heroic leadership (website)

5 Wed 9/26 Leadership. Discussion

“Charlotte Beers at Ogily and Mather (A)”

“Women, sex, and power” (website)
Video: Charlotte Beers

What were Charlotte Beers’ strengths and weaknesses as a leader? Assess the “fit”
between her style and Ogilvy’s culture, people, and organization. Might a different kind
of leader have been just as effective in reorienting Ogilvy? Does this case say anything
about differences in the leadership roles and styles of men and women?

6 Mon 10/1 Culture. Lecture

Chatman and Cha: “Leading by leveraging culture”

“Oracle-Peoplesoft culture clash” (website)

6 Wed 10/3 Culture. Discussion ***Project Proposals Due***

“The Body Shop International”

What is the culture of the Body Shop and where did it come from? How does it differ
from and/or resemble that of Mary Kay Cosmetics? Was the Body Shop’s penchant for
modelling itself on the opposite of standard cosmetic industry practice a matter of core
values or smart business strategy? Is the story of the Body Shop chiefly one of culture or
is it one of leadership?

7 Mon 10/8 ***Review for Exam***

7 Wed 10/10 ***Midterm Exam due***

***Section content TBA***

8 Mon 10/15 Managing politics and networks. Lecture

Pfeffer "Understanding power in organizations"

“Terrorist organizations as networks” (website)

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8 Wed 10/17 Managing politics and networks. Discussion

"Donna Dubinsky and Apple Computer (A)"

“Behind the fall” (website)

Who were the allies and adversaries in this conflict? What were the reasons for the
conflict? What resources did the parties bring to bear? What strategies were used? Who
prevailed and why? Does the gender of the protagonists have any relevance here? Why
or why not? How might the debate over the distribution system have been better
managed? How did Apple’s culture, structure, and the leadership styles of the executive
team shape the evolution of the conflict? In terms of the congruence model, was
“incongruence” or poor fit among the pieces of Apple’s architecture a cause of the
conflict? Was it leveraged/exploited in any way by the players?

9 Mon 10/22 Decision-making. Lecture

Bazerman: “Making rational and irrational decisions”

“Calculating the irrational” (website)

9 Tues 10/24 Decision-making. Discussion

“The collapse of Barings” (website)

How did things get so out of control at Barings? How do you explain Leeson’s behavior?
Was there any rationality to the decisions being made? What should have been done by
whom to avert disaster and when?

10 Mon 10/29 Motivation I: Theory and job design. Lecture

Robbins: “Basic motivation concepts”

Adler: “Time and motion regained”
Dilbert on cognitive dissonance (website)

10 Wed 10/31 Motivation I: Theory and job design. Discussion

“People Express”

11 Mon 11/5 Motivation II: Incentives. Lecture

Pfeffer: “Six dangerous myths about pay”

“Low loyalty, high turnover is the norm in some industries” (website)
Dilbert on pay and motivation (website)

11 Wed 11/7 Motivation II. Discussion

“Brainard, Bennis, and Farrell”

What problems is Brainard facing in designing a compensation system? Does it make

sense that they should tie compensation to performance? What kinds of contributions
should get the biggest rewards? Will the compensation changes Brainard is initiating
likely to undermine the firm’s strengths? What does this case say about performance pay?

12 Mon 11/12 No class – Academic Holiday

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12 Wed 11/14 Diversity. Lecture and discussion

Ancona et al.: “Managing cultural diversity: from understanding to action”

“Abercrombie settles diversity suit” (website)
“Women find securities industry difficult” (website)
“Black caucus groups at Xerox (A)”
Black employees at Xerox (website)

What were the reasons for the caucus forming at Xerox? What was the company’s
posture toward the caucus? Analyze (from a power and politics perspective) the strategy
used to form the caucus. Was it positive or negative in terms of advancing their goals?
Was this a zero-sum game between the caucus and the company or did both sides gain?

13 Mon 11/19 Managing globally. Lecture

Roberts et al.: “Managing the global workforce”

“The myth of the global executive” (website)
“Ford and Honda” (website)
“IBM showing that giants can be nimble” (website)

13 Wed 11/21 Managing globally. Discussion

“Lincoln Electric: venturing abroad”

What was the LE "incentive management" system? Was it well-aligned with the
company's structure, culture, and leadership? Why did it motivate U. S.
employees? What happened when LE tried to implement its incentive system
abroad? Why was LE more successful in its early foreign ventures than the later ones?
Why? What differences between the U. S. and the other countries explain the LE’s
problems? What mistakes did LE make in going abroad? What should they have done?

14 Mon 11/26 Project team presentations (Teams 101-1, 102-1, 103-1)

14 Wed 11/28 Project team presentations (Teams 2-3-4-5)
15 Mon 12/3 Project team presentations (Teams 104-1, 105-1, 106-1)
15 We 12/5 Project team presentations (Teams 6-7-8-9)
16 Mon 12/10 Review for Final Exam

***Team Project Papers due Monday, December 10, 5PM***

***Final Exam papers due 5PM, Wednesday, December 19, 2007***

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1
THE CASE METHOD:

Cases place the student in a real world organization as a manager, leader, or nonmanager who must make
decisions. A case is a "story of organizational issues which actually have been faced by people, together with facts,
opinions, and predjucies upon which decisions must be made. A key feature of a case is that decisions that require
action must be made."

With the case method, the process of arriving at an answer is more important than the answer itself. It is
anticipated that by working through cases, the student will develop an understanding of the process of reaching
decisions and be able to support and communicate these decisions to others. Instead of sitting back and reacting to
the comments made by an instructor, the student is asked to make decisions, typically with incomplete information
and in a limited time period, which is usually the situation faced by most managers. There are no ideal solutions to
the problems raised in a case. Searching for the perfect answer will be futile. Instead, the student should learn to
think through the issues, problems facts, and other information presented in the cases. Critical thinking is required to
make better decisions. Thorough thinking is needed so that the decisions reached can be communicated and
intelligently discussed in classroom discussions. Classroom discussions about the cases should clearly illustrate the
thinking processes used by the student. The preparation for classroom discussion of the cases in this course could
follow a set pattern. One suggested pattern is:

1. Read the case rather quickly to get a feel for what is involved.
2. Reread the case and sort out the assumptions, hunches, and facts. Since all of the cases are incomplete, the
student will need to make plausible assumptions about the situation. List nthose assumptions, and be able to
support their plausibility. The assumptions will enable you to "fill in the blanks" that exist in the case.
Remember that in organizations decisions are made with incomplete information and some uncertainty.
3. Identify the major problems and subproblems that must be considered in the case.
4. List the problems in the order of importance or priority; i.e., show what problems have to be solved first.
5. Develop a list of alternative courses of action that would minimize or eliminate the problems. If possible,
have at least two fully developed alternatives that are feasible solutions.
6. In developing the alternative courses of action, outline the constraints (e.g., resources, historical precedent,
competition, skill limitations, attitudes) that will limit success.
7. Select the course of action that is best for the problems identified in step 3. Show how the course of action
would work, and be able to discuss why it would be the most successful alternative to solve the problems.
1
Abridged from James L. Gibson, John M. Ivancevich, and James H. Donnelly, Jr.: Organizations: Behavior-
Structure-Process. Plano, TX: Business Publications, Inc. 5th edition. Pp. B2-B3.

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