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MG 6103
Graduate Organizational Behavior
Syllabus
We will be adhering to the same syllabus as the other
section being taught by Dr. Zinsser
Student
Information Sheet
Organizational Worksheet Exercise
OB Model
Worksheet
Readings and Assignments
Student PowerPoint
Presentation
Case Assignment #1
This assignment
calls for you to read Case Incident 1 - A Virtual Team at T.A.
Stearns and answer questions about the case. The case is on p. 360,
at the end of Chapter 10 (Understanding Work Teams).
This assignment is
due in the drop box by Class Time Thursday 10/11. I expect a one to
two page response to this case (1-inch margins, double-spaced, 12pt
type). Please number your answers in relation to the five questions.
Answer my versions
of the questions below, not the questions in the text. Make sure you
answer each question fully.
1. Why is the group
a team?
2. Has anyone in
this case acted unethically? Explain your position.
3. What, if any,
characteristics of groupthink are manifested in the work team?
4. Has Dave been an
effective team leader? Explain your position.
5. What should Dave
do now? What should he not do/avoid doing?
Note: In answering
my version of Question 2, assume that the team members have in fact
used their extra time to take time off and/or to work on consulting
assignments for other organizations.
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MG 2104
Undergraduate Organizational Behavior
Syllabus
Student PowerPoint Presentation
For those of you who still do not have the book, the
library has two copies.
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MG 7922
Financial Management of Information
Technology Organizations
Syllabus
9/6/08: I
understand that the textbook,
Financing Information Technology; Greco, Joseph and Shahi, Gurinder,
2006, is in. Read the sections pertaining to Asset Management
for our next meeting. In addition, I have come across some interesting
articles on Asset Management that you might want to read and discuss in
class. Click on the links below to access them.
Session 1: Introduction to IT Financial Management
Economics of Information Technology
CIO's Must Transcend Expectations
IT Gets Respect; CIOs Share Secrets
Session 2: Asset Management
The Measurement and Recognition of Intangible Assets
Computer Software: The Revenue Recognition Issues
A Valuation Model for Software
Inadequate Controls Over IT Equipment at the VA
Session 3: Continuation of Session 2.
Also Read
"How
is the credit crunch impacting your economy?"
Accounting vs. Technology - Who’s At Fault
Tonight we will be discussing ratio analysis of
technology companies. In addition, we will continue creating a
technology company, divide up responsibilities and discuss financing.
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Music
The Velvet Underground
By far,
the most influential group to have ever come out of New York City is
The
Velvet Underground. Artist Andy Warhol took them under his wing in
1966 and music was never the same. They have been "iconized" in the
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Bob Dylan
Although
not a native of New York City, Bob Dylan was as much the Greenwich
Village scene as any New Yorker.
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Art
This is by no means a complete listing of
sixties artists. They are, however, some of my favorites
Andy Warhol
Helen
Frankenthaler
Claes Oldenburg
Allan Kaprow
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Management: Science, theory or philosophy?
by
Howard A. Kupferman
Many pundits of management “theory”
or management “science” emphasize the quantitative
aspects of managing organizations. There is certainly
room for studying statistics and analyzing the effects
of different management styles in terms of cause and
effect, however, not everything is so simple. In fact,
as soon as someone builds a better management mousetrap,
some of the mice just become more indignant. In
addition, human beings are much more complex.
“Experiments” which work on animals do not necessarily
translate into results for human beings. In addition,
science is defined by use of the scientific method, for
which replication of any experimental result is
essential and will lead to certain “laws”, such as the
laws of non-subatomic physics. No matter the weight of
the object, it will always descend at 32 feet per second
squared. The same cannot be said for the likes of what
is referred to as motivation theory. This is why it is
referred to as a theory, and not motivation science. In
that the theory of evolution cannot be proven by the
scientific method, it remains a theory and not an
absolute.
It would seem to most that modern
management philosophy, the word emanating from the Greek
meaning “love of knowledge”, and I will refer to the
discipline as a philosophy throughout this essay, is
something that has developed in western industrialized
society only within the past 100 years. It is, by its
nature, an effort to create a productive workforce. In
fact, the treatment of slaves in the ancient world was
also management of labor, labor being one of the pillars
of economics, albeit under a very different economic
system. Management philosophy in the modern era appears
to revolve around one central theme; how to get people,
who have relative choice, to choose commitment to the
tasks that are beneficial to the organization for which
they work. Some of these organizations are for the sole
purpose of creating wealth. Others are for the sole
purpose of distributing social services. Others are for
administering laws. Whatever the purpose of the
organization, employee commitment is “desirable”, but
not essential. During times in which employment
opportunities are scarce, economic factors allow for a
relaxation of those techniques used to enhance
productivity among a certain percentage of the labor
force. By the very nature of the essentiality of purpose
of these organizations, it is doubtful that any serious
attempt will be made to study the effects of such
relaxation utilizing the scientific method.
Much has been made of measurement.
Researchers attempt to measure employee performance in
much the same way they measure other aspects of
business. Performance ratings are assigned to employees
in order to determine value to the organization and for
the purpose of administering some kind of reward
structure. Intervention is suggested when management
“believes” there is room for further productivity gains.
Management’s belief is sometimes founded upon
qualitative observation, sometimes quantitative
measurement, but many times it is nothing more than
wishful thinking. Whatever the method, it is usually
based upon the belief that it is possible to enhance
employee productivity without investing capital. As most
economists would agree, production is significantly
impacted only by capital investment. (This is, of
course, only a theory in that it has been studied by
observation and not experimentation utilizing the
scientific method.)
In addition, techniques which seem
to work for a certain percentage of the population have
no effect on a large portion of the labor force. The use
of statistics to describe the variability of outcomes
may be significant in efforts to predict human behavior.
However, the philosophy, which is then treated as theory
when there is an effort to prove that it has validity,
can never become a law because the outcome does not
occur 100% of the time, thus the need for the use of
statistics in describing “probability”. Use of the word
“science” in discussing such philosophies such as
economics and psychology, is an effort by those
theorists to create the illusion of certainty where
there is none. The admission that the probabilities of
outcomes, when certain methods of management are
utilized, are not necessarily cross cultural is evidence
that these theories are not really theories at all in
the sense that efforts are made to prove them
scientifically. The same is said of other “soft”
sciences. Essentially, science cannot be soft; a belief
is either subject to the scientific method or it is not.
If it is not, then, by definition, it cannot be a
science.
Therefore, we are left without
evidence that management is a science. We are also left
with the fact that its tenets are not theories that are
subject to the scientific method. These facts dictate
that we must relegate the practice of enticing labor to
be more productive without capital investment to the
realm of philosophy. If such a practice is subject to
the dictates of philosophy, we must use those methods to
discuss and debate its inherencies and relevance. Such
inherencies must, by their very nature, be cross
cultural. The reason such philosophical ideas emanating
from individuals such as Aristotle and Locke are
relevant even today is the cross cultural nature of
their arguments. Management philosophy must follow the
same pattern. Otherwise, its tenets will change over
time.
Management practitioners would be
better served if such universal tenets were developed.
These can only be developed through the resolution of
the arguments via philosophical debate. Rather than
construe the management “wisdom” that has been developed
over the past 100 years as management theory or law,
those interested in developing a philosophy which will
traverse the eons, as have those of Socrates, Aristotle
and Plato, would be better off studying the art of logic
and resolution of philosophical argument. |
