MBA and Sloan Elective Courses: Organizational Behavior
OB 314. Urban School System Reform
This seminar is intended to give students the opportunity to assume the role of school district leadership and formulate strategies for enacting large-scale reform of complex school systems. Instruction will be anchored in discussion surrounding in-depth case studies of urban school systems, and will draw upon the contributions of outside guests and speakers who have either led or supported the process of district change. The course will draw on frameworks and approaches developed in the study of management, organizational behavior, and school reform. Attention will be given to the political and community context surrounding district reform, and how urban superintendents and administrators can evaluate and account for external context in creating effective reform strategies. In addition, students will gain familiarity with the unique conditions under which district reform is undertaken (e.g., labor relations, regulatory environment). Students will be asked to synthesize the lessons of the course by working in groups to complete a final project focused on developing a reform strategy for a large urban district.
OB 315. Frontiers of Social Innovation
This seminar is a hands-on workshop where students will work individually or in teams to research and write case studies of socially innovative organizations that can be published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. The case studies will focus on organizations that are working across the traditional borders between government, business, and social sector. A well-known example would be Grameen Bank which engages in microlending and earns normal market-level returns but organizes itself to improve the lives of the poorest of the poor (thus applying business principles in the service of a social sector goal). There are hundreds more organizations that are less well known but are pursuing innovative strategies. The case studies are rigorous and take time to complete so the course is structured to unfold over two quarters.
OB 334. Family Business
Family-controlled private and public companies are the dominant form of enterprise worldwide, comprising more than 90% of all businesses. They are currently undergoing intense competitive transition in form and function and more than three trillion dollars of assets will change generational management during the next ten years. This course is designed for those persons who desire to understand the distinct strategies and practices of family-controlled companies and family wealth management. It will focus on shareholder decision-making; financial and market-driven options for long-run competitiveness, organizational structures, and management team issues; transition planning for the corporate entity, family dynamics and communication issues; and leadership empowerment. The course is intended for those who plan to consult or provide professional services to closely-held companies and for those contemplating a career in a family firm. It will present both a theoretical framework for understanding the family form of business organization and a practice perspective on consulting to family firms and/or working as a family member in the family business. Each class will be comprised of two elements: a case-based discussion that explores family business frameworks, and a visitor session in which a family business practitioner describes their own experiences and engages in Q&A with students. This unusual blend of pedagogies is designed to provide students with both the theory and practice of family businesses in an engaging and enriching way.
OB 342. Working with Diversity
Minorities, women, and immigrants currently make up more than 50% of the United States workforce, and these groups are projected to make up approximately 85% of the workforce within the next ten years. Moreover, the workplace is becoming ever more global. The opportunity to share unique experiences and perspectives offers the promise of innovation and growth. However, demographic (e.g., race, gender, class) and cultural differences can also lead to misunderstanding and conflict, which can undermine organizations efficiency. This course aims to help participants develop a better understanding of how such differences can affect organizations and individuals? experience of the workplace. This will be accomplished through readings and class discussions, as well as activities outside of the classroom.
OB 362. Leadership Coaching
This course is for 6 units and runs for the Winter and Spring Quarters. It is open to up to 36 2nd year students who have been selected on the basis of their having passed a screening to assess their potential to coach effectively. They also need to haven taken OB374 Interpersonal Dynamics or OB393 Leadership in Diverse Organizations in Spring 07 or will take OB374 in the September 07 2-week course or during the Fall. There will be a reading list. That conceptual material will be supplemented during class time with lectures and discussions. Students will have the opportunity to apply those concepts through role-plays and exercises during class time. Each 2nd year will be assigned three 1st year students. The 2nd year coaches will meet with their coaches 5 times each quarter in a series of semi-structured coaching activities.
OB 363. Leadership Perspectives
What does it mean to be a principled leader? What role do values play in an organization, and how do successful leaders apply their values in their daily business lives? This course examines the concept of principled leadership and the various ways that business leaders try to institutionalize particular values within the organizations they lead. Equally important, it explores the difficult challenges that leaders sometimes face when trying to apply their principles in a tough, fast-paced business environment, where others may not share the same expectations. Through assigned readings, interactive lectures with visiting executives, and weekly small group discussions, students will learn how practicing leaders implement their principles, while reflecting the realities of different cultural expectations and meeting business demands. The course will provide a forum for students to learn directly from practicing leaders and to think introspectively about their own personal values, leadership styles, and long-term aspirations.
OB 368. How to Make Ideas Stick
Having a good idea is not enough, we must also be able to convey our ideas in a way that people can understand and act on them. But often our messages don't persuade or persist. This course assumes that we can craft more effective messages by understanding the principles that make certain ideas stick in the natural social environment: Urban legends survive in the social marketplace without advertising dollars to support them or PR professionals to spin them. How could we make true or useful information survive as well as bogus rumors? We will use research in sociology, folklore, and psychology to analyze what kinds of ideas survive the selection process in the marketplace of ideas and to develop a set of strategic tools to craft ideas that are more likely to survive. Topics covered include crafting messages for complex information that don't exceed the capacity of human attention and memory, using emotional appeals that inspire people and motivate action, acquiring attention in a crowded environment, and gaining legitimacy for new ideas, approaches, and technologies.
OB 372. High-Performance Leadership
This course asks the question: What does it take to build a high-performance unit? The focus is on middle and upper-middle management in contemporary complex organizations. These are organizations that have complex tasks, exist in a rapidly changing environment, and have highly skilled subordinates. The premise of the course is that traditional methods of management may produce adequate levels of performance but prevent excellence from developing. New approaches to leadership will be presented that are more likely to lead to a truly high-performing system. Time will be spent discussing the components of effective leadership, what a manager can do to build a high-performing department, and what members can do to support the leader who wants to initiate such changes. The first two classes are required. In addition to class, students will meet for 2 1/2 hours each week in a Skill Development Group to apply the course material to their own personal development.
OB 374. Interpersonal Dynamics
This course attempts to increase students’ personal and conceptual understanding of interpersonal and small-group behavior. It seeks to improve students’ skills in diagnosing interpersonal and intragroup activities, as well as to lead each person to a better understanding of how he or she affects others. While selected articles, books, and group exercises are used to stimulate discussion, major learning material is generated by the participants. Students learn how they function in small groups and how they relate to others from feedback and reaction of other class members.
OB 377. The Paths to Power
Power and influence processes are pervasive and important in organizations, so leaders need to be able both to understand power and to act on that knowledge. Therefore, this course has three objectives: 1) increasing students? ability to diagnose and analyze power and politics; 2) increase skills in exercising power effectively; and 3) helping students come to terms with the inherent dilemmas and choices involved in developing and exercising influence. Topics covered include: sources of power, dealing with resistance and obstacles; obtaining allies and supporters; maintaining power; preparing oneself to obtain power; diagnosing the political landscape; and the use of language and symbolism in exercising power.
OB 381. Conflict Management and Negotiation
Conflict is inherent in organizations. Conflict arises whenever independent parties-individuals, departments, organizations-must secure an agreement. Parties involved face a decision between competitive and cooperative solutions: Will competition bring a favorable result or will it escalate to dysfunctional levels? Will cooperation foster a valuable working relationship or will it leave an underlying problem unresolved? This course presents a variety of frameworks for analyzing conflicts and techniques for resolving conflicts. Many dimensions of conflict are discussed, including relevant psychological, interpersonal, organizational, and cultural dynamics. This course reviews strategy and tactics in various conflict resolution procedures, including bargaining, distributive and integrative negotiation, mediation, and arbitration. A conceptual understanding is of little use, however, without an understanding of how to put strategy and tactics into practice. To this end, considerable emphasis will be placed on exercises and role-play simulations of conflicts designed to develop students' negotiation skills.
OB 383. Lives of Consequence: How Individuals Discover Paths to Meaningful Engagement
This course is a Bass Seminar. This course will examine the lives of individuals who contributed greatly to society, either through their contributions to business, politics, the art and entertainment worlds, or society in general. We will take a close look, for example, at individuals such as Steve Jobs, Condi Rice, George Lucas, John F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King (to name just a few examples). We will develop together a framework for thinking about the "paths to prominence" of such individuals. Students working in small groups will also select an individual or individuals they would like to study. Students will also have an opportunity to apply the framework to their own lives. The course will be very discussion oriented and quite lively, employing a variety of learning materials (including written cases, video material, and reflective exercises).
OB 384. Organizational Learning
This is a course about why firms do not learn from their experiences and the opportunities created by flawed learning. It will explore common mistakes in learning and barriers to the adoption of effective practices. Understanding learning problems will help future managers avoid common mistakes and build organizations that learn more effectively; learning is particularly important for entrepreneurs who are trying out new ideas and so must adapt correctly to feedback from the environment. But understanding common mistakes is also useful for identifying possible opportunities in markets; opportunities exist when firms make mistakes and when they fail to learn effective practices. The course will introduce concepts and findings from organization theory, psychology, decision theory, and statistics. A variety of exercises, cases, and readings will be used to illustrate barriers to learning and the opportunities they create. Readings will include teaching notes, papers in psychology and organization theory, HBR article.
OB 388. Leadership in the Entertainment Industry
The entertainment industry is one of the largest and most complex industries in the world. It is an industry characterized by tremendous opportunities and great uncertainties. The industry is currently undergoing tremendous change as new technologies transform the way entertainment is produced and disseminated throughout the world. For all of these reasons, this existing dynamic industry creates tremendous challenges for entrepreneurial students bent on leaving an artistic or creative imprint on the world. This workshop is designed to help prepare students for careers in the film, television, and cable industries, and to explore innovations within them. The workshop examines all phases of work in these industries. A major portion of the course will involve bringing to the class speakers representing key aspects of the entertainment industry—both on the business and creative sides. Topics to be examined include the process of project development, production, and marketing; emerging technologies and their impact on the industry; the roles studio executives, directors, television and film producers, writers, actors, agents, and others play in the making and distribution of film and television productions.
OB 392. Leadership Coaching and Mentoring II
This course is for 6 units and runs for the Winter and Spring Quarters. It is open to up to 36 2nd year students who have been selected on the basis of their having passed a screening to assess their potential to coach effectively. They also need to haven taken OB374 Interpersonal Dynamics or OB393 Leadership in Diverse Organizations in Spring 07 or will take OB374 in the September 07 2-week course or during the Fall. There will be a reading list. That conceptual material will be supplemented during class time with lectures and discussions. Students will have the opportunity to apply those concepts through role-plays and exercises during class time. Each 2nd year will be assigned three 1st year students. The 2nd year coaches will meet with their coaches 5 times each quarter in a series of semi-structured coaching activities.
OB 393. Leadership in Diverse Organizations
This course is designed to help students improve their capacity to understand and manage human systems, exercise leadership and work effectively with other people, specifically within the context of culturally diverse groups and organizations. The course is based on the premise that diversity presents unique challenges and opportunities for learning; thus the context of diversity presents unique opportunities to develop essential leadership skills. The class will address two primary questions: 1) What obstacles persist in organizations and groups that prevent people from participating fully, working effectively, and developing relationships and alliances in the context of diversity? 2) How can individuals create conditions that enable differences to be used as a resource for learning within groups and organizations? The course is experiential; students should be prepared to experiment with various conceptual and analytic skills inside and outside of the classroom, including ongoing work within a small group. There will be opportunities for students to explore a variety of dimensions of difference in organizations, including (but not limited to) race, ethnicity, gender, nationality, sexual identity, physical ability, class, and religion.
OB 533. Acting with Power
The ability to function effectively within a hierarchy is a crucial determinant of managerial success, yet many people struggle with “authority issues” that make certain hierarchical roles and positions difficult for them. This course draws on the art of acting and the science of psychology to help students learn to use themselves to develop the characters that can play these roles effectively. This class is designed specifically for students who have trouble “playing” authoritative roles: those who find it difficult to act with power, status, and authority. It will also be useful for students who find it difficult to share power and authority, which involves accepting and deferring to the power and authority of others.
OB 566. Organization for Strategic Advantage
Management analysts agree that the success of firm’s strategy almost always depends on the design of its organization. This course explores issues concerned with designing and changing organizations for strategic advantage. It provides a framework that emphasizes three key elements of an organization: formal architecture, culture, and social networks. Core aspects of each element are scrutinized (as well as their interplay) to assess how they relate to particular firm strategies, and how they shape organizational performance and change in contexts ranging from high-technology to consumer retailing. The course also examines how the three elements create an organization’s identity and its consequences for strategic advantage.
OB 574. Advanced Topics in Interpersonal Dynamics
This course is open to students who have taken OB 374 Interpersonal Dynamics or GSBGEN 374 Interpersonal Influence and Leadership. The objectives of OB 574 is to take what was learned in the introductory Interpersonal Dynamics course further with a specific emphasis on how those approaches are applicable in a work setting. Specifically how issues of fuller self-expression/disclosure, feedback, resolution of interpersonal difficulties and building effective relationships can apply to working with peers and ones manager as well as in a team setting. In addition to a modest amount of reading, students will keep an on-going self-diagnostic log. One-third of the grade will be on the log and the remaining 2/3 on the extent of participation in class, risk-taking in the group, and helping building learning conditions for self and others.
OB 581. Negotiations
This course presents a variety of frameworks for analyzing conflicts and techniques for resolving conflicts. Many dimensions of conflict are discussed, including relevant psychological, interpersonal and organizational dynamics. This course reviews strategy and tactics in various conflict resolution procedures, including distributive and integrative negotiation, dispute resolution and mediation. A conceptual understanding is of little use, however, without an understanding of how to put strategy and tactics into practice. To this end, considerable emphasis will be placed on exercises and role-play simulations of conflicts designed to develop students' negotiation skills.
