MBA and Sloan Elective Courses: Organizational Behavior
OB 258. Organizational Growth
In this course, our purpose will be to explore issues in managing a growing organization. To this end, three general questions will guide our inquiry: 1) Why do the opportunities for organizational growth vary with a firm's size, strategy, and situation? 2) What challenges typically arise as firms grow? and 3) How can managers take advantages of these opportunities and deal with these challenges? The answers to these questions depend on the characteristics of your firm and of its competitive environment. In a small firm, one is challenged to create an initial growth trajectory, and then adapt the firm and its strategies to the requirements of larger-scale operation. By contrast, in a larger, more established firm, the key challenge is to sustain growth -- through revitalizing current businesses or possibly by expanding into new areas. The challenge in both contexts is for managers to design the organization as a system that can grow successfully. Doing so requires sophisticated understanding of organizational processes. Not taught in 2009-10.
OB 264. Organizational Change
Organizations that operate in dynamic environments frequently change strategy and structure to try to keep pace. However, organizations generally find that change takes longer and is more disruptive than expected. Indeed, deep change can prove disastrous. This course uses sociological theory and research to understand these patterns. Analysis of cases of various kinds of organizational change allows exploration of managerial implications concerning both the decision to enact change and ways of guiding change processes. Not taught in 2009-10.
OB 266. Organization for Strategic Advantage
Management analysts agree that the success of a 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. Not taught in 2009-10.
OB 271. Dynamics of Organizations
This course examines fundamental issues in organizational design and organizational change. It emphasizes the interplay among formal structure, informal networks, and culture in shaping organizational action. It also explores the sources of organizational inertia and their implications for managing change. Not taught in 2009-10.
OB 275. Organization and Leadership
Why do successful organizations sometimes fail (e.g., think RCA, Polaroid, Pan Am and others)? The answer is not obvious, for these companies, when successful have all the resources and capabilities to stay on top financial, market, intellectual and technological. Yet the puzzling evidence is that successful companies often lose their competitive edge. This course focuses on one proximal cause for these failures: The role of leaders and their senior teams in designing and changing organizations. This course will emphasize the interplay among leadership, organizational architecture, culture and change in founding, growing, managing, and transforming organizations over time. The goal of the course is to help students develop a pragmatic framework to use for organizational problem solving in their future role as a leader. Not taught in 09-10.
OB 284. 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. Not taught in 2009-10.
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). Not taught in 2009-10.
OB 315. Frontiers of Social Innovation
This Bass 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). Not taught in 2009-10.
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. Not taught in 2009-10.
OB 358. Organizational Growth
In this course, our purpose will be to explore issues in managing a growing organization. To this end, three general questions will guide our inquiry: 1) Why do the opportunities for organizational growth vary with a firm's size, strategy, and situation? 2) What challenges typically arise as firms grow? and 3) How can managers take advantages of these opportunities and deal with these challenges? The answers to these questions depend on the characteristics of your firm and of its competitive environment. In a small firm, one is challenged to create an initial growth trajectory, and then adapt the firm and its strategies to the requirements of larger-scale operation. By contrast, in a larger, more established firm, the key challenge is to sustain growth—through revitalizing current businesses or possibly by expanding into new areas. The challenge in both contexts is for managers to design the organization as a system that can grow successfully. Doing so requires sophisticated understanding of organizational processes. Not taught in 2009-10.
OB 361. Changing Strategy and Organization
The theme of this course is that over reliance on the assumption that people are rational and profit maximizers can lead managers and policy analysts astray. People are rational but their rationality is bounded by various cognitive constraints; similarly, people are self-interested but their self-interest is bounded by various other motivations. The goal of the course is to show how knowledge of the limitations of the economic model can make a more effective manager. For example, students will see how and when people's motivation to receive and give fair treatment trumps self-interest considerations. This course will also consider the basis of effective appeals to public spiritedness and civic responsibility. Finally, students will see how recognizing motives other than self-interest can produce greater compliance to organizational rules and ethical standards. Not taught in 2009-10.
OB 362. Leadership Coaching and Mentoring
The conceptual material presented in the readings 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 coachees 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 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 364. Organizational Change
Organizations that operate in dynamic environments frequently change strategy and structure to try to keep pace. However, organizations generally find that change takes longer and is more disruptive than expected. Indeed, deep change can prove disastrous. This course uses sociological theory and research to understand these patterns. Not taught in 2009-10.
OB 366. Organization for Strategic Advantage
Management analysts agree that the success of a 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. Not taught in 2009-10.
OB 367. Research and Practice on Organizing Urban Schools for Improvement
This Bass Seminar focuses on empirical research on urban school reform efforts, theoretical frameworks on student and adult learning, the sociology of work in schools, and social organization theory. It will ask how community context affects instructional coherence and will look at the dynamics between school professionals and parents. Not taught in 2009-10.
OB 368. How to Make Ideas Stick
Having a good idea is not enough, one must also be able to convey ideas in a way that people can understand and act on them. But often messages don't persuade or persist. This course assumes that the crafting of more effective messages is achieved 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. What could make true or useful information survive as well as bogus rumors? This course 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. Not taught in 2009-10.
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.
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 ubiquitous and important in organizations, so leaders need to be able both to understand power and to act on that knowledge. This course has three objectives: 1) increasing students' ability to diagnose and analyze power and politics in organizational situations; 2) increase students' skills in exercising power effectively; and 3) helping students come to terms with the inherent dilemmas and choices, and their own ambivalence, involved in developing and exercising influence. Topics covered include: the sources of power, including individual attributes and structural position; dealing with resistance and conflict; obtaining allies and supporters; maintaining power; how and why power is lost; living in the limelight--the price of having power; 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. Not taught in 2009-10.
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. Not taught in 2009-10.
OB 385. Leading Social Change: Educational and Social Entrepreneurship
The course provides an overview of different approaches to leading change in the social sector, drawing primarily, but not exclusively, on case examples in education. While there is a substantial need for innovation and visionary leadership in sectors such as education, social entrepreneurs who want to drive change must appreciate the significant barriers and unique opportunities presented by non-market forces in these sectors. The course will equip students with an appreciation for different mechanisms of change and theories of action as well as some of the challenges of initiating and sustaining meaningful change in social sectors such as education. Not taught in 2009-10.
OB 387. Women and Men in Management
The objective of this course is to examine the ways in which gender impacts the work experiences of both men and women. The course focuses on the working experience of men and women in managerial and professional positions in businesses and some non-profit organizations. We will examine a wide variety of career-related gender issues including the effects of proportions of men and women in a job on the experiences of men and women, whether and how men and women's networks differ, the various causes of the gender gap in pay and promotions, and the multiple issues related to juggling the demands of work and family and how this impacts both men and women. The goal of this course is to raise awareness of the reasons for gender differences in the workplace and to suggest some ways to change these differences.
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 course is designed to help prepare students for careers in the film, television, and cable industries, and to explore innovations within them. The course examines key areas of work in these industries. A major portion of the course will involve bringing to the class speakers representing important 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. Not taught in 2009-10.
OB 392. Leadership Coaching and Mentoring II
This course is the continuation of OB 362. The conceptual material presented in the reading list 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 can presents unique challenges and opportunities and thereby pushes students to develop intergroup insights and leadership skills, many of which are relevant across a variety of situations. 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. While the course focuses on dynamics of race, gender, and sexual orientation, there will be opportunities for students to explore a variety of other dimensions of identity and difference in organizations, including (but not limited to) nationality, class, and religion. Not taught in 2009-10.
OB 501. Strong Reciprocators and Sharks: Cooperation, Cheating, and Punishment in Groups
In the last decade or so, scholars in behavioral game theory, psychology and evolutionary anthropology have reached some surprisingly convergent conclusions about mixed motive situations (i.e., when people have interests that overlap but aren't identical):
- Two types of decision makers seem to be present in most groups: egoists, who try to maximize their own payoffs, and strong reciprocators.
- The latter engage in both altruistic cooperation (rewarding cooperation with cooperation, even when doing so costs money) and altruistic punishment (greedy behavior is punished, even when doing so costs money).
- It is very hard to sustain cooperation in large groups based only on repeat play (tit for tat) by egoists; the presence of strong reciprocators is needed.
- Depending on a group's work-technology and its rules of exchange, sometimes the patterns of egoists prevail (strong reciprocators give up) and sometimes those of strong reciprocators prevail (egoists conform to social norms created by strong reciprocators).
These properties have many important managerial implications regarding, for example, incentive systems, team performance, and negotiation. Not taught in 2009-10.
OB 507. Vital Engagements and Passionate Work: Exploring the Origins of Creative Commitment
This seminar will examine what we know about the determinants of vital engagement and its relationship to finding creative and satisfying work. Creativity researchers have characterized the concept of vital engagement in terms of the full use of one's powers applied to personally relevant and deeply satisfying endeavors. Thus defined, vital engagement is one of the hallmarks of many of the world's most admired creators and innovators throughout history, whether they were business innovators, political innovators, or cultural innovators. To be sure, vital engagement sounds like a fuzzy notion. However, it's a serious and important one. It's also an idea worth exploring at a deeper level. And, it turns out there is some good academic literature that allows us to get some traction on the idea! Not taught in 2009-10.
OB 509. Managing 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. Thus, managers are faced with the task of both recruiting and retaining the most talented employees across a variety of social groups, and effectively leading a diverse workforce. Through the discussion of social psychological research and organizational theory this seminar exposes students to knowledge necessary to navigate these tasks successfully. Among other topics, we will explore how diversity helps organizations to problem solve; how diversity leads to misunderstanding and conflict; and how organizational culture and social identity interactively affect individuals? ability to perform to their potential; and the pros and cons of policies such as affirmative action. Not taught in 2009-10.
OB 511. Strategic Career Management
The focus of this seminar is on understanding approaches for strategically managing one's career over a lifetime. The seminar will A) introduce students to career decision-making frameworks; B) examine various career traps, roadblocks and "blind spots"; and C) facilitate the development of a personal career vision, frameworks and action plan. Not taught in 2009-10.
OB 521. Corporate Social Responsibility
The role of the corporation in the contemporary world is changing. The set of stakeholders that corporations are expected to engage is increasing as is their responsibility to and for those stakeholders. Increasingly corporations are finding that corporate social responsibility can have a material impact on their business success by expanding business opportunities and managing risks. Among the topics addressed in this case-based course will be: What do responsible companies have a responsibility to do? How should companies manage their relationship with key stakeholders? What are the principle issues around labor and human rights? How responsible should a company be for the practices of its partners, vendors, contractors etc.? What factors should guide a company's philanthropy and community development activities? Not taught in 2009-10.
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 535. Seminar on Advanced Topics in Family and Closely-Held Companies
While the frameworks used to understand and manage family and closely-held businesses are widely applicable, their implementation can vary dramatically depending upon the circumstances of the business and the idiosyncrasies of the people involved. As is often the case in business, the challenge is the application of the universal to the particular: the challenge of execution. The starting point for these explorations will be the experiences of the students themselves, supplemented and complemented by the resources and experience of the instructor. Working in small groups, students will work with the instructor to identify specific topics for in-depth analysis and planning, and then document and present the results to their peers for feedback and suggestions. The goal of the class is to give students an appreciation of the depth and complexity that can exist in even "simple" problems in a family business, and preparation for dealing with those problems in a constructive and pro-active fashion. Not taught in 2009-10.
OB 541. How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
This course will explore case studies and research about how to create behavior change from a position without much formal authority or power: e.g., a middle manager trying to change a failing unit of a big firm or a social entrepreneur trying to influence the behavior of a community. We'll use principles from social psychology, clinical psychology, and behavioral economics to analyze cases like the following: How a new head of the equities research department at Lehman Brothers changed his group's ranking in the Institutional Investor polls from #15 to #1 over a four year period. How Teach for America teachers take unmotivated kids in neglected schools and manage on standardized tests to gain more than two year's progress in one year of schooling. How a clever application of behavioral economics managed to triple employee savings rates.
OB 560. Leadership Learning: The Leadership Development Platform
The Leadership Development Platform rests on the fundamental premise that leadership is learned best through the integration of concepts and practice. Students will be exposed to a variety of leadership perspectives through readings, guest lectures, and group discussion. In addition, they will participate in experiential labs designed to provide them with direct experience applying leadership concepts in the context of their own teams and challenges (e.g. building effective teams, managing difficult conversations, giving and receiving feedback). Not taught in 2009-10.
OB 562. Leadership Learning: The Leadership Development Platform
This course is the Winter Quarter continuation of OB 560. The Leadership Development Platform rests on the fundamental premise that leadership is learned best through the integration of concepts and practice. Students will be exposed to a variety of leadership perspectives through readings, guest lectures, and group discussion. In addition, they will participate in experiential labs designed to provide them with direct experience applying leadership concepts in the context of their own teams and challenges (e.g. building effective teams, managing difficult conversations, giving and receiving feedback). Not taught in 2009-10.
OB 563. 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. 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. Not taught in 2009-10.
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. Not taught in 2009-10.
OB 574. Interpersonal Dynamics at Work
The objective of this course 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 one's manager as well as in a team setting. Not taught in 2009-10.
OB 581. Negotiations
This course presents a variety of frameworks for analyzing negotiations and techniques for creating and claiming value. Many dimensions and types of negotiation are discussed, including the relevant psychological, interpersonal and organizational dynamics. This course reviews both integrative and distributive strategy and tactics. 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 584. Creativity in Problem Solving and Negotiating
In teaching negotiation over the last decade, it has become clear that the creativity of the players can significantly affect both the processes and the outcomes of negotiation. Sometimes students see a novel approach that allows them to reach a collectively optimal deal; at other times they get locked into mindsets that generate lose-lose (collectively suboptimal) outcomes. This seminar examines how and why creative problem-solving and negotiating occurs. The course will first draw on what is known about creative problem-solving in single-person contexts. (More research has been done on creativity in these contexts than in multi-person settings. Further, creative problem-solving in negotiations probably draws on mental processes that are active in nonstrategic situations as well. For these reasons it makes sense to start off by studying individual creativity.) It then turn to creativity in teams, (i.e., multi-person situations in which there is little conflict of interest.) Finally, the focus will turn to the main topic, creativity in negotiations and other situations that involve substantial conflict. In all three contexts the course will examine the important tension between generating new ideas and evaluating them. (Because most new ideas turn out to have significant practical drawbacks, effective problem-solving requires probing evaluations; creativity alone is insufficient.) Not taught in 2009-10.
OB 586. Organizational Learning
This is a course about how firms 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, including the book "Moneyball" by Michael Lewis which discusses market-level mistakes in professional baseball. Not taught in 2009-10.
OB 593. Leadership in Diverse Organizations
This course is designed to help students improve their capacity to exercise leadership and work effectively with others within the context of culturally diverse groups and organizations. The course is based on the premise that diversity can present unique challenges and opportunities and thereby pushes students to develop crucial leadership skills, many of which are relevant across a variety of situations. The class will address two primary questions: 1) What social and psychological obstacles limit people's ability to work effectively across identity-based differences? 2) What can you do to build the relational and organizational capacity to enable these differences to be a resource for learning and effectiveness within teams and organizations? Students should be prepared to experiment with various conceptual and analytic skills inside and outside of the classroom. While the course focuses on dynamics of race and gender, there will be opportunities for students to explore a variety of other dimensions of identity and difference in organizations, including (but not limited to) sexual orientation, nationality, class, and religion. The course is intended for students who expect to work in culturally diverse groups or organizations and will be equally relevant to those who plan to work in the not-for-profit, public, and for-profit sectors.