MGMT E-4000: Organizational Behavior

Spring, 2022

Instructor Information

Instructor:  Lee Bolman

Email:  lgb012@g.harvard.edu; lee@bolman.com

Preferred Contact Method: Email.  I normally respond to email within 24 hours.  If you need an immediate response, call my cell.

Course Time & Location:  Wednesday, 7:40 to 9:40 pm online

Course Description

The course focuses on how organizations work and how to help them work better. Its goal is to provide ideas, tools and tactics that will help you become a more informed, aware and effective manager and leader. 

Management and leadership are rooted in context and choice – how you lead depends on how you understand yourself, your circumstances, and what you’re leading. Effective leaders are clear about where they hope to go, understand the context in which they lead, and know what they bring to the leadership table. Leaders need: 

1. Useful and powerful ideas about organizations and leadership

2. Strategies for effective action
3. Self-awareness: knowledge of their own beliefs, values, predispositions, strategies, and impact on others.

The course is designed to challenge students conceptually through readings, discussions, and quizzes, and to challenge at the level of self-awareness and action through teamwork, reflective activities, role plays, and case applications.

The primary conceptual framework for the course will be Bolman & Deal’s four-frame analysis of organizations and leadership.

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Students will be able to describe and apply the basic concepts of the structural, human resource, political, and symbolic frames from Bolman & Deal’s four-frame model of leadership and organizations.
2. Students will increase their understanding of the elements of how organizations work, and increase their ability to diagnose and participate effectively in groups and organizations.

Course Requirements

Required Readings and Resources

Bolman L. G. and Deal, T. E. Reframing Organizations, 7th ed.  Wiley, 2021 (At the Coop, and available online at Amazon and elsewhere.  Be sure you get the 7^th edition.  Earlier editions are broadly similar but differ in some of the cases and concepts.)  Coop link: https://tinyurl.com/W22-MGMTE-4000-3.  Compare prices.  Get the hardcover if the price is the same or lower than the paperback.  On Amazon as of January 4, you could buy either one for $38, or rent either for ~$19.  On the same day, digital was more expensive than print (another mystery of the digital age).

Case and reading packet from Harvard Business School Publishing: $44.  Link is https://hbsp.harvard.edu/import/897385.  (You’ll need to create a free account if you don’t already have one.)  The packet includes access to the Organization Design Simulation, an online graded activity assigned for the structural frame class

Individual account for GoVenture CEO:  $29 for six months.  Go to www.buygoventure.com.  On the landing page, scroll down to GoVentureCEO, and click on add to cart. Make sure you buy GoVentureCEO, not some other GoVenture product.  Pay with a credit card or Paypal to get a subscription key. 

If you have problems getting the Harvard coursepack or GoVentureCEO subscription key, email me at lgb012@g.harvard.edu

Required Technology

The course will operate in online, web-conference mode.  To participate fully and successfully, you’ll need:

1. An internet-capable device with video camera and microphone. (A personal computer or laptop is preferable because of the larger screen and better keyboard. A  headset  with a microphone typically provides a better two-way audio connection.)
2. A reliable internet connection with enough bandwidth to handle streaming video.
3. Familiarity with Canvas on Harvard’s servers.

Assignments and Associated Outcomes

1. Quizzes.

There will be three on-line quizzes, each counting 10% of the course grade. The quizzes will cover concepts and issues in the readings, including the cases, and will be open book. Each quiz will be available on the Canvas Quizzes tab during a 3-day window ending at noon on a Wednesday. You can make up to three attempts on a quiz, and will have 40 minutes for each attempt.  Your grade will be based on your best result. The questions and the order in which they are presented will vary randomly.  The quizzes are cumulative, and later quizzes will cover readings for earlier weeks as well as the current week. (Research has found that periodically reviewing material over the course of a term improves understanding and retention.)  The quizzes will go live at the appointed time on the Quizzes tab in Canvas.  (If you find you can’t access a quiz when you expect to, please contact me immediately.)

1. GoVenture CEO Competition and Team Memos

GoVenture CEO is an online business simulation in which you manage a business through several periods, making decisions about finance, R&D, production, marketing, etc.  There will be one individual competition (2% of grade), one team competition (15% of grade), and four team memos  (each 5% of grade).  Further information is available at Canvas/Assignments: Guidelines for GoVenture CEO, GoVenture Team Competition, and Guidelines for Goventure Team Memos.

1. Reframing at the Movies

Your team will select a film, conduct a frame analysis, and present your results in an online class at the end of the semester.  Canvas/Assignments/Reframing at the Movies.

1. Class Participation

Class participation occurs in several different modes, including participation during online classes, active engagement in the online Yellowdig forum, and team activities.  Discussion is a substantial part of the course and your participation is essential for both your own learning and that of your fellow students. You have valuable experience in groups and organizations; your experience and insights provide rich material for helping us to understand organizational behavior and leadership.

Your participation grade will be based on the quality of your participation in class and on Yellowdig.  Each will count as 7.5% of the course grade.  You are expected to attend every class session  having read and thought about the assigned material (it will not always be reviewed in class).   If you will be absent from a class, please email me in advance. Absences will impact your class participation grade — you can’t participate if you’re not there.  See Canvas/Assignments/Yellowdig for more information about how grades are calculated for that activity.

Class discussions provide the opportunity to practice speaking and persuasive skills, as well as the ability to listen. High-quality participation involves knowing when to speak and when to listen or allow others to speak. During class, please keep your video on.  When not speaking, it is usually good to mute your audio to reduce extraneous noise, but remember to un-mute when you want to speak.

Grades will be based on the scale below, with minor adjustment depending on the actual distribution of numeric grades at the end of the term.   (The rounding rule is:  .5 and above rounds up; below .5 rounds down.  So 89.5 rounds to 90, but  89.49 rounds to 89.)

A             95 and up            A-           90 – 94                  B+           86-89

B             83-85                     B-            80-82                     C+           76-79                    

C             73-75                     C-            70-72                     D             60-69

F              >60

Expectations and Policies

Accessibility

The Extension School is committed to providing an accessible academic community. The Accessibility Office offers a variety of accommodations and services to students with documented disabilities. Please visit https://www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/resources/disability-services-accessibility  for more information.

Academic Integrity/Honesty 

You are responsible for understanding Harvard Extension School policies on academic integrity (https://www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/student-conduct/academic-integrity) and how to use sources responsibly. Not knowing the rules, misunderstanding the rules, running out of time, submitting the wrong draft, or being overwhelmed with multiple demands are not acceptable excuses. There are no excuses for failure to uphold academic integrity. To support your learning about academic citation rules, please visit the Harvard Extension School Tips to Avoid Plagiarism (https://www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/resources/tips-avoid-plagiarism), where you’ll find links to the Harvard Guide to Using Sources and two free online 15-minute tutorials to test your knowledge of academic citation policy. The tutorials are anonymous open-learning tools.

Late Assignment Policy

Late assignments will lose 5 points for each day past the due date. 

Class Schedule

CLASS 1.   Wednesday, January 26, 7:40 to 9:40 pm (Online)

Reframing Organizations and Leadership – Introduction

In this first class, we’ll explore how we can best learn about organizations, and discuss the course approach. We’ll review the Canvas course site, and introduce the individual GoVenture CEO competition.

                Readings: 

Bolman and Deal, Reframing Organizations, chapters 1, 2

Study Questions:

1. In Yellowdig\Self-Introductions: post a brief self-introduction, and write about whatever you would like the rest of us to know about you. That could include why you’re taking MGMT E-4000, what you hope to learn, and how this course fits into your personal and career direction and goals.

• What makes organizations and leadership so complex?

2   What is a frame (as Bolman & Deal describe it) – and why is it important for understanding leadership, organizations, and ourselves?

CLASS 2.   Wednesday, February 2, 7:40 to 9:40 pm

Building Teams and Community

Teams, which are one of the most important components of the course, will form and begin to work together this evening.  The focus will be on group dynamics and team-building.  

Readings:

Bolman & Deal, chapters 5, 8, 13

Assignments:

Complete two self-report inventories, and have your results available for class.

1. Leadership Orientations: https://fs25.formsite.com/josseybass/form29/index.html
2. Online Myers-Briggs: https://www.16personalities.com/

CLASS 3.   Wednesday, February 9, 7:40 to 9:40 pm

(GoVenture Teams)

You have completed the individual round of GoVenture CEO.  Now it’s time to meet with your team to organize and develop a strategy for the team competition.  The first team decision will be due tonight around midnight.

CLASS 4.   Wednesday, February 16, 7:40 to 9:40pm

Leadership and Structure

• Today’s class will examine the leader as social architect. As architect, a leader provides an environment where structure, roles, lines of authority, information flow, policies, and procedures all work to facilitate productivity. Doing that well requires strong analytic skills and good understanding of organizational design.   
• Readings:
• Bolman and Deal, Reframing Organizations, chapters 3, 4
• Case: Campbell & Bailyn’s Boston Office: Managing the Reorganization (In case packet)
• Study questions for Campbell and Bailyn:

1. What are the major assumptions and concepts of the structural frame?
2. What changes in its industry and customers were affecting Campbell & Bailyn in 2007?
3. What were the strengths and weaknesses of the C & B brokerage division prior to the changes described in the case?
4. In the light of the changes in the marketplace, was creating KAT a good idea? If not, what should Ken Winston have done?

Simulation:

Organizational Design Simulation (Online via link in HBS Case Packet)

Do the readings before you do the simulation.  The simulation will be available from 10pm, Wednesday, February 9 until noon, Wednesday, February 16.  You can complete it up to 3 times. Few people get their best result on the first try. Your grade will be based on your best result.

CLASS 5: Wednesday, February 23, 7:40 to 9:40  pm

People and Organizations

• We examine the human side of leadership and the relationship between people and organizations. As catalysts, leaders motivate and empower others to action. This requires the capacity to create environments where people take ownership for their jobs, are committed to the larger enterprise, and adhere to positive organizational norms and values.
• Readings:
• Bolman and Deal, Reframing Organizations, chapters 6, 7
• Cases: The Men’s Wearhouse: Success in a Declining Industry (Case packet)
• Amazon as an Employer (Case packet)

Study Questions:

3. What are the central concepts and assumptions of the human resource perspective?
4. Which of the HR practices of progressive companies do you see at Men’s Wearhouse? At Amazon?

3. Men’s Wearhouse, along with other companies like Costco, managed to grow and succeed in a brutally competitive retail industry by bucking conventional wisdom and investing in people. Why has it worked?
4. Why is Amazon different?
5. Is your workplace more like Amazon or Men’s Wearhouse? What grade would you give for HR practices in in your workplace? 

QUIZ 1 (Online in Canvas Quizzes tab for 72 hours, beginning noon, Sunday, February 20 to  noon Wednesday, February 23)

CLASS 6: Wednesday, March 2, 7:40 to 9:40  pm

Leadership and Learning I

In this class, we’ll explore leadership at the micro-level.  Relationships are at the heart of organizational behavior, and many of the dynamics in larger systems can be found even in dyads.  The case is short, but not as simple as it might appear. 

Readings:

Argyris, “Teaching Smart People How to Learn” (In case packet)

Bolman & Deal, review chapter 8

                Case of the Underperforming Executive (Canvas/Modules)

                Study Questions:

1. What is a theory for action? What is the difference between an espoused theory and a theory-in-use? 
2. What is your assessment of B’s effectiveness in the meeting with S? In

what ways was B effective or ineffective?

CLASS 7: Wednesday, March 9, 7:40 to 9:40  pm

Leadership and Learning II

GoVenture Team Structure Memo Due

Wednesday, March16

[NO CLASS: SPRING BREAK]

CLASS 8.   Wednesday, March 23, 7:40 to 9:40 pm

Power and Conflict

Readings:

• Bolman and Deal, Reframing Organizations, chapters 9, 10,
•  

Film:

Hidden Figures I (Canvas/Modules/Hidden Figures, available Wednesday night, March 9)

Hidden Figures is a 2016 Hollywood film, set at NASA in 1961 in the early days of the US space program.  It centers on the contributions and challenges of a group of African-American women who worked for NASA as human “computers” at a time when electronic computers were in their infancy. 

Study Questions:

1. Politics, according to the political frame, emerges automatically in situations of conflict over scarce resources. How do those concepts apply here?
2. What political issues do you see in the film?
3. Who are the major parties, and what are their interests?
4. Who has what kind of power? What kinds of power are available to the protagonists (Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Jackson)?  Could they increase their power?
5. Bolman & Deal in Chapter 10 identify four skills of the manager as politician: agenda-setting, mapping the terrain, networking and coalition-building, and negotiation? Which of those are relevant to this story?

GoVenture Team Human Resource Memo Due

CLASS 9.    Wednesday, March 30, 7:40 to 9:40 pm (Online)

                                                  Politics and Symbols                                                 

Leaders need to understand and leverage powerful dynamics of meaning, symbols and culture.  Today’s case and readings will allow us to explore how they can do that.  This week’s case dates back more than 40 years to a watershed period in U.S. history.  It’s a rich case, but to really get what’s going on, you’ll need to put it in the historical context of what was happening politically and culturally in the U.S. at the time.

Reframing Organizations, chapters 11, 12, 14

                Case: West Point: the Cheating Incident (A) [HBS Case Packet]

                Study questions:

1. Politically, what was happening at West Point?
2. Symbolically, what was happening at West Point?
3. It is May 19, 1976. What should General Berry do?

GoVenture Team Political Memo Due

• QUIZ 2 (Online in Canvas Quizzes tab for 72 hours, beginning noon, Sunday, March 27 to noon Wednesday, March 30)

CLASS 10.    Wednesday, April 6onday, October 7, 7:40 to 9:40 pm , 7:40 to 9:40pm (Online)

Ethics in Leadership and Life

Readings:

                What Happened at Enron? (Thunderbird, available from HBS)

Accounting Fraud at Worldcom (HBS 9-104-071)

                Study Questions:

1. How did the relationship among strategy, organizational culture and ethics play out at Enron and Worldcom?
2. How, exactly, did Enron cheat? Why did they do it? How about Worldcom?
3. What ethical lessons did Enron’s culture teach? Worldcom’s?  How about the culture in your organization? 

CLASS 11.   Wednesday, April 13, 7:40 to 9:40  pm

Team Planning for Reframing at the Movies

• The ability to make an engaging and persuasive presentation in a limited amount of time is a key management skill. Planning and rehearsal are essential elements of a strong presentation. Think about how you can best use the talents and interests of your team members.  Individuals may contribute in different ways, and every member of your team is not required to present.  Since your presentation will be online, the technology, format and content all need to be tested, practiced and of high quality.

GoVenture Team Symbolic Memo Due

CLASS 12. Wednesday, April 20, 7:40 to 9:40 pm 

Reframing at the Movies Presentations I

Team Assignments to be Announced.

Class 13: Wednesday, April  27, 7:40 to 9:40 pm (Online)  

Reframing at the Movies Presentations II

Team Assignments to be Announced.

Class 14: May 4, 7:40 to 9:40 pm (Online) 

Basics of Negotiation

Leadership and negotiation both involve bringing people together to make decisions and achieve objectives under conditions of ambiguity and conflict.  The stress and discomfort associated with conflict often undermine confidence and effectiveness, leading to frustration and failure.  This class will examine key basic negotiation concepts and ask you to put the ideas to use in a negotiation simulation.  You’ll be negotiating a real estate transaction with one of your classmates, and you’ll get feedback on your results.  Your clients are counting on you to get them a good result. How well did you do? 

Case: Brown & Clark (role-specific cases will be emailed in advance of class)

Class 15: May 11, 7:40 to 9:40pm (Online)

Change and Leadership

Taran Swan wanted and got the challenging assignment of taking an established brand – Nickelodeon– to a new market.  We’ll study what she did and how she did it to see what we can learn.

Readings:

Reframing Organizations, chapters 17, 18

Case:  Taran Swan at Nickelodeon Latin America (A) [HBS Case Packet]

Study questions:

1. What grade would you give Taran Swan for her leadership of the Nick Latin America initiative?
2. How would you describe her leadership approach? 
3. What did she do best? What, if any, weaknesses do you see?
4. What are the most important challenges she faces at the end of the case?  What should she do about them?  Should she appoint someone as interim director?

QUIZ 3 (Online in Canvas Quizzes tab for 72 hours, beginning noon, Sunday, May 8 to noon, Wednesday, May 11)