Undergraduate Organizational Behavior Curriculum

MGT 3101 - Organizational Behavior
This course provides an introduction to how the behavior of individuals, groups, and organizations affects organizational effectiveness. Students will become familiar with theories, best practices, and controversies surrounding such topics as employee personality, work motivation, job satisfaction, leadership team effectiveness, and organizational change. Mastery of this material is important to the development of managerial talent, indicating sharpened leadership, teamwork, and interpersonal skills.

MGT 3102 - Human Resources
This course introduces students to the analysis of various frameworks for understanding the social regulatory environments of human resource management and how they influence management decision making. The course includes an overview of basic human resource management practices, including job design, recruitment/selection, training/development, performance management, compensation, and labor relations. Students will learn to properly utilize these practices within the social regulatory context to maintain high employee morale, maximize employee performance, uphold the organization's reputation, and contribute to the organization's overall performance.

Not all electives are offered every semester. This list may shrink or grow as time progresses. For specific information about classes, pre-requisites, professors, days/times and classroom locations go to Oscar. Browse MGT elective course descriptions by concentration or certificate area:

MGT 3103 - Leadership in a Changing Environment
Today’s organizations changes constantly.  New technologies, globalization, and shifting workforce demographics change not only the nature of organizations and the characteristics of work groups but also how managers must lead and influence in these changing environments to be effective. This course focuses on developing an understanding of the management challenges posed by the changes taking place in the business environment, as well as on the frameworks and skills that are critical to leading both individuals and teams within these changing environments. The first half of the course focuses on changes in the work environment whereas the second half focuses on how to lead within the changing business environment. The course encourages learning at multiple levels through a variety of instructional techniques including class discussion of conceptual frameworks, cases, and videos, group exercises, and practical application.

MGT 3118 - Cross-Cultural Management
In the not-so-distant past, only a small percentage of managers in organizations needed the knowledge and skills to manage employees from cultures other than their own. Today, however, virtually every manager will need these skills at some point, and some will make their careers on them. With a burgeoning global market, increased expatriate assignments and technologies that allow people to work together virtually, it is vital that managers learn how to manage across cultures. This course complements your other management and international business courses by developing your cross-cultural awareness to better understand the issues managers face when working across international boundaries. The course provides a broad overview of the various roles managers play within the unique international contexts. It introduces you to comparisons of significant cross-cultural differences and helps you to become familiar with ways to effectively anticipate and address cultural differences toward organizational and individual success. A particular emphasis is placed on the unique challenges associated with managing people in an international environment ranging from the psychology of cross-cultural relationships to developing strategic HR policies to attract and retain a global workforce.

MGT 4102 - Management Consulting (Previously taught as MGT 4803 - Consulting.  Credit not allowed for both).
Management Consulting has become and will continue to be a significant career option for many students, regardless of whether a student’s academic foundation is in business, engineering, or the basic sciences. Careers in Management Consulting often provide individuals an opportunity for challenging work, continued self-development, access to important social and professional networks, and, over time, significant financial rewards. The Management Consulting Industry has grown in size and complexity particularly since the early 1990’s. Although there are many very small firms, the industry is dominated by a relatively few very large global organizations that practice in a variety of business settings and business disciplines. In addition many businesses have developed internal consulting organizations to provide consulting related services within the organization and often in conjunction with consulting services offered by third party firms.

In this course, we explore what it means to be a Management Consultant, and will introduce students to consulting frameworks and methods; simulate consulting project activities and situations using business cases; and network students with practicing consulting professionals from a variety of global and local firms. Within the context of this course, consulting is view broadly and is inclusive of a number of practice areas including Strategy Consulting, IT Consulting, Marketing Consulting, Human Resource Consulting, Operational/Process Consulting, Organizational Consulting, and consulting for non-profits. Course participants will be organized into consulting teams and will have the opportunity to identify and complete two simulated consulting “engagements” using case materials from the Harvard Business School.

MGT 4119 - Leading Teams (Previously taught as MGT 4803 - Teamwork in Organizations and MGT 4106 Teams in Organizations. Credit not allowed for more than one of these courses).
Working in teams is an integral part of modern businesses and organizational life.  To better prepare you to succeed as a leader, manager or member of teams, this course is designed around two objectives.  First, it will create opportunities for you to lead and manage dynamic teams and design and implement effective team processes.  Second, it will introduce you to the critical theories, concepts and frameworks used by successful managers to diagnose team performance and the threats and opportunities teams face.  The learning objectives for the course will be accomplished through 1) analysis and discussion of case studies, 2) critical evaluation of current approaches to and realities of team management, and 3) active participation in team exercises and simulations.  This course promises to provide greater insight into what separates successful teams from the many that fail, as well as greater confidence in your own ability to lead and contribute to enhanced team performance.

MGT 4116 - The Role of Gender, Race and Ethnicity in Organizational Behavior (Previously taught as MGT 4803 Gender & Ethnicity in US & Global Organizations. Credit not allowed for both).
The face of the global and domestic workplace has changed radically in recent decades.  This change has provided great opportunity for growth, but it has also created new concerns for the individual and the organization as we learn to harness the power of this new workforce in the most productive ways. This course will examine how managers and employees become more effective leaders by understanding the role gender, race and ethnicity plays in the life of the organization.

Many of us want to believe that we are objective, however, research has shown us that gender, race, and ethnicity and even the clothes we wear are determinate factors in how we deal with each other in a business environment.  In this course, we will examine these differences and attempt to understand the reasons behind the conflicts that arise within a diverse workforce.

When we speak of gender and ethnic issues, we usually discuss them in terms of the problems of the minority group.  In this course we will also look at these issues in terms of the way the majority views itself and what effect this has on change within the organization.
We will explore how a leader can use an understanding of these divergent styles to enhance both the individual’s and group’s effectiveness. We will go behind the façade of difference into the subtle nuances of interpersonal relationships in an attempt to make each student a more powerful employee, manager or leader.

MGT 4117 - Global Workforce Management (Previously taught as MGT 4803 - International Human Resources. No credit allowed for both).
It is widely acknowledged today that business is becoming more global. This globalization of business creates new challenges and opportunities for each of the functions of management including Human Resource Management. Though it is clear that International Human Resource Management (IHRM) is an integral part of business globalization, the Human Resource Management function is often poorly understood by those who make decisions concerning global operations, marketing, and personnel assignments. This lack of knowledge certainly contributes to the many disappointments that are experienced both by the business and the individuals whose assignment may become ‘internationalized’. This course is about useful methods and approaches for effectively addressing these challenges.

In this course, we take the perspective of the multinational firm and will be concerned both with the design of IHRM systems (such as recruiting, selection, training), as well as HR decision-making in the context of the overall business, its strategy, and current performance. Whether you are interested in becoming a Human Resource Manager or a manager who must learn to deal effectively with Human Resource issues, this course will be relevant.

MGT 4803 -  Innovation and Entrepreneurial Behavior
Innovation is an important priority for businesses, a critical component of leadership, and a key factor contributing to the survival, transformation, and growth of organizations (both large and small). This course focuses on understanding innovation processes and how they can be used to improve innovation outcomes.  We will identify barriers to innovation; discuss mechanisms for unlocking and facilitating creativity; distinguish different types of innovation projects and how they should be represented in an organization’s innovation portfolio; and evaluate the impact of different organizational designs, processes (e.g., power, politics, evaluation, etc.), and cultures on innovation.  We will also devote a segment of class to a Design Thinking simulation which will highlight a method (popularized by IDEO) for designing new products and services using a human-centered ethos.  Throughout the course we will also recognize and discuss global innovation challenges and opportunities.   By the end of this course, you should have a strong understanding of what innovation is, the challenges associated with developing, nurturing, and profiting from it, and the varied individual, group, and organizational levers that can be used to positively manage innovation processes.

MGT 4803 - Leadership: Managing Work Relationships (Previously taught as MGT 4803 - Fairness and Leadership: Building High Trust Cultures. Credit not allowed for both).
This course is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of leadership as a phenomenon, emphasizing the importance of building high-quality work relationships. Using case-based methodology, students will learn to think critically about the leadership. It is important to note that leadership develops over time, through repetition, feedback, and self-reflection. Ultimately this course will provide you with the tools you will need to continue to mature and evolve as a leader.

MGT 4803 - Motivation and Rewards
Motivation and Rewards presents both the theories underlying direct compensation and reward systems in organizations, and the administrative practices used to implement such systems. Theories and models relevant to total rewards from economics, organizational behavior, psychology, and sociology will be examined, particularly as they relate to human capital practices and outcomes including labor force attraction and retention and individual motivation, satisfaction, and performance. Compensation management practices, including the analysis and evaluation of jobs, criteria and procedures for determining wage levels, individual wage determination, forms of pay, and benefits will be covered.

MGT 4803 - Strategic Mgt. of Human Assets (Previously taught as Special Topics MGT 4803 - Strategic HR. No credit allowed for both Strategic Mgt. of Human Assets and Strategic HR).
The effective employment and deployment of human assets or resources in organizations is widely recognized as a critical characteristic of successful firms. A firm’s ability to respond to changing environments, to “learn,” and to be efficient and competitive all depend, to some extent, on the individuals inside the firm. It is the management of those individuals in a way that is consistent with the goals and policies of the firm that will be our focus. This class will explore the content and the process issues surrounding the management of human assets. Because there is a wide variety of ways in which to examine human resource management, a couple of clarifications about the approach in this course:

1. This course will approach personnel and human resource management issues and challenges from the general manager’s perspective. In most medium-sized and large organizations, personnel or human resource management is a staff function. The efficient and ethical employment of human resource policies and practices, however, is a general management responsibility. In smaller organizations, there may be no human resources staff available and thus every employee is expected to develop and implement policies and practices that relate to managing the human assets in the firm.
2. This course will approach the management of human assets from a strategic perspective. As such we will consider the relationship between practices and processes of managing people in firms and the context (e.g., industry, environment, political, social) in which these practices take place. The nexus of this course, however, remains human resource management rather than strategy.
3. Cases, readings, and assignments will be used to highlight the issues and problems that face organizations as they create and implement policies to strategically manage their human assets.

This concentration represents a blend of organizational behavior courses with human resource management courses. Depending on course selection, the student could be prepared to enter workplace in occupations associated with human resource management in medium to large companies or consulting for established companies that specialize in managing change, organizational transformation, and talent management. The historic background of this emerging field is rooted in traditional administrative functions associated with managing employees, but has expanded scope and impact through the integration of Strategic Human Resource Management and Organizational Change.

After completing MGT 3101 (Organizational Behavior), students complete six advanced courses (four from the first list and two from the second list). Students must earn a grade of "C" or higher in all courses used toward a concentration.