Delving into the complex waters of surviving in or even worse, leading an organization, you will find yourself multi-tasking in ways you never imagined possible. In a course on organizational behavior a student will discover ways of thinking outside the box in order to gain the skills and practical understanding to meet the typical management challenges and learn the fundamentals of human behavior in today’s organizations.
Some of the topics included in this course should be: management functions; the social sciences; helping employees balance work and other responsibilities. Today’s world of challenges and solutions from raising a family to caring for aging parents, long distance commuting and telecommuting, etc. have increased the need for better understanding and flexibility within management
In order to produce high performance managers in today’s business world improving people skills; improving customer service; motivational concepts; communication; power and politics; conflict and negotiation; culture; and stress management should also be essential components in this course. By the time a student has completed the Introduction to Organizational Behavior they should be able to assess and maximize their personal skills within the context of today’s organizational behavior. They should also have learned practical techniques for managing self, ethics, communication, diversity, across cultures, teams, and change. Almost all of the course textbooks include case studies. These are scenarios designed to place the student in a difficult or unexpected management situation in order to help them apply what they’ve learned and work through to the resolution. There are real-life cases for management, organizational behavior and human resources that will transition students from the textbook to actual workplace decisions.
Identifying the top five textbooks according to Amazon and two from Barnes and Nobles led to the following:
Organizational Behavior (14th Edition) (MyManagementLab Series) by Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy A. Judge (Jan 16, 2010)
International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior by Nancy J. Adler and Allison Gundersen (Jun 29, 2007) Organizational Behavior: Managing People and Organizations by Ricky W. Griffin and Gregory Moorhead (Jan 12, 2009)
Organization Development and Change by Thomas G. Cummings and Christopher G. Worley
Organizational Behavior, 12th Edition by Stephen P. Robbins and Tim A. Judge
When you look to Barnes and Nobles you will find:
Organizational Behavior: 11th Edition by John R. Schermerhorn Jr. which also is available with a workbook.
Organizational Behavior: 8th Edition by Robert Kreitner listed as up-to-date and user driven.
There are many other textbooks available and the variation on cost covers the gamut. This course maybe titled as an introduction into the field, but the content of this course is anything but. Students will complete this course with a very strong sense of the skills needed for management of today’s businesses.