Course description

Managers must plan for the future, but they regularly face the unexpected. Managers have to make decisions and execute them with some degree of certainty, yet they expect that the unexpected, and sometimes the undesirable, will probably happen. The reality of management is that work organisations behave in a manner that is complex, changeable, political and difficult to control. Behaviour in work organisation is ostensibly rational, but is often guided more by emotions and affect. Effective managers seek to understand organisational behaviour, and use this understanding to help avoid pitfalls and to deal with those that still occur. This module will help learners to make sense of work organisations and help them manage salient aspects of organisational life. The aim of the module is to balance critical analysis with practical learning. This is a challenge, but people who have to ‘manage’ team-working, performance, change, diversity and the like, should also be able to see beyond taken-for-granted notions about these things.

Learning outcomes

On completion of the module, students will be able to:

1. Critically analyse salient aspect of organisational behaviour
2. Evaluate the impact of salient aspect of organisational behaviour on business effectiveness
3. Apply relevant concepts, models and theories to the management of organisational behaviour
   

• Teacher: Edward Alport