In contrast to the other OB courses in the master Management program, this OB course is taught in English. All other aspects of this course are the same in terms of course content and examination requirements. This course is also open for international exchange students.

The objectives of this course are:

• to understand social processes and their importance for the functioning of organizations and the achievement of organizational goals;
• to recognize the relevance of contextual, individual, structural and processual factors for the behavior of and in organizations;
• differentiate between different theories, concepts and explanations of human behavior in organizations,
• apply their explanatory systems to concrete leadership and management-related everyday situations;
• critically judge organizational practices and recognize how organizations shape or deform people.

• Complete work assignments while meeting deadlines;
• Participate in solving case studies in small groups;
• identify the essential core of a concept as well as a case study and present it to a larger group using appropriate means;
• apply knowledge of OB acquired through reflection on social processes in the seminar;
• specializing into the respective research topic by studying classic social science texts,
• determine, through self- and peer-assessments, what one's own personality profile is like and what potential implications this has for behavior in organizations;
• apply the acquired knowledge directly through research and the implementation of small exploratory projects.

The teaching/learning design focuses on learning theoretical concepts and models and the ability to use these concepts and models to make informed management decisions.

To achieve this, the following teaching/learning methods are used:

1. Self-study: the first part of the course consists of learning overarching concepts and theoretical frameworks based on international literature. This will be evaluated in an individual midterm exam.
2. Preparation: students prepare themselves for the respective course units, e.g. by reading cases or examples.
3. Interactive learning: In the course units, we deal with business cases, examples, learning games, and we discuss –guided by the course instructor– theoretical insights for these practical cases.
4. Self-reflection: the students have to reflect on the most important learning from the course material as well as from the interactive elements in the course units.

The assessment of this course consists of three main parts:

1. EXAM (individual assignment; 30% of the total assessment): Students in this course will be given a standardized, individualized midterm exam (based on a selection of 10 chapters from the course book).
2. ESSAY (individual assignment; 30% of total assessment): All students will write a personal essay reflecting on several learning outcomes from the course. This will be guided by specific questions communicated by the course instructor. This essay should be between 4,000 and 6,000 words (not including references; students may choose how to reference as long as it is consistent).
3. CASE (group work, 40% of the total assessment): All students will work in groups of 4 to 5 to develop a business case based on insights from the course material and discussion in the LV units.

There is no minimum number of points to be achieved in each grade component.

For students of the Master's program in Management:

Positive Absolvierung der LV „Einführung in das Management“
Positive Absolvierung der LV „Arbeiten in Teams“

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Institute for Public Management und Governance

per E-Mail:
Jurgen Willems