Organizational Behavior-Syllabus Essay Example for Free

Organizational Behavior-Syllabus Essay I. Course Information Intelligence and technical knowledge will only take you so far in your work and private lives. My goal is to introduce you to behavior in organization (and of organizations) in a way that stresses you personal behavioral skill development. In other words, the course should help you assess your strengths and weaknesses and will stress how you can enhance and improve your management skills. To that end, the course stresses a mix of assessment tests for each chapter to give you a personal point of departure for learning and skill development, along with basic theory and cases and role plays to examine examples of situations and skills that we are studying. This is a hands-on course. I expect students to come to class prepared to learn and to participate! Course Objectives: 1) To provide students with knowledge and understanding of the basic principles of organizational behavior (i.e. human behavior in organizations). 2) The course includes both theoretical and practical aspects of OB and is designed to offer introductory knowledge, skills, and perspectives in OB that can be useful for students’ professional and academic careers. II. Course Learning Outcomes: On completion of this course, students should be able to: 1ï ¼Å½ Understand the basic principles of organizational behavior (i.e. human behavior in organizations). 2ï ¼Å½ Be equipped with introductory knowledge, skills, and perspectives in OB that can be useful for students’ professional and academic careers. Teaching and Learning Activities: 1. Lecture 2. In class exercises, small group discussion 3. Team Presentations 4. Final Exam III. Assessment In addition to attendance and engagement in classroom discussion, all items discussed in class including all materials assigned as ‘Required’ reading may be used to assess students’ progress in the class. The methods of assessment include the following: Personal Journal A skills-based OB course centers upon assisting you to assess your strengths and weaknesses, developing a learning plan to redress these and regular reflection about how you can apply the skills and concepts learned outside the classroom. Keeping a journal is the best way to facilitate this. To ensure you get off to a timely start, I shall ask for some specific assignments that constitute part of the journal to be handed in for credit. Examples include the self- assessment of strengths and weaknesses based upon the online assessment (class 2), and other individual exercises in the textbook. You can fulfill the first assignment online at http://www.passovoy.com/assessment/sal/quick.html. You are required to complete a minimum of 8 assessments. In some cases, you will be surprised by what you learn about yourself – both positive and negative. Each student is required to write a maximum two-page single-spaced typed write-up regarding what you learned about yourself. Final Exam A written in-class exam will be given on May 14, 2012. The format of the exam is a combination of multiple-choice and/true-false questions, and are based on lecture and text materials. Many questions are applied and require you to analyze and synthesize OB concepts. Please prepare early for the exams and come to class with any questions or concerns you may have prior to the exam date. Do not feel uncomfortable asking questions. Other students will also benefit from the discussion. Top Five Take-Aways This assignment provides a final opportunity for you to synthesize and share your learning with the class. Reflect on your learning in this class and write up a list of your â€Å"Top Five Take-Aways† from the course. Explain why you chose each concept, how you have utilized it in your own life, and how you think it will help you in your future role as a leader. There is no set length of the paper. That depends on your learning. You are required to turn in a hard copy. Single-spacing, please. Obviously you will not be graded on whether your choice of a learning point is valid or not. Your learning is your learning. Your grade will be based on how well you explain that concept’s application to your life. Your presentation in class will be fairly informal. Each member of the class will have about a minute or so to share a point or two about your most important learning from the course. It is simply an opportunity to reflect on your learning with your peers. Sometimes hear ing what is important to other people can also contribute to your own learning. Group Project Learning to work effectively in groups is a critical work skill. On day one, you will be asked to form groups (final membership to be handed into me by the third meeting. With your group, you will have two assignments. The first is to develop a team learning notebook, recording team responses to case discussion questions throughout the semester. The team learning notebook will be collected during the mid-point of the course (6th week), as well as the end of the course (12th week) . The second assignment is to conduct a 20 minutes presentation on a topic of your choice related to the topic on the day selected by your group. Further information will be given in class and sign up is on a first-come first –serve basis. If any group member expresses displeasure with group process and contributions of others shall used a peer evaluation form. Each individuals contribution will be identified on the peer evaluation form I will provide and that will be confidential (i.e., your group members will not see your evaluation of their participation). All group members should participate equally to obtain full credit for the assignment. For example, if the assignment receives a grade of 8.5 out of 10 and your group gives you 100% participation rate, then you will receive the total 8.5 points. If your group gives you less than 100% participation, your grade will be adjusted accordingly. Evaluation of your peers should help you maintain an appropriate level of participation from all of your group members. IV.Course Policies Academic Dishonesty: Assignments found to have been plagiarized or an exam in which cheating is found to have occurred will receive a grade of ‘zero’.

Macbeth Reflection

Macbeth Reflection William Shakespeare has written Macbeth using the reflection of the world which he was familiar with as the play echoes the life and interests of the Ruler and the public. Moreover, James 1st was greatly attracted to sorcery and therefore, witchcraft has a considerable space in this play. Also, Macbeth is a moral lesson as the play is demonstrating the price that the individual has to pay for his sumptuous desires. Shakespeare demonstrated just how the total power has a tendency to corrupt as most often great individuals are immoral. In author era the homicide of a King was the most horrible offense as people believed that the Ruler was selected by means of God and defying it is equal to a protest against God. Lady Macbeth is a provocative character as she was able to identify Macbeths strengths and weaknesses and use them for exploitation. Lady Macbeth character firstly appears in Act 1 scene 5 when she is reading a letter sent from her husband Macbeth. According to a letter, her husband thinks that she is dearest partner of greatness. Therefore, Macbeth is deeply in love with Lady Macbeth as well as he trusts her absolutely. However, she become fascinated with the story told by her husband about the witches tellings. In the letter Macbeth is telling her Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the king, who all-hailed me Thane of Cawdor; by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming on of time, with Hail, king that halt be!. Lady Macbeth realizes a chance to become a queen and she is certain that her husband will acquire this. This is proving that she is despairing to obtain the power. Therefore she is unlike other women these times as back then women used to be seen as gentle beings who had a role of being beautiful as well as giving birth. No one regarded th em as being clever or equivalent to men. Moreover, her relationship with her husband was unlike other couples relationships at the time. Although, Macbeth was a man, he frequently asked his for his wife opinion before doing something as she was the first to hear about his promising future voiced by the sorceresses. Lady Macbeth voices Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood; stop up the access and passage to remorse She hears that Duncan is coming and that he will stay for the night in the castle. This provides her with an immediate chance to carry out fatal plan. Therefore, we can recognize the evils of her as she desires to become brave enough to convince Macbeth into murdering Duncan. She asks her spouse to Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent undert which means that he has to be pleasant on the outside and cruel on the inside. However, Macbeth is hesitates to commit the homicide, as he tells her wife that they will not continue any further on this matter. Then Lady Macbeth offends her husbands manhood by telling him that he has to be braver. Moreover, she calls him a coward by telling him that then you were a man, and to be more than what you were, you would be so much m ore the man. It is clearly displaying how devious and controlling she is as Lady Macbeth is emotionally forcing her husband. Lady Macbeth demonstrates her courageous approach in the scene where Duncan is murdered. She was meaning to kill him by herself but she fails when Duncan appears retaining resemblances of her father as she tells her husband that if had he not resembled à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Id have done it. Therefore, this is displaying some kindness in her as also it could suggest that after all she is a woman with certain amount of sensitivity. Moreover, she might be displaying her womanlike sensitivity when she requests for help. However, she is still concentrated and determined to carry out the plan as she appointed Macbeth do murder Duncan. Moreover, Macbeth has succeeded in test of love for his wife by doing this. Nevertheless, Lady Macbeth appears being the greater criminal as she recalls the facts which were unnoticed by her husband. She turns out to be furious when she discovers that her husband has not completed the entire plan as she asks him Why did you bring the daggers from the place? They must lie there. Go carry them, and smear the sleepy grooms with blood. Once again, this indicates that she is very controlling as well as that she holds a lot of anger on her husband. Lady Macbeth argues Macbeth of attiring a heart so white which could show that she hates her husband. On the other hand, maybe she is fearful of a prospect of him possibly deceiving himself. Consequently, this before long pushes their relationship into collapse. I particularly liked the quite of Lady Macbeth where she states that A little water clears us of this deed. It means that as soon as they rinse their hands the guiltiness will disappear. The following day when everybody discovers the death of Duncan, Macbeth must assure everyone that he did not slaughtered the King. Therefore he tried to achieve this by use of an exaggerated speech. This apparently made every person appear doubtful of him. Thus, when Lady Macbeth notices Macbeth doing this she puts her greatest efforts in order to move the attention of her husband through falling unconscious. As a result, the people shortly disremember Macbeths scandal and are trying to help out Lady Macbeth. By doing this, she took the attention away from Macbeth. Lady Macbeth understands that the Crown had not made her happy as she had hoped, Noughts had, alls spent, where our desire is got without content.. Therefore, she became mad person terribly wrecked by happenings. For instance, the sleep walking scene is showing that lastly she does feel mortified as well as regretting her own actions. Whats more, gentlewoman requests a doctor to check on Lady Macbeth since she is becoming further troubled as she is sleep walling. This indicates how all the killings in with she assisted is driving her crazy. After all, Lady Macbeth was the main power regarding the murder of Duncan as she had major influence over her husbands actions. I felt sorry for her as she could not abide her guiltiness and for that reason ultimately took her own existence since Lady Macbeth lost the relationship with Macbeth even though they were once very close to each other. Macbeth has found out that Lady Macbeth has perished. However, he had not expressed any sorrow or agony. Therefore this is clearly indicating that the love has left Macbeths heart. Moreover, the guiltiness and heaviness of her actions has overwhelmed her at last and that is why she died. The moral lesson of this play is that Lady Macbeths evils had cracked her and she acquired help. She at the end of the day mourned over her activities which made Macbeth a changed man. Even though, I could still recall her being bold and horrid. In my opinion, William Shakespeare wanted to demonstrate that despite the fact she was wicked and had great power, Lady Macbeth were tremendously shattered in the end.

Mapping The Violence in Colombia Essay -- War, Structural Violence

Mapping The Violence in Colombia The peace researcher Johan Galtung proposes a typology of violence, constructed as direct and indirect, formal-informal and visible-invisible. Regarding it as a triangle, Galtung (1990) states that typology of violence corresponds roughly to the ‘ABC’ levels of the conflict triangle: Attitude, Behaviour and Contradictions. In the first level Direct violence (acts of violence as such) and in second and third level underneath the surface; Structural violence and Cultural violence. See figure below. The ‘Structural Violence’ concept by Galtung (1969) asserts that the structure and culture in societies are a central facet on the explanation of violence; thus, ‘human beings are being influenced so that their somatic and mental realisations are below their potential’. The author distinguishes two types of outcomes of violence: a) effect that violence has; and b) the form of violence. The first is violence manifested on either person-to-person basis (such as familiar violence) or conflict confrontation (i.e. shooting). In the second one, the forms of violence are manifested within society, in its systems and institutionalised practices, and also violence as social phenomena and its constructions in mass media. This will set the basis for the next section to contextualise the multiple causes of violence in conflict situations, such as the case of Colombia, in order to understand the journalism coverage and the development of peace initiatives. I conside r it important to analyse profound violence because of its complexity, diverse variables and causes involved, such as social, economic, political and psychological causes that help to comprehend this society and its journalism with violent and ... ... studies on violence as the following: ‘literary-anthropological (urban scenarios focused on gangs); studies centred in psychological and individual effects of violence (kidnap); analysis of perceptions on violence in all its manifestations, from every-day life; and the internally displaced because of violence†. Violence and sacrifice are two concepts constantly seen in Colombian social imagery; the guerrillas, the paramilitary and political parties propose that it is necessary to sacrifice in order to achieve social goals. Therefore, the sacrifice of martyrs and innocent civilians is justified in either side by demagogic discourse. The notion of sacrifice is also seen in the journalists; the majority of those I interviewed (who were threatened and have been in exile) also exercise the notion of sacrifice for their profession and country by doing their work.

Images of Woman’s Sexuality in Advertisements Essay

Considering the time an average American spends in front of the TV screen, it is obvious that the things he/she sees there influence greatly his/her perception of the world around. The stereotypes media offers us make a great impact of our perception of people. Thus, it’s no wonder that the images of women’s sexuality in advertisements partly form our gender stereotypes. For to get more information on this issue, I analyzed an article by Christina N. Baker, published in the Sex Roles: A Journal of Research in January 2005. The name of the article is Images of women’s sexuality in advertisements: a content analysis of Black- and White-oriented women’s and men’s magazines. This article analyzes the stereotypes of women’s sexuality given in advertisements, the differences of those stereotypes for the White and Black woman. It gives the peculiarities of images created for the representatives of different races, and analyzes the origins and the influence of stereotypes that appear due to the TV and magazine commercials. It has always seemed to me that people in our society share some distorted view of woman and their sexuality. They express the concepts about it that are sometimes totally ridiculous (like that a woman should not express her sexual desires, as it is socially disapproved). Those concepts are very widespread nowadays, and I have been interested for a long time already why people trust those stereotypes, why lots man judge the woman that surround them on the strength of those concepts. Later I understood that the media also have the considerable role on forming the gender stereotypes. Thus I felt I wanted to know more about the specific features of these stereotypes, and, about the mechanism of their functioning. The author developed three hypotheses about the portrayal of woman in media. The first was that â€Å"sexual women will be portrayed with characteristics such as submissiveness and dependency in both women’s and men’s mainstream/White-oriented magazines†. According to the review of literature the author made, we live in a patriarchal society, where man a considered to be superior to women, thus they put the criteria of sexuality for woman. For man â€Å"†¦sexual attractiveness in women is associated with physical beauty. A sign of status for a man is to have a physically attractive woman by his side. The more physically attractive a woman is, the more prestige she will bring to her male partner/spouse†. The woman portrayed in commercials, and on the pages of the magazines is bound to be submissive, as it is one of the demands of patriarchal society. The author also notes that some of the scientific findings hypothesize that the continuous showing in the media of women as submissive sex objects whose main goal is to satisfy man’s desires, reinforces the gender hierarchy existing in the contemporary society. The second hypothesis is that â€Å"sexual Black women are more likely than sexual White women to be portrayed as dominant and independent†. The author noted that despite of the fact that all of the women are more likely to be portrayed as the sexual objects, White woman are seen as the etalon of beauty, thus they are portrayed as the sex objects more frequently than the Black women are. It is also the fact that Black women have always been depicted as dominant towards Black man. It is historically that Black man can’t get a decent job, thus Black women often have to bring the bacon home. This is the reason why Black woman are often portrayed as the heads of the families in the advertisements. The author also noted that the two stereotypes that exist about black woman are â€Å"Mommy† – the matriarch of the big family, and the mother that is raising her child by herself. The stereotype also exists in the contemporary society that Black woman usually don’t have a husband. The author adds that the Black matriarch is that is portrayed as deviant because she challenges the assumption of the patriarchal family. The third hypothesis is that â€Å"Black-oriented magazines are more likely than White-oriented magazines to portray sexual women as dominant and independent†. The literature review conducted by the author states that despite of the fact that television commercials that targeted Black audiences contained about as many stereotypical images of Blacks as did those directed toward Whites, the Blackoriented magazines portrayed women in more active and even aggressive role. It was also that in the magazines for the Blacks women were more often portrayed in the role of the mother than women in the magazines for the whites. The characteristic feature of the portrayal of woman in the Blackoriented magazines was that there woman were rather shown in an extended families than in nuclear one, † which conforms to the matriarch stereotype. † The last hypotheses said that â€Å"black women will be portrayed with physical characteristics that conform to White standards of beauty. However, Black women are more likely to have European features in White-oriented magazines than in Black-oriented magazines†. The research showed that nowadays Blackoriented magazines portray women which conform to the White standart of beauty. The color of skin of those woman is dark, but the features are thin, they are slender, and they usually have long and straight hair. In fact, the only phenotypic difference between Caucasian and Afro-American models is the color of skin. Blackoriented magazines don’t consider the fact that the features portrayed are not typical for the Black woman, and don’t respond to the African canons of beauty. The sexual attractiveness in our society is associated with Whiteness, thus the magazines try to fulfill the desires of their readers. The findings of the article’s author coincide with the results of researches conducted by the psychologists, sociologists and psychologists during the last fifty years. For example, Poe, (1976), and Silverstein & Silverstein,(1974) found that in most of the TV advertisements woman were less physically active that man were, and they were the recipients of the advice given by man. It confirms the first hypothesis of the article’s author, the one which says that women are depicted as submissive to man. The persuasion is that the woman has to be weak for to be attractive.

Problem identification and formulation styles in Walmarts organization

Problem identification and formulation styles in Walmarts organization In the current work environment, it is of essence for leaders of organizations to apply various problem identification and formulation styles as they assist in quick and efficient solving of problems in organizations. At Walmarts organization, the management practices four different decision making styles.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Problem identification and formulation styles in Walmarts organization specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More First, is collective participative decision making style in which the manager collects all the relevant information needed and other viewpoints from the members of the company; however, he or she maintains the control of the decision to be made and is responsible for the final course of action taken (Verma, 2009). The advantage of this decision making style is that there is a sense of involvement which can cushion against potential negative impacts and this strategy also enables th e manager to be well informed before making a decision. Further, the most favorable aspect of the collective participative decision style is that it can be used to identity and solve the new reality that is currently facing Walmarts organization: its clients need more than just the lowest price. Thus, the strategy can be used to improve the organization’s services to its clients. Nonetheless, a major weakness of this decision making style is that it can be slow and time intensive process, especially when the organization is large. Second, is the autocratic decision making style in which the manager is held accountable for the final course taken and his or her own inclinations and knowledge are used to make the final decision (Lussier, 2008). In this case, the manager does not seek for viewpoints from the members of the organization since the responsibility is wholly endowed upon him or her. A major strength of this style is that it is important in emergencies since it is a qu ick way of reaching at conclusions. On the other hand, its major weakness is that the members are not incorporated and they can be offended by the choice made if they are negatively impacted; consequently, this can make the manager to lose support and credibility. A problem that can be identified and described using this style is a situation in which a manager at Walmart decides to give back a client his money after complaining bitterly about a product he bought at the store. Third, is the democratic decision making style in which the manager transfers the responsibility of making a decision to the group and votes are cast to determine the course of action to be taken judging from the choice with the highest votes. The main advantage of this style is that the decision is made fast and all the members are included in the process. However, there may be no responsibility taken for the course of action preferred since the manager is not accountable and the members can claim that they di d not support the choice made. Nonetheless, this style can be useful in describing a decision taken to introduce Walmart’s new advertising motto, â€Å"Save Money Live Better,† to replace the previous motto.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Lastly, consensus decision making style incorporates the participation of every member of the organization and the manager is no longer responsible for the course of action taken and its impacts since he or she transfers control to the members of the group. In favor of this style is that it allows for group dedication, team spirit, and varied ideas to be shared that increases the chances of a good decision to be made. A major inhibitory factor here is that the vast amount of information collected and input involved may make the process to be tiresome and time consuming. A problem that can be addressed favorably by t his style is a situation in which some employees at Walmart are to be moved to one of its new stores in a low-income area. Reference List Lussier, R. N. (2008). Management fundamentals: concepts, applications, skill  development. Mason, OH : South-Western/Cengage Learning. Verma, D. (2009). Decision-making style: social and creative dimension. New Delhi: Global India Publications.