This course is designed for students with a basic or intermediate level of expertise in topics related with the study of human behavior in teams and organizations. Thus, specific knowledge in organizational behavior, work and organizational psychology, group dynamics and teamwork, organizational theory and design, organizational strategy, leadership or human resources management, will definitely help students to make the most from the course contents detailed below.

Overall, students in this course will improve their skills to analyze complex human situations in the workplace, making decisions concerning people, and collaborating in teams. More detailedly, the competencies and skills to be acquired are: - To possess and understand knowledge that provides a basis or opportunity to be original in the development and/or application of ideas, often in a research context. - To know how to apply the knowledge acquired and their problem-solving skills in new or unfamiliar environments within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to their area of study. - To be able to integrate knowledge and deal with the complexity of making judgments based on information that, being incomplete or limited, includes reflections on the social and ethical responsibilities linked to the application of their knowledge and judgments. - To communicate their findings and the ultimate knowledge and reasons behind them to specialized and non-specialized audiences in a clear and unambiguous manner. - To be able to continue studying in a self-directed and autonomous way. - To identify which business factors are critical to achieve a competitive advantage - To understand, analyze and solve complex problems related to the management of the company from a broad knowledge of the advanced instruments of organizational behavior analysis - To relate the different disciplinary contributions that can give rise to new approaches to the business administration. - To be able to extract from an analysis of a real business case the relevant information to learn and improve in the decision-making process of both organizational management and financing. - To evaluate the decisions taken within the companies based on criteria of efficiency and social equity. - To design strategies that improve the competitive capacity of companies based on theoretical concepts and available empirical evidence. - To develop proposals for the promotion of business activities. The learning objectives are aggregated into three levels of analysis: individual, group and organization. 1) At the individual level: - Understand the processes of perception and decision making and the several personal and situational factors that affect them. - Explain the role of personality, attitudes and social values in the behavior of employees. - Identify the determinants of work motivation, designing interventions to improve it. 2) At the team level: - Understand the determinants of team effectiveness, suggesting strategies to develop high-performance teams. - Identify the key factors of effective communication, developing the managerial skills to be a successful communicator. - Analyze the different types of conflict, using negotiation and mediation strategies to deal with it effectively. - Summarize the main perspectives (treats, behaviors) and styles of leadership (transactional/transformational). - Analyze the new challenges of today´s corporate leaders, choosing the best practices to deal with them. - Explain the impact of leadership on the performance, satisfaction and growth of work groups. 3) At the organizational level: - Understand how organizational culture is created, maintained and changed over time. - Design programs for organizational change and development.

The objective of the course is to provide foundation knowledge in Organizational Behavior from classic and contemporary theories, through ongoing controversies, to sound empirical studies. In so doing, we will explore the main research domains that will offer you enough lay on the ground. I am committed to help you to gain broad familiarity with theory and research concerned with OB from a multilevel perspective, and to help you in developing the analytical skills necessary to critically evaluate and integrate research in this field. I will also encourage you to use this course as an excuse for developing your own research agenda by writing a short term paper. Intensive reading by your side is a must to accomplish such objectives. Reading materials before class is absolutely necessary, as well as thinking for a while about the implications of the readings. In the course schedule, you will find a set of assigned readings for each class. I suggest that you read them in the order listed. Optional readings are listed providing you with examples of other manuscripts on the topic that you could explore for the session or the term paper. It will be your responsibility to locate the material on-line or in the library. Outline of classes: Session 1. Setting the Stage: What is OB? Session 2. Mood and Emotion in Organizations Sessions 3-4. Motivation in the Workplace Sessions 5-6. Leadership Sessions 7-8. Diversity Management Sessions 9-10. Teams that Work Sessions 11-12. Organizational Culture and Climate Session 13. Student Presentations Session 14. Final Assessment

This course is a seminar that mixes a little lecture and a lot of discussion over a set of readings. I will coordinate and facilitate the sessions, but most of the time students will lead the discussion. My main role will be to offer a constructive critique of the presentations, moderate the general class discussion, and integrate across articles. Each session will begin with a short introduction of the key concepts and a discussion of central questions students may have on the topic (30-45min). Next, we will engage in a collective discussion of the required readings guided by the assigned session leader and moderated by me. Except for the week when you will be the session leader, you are required to submit a one-page short assignment that synthesizes the required readings each week. Key individual contributions require active engagement in class discussions, in a way that students may be assessed regarding their quantity and quality of participation (e.g., Does the student demonstrate a good understanding of the reading material? Can the student identify common themes across the readings? Does the student use the readings as a foundation to develop new theoretical ideas and research proposals?). The term paper is a research proposal due in our last session. This proposal provides the students with the opportunity to conceive and plan an empirical study on an issue within the OB domain. You need to develop a new idea inspired by the course readings, providing a brief literature review of the related work-to-date, a theoretical framework including a few hypotheses, and the suggested methodology for testing the hypotheses (please conform to Academy of Management Journal standards and style guide). The paper may include maximum 15 double-spaced pages, including references. Students will present their papers in the last two sessions, which will be followed by feedback from the professor and classmates.