The summer cohort application deadline is May 18, 2025
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Organizational Behavior

This course examines the intersection of business and management studies, behavioral sciences, and psychology. Organizations, such as schools, startups, non-profits, corporations, and governments, are complex social systems that influence, and are influenced by, individual and group behavior. How do organizations make good decisions, and why do they sometimes make bad ones? In what ways can team dynamics be improved? How can businesses foster creativity and innovation, and why are they important? How can an organizational leader change the culture of a company, and how else can organizational culture change? What makes a successful leader in an organization? What is the role of personality in receiving, maintaining, and excelling at a job? What predicts different levels of worker motivation and productivity? How do individual-level perceptions, attitudes, biases, and stereotypes shape an organization? What is at stake with contemporary discourse on diversity and inclusion? We will grapple with these questions, and you will develop an understanding of the antecedents and consequences of organizational behavior.

Pre-approved Topic List

  1. Should organizations use personality tests to decide which job applicants to hire?
  2. How does personality affect job satisfaction and performance?
  3. What motivates workers? How can workers be motivated to perform better?
  4. How do cognitive biases influence decision making, such as who is hired?
  5. What is emotional intelligence? Why is it important?
  6. What causes ‘burn out’? How can well-being be improved at work?
  7. How do group norms develop at workplaces?
  8. Why do individuals conform to group norms?
  9. How can group work and group decisions be improved?
  10. Do groups make better decisions than individuals? What influences decision-making?
  11. Are diverse teams or cohesive teams more effective?
  12. Why do organizations have diversity statements and equal opportunity policies? Are they effective?
  13. What makes a good leader?
  14. Do men and women have different leadership styles?
  15. Why are there more men than women in leadership positions?
  16. What does creativity and innovation look like in organizations?
  17. What is the difference between creativity and innovation? Which is more important?
  18. How does organizational culture develop?
  19. How and why do different organizations have different work cultures?
  20. How and why do organizational cultures change?
  21. Does our work environment influence us and how we work? How?
  22. How and why is AI (Artificial Intelligence) biased against gender, race, and other social identities?