BALH3000 Organizational Behavior and Leadership Course description

The course consists of seminars, lectures, and independent study. The pedagogical approach involves active participation in seminars and lectures, presentation of one’s own work, and providing feedback to others’ presentations on the basis of the research literature and lecture topics.

The seminar form supports the candidates’ practical training in presenting their own research and commenting on others’.

Active participation in the seminars is necessary to adequately understand the course material and themes. Participation is therefore mandatory, and candidates are expected to attend all days of teaching and required to attend at least 80 percent of teaching days. In special circumstances, such as documented illnesses, the course leader may accept exceptions to this requirement. In these cases, lack of participation can be substituted with alternative arrangements such as active reading of the relevant syllabus literature.

Course requirements are assessed as confirmed or not confirmed. The course requirement must be completed and confirmed within the given deadline in order to have the right to submit a final essay.

After completing the course, the student should have the following overall learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The students will obtain

• a basic understanding of contemporary research based knowledge in organizational behavior and leadership. They will also become familiar with the most important topics, concepts, and contributions, which include:
  • individual differences and diversity
  • attitudes and decision making
  • perceptions and learning
  • motivation
  • team processes
  • leadership

Skills

The students will be able to

• critically examine and use different theoretical approaches and perspectives from the subject area to understand and analyze challenges and dilemmas relating to human behavior in organizations
• use knowledge from organizational behavior and leadership theories as well as empirical evidence when making and implementing decisions in organizations
• write a term paper clear and concise

General competence

The students will

• be able to communicate and discuss the major theories and research findings from this field, orally and in writing.
• acquire skills in critical reflection on the subject area's possibilities and limitations.
• convey knowledge through presentation and discussion.

Various work methods will be used such as lectures, discussions about current issues, and assignments. A focus will be on learning how to write academic term papers. The students are expected to work on assignments both individually and in groups outside of the joint lectures.

The students can freely choose between the one of the two following coursework requirements. One of them must have been approved for the student to take the exam:

• During the course, the students are required to, in groups of 3-5 people, give an oral presentation of a research paper on a specific topic. The time allocated for each article or case is about 15 minutes including class discussion.
• During the course, the students can actively participate in an organizational behavior study and get hands on experience in the research process. The students are required to independently collect a small amount of data for the study and adhere to ethical research principles in conducting the study. The main part of the work is recruiting and following up one team (3+ team members) for a study. The study is evaluated and discussed in class.

All required coursework must be completed and approved by the given deadline in order for the student to take the exam. If the coursework requirements has not been approved, the student will be given the opportunity to submit an improved version one time by the given deadline.

The exam in the course is a semester paper written in groups of 3-4 students. The paper must have a scope of 4000-6000 words. Students receive feedback on their first draft in a mandatory feedback session during the semester. Font and font size: Arial / Calibri 12 points. Line spacing: 1.5.

The term paper must be written in English.

Students awarded a fail grade are given one opportunity to submit an improved version of the assignment for assessment.

The final essay is assessed by the course lecturer(s).

Grade scale A-F

The exam papers are assessed by one internal and one external examiner.

At least 25% of the exam papers will be assessed by two examiners. The grades awarded for the papers assessed by two examiners form the basis for determining the level for all the exam papers.

Ann-Mari Farsund Lilleløkken