Results for OB

This course introduces you to the structures and processes that affect group performance and highlights some of the common pitfalls associated with working in teams. Topics include team culture, fostering creativity and coordination, making group decisions, and dealing with a variety of personalities. You will participate in a number of group exercises to illustrate principles of teamwork and to give you practice not only diagnosing team problems but also taking action to improve total team performance.

Building on the discipline of social psychology, this course helps you cultivate mindsets and build skills to understand the ways in which organizations and their members affect one another. You will learn frameworks for diagnosing and resolving problems in organizational settings. The course relates theory and research to organizational problems by reviewing basic concepts such as individual motivation and behavior; decision making; interpersonal communication and influence; small group behavior; and dyadic, individual, and inter-group conflict and cooperation.

In the Leadership Labs class we ask you to consider the question, "Why would someone follow YOU?" This is a course in which you consider what kind of leader you want to be, what kind of leader you are, and how to align your leadership behavior with your leadership goals. In this class you will have an opportunity to lead your squad and in doing so to discover your strengths and challenges as a leader. You will receive feedback about your approach to leadership and you will have opportunity to try out new skills and tools.nn nnStudents will be placed into 6-7 person "squads" and the majority of class time will be spent in these squads. Your squad will meet to work on basic leadership challenges (e.g. managing conflict, assessing a team's progress). There will be the opportunity for a lot of feedback so you can achieve a deeper understanding of the impact of your behavior on others. The squads will do role-play cases and group exercises designed to help you think more deeply about the dynamics in your workgroup and to allow you to practice and experiment with new ways of leading. Each session will be divided into two segments, and one squad member will be the leader for each segment. MBA1 squad members will rotate through the segment leader position. Your squad will have an MBA2 Leadership Fellow assigned to it and he or she will also be present for these meetings in order to provide coaching to the leader and to the squad as whole. Over the course of the quarter your squad will also produce an outside of class project oriented toward changing lives, changing organizations, and changing the world. The project is intended to further challenge your leadership skills and lead to greater reflection about the nature of effective leadership. Your squad's project will be evaluated by your peers as well as faculty, and the teams who are evaluated most positively will have the opportunity to present to a group of alumni experts. Finally, the quarter culminates with the Executive Challenge. The Executive Challenge will be an opportunity for you to further refine your leadership skills by engaging with alumni judges in role plays that test your ability to lead effectively. The alumni will provide you feedback and evaluate your performance.

This course examines fundamental issues of general management and leadership within an organization. You will learn about setting an organization's strategic direction, aligning structure to implement strategy, and leading individuals within the firm. You will study the interplay among formal structure, routines, informal networks, and culture in shaping organizational performance.

This course is designed to introduce incoming students to the structures and processes that affect group performance as well as some of the common pitfalls associated with working in teams. Topics include understanding team culture, fostering creativity and coordination, making group decisions, and dealing with a variety of personalities. Students will participate in a number of group exercises designed to illustrate principles of team work and to give students practice diagnosing team problems and taking action to improve team performance.

This course is designed to improve students' skills in all phases of a negotiation: understanding prescriptive and descriptive negotiation theory as it applies to dyadic and multi-party settings, buyer-seller transactions and the resolution of disputes, to the development of negotiation strategy and the management of integrative and distributive aspects of the negotiation process. This course is based on a series of simulated negotiations in a variety of contexts, including one-on-one, multiparty, and team negotiations. When playing a role in a simulated conflict, you will be free to try out tactics that might feel uncomfortable in a real negotiation. You will get feedback from your classmates about how you come across. In sum, you can use this course to expand your repertoire of conflict management and negotiation skills, to hone those skills, and to become more adept in choosing strategies and tactics that are appropriate for a particular negotiation situation. This course is an intense, more compact version to the elective OB381 and is almost identical to the OB581 immersion course. Thus, students should not take either of these courses as there is considerable overlap among the three. Attendance and participation in the negotiation exercises are mandatory.

The Arbuckle Leadership Fellows Program plays an integral role in the GSB leadership curriculum by bringing together a group of talented second years to support the leadership development of the first-year class. OB330, an 8 unit two-quarter MBA2 elective course, is the academic component of this program and runs the entirety of both Autumn and Winter Quarters. Both quarters must be completed to receive any units of credit. The course is open only to those students who have applied and been accepted into the Fellows Program. Interested students apply during at the start of Winter Quarter of their first year and undergo a competitive application process, after which successful applicants are invited to take part in the program. Informational meetings are held late in Autumn Quarter and in early Winter Quarter and Fellows are selected from the first year class in mid- Winter Quarter. nn nnKnowing how to develop others is a crucial leadership competency. In this class, Fellows develop the advanced leadership skills of leading leaders and developing others through coaching and mentoring. Among the competencies developed in this class are: 1) Team Coaching Skills (e.g. facilitating a group, diagnosing group dynamics, debriefing, coaching without undermining the leader), 2) Individual Coaching Skills (e.g. effective inquiry, asking powerful questions, balancing support and challenge, providing effective feedback, holding others accountable, utilizing, valuing and connecting across differences and power differentials, using oneself in service of another's development) and 3) Personal Development Skills (e.g. self-reflection and self-awareness, leveraging strengths, stretching outside one's comfort zone.)nn nnIn the Autumn Quarter Fellows are assigned to a squad of six MBA1s in Leadership Labs. Fellows guide their MBA1 squad through the learning process in the Labs and provide both individual and team coaching to their MBA1 squad members. In addition to the work with their MBA 1 squad, Fellows provide in-depth 1:1 coaching to three additional MBA1 students who are not members of their squad. This 1:1 coaching begins after Autumn midterms and continues through the end of Winter Quarter. nn nnFellows classes meet twice a week for 105 minutes. There will be a reading list of conceptual material which will be supplemented during class with lectures and discussions. Students will have the opportunity to apply those concepts through role-playing and experiential exercises during class time as well as in their coaching and mentoring of their MBA1 coachees. Additionally, Fellows will attend weekly Leadership Labs with the first year squad to which they have been assigned and meet 1:1 with MBA1 coachees. Fellows meet regularly with five of their peers in "clinics," standing groups led by a GSB Leadership Coaches, professional executive coaches who are a staff members of the school's Center for Leadership Development and Research (CLDR). Fellows meet with their Leadership Coach and clinic approximately every other week during regular class time to discuss specific strategies for working with their first year students. Fellows also periodically meet with their Leadership Coach one-on-one to hone their skills and explore their areas for specific improvement.nn nnNote: OB374, Interpersonal Dynamics, is a PRE/CO-REQUISITE for this course; students who want to be Fellows are advised to assess whether that is a class they want to take in the spring quarter of their first year. Additionally, signing up for 1:1 coaching by a Fellow as an admit strengthens a MBA1 student's application to the Arbuckle Leadership Fellows program.

This course is the continuation of Leadership Fellows I, an 8-unit course that begins in Autumn Quarter. During this quarter Fellows will continue to deepen their coaching and mentoring skills, and will focus exclusively on in-depth 1:1 coaching with three MBA1 coachees (who were not members of their MBA1 squad.) Classes and clinics continue as in Autumn Quarter.

The ability to function effectively within a hierarchy is a crucial determinant of managerial success, yet many people struggle with "authority issues" that make certain hierarchical roles and positions difficult for them. This course draws on the craft of acting and the science of psychology to help students learn to use themselves to develop the characters that can play these roles effectively. nnnThis class is designed specifically for students who have trouble "playing" authoritative roles: those who find it difficult to act with power, status, and authority. It will also be useful for students who find it difficult to share power and authority, which involves accepting and deferring to the power and authority of others. Participants will be asked to read, think deeply about, and share some of their own feelings about power and authority, and the origins of those feelings. They will also be asked to prepare for and present a series of in-class performances that involve playing characters with and without power, in scenes that highlight the interactions and relationships between high and low power characters. These performances will take up much of our time during class. Out-of-class assignments will include reading important works on psychology, and on the theory and practice of acting, as well as writing short essays analyzing their own and others' performances.

A problem for every manager is to make 'good' behaviors spread quickly and to shrink 'undesirable' behaviors quickly. This course provides you practical frameworks to accomplish these managerial goals. We will examine issues such as scaling Idea generation, scaling knowledge sharing, scaling the adoption of ideas across firms, scaling change in global firms. We will be using a newly written series of cases for this course and also draw on guest speakers. We will be require a project that may involve design thinking - so we encourage those who have not had exposure to design thinking to apply.

What does it mean to be a principled leader? What role do values play in an organization, and how do successful leaders apply their values in their daily business lives? This course examines the concept of principled leadership and the various ways that leaders try to institutionalize particular values within the organizations they lead. Equally important, it explores the difficult challenges that leaders sometimes face when trying to apply their principles in a tough, fast-paced business environment, where others may not share the same expectations. Through assigned readings, interactive lectures with visiting executives, and weekly small group discussions, students will learn how practicing leaders implement their principles, while reflecting the realities of different cultural expectations and meeting business demands. The course will provide a forum for students to learn directly from practicing leaders and to think introspectively about their own personal values, leadership styles, and long-term aspirations.

Having a good idea is not enough, we must also be able to convey our ideas in a way that people can understand and act on them. But often our messages don't persuade or persist. This course assumes that we can craft more effective messages by understanding the principles that make certain ideas stick in the natural social environment: Urban legends survive in the social marketplace without advertising dollars to support them or PR professionals to spin them. How could we make true or useful information survive as well as bogus rumors? We will use research in sociology, folklore, and psychology to analyze what kinds of ideas survive the selection process in the marketplace of ideas and to develop a set of strategic tools to craft ideas that are more likely to survive. Topics covered include crafting messages for complex information that don't exceed the capacity of human attention and memory, using emotional appeals that inspire people and motivate action, acquiring attention in a crowded environment, and gaining legitimacy for new ideas, approaches, and technologies.

This course asks the question: "What does it take to build high-performance?" The focus is on middle and upper-middle management in contemporary organizations that have complex tasks, exist in a rapidly changing environment, and have highly skilled subordinates. The premise of the course is that traditional methods of management may produce adequate levels of performance but prevent excellence from developing. New approaches to leadership will be presented that are more likely to lead to a truly high-performing system. Time will be spent discussing the components of effective leadership, what a manager can do to build a compelling vision, strong tea,s, and mutual influence sideways and upwards as well as with direct reports. Also, what members can do to support the leader who wants to initiate such changes. nnnIn addition to class, students will meet for 2 1/2 hours each week in a Skill Development Group to apply the course material to their own personal development.nnn(While there is minimal overlap in content between OB 372 and OB 374 and these two classes are highly complementary, both require Journals and an evening group. We recommend against taking both classes in the same quarter for workload reasons.)

PRE-QUALIFICATION IS REQUIRED BY THE DEADLINE (APPROXIMATELY TWO WEEKS BEFORE THE QUARTER BEGINS). The focus of this course is to increase one's competencies in building more effective relationships. Learning is primarily through feedback from other group members. This course is very involving and, at times, can be quite emotional. However, this course is not a substitute for therapy; we deal more with inter-personal issues than with intra-personal ones. If you are in therapy, please talk this over with your therapist and get their advice before enrolling in this course. The students are divided into three 12-person T-groups that meet the same evening of the class. It is very important to note that when you decide to take this course, you make an explicit contract to be actively involved. Attendance to the first class is required for the 1-day/week section of this class. Attendance to the first three classes is required for the 2-day/week sections of this class. Failure to attend the first class will result in an automatic drop. Students who are waitlisted must attend either a 1-day/week class or the first two classes of a 2-day/week section to secure a place in the course should space open up. It is the student's responsibility to notify respective OB 374 faculty if your attendance is aimed at fulfilling your waitlist requirement. You also need to inform the faculty member for which specific section you are waitlisted. T-group meetings for all sections will meet for 3 hours the same evening as 1-day/week class and the same evening of the first day of the 2-day/week section. The class has a weekend retreat the seventh or eighth week (check your specific section) of the course. Because of the highly interactive nature of this course, it is very important that all students attend all sessions. Missing class, class-t-group, evening T-group, or portions of the weekend will negatively influence your grade and may result in a student's grade being dropped one grade level (for each absence). Arriving late on Friday to the weekend will negatively influence your grade level- missing any more of the weekend beyond that will result in a U. Students must pre-qualify before taking this course. Qualification essays are due 10 days before the first day of the class. More information about the qualification process can be found at http://faculty-gsb2.stanford.edu/OB_374_Qualification/default.asp.

Power and influence processes are ubiquitous and important in organizations, so leaders need to be able both to understand power and to act on that knowledge. This course has three objectives: 1) increasing students' ability to diagnose and analyze power and politics in organizational situations; 2) increase students' skills in exercising power effectively; and 3) helping students come to terms with the inherent dilemmas and choices, and their own ambivalence, involved in developing and exercising influence. Topics covered include: the sources of power, including individual attributes and structural position; dealing with resistance and conflict; obtaining allies and supporters; maintaining power; how and why power is lost; living in the limelight--the price of having power; preparing oneself to obtain power; and the use of language and symbolism in exercising power.nnnThe class involves a reasonably large number of written, self-reflective assignments as well as a group project (doing a power diagnosis on an external subject) and an individual project (using the class material during the quarter to gain power in some group or organization or develop a plan for doing so). The emphasis is on both learning the material and incorporating it into one's own actions and plans.

Conflict is unavoidable in every organization. The key question is how it will be handled: will it escalate to dysfunctional levels or will it be effectively managed? Hence, a first aim of the course is to develop your ability to analyze conflicts, to look beneath the surface rhetoric of a conflict, to isolate the important underlying interests, and to determine what sort of agreement (if any) is feasible. We'll analyze which negotiation strategies are effective in different conflicts. We'll also examine psychological and structural factors that create conflict and often pose a barrier to its resolution. nnnBut understanding how to analyze a conflict is not enough. To manage conflict effectively, you need a broad repertoire of behavioral skills. Developing these is the second aim of the course.nnnTo achieve this, negotiation exercises are used in every session. When playing a role in a simulated conflict, you will be free to try out tactics that might feel uncomfortable in a real one. You will get feedback from your classmates about how you come across. In sum, you can use this course to expand your repertoire of skills, to hone your skills, and to become more adept in choosing when to apply each skill.

This Bass Seminar will examine the lives of extra-ordinary individuals who have made exceptional contributions to society, either through their impact on business, politics, science, social activism, or the arts. We will take a close look, for example, at creative individuals such as Steve Jobs, George Lucas, and Pixar's Brad Bird; political achievers such as Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Margaret Thatcher; business leaders such as Bill and Melinda Gates, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, and Starbuck's Howard Schultz (to name just a few). We will use these examples to develop useful ideas about the narrative unfolding of creative and extra-ordinary lives. In addition, using theories and evidence from the social and behavioral sciences, we will develop a conceptual framework for thinking about individuals' "paths to extra-ordinary achievement." Drawing on psychological and philosophical theory and research, we will also examine how human achievement relates to happiness and the perception of meaning in one's life. You will have a chance to work in small groups to study individuals or domains of special interest. Students will also have an opportunity to apply the framework to their own lives using a series of enjoyable reflective exercises, including writing and public speaking exercises. The seminar will be very discussion oriented and quite lively. The goal of the seminar is to change how you think about your self and your life!

The objective of this course is to examine the ways in which gender impacts the work experiences of both men and women. The course focuses on the working experience of men and women in managerial and professional positions in businesses and some non-profit organizations. We will examine a wide variety of career-related gender issues including the effects of proportions of men and women in a job on the experiences of men and women, whether and how men and women's networks differ, the various causes of the gender gap in pay and promotions, and the multiple issues related to juggling the demands of work and family and how this impacts both men and women. The goal of this course is to raise awareness of the reasons for gender differences in the workplace and to suggest some ways to change these differences. This course will use a variety of teaching mechanisms including, but not limited to, business cases, scholarly articles, videos, lectures, and class discussions.

The entertainment industry is one of the largest and most important industries in the world. It is an industry characterized by tremendous opportunities and great uncertainties. The industry is currently undergoing tremendous change as new technologies transform the way entertainment is produced and disseminated throughout the world. For all of these reasons, the dynamic industry creates tremendous challenges for entrepreneurial students interested in leaving an artistic or creative imprint on the world. This course is designed to help prepare students for careers in the media industries, and to explore leadership within them. The industry is truly an intersection of art and commerce, and a major portion of the course will involve bringing to the class leaders who represent key areas of the entertainment industry, both on the business and creative sides. As with any business, the entertainment industry is driven by the vision of its leaders. These leaders daily make financial and artistic decisions, and manage staff and productions with the goal of producing entertainment product meant to be seen as widely as possible, and meant to make a profit. It is hoped that through interaction with these speakers, students taking this course will gain a greater understanding of the industry and what it takes to succeed in it. Further, the students will see the potential of strong leadership and how it works to advance entertainment companies and the films and TV programming they produce. Topics to be examined include the process of project development, production, and marketing; emerging technologies and their impact on the industry; the roles studio and network executives, directors, film and television producers, writers, actors, agents, and others play in the making and distribution of film and television productions.

How improve capacity to exercise leadership and work effectively with others within the context of culturally diverse groups and organizations. Premise is that diversity presents challenges and opportunities that pushestudents to develop leadership skills relevant across a variety of situations. What social and psychological obstacles limit people's ability to work effectively across identity-based differences? What can people do to build the relational and organizational capacity to enable these differences to be a resource for learning and effectiveness within teams and organizations? Focus is on dynamics of race and gender; attention to other dimensions of identity and difference in organizations, including sexual orientation, nationality, class, and religion.

This class will explore the properties shared by ideas that stick with people and change the way they think and act. The course is based on the framework in the book Made to Stick and focuses on hands-on exercises that will teach you how to transform your messages to make them stick: How do you get attention for your idea in a crowded marketplace of ideas? How can you convey complex information quickly? How do you make a broad, abstract idea concrete and tangible enough for people to understand? How do you provide credibility for your idea without resorting to dry statistics? Although the exercises in this course are fun and generally short, students in the past have said that they do require a lot of thinking time outside of class in order to apply the course principles to a specific message. This is particularly true of the final project which involves improving the message of a specific live client (e.g., a friend with a start-up business, the recruiting materials of a former employer). This course will be especially useful for entrepreneurs who must pitch their ideas to customers, investors, and potential employees and for students in the nonprofit sector where resources for spreading ideas are often thin.

This course is designed to improve students' skills in all phases of a negotiation: understanding prescriptive and descriptive negotiation theory as it applies to dyadic and multiparty negotiations, to buyer-seller transactions and the resolution of disputes, to the development of negotiation strategy and to the management of integrative and distributive aspects of the negotiation process. The course is based on a series of simulated negotiations in a variety of contexts including one-on-one, multi-party, and team negotiations. When playing a role in a simulated conflict, you will be free to try out tactics that might feel uncomfortable in a real one. You will get feedback from your classmates about how you come across. You will have an opportunity to reflect on your experience in your negotiation paper. In sum, you can use this course to expand your repertoire of conflict management and negotiation skills, to hone your skills, and to become more adept in choosing when to apply each skill. nnnThis course represents a shorter, more intense version of OB 381-Conflict Management and Negotiations. Students should not take both courses, as there is considerable overlap in course content. Attendance and participation in the negotiation exercises is mandatory.

This is a course about how firms learn from their experiences and the opportunities created by flawed learning. It will explore common mistakes in learning and barriers to the adoption of effective practices. Understanding learning problems will help future managers avoid common mistakes and build organizations that learn more effectively; learning is particularly important for entrepreneurs who are trying out new ideas and so must adapt correctly to feedback from the environment. But understanding common mistakes is also useful for identifying possible opportunities in markets; opportunities exist when firms make mistakes and when they fail to learn effective practices. The course will introduce concepts and findings from organization theory, psychology, decision theory, and statistics. A variety of exercises, cases, and readings will be used to illustrate barriers to learning and the opportunities they create, including the book "Moneyball" by Michael Lewis which discusses market-level mistakes in professional baseball.

This course is designed for individuals who have taken one of the basic negotiation courses (OB 381 or OB 581) and are interested in honing their negotiation and conflict management skills and expanding their knowledge about bargaining and dispute resolution. nnnTo dig deeper into the minds of negotiators, we will use analyses of in-class exercises and in-depth discussions of new and exciting research findings. Thus, we will play strategic games and negotiate in all our meetings, but we will also read and discuss theory and research on bargaining. So, if you enjoy negotiating, you will enjoy the classes. At the same time, if you enjoy analyzing human behavior and social interactions, you will like the reading and our discussions.nnnWe will start off the class by launching a week-long entrepreneurial negotiation assignment that will allow you to test your bargaining skills outside of class. Our in-class exercises and in-depth discussions will subsequently tackle critical issues in negotiation, including the role of power and norms in negotiation; cross-cultural negotiations; accountability, emotions, and information processing in negotiation; and creativity in negotiation.nnnAfter taking this course, you will: (a) be better able to identify and avoid common traps in negotiation; (b) have a larger repertoire of behavioral skills to apply in various negotiations; and (c) have a deeper understanding of other people's behavior in negotiation.

This course provides coverage of both introductory and intermediate topics in social network analysis with a primary focus on recent developments in theory, methods and substantive applications. We will begin the course with a brief overview of introductory themes and concepts from various disciplines that have contributed to social network theory, including sociology, anthropology, social psychology, and organizations. Introductory topics to be included: centrality, cliques, structural and regular equivalence and cognitive social structures. The primary topics to be covered in this course include the application of network theory to the study of careers, competition, innovation, inequality/stratification, and recent research on IT mediated networks, as well as an examination of network formation and dynamics. The course will also provide hands-on experience applying social network methods in empirical research. Students will have an opportunity to learn some modern network analysis methods and apply them to network data using the R programming language. No prior experience with social network analysis or software is required.

This research seminar is intended for students seeking to learn more about how collective action underpins institutional change in organizations and industries, and how the success of collective action, in turn, hinges on organizational structures and processes to recruit and mobilize individuals. The purpose of this course is to provide you a roadmap for you to roam the terrain of movements and organizations, and be prepared to generate original research ideas that extend inquiry in your chosen area of research.

For students who seek experience and advanced training in empirical research methods. Analysis of experimental data through factorial designs, randomized blocks, repeated measures; regression methods through multiple regression, model building, analysis of covariance; categorical data analysis through two-way tables. Integrated with the use of the statistical computing package R. Prerequisite: An intro stats class (Same as Psych 252 -- Co-taught with Ewart Thomas).

This is a course in the design of social research, with a particular emphasis on research field (i.e., non-laboratory) settings. As such, the course is a forum for discussing and developing an understanding of the different strategies social theorists employ to explain social processes, develop theories, and make these theories as believable as possible. In general, these issues will be discussed in the context of sociological research on organizations, but this will not be the exclusive focus of the course. A range of topics will be covered, for example: formulating and motivating research questions; varieties of explanation; experimental and quasi-experimental methods, including natural experiments; counterfactual models; conceptualization and measurement; sampling and case selection; qualitative and quantitative approaches. This course is particularly oriented toward developing an appreciation of the tradeoffs of different approaches. It is well suited to Ph.D. students working on qualifying papers and dissertation proposals.

This seminar focuses on social psychological theories and research relevant to organizational behavior. It reviews the current research topics in micro-organizational behavior, linking these to foundations in cognitive and social psychology and sociology. Topics include models of attribution, decision making, emotion, coordination, influence and persuasion, and the psychology of power and culture. Prerequisites: Enrollment in a PhD program, and a graduate-level social psychology course. Also listed as Sociology 361.

This seminar considers the leading sociological approaches to analyzing relations of organizations and environments, with a special emphasis on dynamics. Attention is given to theoretical formulations, research designs, and results of empirical studies. Prerequisite: Enrollment in a PhD program. Also listed as Sociology 362.

This seminar focuses on topics relevant to organizational behavior, drawing primarily on social psychological and some sociological research. Topics vary from year to year. nnnIn Spring 2013 the seminar will focus on conflict and cooperation within and between groups and teams. Topics will include interdependence theory, behavioral game theory, negotiation, task and relationship conflict, social identity processes, and hierarchy in groups, among others. Prerequisites: Enrollment in a PhD Program. Cannot be audited or taken pass/fail.

This course examines the interaction between organizations and their environments. It is given every year by a different faculty member. What follows is the description of the course for the academic year 2012-13:nnnThis research seminar explores recent theory and research on social movement organizations and their environments. We'll consider the way in which organizational theories help us to explain social movement phenomena, and the way in which social movement theories help us to explain organizational phenomena.

The purpose of this course is to develop students' skill at designing, executing, interpreting, and describing micro-organizational and social psychological research. The course will have a practical focus and will focus on questions such as how to identify and formulate a tractable research question, how to decide on an appropriate research design and strategy; how to operationalize independent and dependent variables, and how to build a research paper.

Social psychological and sociological research at the meso, or intermediate between micro and macro, level of analysis. Topics vary from year to year, but usually include organizational routines and learning; mobility and attainment processes; gender and race inequality and discrimination; social networks; cultural perspectives on organizations, and related topics. Prerequisite: Ph.D. student.

This year-long course takes a hands-on approach to learning about experimental research. It will cover the entire process of experimental research from idea and hypothesis generation to study design, analysis, and publication. The topical content will be customized to the specific interests of the enrolled students, but generally will be concerned with questions about behavioral phenomena in organizational contexts.

When organizations compete, why do some fail while others succeed? This is one of the defining questions of the interdisciplinary research field known as ?strategic management.? In this seminar, we will address this question from a sociological perspective. Seen from this vantage point, the field of strategic management can be understood as the study of organizations in competition. Over the past 30 years, a considerable amount of research in organizational sociology has addressed this topic, only some of which has been explicitly framed as being aimed at the field of strategic management. This course studies the central themes that have emerged from this sociological research on organizations in competition.

This course is offered for students requiring specialized training in an area not covered by existing courses. To register, a student must obtain permission from the faculty member who is willing to supervise the reading.

This course is elected as soon as a student is ready to begin research for the dissertation, usually shortly after admission to candidacy. To register, a student must obtain permission from the faculty member who is willing to supervise the research.

This course is designed to improve your effectiveness a manager by introducing you to both the concepts and tools that are part of the "new science of social networks" as they apply to organizations. In this course, you will develop the skills to understand social networks and recognize social capital, both offline and online, as well as be able to identify key elements of your own and others? social networks that enhance competitive capabilities. Topics to be covered include how social networks affect power and influence, leadership, innovation and the generation of novel ideas, careers, organizational change and competitive advantage. Additional topics to be covered include the increasing importance of online social networks in organizational life and the importance of social cognition and how it can be used to enhance social capital. At the conclusion of this course you will have the skills to map out social networks, diagnose features of the networks that either help or hinder the performance of individuals, groups and companies, and be able to manage important features of social networks in organizations.

(Same as OB 385) The course provides an overview of different approaches to leading change in the social sector, drawing primarily, but not exclusively, on case examples in education. While there is a substantial need for innovation and visionary leadership in sectors such as education, social entrepreneurs who want to drive change must appreciate the significant barriers and unique opportunities presented by non-market forces in these sectors. The course will equip students with an appreciation for different mechanisms of change and theories of action as well as some of the challenges of initiating and sustaining meaningful change in social sectors such as education. nnThe course will draw on readings and case studies, and we will benefit from the wisdom of an inspirational group of guest lecturers. While the course will benefit any student concerned with making a positive impact in the world, it is particularly (although not exclusively) appropriate for students in the joint MA/MBA program as well as those who will lead social change through nonprofit consulting or entrepreneurship.

This course will explore case studies and research about how to create behavior change from a position without much formal authority or power: e.g., a middle manager trying to change a failing unit of a big firm or a social entrepreneur trying to influence the behavior of a community. We'll use principles from social psychology, clinical psychology, and behavioral economics to analyze cases like the following: How a new head of the equities research department at Lehman Brothers changed his group's ranking in the Institutional Investor polls from #15 to #1 over a four year period. How Teach for America teachers take unmotivated kids in neglected schools and manage on standardized tests to gain more than two year's progress in one year of schooling. How a clever application of behavioral economics managed to triple employee savings rates.

The course is based on the premise that diversity can present unique challenges and opportunities thereby compelling students to expand their sensitivity and develop a wider repertoire of skills, many of which are relevant across a variety of situations. The course is intended for students who plan to work in culturally diverse groups or organizations and will be equally relevant to those who work in the not-for-profit, public, and for-profit sectors.nnThrough the presentation of new concepts, participation in experiential group activities, and faculty facilitated debriefing, students are expect to improve their ability to better assess group level diversity dynamics and in turn both intentionally influence and to be influenced inclusive of three fundamental differences presented by peers - values, gender, and group identity. Students will be taught how to practice 'authentic discourse' during regular faculty facilitated small task group debriefings. 'Authentic discourse' is a skill stressed in Interpersonal Dynamics (OB374).

This course examines the unique leadership problems faced in family businesses. What is unique is that there are two over-lapping systems; the family system and the business system. These can be congruent or at cross-purposes. For example, the latter might stress promotion on merit while the other values family ties. There also can be difference in purpose. Is the organization to maximize shareholder value or to provide employment for family members?nnnThese and other related issues impact the communication process, how decisions are made and how power is distributed. The course will be case based. The content will overlap that of OB372 so it is not advised to take both courses. Because of the shortened nature of 572, there would be minimal overlap with OB374 Interpersonal Dynamics.nnnIn addition to class, students will meet for 1 1/2 hours each week in a Skill Development Group to apply the course material to their own personal development.

This seminar examines theoretical and methodological issues in the study of the ecology of organizations. Particular attention is given to the dynamics that characterize the interface between organizational populations and their audiences.

As a field, economic sociology has had little to say about economic development. Much of this quietude stems from the latter's identification with "backward," "poor" or "developing" economies, and the former's interest in many of the advanced features of the richer economies. This state of affairs not only sets up a false dichotomy but also makes it difficult by construction to theorize or research the issue of economic decline, seemingly a necessary piece of any coherent theory of development.nnnThe (admittedly ambitious) goal of this seminar is to move toward a better theory of economic development. We will review several of the more common strands of thought on development in related literatures and then consider some alternative perspectives that might bridge this research and contemporary sociology. No guarantees are made that we will have a full-fledged theory by the end of the quarter, but with luck we will have breathed some new life into an often marginalized but critically important strain of social thought and research.nnnThe class will be a seminar based around the readings. Grading will be a combination of class participation, a take-home midterm and a final paper.

This course covers research and theory on the origins and function of social norms. Topics include the estimation of public opinion, the function of norms as ideals and standards of judgment, and the impact of norms on collective and individual behavior. In addition to acquainting students with the various forms and functions of social norms the course will provide students with experience in identifying and formulating tractable research questions.