Results for OB

This seminar is intended for students who are interested in how decisions happen and wish to expand their knowledge about the interactive processes involved in strategic decision-making. The course will draw on behavioral game theory to analyze and make sense of individual and group decision-making in negotiations, disputes, auctions, markets and other strategic interactions. nTo understand how decisions happen, we will use a combination of experiential exercises in class and in-depth discussions of theory and new and exciting research findings on cognitive and emotional aspects of decision making (e.g., what does "bounded-rationality" mean? how does power shape our negotiation behavior? how do our emotions influence our decisions?). We will play interactive games in our meetings to understand how various conditions, such as time pressure, power and uncertainty, influence our decisions. So, if you enjoy in-class exercises, you will enjoy our simulations. At the same time, if you enjoy analyzing human behavior and social interactions, you will like the readings and our discussions. After taking this course, you will be better able to identify and avoid common traps in strategic decision making and have a deeper understanding of other people's thinking and decision making processes.

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 the opportunity to try out new skills and tools. Students will be placed into 5-6 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 work together on the group project for your Strategy Class. While the deliverable on this project is for your Strategy class, the experience of working together as a team provides a rich opportunity for learning about peer leadership. A number of activities in the weekly Lab will be focused on assessing and reflecting on how you are working together in both the Labs and on your Strategy project. 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. You will also be introduced to the Design Thinking, and how this powerful problem-solving technique might be used to solve vexing organizational and managerial problems.

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.

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.

This course helps students become more effective leaders of creativity and innovation in organizations. Successful innovations begin as creative ideas, but creative ideas can be difficult to generate and accurately evaluate. Based on the latest research, this course teaches students a set of data-driven tools for generating creative ideas, forecasting which ideas are most likely to succeed, and implementing new ideas successfully. Through experiential exercises, students learn about their own personal strengths in developing and evaluating new ideas, and how to leverage the strengths of individuals, teams, and crowds to foster creativity and innovation in their organizations.

The psychology of startup teams is a major determinant of their ultimate success. In this course, we explore the psychological dynamics specific to startup teams and identify ways to effectively lead startup teams to their optimal performance. We will discuss topics such as creating the 'dream team', leadership in start-ups, the art of vision in startups, managing a startup's culture and climate, navigating virtual interactions, and solving common interpersonal problems in startup teams. To address these topics, the course will use a mix of experiential exercises, cases, and exciting guest speakers (including well-known CEOs, venture capitalists, and specialty start-up consultants from Silicon Valley).

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 (in combination with OB331), 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 Leadership Fellows Program. Interested students apply 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 during the first week of Winter Quarter and Fellows are selected from the first year class in mid- Winter Quarter.n nKnowing 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.)n nIn 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.n nFellows 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 discussions and activities. Students will apply 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 Leadership Labs Instructors who are also GSB Leadership Coaches. 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.n nNote: OB374, Interpersonal Dynamics, is a PRE-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. This 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.

Getting from "strategic insight" to "desired outcome" (achieving the right result) continues to be a core challenge for many organizations and leaders. In this course, we develop a framework and approach for the "insight to outcome" sequence, study some of the key levers available to managers, and learn from some common pitfalls. The bulk of the course will be devoted to the practical application of the approach to a number of important business processes, such as merger integration, corporate and business unit transformation, and strategy development. Some class sessions will involve class visits by topical experts in these applications. nnThe course is designed for second-year MBAs. It will appeal to students interested in an exploratory course - more of a "how to think about it" course than a "toolkit" course. Grades will be based on class participation and a group project.nnClass size is limited to 30.

The ability to coach others is an often over-looked core competency for leaders. This course will give second year MBA students an opportunity to learn the fundamental skills of coaching, so they can become coaching managers. This course is designed to be very experiential. While conceptual frameworks will be introduced through readings, lectures, demonstrations and discussions, the only real way to learn coaching skills is to both practice coaching, and to be coached. Every class session will provide opportunities to do both: coach and be coached. Because the in-class coaching practice will not be role plays but will actually be real coaching sessions between students, this course will demand a high level of engagement and participation from each student. While OB374 is not required, we highly recommend students take OB374 either previously or concurrently with taking this course in order to maximize your learning.

We created this class around three premises that 1) you have great potential, 2) you have had, and will continue to have, numerous opportunities to affect the world, and 3) to maximize your potential you need a reliable framework to gain self-insight and develop yourself and those around you.nnIn this class we seek to provide a framework that will help you increase your self-knowledge and guide your development. In particular, this framework is designed to help you swiftly identify and resolve gaps between your current and desired state, and to help you help others do the same. We will accomplish this through interactive exercises, case studies, and self-reflection to better align your thoughts, words, and actions to maximize results for yourself and as a leader of others.

Business doesn't just happen, significant amounts of time are spent creating business plans, executing them, and ultimately trying to figure out what went wrong in order to correct them. This class argues, that similarly, organizational culture shouldn't be allowed to just happen; organizational culture should be designed. In this class we suggest that there is an ideal, a cultural imperative, which organizations should strive for. nnWe believe that individuals have near infinite problem-solving ability, and, that all else equal, organizations that tap into this potential will outperform those that only see people in terms of labor hours and dollars. Thus, the class focuses on learning to see the role of organizational culture in creating an environment that engages, stimulates, and drives growth of the people in the organization, and aligns this engagement with the organization's mission.n nWe will accomplish this through class discussion, case analyses, and a group project designed to provide hands-on experience.

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 teams, 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. In 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. (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.) Students will have a choice as to when their SDG will meet. The expectation is full attendance at all SDG meetings. Only one excused class absence. Class on the day of the EIS Simulation is required.

PRE-QUALIFICATION IS REQUIRED BY THE DEADLINE (APPROXIMATELY FIVE 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 sections of this class. Attendance to the first two classes is required for the 2-day/week sections of this class. Failure to attend the first class(es) will result in an automatic drop. Students who are waitlisted must attend the first meeting of each section they are waitlisted for in order to secure a place in the course should space open up. It is the student's responsibility to notify respective OB 374 faculty of your attendance and wish to fulfilling your waitlist requirement. 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 any portion 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 assignments are due approximately five weeks prior to the quarter. For exact due dates and complete assignment details, see: https://sites.google.com/a/stanford.edu/ob374-prequalification/

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 two individual projects (doing a power diagnosis on an external organization that is important to the person) and a doing-power project (using the class material during the quarter to gain power in some group or organization). The class emphasis is on both learning the conceptual material and also incorporating it into one's own strategies and behaviors.

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 and Experiential Workshop will examine what it means to live a life of consequence. Using theories and evidence from the latest and best research on happiness and meaning, we will collectively develop a conceptual framework for thinking about how you personally can design a happier and more meaningful life for yourself. In addition to building a solid conceptual foundation on which to think about your life, you will have substantial opportunities to work individually and in small groups on a variety of reflective and experiential exercises designed to stimulate your imagination regarding how to create greater happiness and meaning in your own life. These engaging and enjoyable exercises include personal writing and public speaking exercises, as well as out-of-class experiential exercises. The seminar will be very discussion oriented and student participation quite lively. The goal of this seminar and workshop is to change how you think about yourself and your life! THIS WORKSHOP IS AVAILABLE ONLY TO FIRST- AND SECOND- YEAR MBA STUDENTS. NO EXCEPTIONS WILL BE PERMITTED.

Research on the Millennial Generation (i.e., those born between 1980-2000) shows that millennials, as compared to earlier generations, have quite different values and priorities when it comes to work. For instance, millennials report that they place a high value on autonomy and creativity at work, and prefer to self-manage their personal productivity. They also report that they value being a good parent and having a good marriage over having a high-paying career. Despite this research, our organizations have been slow to respond to a new generation of workers. This has led to high levels of disengagement, and lower levels of productivity in many organizations. This class will explore the gap between how our organizations are designed, and what a new generation of workers desire in terms of work. Students will work in teams to design a new workplace that is reflective of what workers want in terms of their work. The first part of the course will focus on what the issues and problems are in how organizations are designed for an earlier generation of workers, while the second part of the course will be set aside for team-based project work and presentations.

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 make financial and artistic decisions daily, 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 course is designed to provide students with a summary of entrepreneurial processes that have successfully created, developed, and sustained breakthrough ventures. By "breakthrough"€ we mean ventures that have had a lasting and positive impact, touching millions of lives. We consider ventures that are not only software related, but also ones based on technology and business models that impact markets ranging from medical devices to small satellites to home robotics systems to clean water and more. nThe examples are based on the experiences of Norman Winarsky, formerly President of SRI Ventures, and Henry Kressel, Partner Emeritus at Warburg Pincus. They include companies like Siri, Nuance, Intuitive Surgical, Sandisk, and others. nThe course leads us from the source of breakthrough venture ideas, to building a great value proposition and business plan, recruiting a team, finding investors and board members, deciding whether to sell or go IPO, and ends with what it takes to build a company that can sustain itself through continuous innovation. At each step, we follow examples of companies weâ€'ve helped build, and provide lessons of success as well as failure. We compare and contrast the strategies of these ventures with other popular strategies, such as those proposing "€œfail fast, develop minimal viable products, and pivot often..." nThe course will be highly interactive, and engage students in discussing their own experiences and future plans. Invited speakers will include venture capitalists and entrepreneurs who have created breakthrough companies.

This course examines organization culture, how and why managers can use culture to maximize results within an organization, and how culture can undermine results. The course begins by situating cultural leadership and management within a culture-shaping framework and the opportunities, obligations and methods for leaders to impact culture. It also focuses on what is different in cultural management and why so many contemporary firms attempt to use it. We analyze the relationship between culture and strategy, seeking alignment between the two. The course also explores different kinds of cultures seen in high performing and low performing organizations, and seeks to understand how cultural content affects behavior and business results. Students will be asked to describe and define the culture of an organization needed for a given business and strategy, and to define the role of executives in shaping culture. The class identifies and analyzes the tools or levers that leaders can use to build an effective culture. We will spend a session on each of the following: culture and strategy alignment, architecture for shaping culture, selecting people for cultural alignment, aligning organizational practices, culture and society, cultural inflection points from start-up to scale, cultural aspects of high performance and cultural diagnostics. The course will end with a session on culture issues in merger and acquisition.

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.

In 2009 a graduating student said to me, "A number of coaching resources here at the GSB have helped me develop as a person over the last two years. But after I leave school and no longer have access to those resources, how will I continue to coach myself?" This course is an attempt to help you answer that question. nnI define "self-coaching" as the process of guiding our own growth and development, particularly through periods of transition, in both the professional and personal realms. In this course you'll explore a range of practices and disciplines intended to help you build on what you've learned about yourself over the last two years and continue that process after graduation. nnWhile this is a self-directed process, it's NOT a solitary one, and you'll work with classmates in pairs and small groups, so be prepared to discuss meaningful personal issues with your fellow students.

How do some people turn ideas into enterprises that endure? Why do some people succeed why so many others fail? Based on more than 200 interviews with leading entrepreneurs conducted over the past five years by Amy Wilkinson, this course will focus on the six skills of successful entrepreneurs. The class will include brief lectures and class discussions with a set of the successful entrepreneurs featured in a recent book authored by the instructor, "The Creator's Code." The class is designed to help students integrate these skills into their own future ventures.

Our personal and professional lives are made up of a series of moments. Some of these moments present great opportunity, with the prospect of personal change and even transformative growth. Other moments contain the seeds of setback and even derailment of our most coveted plans. Some of life's moments are planned, while others catch us completely by surprise. Whatever moments we are afforded, we must make the most of them. This new seminar will explore what we know about the psychology of "optimal experience." We will examine how and why some individuals harvest so much joy, zest and sense of attainment from their moments, while others squander their moments or dig themselves into deeper holes when trying to respond to them. We will also examine how and why some people respond brilliantly to adversity, mastering even the most tragic moments that life presents, while others flounder and fold. To inform our thinking on this vital topic, the seminar will include a series of rich and provocative readings from psychology, behavioral economics, organizational theory and philosophy. Additionally, the seminar will include a series of compelling video cases illustrating both optimal and suboptimal responses to experience. To make the seminar more personally involving and useful to you, you will also engage in a series of reflective writing and experiential exercises. Whenever I offer a new course, I make a promise to the students who take it. For this course I promise you an intellectually deep and personally meaningful exploration of what it means to "use up" your life well. Put another way, I promise you some great educational moments in your GSB life!

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 will provide students with the theoretical background and practical skills necessary to design and deliver a psychological test. We will cover the basic principles of psychological testing (validity, reliability, standardization, and freedom of bias) and introduce the methods and tools used in test development and scoring. In an extensive hands-on part of the course, students will design and deliver an online test. The course will also briefly introduce advanced assessment methods, including Item Response Theory and Computerized Adaptive Testing. Finally, we will cover ethical and legal issues associated with administering tests and interpreting their results.

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 and intentionally influence and to be influenced inclusive of five fundamental differences presented by peers - social identity, values, power roles, cognitive styles, emotional literacy. 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 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 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.

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.

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.

Why are some organizations more competitive than others? This is the defining questions of the interdisciplinary research field known as ¿strategic management.¿ In this PhD seminar, we will survey the field of strategic management as seen from the perspective of ¿macro¿ organizational behavior. The course takes a broad view of the field of strategic management, reflecting the diversity of perspectives that is seen in this field worldwide. Across this diversity, however, it is possible to identify four distinct theoretical approaches by noting the mechanisms that researchers think are generating outcomes. The course is structured around these four theoretical approaches, and one of the main objectives of the course is to help you identify, critique, and improve these theoretical approaches.n nMost work in strategic management pays less attention to particular theoretical perspectives, and is organized more by the topic ¿ the phenomenon being studied ¿ such as market exit, growth, performance, mergers and acquisitions, innovation, and the like. I have catalogued the research in strategic management both according to theoretical perspective and topic, and the skeleton of that structure can be seen in this syllabus. I encourage you to use a similar structure as you try to make sense out of the strategy field.

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.

Social movement actors have helped initiate some of the major social, cultural, and political changes of the modern era. It is hard to imagine a major political or social reform that did not find its origins in a social movement or collective action. Social movement scholarship has flourished in political sociology and has recently gained a foothold in organizational theory as an explanation for innovation and organizational change. 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.nOrganizations and industries are frequent targets of collective action. Social movement activists frequently target organizations (e.g., corporations, universities) in order to bring about political and social change. Because most organizations are not democracies, movements must find ways to penetrate their closed boundaries if they are to have an influence inside organizations. At the same time, social movements make good use of organizations to carry out their own goals, creating structures that help them carry out their goals, reproduce their missions and tactics, and effectively generate collective action. Social movement organizations develop as vehicles for social change. One purpose of this course is to examine the complex relationship between social movements and organizations. nIn order to understand the empirical link between movements and organizations, we will rely on social movement and organizational theory. Like the phenomena they seek to explain, these theories are strongly intertwined. Since the 1970s, organizational theory has strongly influenced social movement theory. Mayer Zald, John McCarthy, and others imported ideas from the burgeoning field of organizational theory to move social movement scholarship beyond naïve conceptions of collective action and crowd behavior. Under the umbrella of resource mobilization and political process theory, organizational theory strongly influenced our understanding of the structural underpinnings of collective action. In recent years, social movement scholars have also begun examining the culture and social psychological dimensions of social movement organizations. nDuring most of the 1980s and 1990s, the link between social movement theory and organizational theory was a one-way road. Social movement scholars did most of the conceptual borrowing and organizational theorists, for the most part, ignored political sociology. However, in the last decade the opposing lane has been opened. The rise of economic sociology – a large theoretical domain interested in the overlap between market, political, and social processes – and a growing demand among organizational theorists (especially in institutional theory) for mechanisms that explain purposeful, strategic action (i.e., agency) created fertile grounds for social movement theory. In the first part of the 2000s, leading scholars from both fields began holding conferences and workshops and a few articles were published seeking to show the value of social movement concepts to organizational theory. This effort to link the two literatures has been well received. As more scholars began importing social movement concepts to explain organizational phenomena, organizational scholarship turned its attention (again) to issues related to power, politics, and contestation. The convergence of the two research streams has also begun to spur theoretical innovation, especially in bridging structural and cultural explanations for organizational change.nIn this course we will cover topics that explore how movements use organizations to propel change and that examine how movements help generate social change by targeting organizations. We will also evaluate the theoretical developments at the nexus of these two literatures, identifying the major innovations as well as looking for new research opportunities.

What is culture, and how can we model it? This course will survey theoretical frameworks for studying culture from a multidisciplinary perspective, ranging from evolutionary biology through sociology to economics. We will explore various methods for measuring culture and modeling cultural processes, including ethnography and survey data. Our focus, however, will be on measurement and modeling strategies that are made possible by the internet revolution and big data, including agent-based modeling, natural language processing and machine learning. Our class discussions will transition between theoretical abstraction and hands-on data analysis.

For students who seek experience and advanced training in empirical research methods. Analysis of experimental data with methods ranging from simple chi-square to multiple regression models, including an introduction to mixed models. Uses the free statistical computing package R. Prerequisite: An intro stats class (Same as Psych 252 -- Co-taught with Ewart Thomas).

This seminar investigates the ways in which categories emerge in markets and shape market behavior. It covers recent theoretical and empirical work on the sociology of categories and its foundations in cognitive science. Particular attention is given to formalization.

This pro-seminar is primarily for OB-macro PhD students who are developing dissertation ideas. The focus is on the theoretical argument underpinning the dissertation research. Students will regularly present and comment upon one another's ideas. Students can and are encouraged to take the pro-seminar multiple times.

This course will focus on psychological processes that occur within individuals that cannot be seen but whose existence can be inferred on the basis of people's behavior. Such processes, referred to as individual processes, include personality, emotions, perception, and learning. This course aims to introduce students to both theoretical and applied background on individual processes, with a special emphasis on their assessment, importance for person-job fit, and career planning. The course will include a hands-on section aimed at practicing test/survey development and delivering it in the online environment.

This seminar is intended for Ph.D. students who want to explore theoretical ideas and empirical findings related to intergroup processes, including conflict and cooperation; stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination; diversity, social identity, and group-based ideologies. The class is centered on graduate-level discussion of psychological and organizational perspectives on this broad topic. Participants are expected to (a) complete all readings and be prepared to discuss them in class; (b) submit weekly reaction papers based on the readings; (c) co-lead a portion of the class discussions; (d) write a final paper and present its main ideas to the group.

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. 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. In Fall 2014 the seminar will focus on group and team dynamics. Topics will include diversity, power and status dynamics in teams, expertise and knowledge utilization, information processing, trust and respect in teams, team leadership, and multi-level perspectives on team and group dynamics, 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.

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.

Doctoral Practicum in Teaching

Doctoral Practicum in Research