INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP BEHAVIOURS FOR INNOVATION

The course will deepen students’ understanding of human behaviours in a variety of organisations. It will provide theoretical and practical knowledge on what human behaviours are and the main challenges in managing them. The course’s focus will be on behaviours that lead to innovation and novelty generation. Innovation will be analysed at different levels - individual, interpersonal, and team. Through the reliance on some of the most relevant theories research has been developing over the last decades, together with cases from the organisational context, students will be able to acknowledge the complexity of managing innovation.

The course will help students to develop an integrated set of frameworks and tools for understanding and managing their own and others’ behaviours and for assessing how human behaviours can influence creativity and ultimately the effectiveness of organisations. Special attention will also be given to ethics. Today’s managers can create an ethically healthy climate for their employees and encourage them to behave with integrity.

Specifically, the course is designed to:
develop students’ skills in analysing, discussing, and critiquing both problems and solutions regarding some relevant human behaviours;
enable students to develop a comprehensive knowledge about the challenges managers face in managing human behaviours in modern organisations, pursuing creativity and innovation;
identify ethical issues in managing human behaviours.

Basic knowledge of strategy and organisation design.
The course welcomes students who would want to participate in class discussions, keeping the debate lively and constructive, while favouring working in groups on assignments.

The course will develop a robust, in-depth analysis of organisational behaviours and will stimulate critical discussions about them.

After an introductory section to define human behaviours while looking at the main challenges of managing them in modern organisations, the course will be divided into four sections.
Sections one and two will focus on – respectively – the individual and the group level in established organisations.
Section three will focus on the concpet of 'identities' in established and establishing organisations.
Finally, section four will explore some ‘hot’ topics in organisation studies.

Introduction:
What are human behaviours, main organisational challenges, behavioural model, behaviours and ethics.

Individual behaviours in established organisations:
Attitudes, job satisfaction, and emotional intelligence;
Motivation theories and their applications.

Group behaviours in established organisations:
Foundations of group behaviour: properties and decision making;
Understanding the work team.

Identities and motivations in established and establishing organisations:
Identity in established organizations: organizational and workers' identities;
Identity in establishing organizations: (new) enterprises and entrepreneurs' identity.

Hot topics in organisation studies:
Working on/for platform organisations;
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in organisations.

The course material will consist of case studies, journal articles, and book chapters. All the materials are available online and/or through the University Library System.

Mandatory readings
Stephen P. Robbins, Timothy A. Judge - Organisational Behavior - Prentice Hall (2024 – 19th Edition/Global Edition).
Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10.


Andrew D. Brown - The Oxford Handbook of Identities in Organizations – Oxford University Press (2020)
Chapters 1, 47.

Ho, J. (2021). Purposeful Life or Sugar-Coated Lies: How Elizabeth Holmes Legitimised her Fraud. Language & Communication, 77, 196-120.

Bonneau, C., Aroles, J., & Estagnasié, C. (2022). Romanticisation and monetisation of the digital nomad lifestyle: The role played by online narratives in shaping professional identity work. Organization, 30(1), 65-88.

Kang, S. K., De Celles, K. A., Tilcsik, A., & Jun, S. (2016). Whitened Résumés: Race and Self-Presentation in the Labor Market. Administrative Science Quarterly, 61(3), 469-502.

All Course Slides - uploaded on the Moodle page - as primary sources for insights not covered in the above references.

50% of the final grade: students will be asked to carry out a group (or individual) project on an organisation of their own choice and present it in class. Precise instructions on content, structure, and deadlines will be given in class and on Moodle.

50% of the final grade: written exam. Open-ended questions based on book/handbook chapters, slides, and journal articles analysed during the course.

written and oral

Grading Scale (Criteria for Grade Assignment):

A. Grades in the 18–22 range will be assigned in the presence of:
sufficient knowledge and applied understanding of the course content;
sufficient ability in completing the assigned projects;
limited ability to understand and present the theories and managerial implications discussed in class.

B. Grades in the 23–26 range will be assigned in the presence of:
fair knowledge and applied understanding of the course content;
fair ability in completing the assigned projects;
fair ability to understand and present the theories and managerial implications discussed in class.

C. Grades in the 27–30 range will be assigned in the presence of:
good to excellent knowledge and applied understanding of the course content;
good to excellent ability in completing the assigned projects;
good to excellent ability to understand and present the organizational theories discussed in class.

D. Honors ("lode") will be awarded in the presence of excellent knowledge and applied understanding of the course content, and an outstanding ability to understand and present the theories and managerial implications discussed in class.

Interactive approach based on journal articles, videos, self-assessment exercises, and group presentations.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development