2010-11 academic year

Business Organization and Management I (20638)

Degree/study: Degree in Business Sciences
Year: 1st
Term:1st and 2nd
Number of ECTS credits: 9 credits
Hours of studi dedication: 220 hours
Teaching language or languages: Spanish, English
Teaching Staff: Gaël Le Mens, Augusto Rupérez Micola and David Rodríguez

1. Presentation of the subject

Students who graduate and begin their careers will be part of organizations, and will either manage or be managed. In this introductory class, the students will learn the key concepts to make sense of their professional environment. They will learn about the manager's role, the importance of organizational culture, the basices of how decisions are made in organizations, how work is organized and coordinated, how human resources are managed. They will also learn about issues related to motivation, control, as well as interpersonnal relations.

The theory is taught in class and through assigned readings. Students learn to be familiar with the concepts during class discussion, and by working on individual and group assignments.

Reading, understanding and reflecting on the reading assignment is crucial to successful completion of the course.

2. Competences to be attained

General competences

Specific competencies

Instrumental

1. Capacities of Analysis and Synthesis

2. Basic knowledge of business concepts and organizational life.

3. Ability to plan in advance and organize work.

4. Ability to handle information

Interpersonal

4. Development of critical thinking

5. Development of teamwork skills

Systemic

6. Ability to apply knowledge to practical situations

7. Research abilities

8. Learning abilities

1. Know the role of managers and become able to understand managerial facts.

2. Being able to understand and evaluate organizational arrangements.

3. Understand that the business activity is shaped by the general environment (society, stakeholers) and the industry it belongs to.

3. Know the different forms of internal organization of the business, and their implications on task assignments, and employees' evaluation and compensation.

4. Ability to design, for a given organization, incentive systems that will contribute to align the interests from the different stakeholders involved.

5. Ability to critically assess business strategies with regard of its environment.

6. Know the main ways to internationalize a business.

7. Ability to produce an original paper over a given issue from a given organization /industry.

8. Ability to deliver good quality oral presentations of the results of analyses.

3. Contents

Part 1: Managers and Management

- Introduction
- Managers and Organizations
- Management History
- Organizational Culture and Environment
- Managing in a Global Environment
- Social Responsibility and Managerial Ethics

Part 2: Planning

- Decision Making
- Foundations of Planning
- Strategic Management

Part 3: Organizing

- Organizational Structure and Design
- Human Resource Management
- Understanding Groups and Teams
- Managing Change and Innovation

Part 4: Managing

- Foundations of Behavior
- Managers and Communication
- Motivating Employees
- Managers as Leaders

Part 5: Control

- Introduction to Control
- Managing Operations

4. Assessment

1st Trimester:

Theory Classes

The evaluation of the theory classes is done through a multiple choice test which accounts 50% of the final grade. No minimum grade is required to pass the 1st trimester course.

Seminars

Seminar grades will be based on written assignments that have to be turned in at the beginning of the seminars and on oral participation to the seminar discussions. No minimum grade is required to pass the 1st trimester course.

2nd Trimester

Theory Classes

The evaluation of the theory classes is done through a multiple choice test which accounts 50% of the final grade. No minimum grade is required to pass the 2nd trimester course.

Seminars

Evaluation of the seminar is done via a groupwork assignment, which will be presented and supervised during the hours of seminars, and accounts 50% of the final grade. Projects must be original and unpublished. Any plagiarized work that will be detected will automatically get a 0 grade and will be reported to the Dean's office. No minimum grade is required to pass the 2nd trimester course.

The general criteria for evaluating projects are:

1. Originality in the choice of the organization / industry

2. Provide a research question

3. Critical analysis of the organization / industry

4. Capacity for analysis and synthesis

5. Fit the requirements in terms of length and formal presentation.

6. Ability to write a project in a structured way, with an introduction, the core and some final conclusions.

7. Ability to gather information.

The specific directions of the groupwork will be delivered at the beginning of the 2nd Trimester and will be posted on the Campus Global.

Overall Grade for the class

In a first step the grade for the course is computed, as the weighted average of the seminar grade and the exam grade for the 2 trimesters.

Then this grade can be adjusted by a factor that ranges from -20% to +20% as a function of oral participation in Theory classes and contribution to the smooth running of the class. The participation grades of students that show up late in the classroom will be negatively affected.

September Exam Grade

Students who fail the class will have to take the september exam. The september exam grade will replace the initial grade for the course. That is, a student who gets more than 5/10 at the september exam will pass the class, irrespective of its initial grade for the class.

5. Bibliography and teaching resources

The is one mandatory textbook:

For the English section:

Title: Management: International Version
Authors: Stephen P. Robbins, Mary Coulter
Paperback: 581 pages
Publisher: Pearson Education; 10 edition (19 Mar 2009)
ISBN-10: 1408228130
ISBN-13: 978-1408228135

For the Catalan section:

Title: Administración, 10/e
Authors: Stephen P. Robbins, Mary Coulter
Publisher: Pearson Educacion;
ISBN-10: 6074423884
ISBN-13: 978-6074423884

Students should arrange to get access to the assigned textbook. Mandatory readings will be assigned every weeks. Several copies of the English language and Spanish language textbook will be made available at the library (on reserve), for the students' convenience.

Additional readings will be posted on Aula Global in due course.

6. Methodology

Theory lectures (18 lectures of 1 hour and 30 minutes each one) will consider the main theoretical issues. These were illustrated by practical examples, and more specifically by using newspaper articles. Class participation is encouraged and short discussions are generally held.

Seminar sessions (5 lectures of 1 hour and 30 minutes each one) are devoted to the discussion of case studies and to the supervision of group work.

In the first trimester the focus of the seminars will be on the application of the class concepts to short case studies / discussion of timely issues.

In the second trimester, there will be a group project. Seminar time will be devoted to the supervision of the group projects. All groups will have to report the status of their work by giving short oral presentations to report on the status of their projects, and will have the opportunity to ask for advice/feedback.

This course includes the possibility of "aules obertes", where professionals are invited to adeliver a lecture about a topic related with the course. The amount and the scheduling will depend on the speakers' availability and agenda. We might invite outside speakers outside of regular teaching ours (early evening sessions - to accomodate speakers' schedules). In this case, attendance will be encouraged, but optional.

7. Planning of activities

1st Trimestre

Week	Classroom activity
Week # 1	Session # 1: Introduction Session # 2: Managers and Organizations
Week # 2	Session # 1: Management History Session # 2: Management History
Week # 3	Session # 1: Organizational Culture and Environment 1 Session # 2 Organizational Culture and Environment 2 Seminar #1
Week # 4	Session # 1: Managing in a Global Environment 1 Session # 2: Managing in a Global Environment 2
Week # 5	Session # 1: Social Responsibility and Managerial Ethics 1 Session # 2: Social Responsibility and Managerial Ethics 2 Seminar #2
Week # 6	Session # 1: Decision Making 1 Session # 2: Decision Making 2 Seminar #3
Week # 7	Session # 1: Foundations of Planning 1 Session # 2: Foundations of Planning 2 Seminar #4
Week # 8	Session # 1: Strategic Management 1 Session # 2: Strategic Management 2 Seminar #5
Week # 9	Session # 1: Organizational Structure and Design 1 Session # 2: Organizational Structure and Design 2 Seminar #6
Week # 10	Sessions #1 & 2: Cathing up and Review of the material covered during the quarter

2nd Trimestre

Week	Classroom activity
Week # 1	Session # 1: Human Resource Management Session # 2: Human Resource Management
Week # 2	Session # 1: Understanding Groups and Teams 1 Session # 2: Understanding Groups and Teams 2
Week # 3	Session # 1: Managing Change and Innovation 1 Session # 2: Managing Change and Innovation 2 Seminar #1
Week # 4	Session # 1: Foundations of Behavior 1 Session # 2: Foundations of Behavior 2
Week # 5	Session # 1: Managers and Communication 1 Session # 2: Managers and Communication 2 Seminar #2
Week # 6	Session # 1: Motivating Employees 1 Session # 2: Motivating Employees 2 Seminar #3
Week # 7	Session # 1: Managers as Leaders 1 Session # 2: Managers as Leaders 2 Seminar #4
Week # 8	Session # 1: Introduction to Control 1 Session # 2: Introduction to Control 2 Seminar #5
Week # 9	Session # 1: Managing Operations 1 Session # 2: Managing Operations 2 Seminar #6
Week # 10	Session #1: Final Project Presentations Session #2: Final Project Presentations