Objectives

This course seeks to enable students to understand and address challenges in managing people in organizations on the basis of academic literature. Students learn about how to manage people through organizational design, performance management, and organizational change. In doing so, the course allows students to apply academic theories about managing people to real-world cases. These cases, supplemented by scholarly readings, serve as the primary vehicle for learning.

Specifically, students (1) learn declarative knowledge about organizational design, organizational change, and managing people, (2) develop procedural knowledge and skills for solving managerial problems, and (3) develop skills for presenting and arguing managerial decisions.

Contents

Introduction:

1. Course Introduction: Meier Manufacturing

2. Managing employee performance: Elise Smart

Module 1: Organizational Design

3. Organizational design: Keeping Google “Googley”

4. Organizational culture: Four Seasons goes to Paris

5. Organization design in an NGO: Street Child Europe

6. Holacracy as modern organizational design: Liip Switzerland

7. Organizational design in an alliance: Case TBD

Module 2: People Management

8. Managing difficult employees: What a star, what a jerk

9. Managing diversity: The case of the unequal opportunity

10. Dealing with unresolvable tensions: Susan Taylor at Exeter Group

Module 3: Change Management

11. Managing top-down and bottom-up change: Firmenich

12. Managing change in an NGO: Red Cross Children’s Home Guyana

13. Crisis management: Case TBD

14. Course Review

References

Class contribution (individual): 20%

Weekly assignment papers (individual): 65%

Review assignment for the last class (individual): 15%

Pre-requisites

N/A

Evaluation

First attempt

Exam:

Without exam (cf. terms)  

Evaluation:

Class contribution (individual): 20%

Weekly assignment papers (individual): 65%

Review assignment for the last class (individual): 15%

Retake

Exam:

Without exam (cf. terms)  

Evaluation:

To be eligible for a retake, students have to have submitted 10 weekly assignments. Eligible students who have a final grade of below 4.0 have to redo all assignments in which their grade was below 4.0.