Psychology in Organizations

Course name: Psychology in Organizations

Period: International Business Consultancy (Y4:13/14)

Cluster within the International Business Consultancy Programme: Organisations & Behaviour

Study load: 4 ECTS (~112 hours)

Course description

The process of growth, decline and transformation of organisations and its employees lead to an increasing strain on elaboration and performance; conflicts are therefore inevitable and hence lurking. It is of great importance for organisations - and in particular the management - to pay atttention to the way employees from a different background and experience can elaborate and learn from eachother. One of the challenges is that employees have to work longer and to an older age. This implies that different generations have to work together in order to deliver important impulses for future developments in organisations. Provided that there’s a ‘click’ between the different generations; these so called ‘X’ and ‘Y’generations need to level.

The maneuvrability and flexibility of organisations is above all determined by the quality of its ‘human capital’. Employees are essential to perform optimally and keep innovating; the rise of self-managing teams is inevitable. Organisations have to manage their future staffing needs strategically; other skills, competences and behaviour are needed. Employees have to be aware that their skills can detoriate or even aging. This implies another insight on being agile in a fast moving environment; individual agility can only be accomplished by motivating employees to develop transferable skillsets. Lifelong learning becomes key.

In your future role as a business consultant you will have to bridge these kind of topics with the right tooling (skills and insights) in order to advice the management board in strategic matters.

Competences and learning objectives

Competences: organizational behavior, information management, problem recognition and diagnosing

General course information

Required previous knowledge

It is preferable that students do have basic knowledge about organisations and management.

Recommended literature

Online materials.

Way of working

Teaching methods include a combination of theory, workshop (sprints), presentations and coaching based on the 4 topics. During sprint classes you will follow a workshop setting. This means the teacher will help you understand content for the course (starting with a brief oral presentation by the teacher) and there will be plenty of time to practice with content. After 2 sprints (selected) duo’s will present their findings in class which is dedicated to one of themes. It is also a part of the final assignment for the course (see further down for description).

These presentations are meant to prepare you for the final assignment of the course, and as such make an excellent follow-up regarding the final assessment.

During coaching sessions, the teacher will concentrate on both content and process. The final assignment’s assessment form will be used as a guiding instrument for the coaching sessions.

Exam

The exam consists of:

- A portfolio with the elaborated assignments based on the 4 themes (sprints) as presented by the duo’s in articles or video’s. A final score of 5,5 for the portfolio is needed to paticipate in the final assessment.

- During the assessment the duo (in their role as business consultant) will answer questions from 2 teachers (in role as manager) based on one of topics presented by the other students during the presentations or video’s.

Caesura

A final score of 5,5 or higher leads to passing the course and receiving the related 4 ECTS.

Retake exam

The retake of the exam is scheduled at the end of the semester. This is usually two or three weeks after the first exam week.