Managing People: Psychological Foundations - Period 2

This blended course is about you. Managing People: Psychological Foundations deals with the human factor in organizations. All business functions in the IBA curriculum, like Marketing, Supply Chain Management, and Strategy, can impossibly exist without people executing them. Ever wondered why people in organizations behave the way they do? Ever wondered why people change their behavior as soon as they enter an organization? You may already have formed your own theories regarding how people behave in social situations. But here is the ?million dollar question?: is there any scientific evidence that supports your theories? This course will help you test your own theories, and question them by comparing them to other theories on social behavior in organizational contexts. We will look at behavior in organizations from three different levels of analysis: the individual, the group, and the organization. The individual level focuses on the employee and his or her job. You will study topics such as personality, work attitudes, motivation, and stress. The group level deals with teams or departments and the interaction within and between groups in organizations. You will take a look at topics such as group development and behavior, diversity, and conflicts and negotiation. Finally, the organizational level examines the interaction between managers, employees, groups, and the organization as a whole. Examples of relevant topics are organizational change and leadership. These three levels will be integrated using an HRM perspective: how to effectively use the available human capital to make employees flourish and organizations thrive?

Contact hours listed under a course description may vary due to the combination of lecture-based and independent work required for each course therefore, CEA's recommended credits are based on the ECTS credits assigned by VU Amsterdam. 1 ECTS equals 28 contact hours assigned by VU Amsterdam.