ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND ANALYSIS - 2025/6

Module Overview

The module provides students with an introduction to the human dimensions of work organizations. It will encourage them to think critically and creatively about the ways in which people shape organizations and are, in turn, shaped by organizations. It will introduce them to individual, group and structural levels of analysis. This module builds the foundations for the subsequent, more advanced study of people and organizations on the HRM Pathway.

Module provider

Surrey Business School

Module Leader

CIACHIR Constantin (SBS)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 4

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 2

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

Indicative content includes:

1. Organizational Behaviour: motivation, perception, personality, leadership and decision-making, teams and team working.


2. Organization Studies: organisational learning, structure, culture, power, control, resistance and change.

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

Not applicable

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate all five of the intended module learning outcomes; which is reflected both in its formative and its summative elements.

There will be a mid-term test to ensure that students have a good level of knowledge related to topics covered in the first 5 weeks of the syllabus. At the end of the semester, students sit another test.

The end-of-semester assignment is intended to give students an opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge in depth in relation to selected topics drawn from across the entire OBA syllabus.

  Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

• Online (in-semester) MCQ test addresses learning outcomes 3 & 4) 


• Coursework ( addresses learning outcomes 1 - 5)


• Online (end-of-semester) MCQ test addresses learning outcomes 3 & 4)  

Formative assessment

There is no formative assessment in this module, but generic feedback will also be provided for work undertaken in the seminars.

Feedback

This module adopts an enquiry-based approach to feedback where the emphasis is on providing resources to students which allow them to identify their own strengths and weaknesses to develop learning strategies which will allow them to improve their performance.

• Prior to the assignment, lecture time will be spent discussing the assignment and feedback process.


• A detailed marking scheme which provides guidance on how marks will be awarded for each element of assessment. This marking scheme has benefits for both staff and students. For staff it allows for consistency of marking between markers and for rapid and rigorous marking. For students it makes it absolutely clear what is expected of them. Students will receive a mark for each element of the assignment which they can reference to the marking scheme for detailed individual feedback.


• Generic feedback which explains what students did well and did less well overall. This will take two forms. In the first lecture after submission, time will be spent explaining the key learning issues from the assignment and, once marking is completed, students will receive detailed generic feedback via SurreyLearn including a statistical breakdown of marks so that they can place their own performance into that of their cohort.


• Action Plans – students will be encouraged to produce action plans which demonstrate that they have engaged with the feedback resources, and which identify their strengths and weaknesses and form the basis of a learning strategy for the end of module assignment. Weekly seminars, and the discussions therein, are designed to enable students to continually refine their understanding and work on the assignment.  


• Discussion Forum on SurreyLearn

Module aims

• To provide an understanding of key theoretical contributions to organisational behaviour and organisation studies.
• To enable students to begin using these theories to critically analyse organisational practices, and to begin using examples of organisational practice to critically reflect on organisational theories and practices.
• To introduce students to the fundamental skills of independent research, critical analysis, use of evidence and development of insight in the field of OBA.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The teaching and learning strategy is designed to enable students to gain knowledge and understanding of key theories and concepts in the field of OBA (LO1), to develop an awareness of the use they can make of establishing a meaningful dialogue between organizational theories and practice (LO2), and to begin to develop cognitive, professional and transferable skills, such as critical analysis, evaluation and use of evidence, generation of insight and independent inquiry as understood and practiced in the field of OBA (LO3, LO4), which will prepare them for the higher-level modules (LO5).

Teaching and learning methods include:

• Lecturers


• Seminars


• Case study discussions


• Self-directed learning


• Reading


• SurreyLearn


• MindTap (online learning platform with weekly activities and homework, including self-assessments)

Total student learning time = 150 hours

Independent learning:

• Students will be expected to participate in sessions by using their own experience and understanding of learning to evaluate a range of OB issues


• Not all elements of the curricula will be covered in detail in the lecture programme, students will be expected to engage in a (guided) literature search and review


• Students will be expected to prepare for all seminars. At a minimum, this requires them to read/watch the case study in advance


• To gain high marks in the assignment, students will have to read widely which means going beyond lecture notes and the recommended reading list. A list of specific articles will be provided but the expectation is that this represents a starting point for reading and not an inclusive list

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: MAN1073

Other information

This module promotes four of the main five Student Competency Framework Pillars as follows:

Global and Cultural Capabilities

The module contains aspects of cultural differences in relation to all topics covered, e.g. motivation, perception, values and emotions. Students not only acquire knowledge on cultural and national differences in terms of OB practices, they also apply this knowledge in the weekly seminars on relevant case studies. The demographic topography of our students and members of staff is rich and diverse. Therefore, students acquire and develop global and cultural capabilities by interacting with each other in completing the assessments, as well as with the academic members of staff.

Employability

The module is designed to equip students with people anagement knowledge, skills, and competencies - a fundamental requirement for a career in management. Moreover, the knowledge, skills, and competencies gained in this module will benefit students’ employability not only in a UK context, but also internationally.

Resourcefulness & Resilience

Every week students work in groups to solve a relevant OB problem or dilemma, testing their ability to think and be resourceful under pressure and in a context defined by ambiguity and uncertainty, as well as imperfect and incomplete information. The coursework is designed to provide students with an opportunity to research in-depth select OB aspects. Students need to sharpen their ability to be resourceful in identifying, synthesising, and communicating their finadings in writing in a logical, systematic, and confident manner. And so, challenging them to be resilient in a challenging academic environment.

Digital Capabilities

The moduel is designed in partnership with Cengage Learning. Students engage not only with the university’s VLE, but also with MindTap – an online learning platform developed by Cengage. On this platform, studnets have acces to the e-textbook with a number of functions, including digital note-taking; completing, submitting, and interpreting individual measures of personality, values, motivations, etc.; communicate and interact with each other; solve OB problems in real-time on interactive video case studies; and check their progress and performance using the dashboard function. Therefore, OBA provides students at Level 4 with extensive use of digital products throughout the module and, thus, developing their digital capabilities.

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.