Courses

• GSM OB 712: Managing Organizations and People
  This course introduces you to some fundamental concepts, models and frameworks to help you become better acquainted with the organizations for which you work, the teams in which you work, the people with whom you work, and your own personal development. Specifically, this course considers: 1) how to develop yourselves as managers, 2) how to work well within teams, 3) how to assess and manage interpersonal dynamics, 4) how to structure more effective organizations, and 5) how to manage organizational change. Tying all of these elements together, we will devote particular attention to the traits, skills and behaviors that are indicative of good leadership and how organizations and managers can be transformed for better alignment with the business demands of the future.
• GSM OB 713: Managing Organizations and People
  This course introduces concepts, models and frameworks to help you become better managers of the organizations you work for, the teams you work in, the people you work with and your own professional development. Emphasis will be on behavioral science concepts and research findings related to the major challenge managers face -- how to organize individuals in order to fulfill the objectives and strategies of the firm. Topics that will be examined include: the nature and dynamics of the organization (organizational structure and culture, performance systems and metrics, reward systems, selection and socialization); the elements of individual leadership and personal development (power, decision-making, emotional intelligence, career development, developmental needs, feedback, and mentoring and coaching); managing change within organizational contexts (the dynamics and stages of organizational change and the skills and tactics employed by change agents); and the relationships between the firm and the external environment in which it operates. The course objective is to provide analytical skills and strategies, substantive knowledge, and a professional sensibility that will increase your ability to take effective action in firms, agencies and other organizations.
• GSM OB 802: Leading Transformation in Health and Social Sector Organizations
  Organizations in the health and social service sectors have missions to create social value in a variety of areas including patient care, client services, environmental sustainability, educational access, global health, health service delivery, and poverty. This course examines theories and practices of leading transformation uded to bring about a desired social impact through such organizations. For example, it will explore how sustainable change is achieved through "small steps" infused into everyday life. In order to build skills in leading transformation the course is heavily experientials. It will integrate a field-based group project along with exercises, cases and speakers. Group project teams will work with a health or social sector organization to examine a change effort and devlop a leadership briefing that distills the change implementations process and value realized, and generates actional recommendations for leading future transformation.
• GSM OB 815: Seminar on Careers: Theory, Research and Practices
  This seminar will examine major theoretical models and research on the process of how careers unfold in and out of organizations. It will examine both the more traditional issues of career dynamics in organizational settings (e.g., internal labor markets, tournament mobility systems, organizational socialization) as well as emergent issues of boundary-less, protean, or "free agent" career processes, such as career transformation, career networks, developmental relationships, adult development, and emotional competencies.
• GSM OB 830: Leading the Mission-Driven Organization
  Mission-driven organizations are created in order to accomplish goals that extend beyond profits for stakeholders and owners. Missions vary, ranging from, among many others; improving health care, providing meaningful work opportunities, educating or protecting youth, safeguarding the planet, eradicating poverty, building sustainable organizations, and enabling spirituality. and enabling spirituality. Such missions occur in the context of various organizations, including non-profit and for-profit, philanthropic and religious, public and private, governmental and non-governmental. This course focuses on leadership theories, frameworks, and practices that take seriously the nature of workers, including both professional staff and volunteers, and their reasons for choosing to work in such organizations. This course is designed to build the capacities of students to use specific tools related to leadership, conflict, and change that are particularly useful in leading mission-driven organizations, and enable them to develop particular insights about specific mission-driven organizations of interest, related to their effectiveness and capacities for change.
• GSM OB 835: Leading Sustainable Enterprises
  This course is designed to deepen students' appreciation for the leadership challenges and opportunities posed by the emerging realities of a more crowded, interconnected, and increasingly resource constrained globe - a world of unprecedented transparency, increasing consumer and investor power and more NGO (non governmental organizations) oversight than ever before. Independent of rank within a company, it is certain that managers, leaders and entrepreneurs will meet or be met with issues that were not a part of management lexicon a decade ago. More specifically, pressures to deliver bottom line results are now compounded by challenges of how such results are delivered. In order to achieve excellence, managers and leaders of tomorrow must be attuned to the traditional strategic framework for competition, and the context of the ecosystem in which they operate. Leaders of tomorrow will compete consciously and generatively to improve the lives of stakeholders including: shareholders, consumers, employees, suppliers and the planet. This course will leverage systems thinking, case studies, debate, discussion, a blog and outside speakers from the world of commerce (e.g. the former CEO of Timberland, founder of QUINN Popcorn) and NGOs (e.g. EDF, TruCost, 1% for the Planet). The course will blend theory and practice to provide students the context, tools, and frameworks to operate as sustainable stewards and leaders in the global economy.
• GSM OB 840: Management Consulting Field Project
  The purpose of this course is to provide students with an in-depth understanding of the management consulting process and its practical application. The course simulates a small consulting firm where students are consultants. Students complete significant fieldwork outside of classroom time. Students explore dimensions of defining and understanding the consulting framework, engagements, work methodology, client relationship management, value creation, developing and delivering presentations and client follow-up. This course includes one primary deliverable: the initiation, scoping and completion of a consulting field project. This class is designed and best suited for second year students who have 3-5 years work experience in the public, private or nonprofit sectors.
• GSM OB 841: Fundamentals of Nonprofit Management
  The Greek mathematician Archimedes once wrote: "Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I will move the world." For many aspiring leaders who want to move the world -- to be more sustainable, more compassionate, more just -- a nonprofit organization is their place to stand. In Fundamentals of Nonprofit Management, students will advance their understanding and develop their skills in areas of management that are distinctively -- or disproportionately -- applicable to nonprofits. These topics include mission and measurement, engaging donors and volunteers, budgeting and accounting for restricted grants, and scaling impact. The course will focus particularly on the financial fundamentals of effective nonprofit performance, and the major course project will challenge students to design a nonprofit and develop a comprehensive financial plan for it. The course will use a variety of lively in-class learning activities and assignments, including debates, role plays, team presentations, case studies, and guest experts.
• GSM OB 844: Managing Organizational Change
  Change is crucial for the success and survival of organizations. Managing change is central to the role of senior leaders, middle managers and frontline supervisors alike; each needs to understand the change process and develop the skills necessary to engage that process effectively. This course focuses on both the knowledge and the set of skills that enable change to be effectively managed across various organizations and industries. Students will learn about how to be effective agents of change, in the context of different types of roles--tops, middles and bottoms--and organizations. We will explore the nature of both proactive and reactive change, examining the conditions under which such change is successful and the skills necessary to ensure that success. Students will also have the opportunity to learn about themselves as change agents, in the context of considering their own tendencies, skills, and capabilities amidst proactive and reactive change. The course is particularly appropriate for students who wish to develop their leadership and consultation capabilities.
• GSM OB 847: Leading High Performance Teams and Project Groups
  This course introduces the challenges of leading and participating in teams and project groups. It emphasizes the role of leadership in composing teams, motivating members, and creating an environment in which teams and their members grow in capacity over time. This course will use cases, experiential exercises, and group projects to help students gain both knowledge of team dynamics and the skills to shape them.
• GSM OB 848: The Leadership Challenge
  This course examines the essence of leadership; its relationship to managing; and the behaviors, attitudes and perspectives that distinguish leaders. Leadership is considered in a variety of ways: leadership in crises, at the top, in the middle, and in groups. Case studies, students' past experiences, instruments, and other learning activities provide opportunities for students to assess and develop their leadership talents.
• GSM OB 853: Negotiations
  This course uses the theory and research on effective negotiating strategies to build students' understanding of, and skills for, managing differences and negotiation situations. The course considers, among other topics, the issues of negotiating across functions, between levels, across national and cultural differences, over race and gender differences, and between organizations. Students examine: 1) problems of influence and self-defense in highly competitive "hardball" negotiations; and 2) the art of using differences for creative problem-solving and "mutual gain" outcomes. The emphasis is on developing practical skills for effective negotiations that can be applied to concrete situations. Students should be prepared to learn from their own experiences and practice in this course.
• GSM OB 860: Managerial Decision Making
  This course examines theoretical and practical aspects of decision-making. Using a combination of cases, exercises, and psychological and behavioral instruments, students will learn to understand and manage decision making from various perspectives. There will be an emphasis placed on strategic decisions and crisis decisions in a wide variety of circumstances, including business decisions, personal decisions, and managerial decisions made during several different types of events. There will be a detailed analysis of managerial decisions made during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Decisions will be analyzed using several models, including rational choice, game theory, organizational and communications structure, context analysis, cognitive mapping, and several psychologically based theories.
• GSM OB 915: Seminar on Careers: Theory, Research and Practices
  This seminar will examine major theoretical models and research on the process of how careers unfold in and out of organizations. It will examine both the more traditional issues of career dynamics in organizational settings (e.g., internal labor markets, tournament mobility systems, organizational socialization) as well as emergent issues of boundary-less, protean, or "free agent" career processes, such as career transformation, career networks, developmental relationships, adult development, and emotional competencies.
• GSM OB 918: Seminar in Micro Organizational Behavior
  Micro organizational behavior is the study of individual behavior and social processes in organizations. The goal of this doctoral course is to familiarize students with major conceptual frameworks, debates, and developments in the field of micro organizational behavior. This course will review the key literature in the study of individual behaviors, interpersonal relations, and group dynamics in organizations. The readings and discussions will focus on core topics in the field, such as personality and individual differences, work attitudes, motivation, leadership, groups, and socialization. This course is required of all first year doctoral students in Organizational Behavior and is open to other doctoral students with permission.
• GSM OB 923: Field Studies Seminar
  As management researchers seek to understand questions of 'how' and 'of what ' in addition to the more traditional question of 'how many,' qualitative methods are taking a central place in our field's methodological practice. One indicator is the publication of qualitatively based articles by major journals in the sub-disciplines of organizational behavior, information systems, strategy, accounting and marketing. This doctoral-level seminar has two objectives: to explore the range of methodological practices and processes associated with conducting and composing high quality qualitative research, and to draw particular attention to the important processes of observing, discovery, justification and writing.
• GSM OM 725: Creating Value Through Operations and Technology
  This MBA core course is case-oriented and focuses on topics of use to managers in any environment: process analysis, process improvement, supply chain management, and strategic operations decision-making. The course emphasizes the importance of effectiveness and efficiency and evaluates the potential trade-offs between them.
• GSM OM 726: Creating Value Through Operations and Technology
  This MBA core course is case-oriented and focuses on topics of use to managers in any environment: process analysis, process improvement, supply chain management, and strategic operations decision-making. The course emphasizes the importance of effectiveness and efficiency and evaluates the potential trade-offs between them.
• GSM OM 840: Managing and Improving Quality: Six Sigma Green Belt Certification
  Six Sigma is a powerful management tool that promotes process improvement, cost reduction and significant enhancement of bottom-line profitability. The purpose of this course is to thoroughly examine the concept of quality, to define it in terms that are useful for managers, to survey the ideas of major quality thinkers and theorists, to develop proficiency in the use of quality tools, and to consider the challenges of quality program implementation in real business situations. Throughout the course we will investigate similarities and differences between quality management in manufacturing and service contexts. The course has three major objectives. The first goal is to define quality and explore important philosophies and useful frameworks for managers or consultants. The second goal is to focus on the Six Sigma tools available for the pursuit of lasting quality improvements. The third is to bring the experiences of Six Sigma practice into the classroom. We?ll benefit from the expertise and experience of Six Sigma professionals who will help us to understand the challenges of Six Sigma implementations and analyze the lessons they have learned from projects they have undertaken.
• GSM OM 845: Clean Technologies and Supply Chains
  The clean technology industry is one of the largest sectors of the economy and yet still undergoing significant growth and attracting a plethora of new entrants. It has been characterized by a great deal of experimentation around new technologies and around business models in the face of regulatory and market place disruptions. The course uses a combination of cases, simulation and analytical exercises to review trends and their co-evolution within the clean technology/energy eco-system. It aims to build a skill set around risk and opportunity assessment, and allied implementation challenges. This course is being set up as an MBA elective that is aligned with the needs of Entrepreneurship, PNP and Strategy concentrations. GRS and ENG students who have graduate level exposure to clean technologies/ environmental studies, and who wish to explore business aspects of clean technology issues may enroll with instructors permission.

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