Week 1 (8/28)
Introduction
Go over syllabus and schedule, course requirements and
grading, and introduction to course content.
Week 2 (9/4)
No class
There will be no class today.
However, there is a requirement for the week:
Everyone should make an appointment before Friday to
come meet with me (for about 15 minutes). During this appointment, be prepared to discuss a little
about yourself (your background, your academic interests, what you want to do
with your life, whether you prefer Brittany or Christina, and your favorite
pizza toppings). It will be a
chance for me to get to know all of you better.
This will help me decide what material to focus on and what most of you
would like to get out of the course (besides an “A”).
You should also begin thinking about what
organization you would like to cover in the group projects. If you need
help finding out about organizations, there are some potentially helpful links
in the announcements.
Week 3 (9/11)
Organizations
What are organizations? What do organizations do?
What types of organizations are there?
How are organizations like people? How are they different? In what
ways are all organizations the same? In what ways do they differ? What are the goals of organizations?
Why is communication important to organizations and to achieving the
above objectives? How does
communication solve organizational problems (big question we’ll discuss
throughout semester)? How can it fail?
Readings:
a.
Scott, W. R. 1998. Organizations. New
Jersey: Prentice Hall. Chapter 1, “The subject is
organizations,” pp. 3-29.
b.
Eisenberg, E. and S. Phillips. 1991. “Miscommunication in
organizations.” In N. Coupland, H. Giles and J. Wiemann (eds.),
‘Miscommunication’ and Problem Talk. Newbury Park, California: Sage
Publications, pp. 244-258.
c.
Daft, Richard L. 1998. Organization Theory and Design. Cincinnati:
South-Western College Publishing, Ch.
9, pp. 330-345.
Week 4 (9/18)
Tools for looking at organizations
What tools can we use to look at organizations?
What are game theory, social and cognitive psychology, and sociology?
How do they help us understand behavior and communication?
Readings:
a.
Dixit & Nalebuff, Introduction and Chapters 1 & 3, pp. 1-4, 7-30,
56-84.
b.
Weick, K. E. 1979. The Social Psychology of Organizing. Reading, Mass.:
Addison-Wesley. Chapter 1, “An introduction to
organizing,” pp. 1-13.
Your group should select an organization on which to
focus by this week. By the end of the week, someone in your group
should send me an e-mail message with the name of the organization, a brief (one
or two sentences) description of what the organization does, and a plan for how
you intend to find out about the organization (e.g., interviews with members,
published news/magazine articles).
Week 5 (9/25)
Problems faced by organizations – cooperation
What are cooperation, opportunism & social
dilemmas? What are the differences
between them? Why are they important for
studying organizations? Can you think of examples resembling social
dilemmas in organizations? What types of things may help resolve social
dilemmas? How does communication play a role?
Readings:
a.
Dawes, Robyn and David Messick. 2000. “Social
Dilemmas.”
International Journal of Psychology, 35(2), pp. 111-116.
b.
D&N, Ch. 4, pp. 89-118.
c.
Daft, Richard L. 1998. Organization Theory and Design. Cincinnati:
South-Western College Publishing, Ch. 9, pp. 345-358.
Week 6 (10/2)
Cooperation (continued) – communication, group
identity and reciprocation
How does group identity affect
cooperation in groups and organizations?
What types of things affect group identity? How does communication
affect group identity? What is the importance of communication in resolving
social dilemmas? In what ways do economists and psychologists differ in
how communication can improve cooperation and
help resolve social dilemmas?
Readings:
a. Orbell,
J., R. Dawes & A. Van de Kragt. 1990. “The limits of multilateral
promising.” Ethics, 100(3), pp.
616-627.
b.
Brewer, Marylinn and Norman Miller. 1996. Intergroup Relations.
Pacific Grove, California: Brooks-Cole.
Chapter 2, “Ethnocentrism and Ingroup
Identity,” pp. 22-49.
Week 7 (10/9)
Problems faced by organizations – coordination
What are coordination problems and how precisely do they
differ from cooperation problems/social dilemma's? What
is coordination neglect? Can you
think of examples of coordination problems in real organizations? What
types of things might help improve coordination? How do these differ
from tools for improving cooperation?
Readings:
a.
Chwe, Michael. 2001. Rational Ritual: Culture, Coordination and Common
Knowledge. Forthcoming, Princeton University Press.
Chapter 1, “Introduction,”
pp. 7-20.
b.
Heath, Chip and Nancy Staudenmayer. “Coordination neglect: How lay
theories of organizing complicate coordination in organizations,” pp. 3-38.
c.
(Recommended) D&N, Ch. 9, pp. 223-258.
Week 8 (10/16)
Coordination (continued) – communication and
conventions
How can we solve coordination problems? What
are conventions? How do they help
solve coordination problems? What
is necessary in order for conventions to arise? How can communication
facilitate the formation of conventions.
Readings:
a.
Chwe, Ch. 2, pp. 21-37, 65-71. (The rest of this chapter is
optional: not directly relevant, but pretty interesting if you are interested in
the advertising examples we discussed in class).
b.
Lewis, David. 1969. Convention. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Ch. 1, “Coordination and
convention,” pp. 5-8, 36-51.
c.
Kraut, R. E. and L. A. Streeter. 1995. “Coordination in software
development.” Communications of the ACM 38(3), pp. 69-71.
Week 9 (10/23)
Organizational culture
Review for exam
What is organizational culture?
How does organizational culture develop? What types of problems
encountered by organizations does it help solve? Is strong culture ever
detrimental to organizations? How does organizational culture relate to communication?
Readings:
a.
Weber & Camerer, “Organizational Culture” (handout)
b.
Colvin, G. "The
changing art of becoming unbeatable." 1997. Fortune, November
24, 1997, pp. 299-300.
c.
Schein, E. "The
role of the founder in creating organizational culture." 1983. “The role of the founder in creating organizational
culture.” Organizational Dynamics, pp. 13-28.
d.
“Unilever: A networked organization.” 1996. Harvard Business Review
Nov/Dec, pp. 138-139.
Exam I – Take home exam can be picked up from
Rosa Stipanovic (PH319F) on Friday (10/26) between 9am and 4pm (excluding 12 - 1:15) and
must be returned to her on Monday (10/29) by 2pm.
Week 10 (10/30)
Go over exam
Procedural justice & explanation
What is procedural justice? In what way do people
care about procedures? What types of things will make people judge
procedures "more fair"?
Readings:
a.
Lind, E. A. and T. R. Tyler. 1992.
“Procedural Justice in Organizations,” Chapter 8 in The Social
Psychology of Procedural Justice. New
York: Plenum, pp. 173-177, 188-191.
b.
Greenberg, J. 1990. “Employee
theft as a reaction to underpayment inequity: The hidden cost of pay cuts.”
Journal of Applied Psychology, 75, pp. 561-568.
A one-page (2 pages double-spaced) description of
your organization is due by 5PM on Friday 11/2. Send it to me via
e-mail.
Week 11 (11/6)
Leadership
What is the role of leadership in organizations?
Why is leadership helpful? How
is it likely to be most effective?
Readings:
a.
Foss, N. “Leadership,
beliefs and coordination: An explorative discussion,” pp. 1-23.
b.
Kotter, John. 1990. “What leaders really
do.” Harvard Business
Review, May-June, pp. 103-111.
c.
Van Huyck, J., A. Gillette and R. Battalio. 1992. “Credible assignments
in coordination games." Games and Economic Behavior 4(4), pp. 606-626.
Week 12 (11/13)
Bargaining
What types of bargaining/negotiation situations
exist in organizations? How does
communication affect bargaining? When
is not being able to communicate better?
What cognitive biases may affect the effectiveness of communication?
Readings:
a.
Valley, K. L., J. Moag and M. H. Bazerman. 1998. “A matter of trust:
Effects of communication on the efficiency and distribution of outcomes.”
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 34(2), pp. 211-238.
b.
Graham, John L. and Roy Herberger Jr. 1983. “Negotiators abroad:
Don’t shoot from the hip.” Harvard Business Review, July/August 83(4), pp.
160-168.
c.
Hallowell, Edward M. 1999. “The human moment at work” Harvard
Business Review Jan/Feb, pp. 58-66.
Week 13 (11/20)
Spend 4 hours at Pittsburgh
International Airport due to “unforeseen circumstances” affecting USAirways,
Delta, American, Northwestern, etc.,
I get the feeling I may forget to show up on this
day. Just think of me when
you’re giving thanks on Thursday.
Week 14 (11/27)
Technology and organizational form
What are different types of communication
technologies? What are different
types of organizational forms? What
is the difference between formal and informal organization?
How do these different types of technologies and organizational forms
affect communication?
Readings:
a.
Leavitt, H. 1962. “Unhuman
organizations.” Harvard Business Review
July-August, pp. 90-98.
b.
Kiesler, Sara and Lee Sproull. 1992. “Group decision making and
communication technology.” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision
Processes 52, pp. 96-123.
c.
Krackhardt and Hanson. 1993. “Informal networks: The company behind the
chart.” Harvard Business Review, July/August, pp. 104-111.
d.
Brown, J. S. and P. Duguid. 2000. “Balancing
Act.” Harvard Business
Review. May/June, pp. 73-77.
Week 15 (12/4)
Persuasion, social influence, and conformity &
Review
Are people easily influenced?
When is this true? What does this type of research have to say about
communication in organizations? What
reasons might there be for why people conform?
Readings:
a.
Asch, S. E. 1951. “Effects of group pressure upon the modification and
distortion of judgments.” In H.
Guetzkow (ed.), Groups, leadership, and men.
Pittsburgh: Carnegie Press, pp. 393-401.
b.
Messick, D. M. and R. K. Ohme. 1998. “Some ethical aspects of the
social psychology of social influence.” In R. Kramer and M. Neale (eds.), Power and Influence in
Organizations. Thousand Oaks,
California: Sage Publications, pp. 181-202.
Written group project reports due by 4PM on Friday.
Exam II – Take home exam can be picked up from
Rosa Stipanovic (PH319F) on Friday (12/7) after 9am (excluding 12 - 1:15) and
must be returned to her on Monday (12/10) by 2pm.
Week 16 (12/11)
Group presentations
