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Dear colleagues,

I was wondering whether I could ask for your suggestions/ideas re group projects suitable for the basic first term OB course in an international MBA class. The class is highly cultural diverse, yet predominantly Latin students. Interests of students vary largely, with many having preferences for rather other disciplines such as finance and entrepreneurship.   

Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

With kind regards,

Andreas

Dear colleagues,

 

I was wondering whether I could ask for your suggestions/ideas re group projects suitable for the basic first term OB course in an international MBA class. The class is highly cultural diverse, yet predominantly Latin students. Interests of students vary largely, with many having preferences for rather other disciplines such as finance and entrepreneurship.   

 

Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

 

With kind regards,

Andreas

 

Andreas Richter, PhD Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior Human Resources and Organizational Behavior C.Pinar 15,1 28006 Madrid, Spain	andreas.richter@ie.edu Direct tel.: +34 917451329 http://www.ie.edu/IE/php/en/claustro_detalle.php?id=634
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Hello Andreas,

I have been using, fairly successfully (with a possible exception being a class where most students have nearly no work experience), a weekly small-group written case study. You can, of course, give a more international twist to the required assignment and add more serious written component evaluation. Here is the description from my syllabus:

Group Presentation & Facilitation

As part of the general emphasis on group work in the MBA programme in general, and in this course specifically, groups will be used as a vehicle for accomplishing some of the course assignments. I expect to use the existing nine four-member groups that were assigned by the MBA programme. Each such team will be responsible for facilitating a 30-minute presentation and discussion during one of the sessions, beginning with Class 3 ('Workplace Perception, Emotions and Attitudes') on week 2 (Monday, January 28^th). Thus, Group A will be responsible for the above topic; Group B will be responsible for the topic 'The Motivation of People at Work', etc. with the last group presenting on class 11, February 25, 2008.

This group project has two parts-a short written report on the topic chosen and a class presentation/facilitation. Each team is to prepare a mini-case related to the topic that corresponds to that group's class. The case should highlight an actual (i.e., real) organisational problem or challenge, preferably from an organisation that one of the team members is closely familiar with.

The maximum time allotted for this activity is 30 minutes. In the 1^st part, the team should briefly lay out the organization's background and then clearly describe the events that are in the heart of the case. The case should end up with presenting a certain dilemma regarding a course of action or decision making that needs to be made for the class to ponder on. The presenting team should allow enough time to facilitate a class discussion based on the case presented (10-15 minutes is a good estimate for that part). The team should end this discussion with a very brief analysis of the possible, or recommended, action options in the presented case.

Important: Your emphasis should be not only on conducting an informative presentation but also on facilitating discussion and involving the class.  Aim to spend no more than half your time on straight presentation.

Each group should submit an electronic copy of its presentation by the end of the day in which it presents. In addition to the presentation part, each team has to submit a written report between three and four (double spaced) pages (excluding title page and references), containing a description of the case as well as suggested discussion topics.

Due Date: I strongly encourage you to submit the written report by the end of the class during which your presentation takes place. The deadline to submit your report is at the beginning of the class immediately following the one your group presented in. Please submit all reports (print form only) directly to me.

Evaluation and Feedback: You will be graded both on the written part and the oral part of your project, with a greater weight assigned to the oral portion. In the written report, you will be graded on the quality and value of your report, emphasizing both completeness as well as relevance. Class presentations will be evaluated on the basis of content as well as form (interesting, engaging, creative). To provide as broad feedback as possible for your group presentation, I will ask students to complete a written feedback form for you after the class, which they will hand directly to your group.

Dear colleagues,

I was wondering whether I could ask for your suggestions/ideas re group projects suitable for the basic first term <st1:place w:st="on">OB</st1:place> course in an international MBA class. The class is highly cultural diverse, yet predominantly Latin students. Interests of students vary largely, with many having preferences for rather other disciplines such as finance and entrepreneurship.   

Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

With kind regards,

Andreas