Building and Leading a High Performing Organization | DBLP 2021

This course focuses on building an effective organization structure and decision making processes. The course moves from the general topic of corporate culture and how it can be consciously managed to the effective use of teams, to decision-making and change management – two universal challenges that managers face. The course concludes with guidance on being an effective leader, in addition to being an effective manager in the organization.
Private

Faculty

Prof. Corinne Bendersky

Prof. Corinne Bendersky

Professor

Corinne Bendersky, Ph.D., is an associate professor of Management and Organizations at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. She has been a member of the faculty since 2002, and teaches in the MBA and Fully-Employed MBA programs. She received her B.A. with honors from Oberlin College, and her Ph.D. in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management. Prior to joining academia, Dr. Bendersky worked as a mediator, dispute systems design consultant and negotiation trainer.

Professor Bendersky’s research focuses on various aspects of organizational conflict management and negotiation processes. She has published articles in numerous academic management journals and books. Dr. Bendersky’s current research focuses on conflicts over status, or social esteem. Emphasizing symbolic resource interests and the causes and consequences of pursuing status ambitions contributes new insights to the role of conflict in group performance and how status hierarchies evolve over time.

Prof. Miguel Unzueta

Prof. Miguel Unzueta

Professor

Miguel Unzueta is an Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at UCLA Anderson School of Management. His research explores how people understand their position within social and interpersonal hierarchies and the impact this understanding has on their perceptions of self, others, and group-based inequality.

Professor Unzueta teaches the core organizational behavior course for full-time MBA students (@MGMT 409). In 2010, he was awarded the George Robbins Assistant Professor Teaching Award.  More recently, he was selected by Poets & Quants as one of the best 40 business school professors under age 40.

Professor Unzueta is currently serving on the editorial board of Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies and is a member of the Riordan Programs’ advisory board.

Course Learning Objectives:

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

  • Analyze organizational culture to proactively shape and reinforce it for strategic alignment.
  • Build, coach, and develop teams in your business so that they work together efficiently, confidently, and productively.
  • Take an informed, analytical, and strategic approach to making decisions and proactively managing dynamic change within your organization, using structured processes and best practices.
  • Diagnose a company’s culture based on agreement and intensity, and write a prescription for improving the culture.
  • Use 15 dimensions of organizational culture to create a cultural profile that represents the ideal culture for a specific organization.
  • Create an action plan for an organization’s Human Resources Director that addresses three tools for building and maintaining a strong, vibrant corporate culture.
  • Create an action plan for a struggling team, to help them develop a shared mental model.
  • Clarify the objectives and purposes of several teams in a business context.
  • Use the GRIP model to create a framework for a dysfunctional team to improve its collective state regarding thoughts, motivations, and feelings.
  • Evaluate a set of options to solve a business problem, identifying possible heuristics and biases that could be affecting the decision-making process.
  • Use the WRAP process to analyze each of the available options when faced with a serious business problem.
  • Write several introductory elements of a business plan for a given business idea/company, using a modified template.
  • Develop preliminary revenue elements of a business plan for a given business idea/company, using a modified template.
  • Write several operations elements of a business plan for a given business idea/company, using a modified template.
  • Plan specific steps to bridge the gap between the current state and the desired state bringing both managerial and leadership skills to bear.
  • Create a RACI chart that shows how work on specific tasks should be allocated.

Syllabus

Building Great Organizational Culture

Learning Objectives:

As a result of participating in this module, you will be able to:

  • Diagnose a company’s culture based on agreement and intensity, and write a prescription for improving the culture.
  • Use 15 dimensions of organizational culture to create a cultural profile that represents the ideal culture for a specific organization.
  • Create an action plan for an organization’s Human Resources Director that addresses three tools for building and maintaining a strong, vibrant corporate culture.

Module Components:

Video Lectures:

  • What is Culture?
  • Characteristics of High Performance Organizational Culture
  • What Can We Do About Organizational Culture?

Readings:

  • Defining Organizational Culture
  • Relationship between Organizational Culture, Leadership Behavior and Job Satisfaction
  • Five Structures That Shaped Zappos’ Culture

Case-Study: 

  • Toupeé Tickets

Quiz:

  • Building Great Organizational Culture
Building High Performing Teams

Learning Objectives:

As a result of participating in this module, you will be able to:

  • Create an action plan for a struggling team, to help them develop a shared mental model.
  • Clarify the objectives and purposes of several teams in a business context.
  • Use the GRIP model to create a framework for a dysfunctional team to improve its collective state regarding thoughts, motivations, and feelings.

Module Components:

Video Lectures:

  • Defining “Team” in Organizations
  • Selecting the Right People
  • Team Tools for Delivering High Performance
  • Managing Team Performance

 Readings:

  • Characteristics of a High-Performance Team
  • Ten Tips for Choosing the Right Employee for New Small Business Owners
  • How to Hire the Right People

Case-Study:

  • Toupeé Tickets (Continued- Part 1)

Quiz:

  • Building High Performing Teams
Decision Making for High Performing Organization

Learning Objectives:

As a result of participating in this module, you will be able to:

  • Evaluate a set of options to solve a business problem, identifying possible heuristics and biases that could be affecting the decision-making process.
  • Use the WRAP process to analyze each of the available options when faced with a serious business problem.

Module Components:

Video Lectures:

  • Introduction to Decision Biases and Heuristics
  • Correcting for Biases: WRAP Process

Readings:

  • The Process of Organization and Management
  • Business Decision- Making Welcomes Science
  • Three Effective Methods for Making Better Decisions

Case-Study:

  • Toupeé Tickets (Continued- Part 2)

Quiz:

  • Decision Making for High Performing Organization
Managing Change within Organization

Learning Objectives:

As a result of participating in this module, you will be able to:

  • Write several introductory elements of a business plan for a given business idea/company, using a modified template.
  • Develop preliminary revenue elements of a business plan for a given business idea/company, using a modified template.
  • Write several operations elements of a business plan for a given business idea/company, using a modified template.

Module Components:

Video Lectures:

  • Organizational Change – A Strategic Model for Change
  • Organizational Change

Readings:

  • Understanding Change Management

Case-Study:

  • Toupeé Tickets (Continued- Part 3)

Quiz:

  • Managing Change within Organization
Management and Leadership Principles

Learning Objectives:

As a result of participating in this module, you will be able to:

  • Plan specific steps to bridge the gap between the current state and the desired state bringing both managerial and leadership skills to bear.
  • Create a RACI chart that shows how work on specific tasks should be allocated.

Module Components:

Video Lectures:

  • Defining Management and Leadership
  • Strategic Planning
  • Organizing and Allocating Resources

Readings:

  • Strategic Leadership: The Essential Skills
  • Relationship between Personality and Managerial Performance

Case Study:

  • Drastic Publishing

Quiz:

  • Management and Leadership Principles

Support

Please email [email protected] for any support required with respect to the program, course or platform.