Below is a segment from my former University of Phoenix blog. I have since rolled the blog into my main blog for posterity.
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1. From what we've covered in this class, which topic or topics do you feel will impact your ability to be a better leader? Why? What do you plan to do to make it happen?
The dynamics of change and how change affects employees was the most influential area of study for me. Having gone through some significant change in my own environment, I have seen first-hand the communication errors of management, the mistakes made by the reactions of the employees, and the affects of an acquisition/merger to corporate morale.
Learning more about the dynamics of change will make me a better leader because it confirms what I had previously thought about the importance of people.
This knowledge was provided by the text, a simulation, a group project and an individual paper, so the message got through to me quite well. It is ultimately about planning and communications, which leads me two answer #2:
2. What is Organizational Behavior? Why is it important? How has your definition changed since Week 1?
While my definition hasn’t changed significantly, the depth of what I know about the topic most certainly has.
I originally wrote that “to study organizational behavior is to focus on the social structure of a given organization, particularly the procedures and methods utilized by and towards management.” I suppose the only thing I would add to the definition is the importance of people and use of communications in carrying out that mission.
This class has taught me a great deal about the importance of planning the corporate structure to allow for considerations like people and morale, and that was more than I had expected. I have been quite pleased with the content learned in this class and am still looking forward to additional topics and spin-offs in the boards.