Overview of Course

Consider the best organization you have been a member of so far, and then the worst. What were the important differences between the two? Most likely, that answer has much more to do with how the organizations were managed and the working relationships among the organizational members than profitability or even efficiency. Unsurprisingly, evidence shows that it is hard for an organization that is poorly managed to achieve long-term success in terms of profitability. What does it mean for an organization to be poorly or well-managed? In this course, we synthesize recent evidence regarding what constitutes good management across a range of domains including: organizational structure, communication, ethics, diversity, sustainability, learning, and change. What are the considerations for managers, and how can organizational members "manage up"? While this course will draw many of its examples from a North American context, we will also examine management lessons and differences from practices and organizations taken from many of our port countries.