Universität Wien

040220 SE Seminar Organization and Personnel (MA) (2019W)

4.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 4 - Wirtschaftswissenschaften
Continuous assessment of course work

Summary

1 Vetschera , Moodle
2 Fabel , Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).
Registration information is available for each group.

Groups

Group 1

service email address: opim.bda@univie.ac.at

max. 24 participants
Language: English
LMS: Moodle

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Thursday 10.10. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum 13 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Thursday 28.11. 13:15 - 16:30 Seminarraum 13 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Thursday 05.12. 13:15 - 16:30 Seminarraum 13 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Thursday 12.12. 13:15 - 16:30 Seminarraum 13 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Thursday 09.01. 13:15 - 16:30 Seminarraum 13 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Thursday 16.01. 15:00 - 18:15 Seminarraum 15 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 3.Stock
  • Thursday 23.01. 13:15 - 16:30 Seminarraum 13 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Thursday 30.01. 13:15 - 16:30 Hörsaal 15 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock

Aims, contents and method of the course

The seminar is devoted to current topics in organization theory, specific topics will be announced and assigned in the first unit. In addition to this substantive element, the seminar also serves as a training in writing scientific papers, to prepare you for writing the Master thesis.

Assessment and permitted materials

Students must prepare written papers (in groups of at most two students) and present them to class. A first draft of the paper has to be handed in one week before presentation. Papers may be revised to create a final version (due at the end of the semester) after presentation. For each paper, two discussants will be assigned who have to prepare a brief (about one page) discussion statement on their colleague's work. Active participation in classroom discussion will also be evaluated.

The total score for the course is therefore based on:

Seminar paper (55%)

Presentation (20%)

Discussion paper (15%)

Active participation in discussions (10%)

All papers submitted will be checked for plagiarism and rules the rules published on our homepage will be strictly enforced.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

The goal of the seminar is twofold: the substantive goal is to develop insights into central questions of organization theory using current literature. Furthermore, students write and present their own papers based on scientific results, this will prepare them for their work on the master thesis.
50% of the total course points are required to pass the course

Reading list

Initial literature will be provided. Students are expected to perform their own literature research and include additional references in their papers.

Group 2

service email address: opim.bda@univie.ac.at

max. 24 participants
Language: English
LMS: Moodle

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

There will be an introductory meeting of this seminar on 11.10.2019 in room SR 3.

  • Friday 11.10. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 3 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 1.Stock
  • Friday 18.10. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 3 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 1.Stock
  • Friday 25.10. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 3 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 1.Stock
  • Friday 08.11. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 3 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 1.Stock
  • Friday 15.11. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 3 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 1.Stock
  • Friday 22.11. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 3 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 1.Stock
  • Friday 29.11. 11:30 - 13:00 Hörsaal 3 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 Erdgeschoß
  • Friday 06.12. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 9 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Friday 13.12. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 9 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Friday 10.01. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 9 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Friday 17.01. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 9 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Friday 24.01. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 9 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Friday 31.01. 09:45 - 11:15 Seminarraum 1 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 Erdgeschoß
  • Friday 31.01. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 1 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 Erdgeschoß

Aims, contents and method of the course

There is no doubt that most modern production requires teamwork. Job advertisements for specialists as well as general management positions e. g. regularly emphasize that successful candidates must possess “team-working ability”. Consulting concepts promise to provide techniques to select employees, organize groups, and train employees to become “good” and even better team-workers. In this seminar we want to study the economic foundations of teamwork, understand why it works, and what can be done to make it work:

Assessment and permitted materials

(1) There will be an introductory meeting of this seminar on 11.10.2019 in room SR 3. During this meeting, we will check the topic assignments. Thus, attendance is absolutely necessary. “No-show”-students may be replaced by students registered on the OPIM’s “waiting list” who agree to comply with the seminar rules.
(2) Seminar papers must use 11 pica letter size and one and half line spacing. Papers must be written in English. They must use appropriate citation and reference rules and obey the general ethical principles of scientific work. Students consult the online course directory for information on due-days and deadlines. Seminar papers are due on 30.04.2020. One hard of the seminar paper copy must be handed over to OPIM’s secretarial office during regular office hours, a PDF-copy must be send to the OPIM’s office (to the hands of Ms Elke Pendl, elke.pendl@univie.ac.at) via email.
(3) If two students are assigned to the same topic, they must coordinate on a joint presentation. The “working language” during seminar sessions is English. The maximum time per presentation is 45 minutes for a single presenter and one hour for a joint presentation. The sequence of presentations strictly follows the numbering of topics in the list above. Students are expected to prepare supporting slides and/or hand-outs and to speak “freely” during their presentations.
(4) Every student must individually submit a seminar paper. The seminar paper contains:
- A brief introduction of the seminar’s main theme and line of discussion;
- Sections of one to (maximum) one and half page length which provide an “executive summary” of the classroom presentation, discussion, and base articles (see the above list of papers). The latter constitutes the only source of information if, for whatever reason, a topic cannot be presented and discussed in class.
- A brief concluding section which summarizes the student’s understanding of the seminar discussions.
- A reference list.
Please notice: Any type of copying, including copying from fellow students’ presentation slides and/or seminar papers, constitutes misconduct and will result in receiving the no-pass grade “X”. Direct citations from original scientific work which are properly marked constitute the only exceptions from this rule.
(5) Students are expected to prepare for class. They are required to actively participate in the classroom discussions and should be aware that the lecturer can call upon them for comments at any time during the seminar. In particular, they can be asked to introduce the session’s topic as it relates to the seminar’s general theme.
(6) Complete attendance of each session of the seminar, including the preparatory meeting, is obligatory. Absolutely no exceptions apply. Leaves will only be granted in cases of illnesses or if the person demanding a leave is required to participate in an official activity of the University, Faculty, or Institute. In the first case, the doctor’s medical certificate must be presented to the OPIM immediately (i. e. latest by the first working day following the absence day). Failure to comply with this rule leads to a no-pass grade. Passing grades can generally not be earned by students who miss more than 10% of the total class-time.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

The final grade will be calculated as the weighted average of the grades for the seminar paper (40 %), for the presentation (40 %), and for classroom participation (20 %).

Reading list

General required reading for all seminar participants:
Peter Kuhn, Personnel Economics, New York: Oxford University Press, chapters 24 – 27.
I. Foundations of the Team Production Problem
I.1 Holmstrom, B. (1982). Moral hazard in teams. The Bell Journal of Economics, 324-340.
I.2. Nalbantian, H. R., & Schotter, A. (1997). Productivity under group incentives: An experimental study. American Economic Review, 87(3), 314-341.
I.3 Blimpo, M. P. (2014). Team incentives for education in developing countries: A randomized field experiment in Benin. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 6(4), 90-109.

II. The “Miracle“ of Functioning Teams
II.1 Fehr, Ernst, and Simon Gächter. "Altruistic punishment in humans." Nature 415.6868 (2002): 137
II.2 Babcock, P., Bedard, K., Charness, G., Hartman, J., & Royer, H. (2015). Letting down the team? Social effects of team incentives. Journal of the European Economic Association, 13(5), 841-870.
II.3 Hamilton, Barton H., Jack A. Nickerson, and Hideo Owan. "Team incentives and worker heterogeneity: An empirical analysis of the impact of teams on productivity and participation." Journal of political Economy 111.3 (2003): 465-497.
II.4 Chan, D. C. (2016). Teamwork and moral hazard: evidence from the emergency department. Journal of Political Economy, 124(3), 734-770.
II.5 Chen, Yan, and Sherry Xin Li. "Group identity and social preferences." American Economic Review 99.1 (2009): 431-57.

III. Managing Teams
III.1 Eckel, Catherine C., and Philip J. Grossman. "Managing diversity by creating team identity." Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 58.3 (2005): 371-392.
III.2 Brandts, Jordi, and David J. Cooper. "It's what you say, not what you pay: An experimental study of manager-employee relationships in overcoming coordination failure." Journal of the European Economic Association 5.6 (2007): 1223-1268.
III.3 Goerg, Sebastian J., Sebastian Kube, and Ro’I. Zultan. "Treating equals unequally: Incentives in teams, workers’ motivation, and production technology." Journal of Labor Economics 28.4 (2010): 747-772.
III.4 Vesterlund, Lise, Linda Babcock, and Laurie Weingart. "Breaking the glass ceiling with “no”: Gender differences in declining requests for non-promotable tasks." Unpublished manuscript, Carnegie Mellon University (2014).

Information

Examination topics

Preparation and presentation of student's own papers based on literature, classroom discussion

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Mo 07.09.2020 15:19