Management of Organizations

EBC 2008 2013/2014 Course Guide

Contents
1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 2 2. Aims of the course ............................................................................................................................... 2 3. Teaching philosophy and design ......................................................................................................... 3 4. Facilitations.......................................................................................................................................... 3 5. Adding value as a group member........................................................................................................ 4 6. Grading ................................................................................................................................................ 4 7. Literature ............................................................................................................................................ 6 8. Teaching staff & acknowledgments ................................................................................................... 6 9. Course schedule .................................................................................................................................. 6 10. Sessions ............................................................................................................................................. 7 Appendix A tips for facilitators ........................................................................................................... 13 Appendix B Feedback rules ................................................................................................................ 15 Appendix C Feedback form for facilitations ....................................................................................... 16

1. Introduction
In this course, you will familiarize yourself with management thinking and management practice in a hopefully - open and refreshing way. The start of the course takes the perspective of a new manager in his/her first management position, a situation you might soon face in your future career. What trials does a new manager face? And, more challenging, what illusions should (s)he let go? We will focus on the concept of socially constructed reality and the paradoxical tensions that characterize the work environment of a manager. From here, we will zoom in into three topics that starting managers find particularly challenging: daring to learn, being authentic and building trust. Then we focus on a number of current organizational challenges that managers need to be aware of: creativity, ambidexterity, corporate social responsibility and diversity in management. In order to utilize the full potential of this course, for yourself, you should bring an openness of mind and be willing to develop on both an academic and personal level. Overall the course provides you with the essential understanding that anyone interested in the management of organizations needs. The topics of this course will be relevant for you, whether you want to pursue a career as a specialist or a generalist; whether you want to go into business or work in a non-profit organization. Management of Organizations is an obligatory course for all IB-students and an option for exchange students. The course builds upon the knowledge acquired in the first year in general and in the course Management of Organizations and Marketing (1.1) in particular.

2. Aims of the course

The course management of organizations aims to stimulate your knowledge of management ideas and practices, critical thinking and also personal development rather than providing clear-cut management recipes. You will be confronted with paradoxes that will aid your development. We will discuss the dilemmas that managers face in the changing management environment. During the course you will 1. Learn about (new) approaches to management thinking and practice in a challenging and engaging way. 2. Conduct reasonably sophisticated discussions in the tutorials about the dilemmas managers face. 3. Learn to put critical notes where necessary. 4. Apply management concepts for understanding and analyzing organizational practice 5. Bring some of the concepts into practice in the facilitation of a tutorial session. 6. Take your first steps in learning to manage (personal) paradoxes. 7. Develop your ability to read academic journal articles

3. Teaching philosophy and design

The intention of this course is to create an environment in which you are actively engaged in both your personal and the groups learning. This entails that you can bring your personal style and capacities to table in order to expand your understanding of management of organizations. To achieve this, you will be asked to organize and manage a full tutorial session together with a fellow student. From session four onwards we will work with pairs of facilitators; they will be in charge of the full two-hour session. Another difference with the traditional seven-jump approach is that you are expected to have studied the materials before the start of the session. As facilitator you are expected to go beyond providing a summary of the obligatory literature. Your fellow students are expected to have read the set of articles outlined in the course manual and which provide refreshing views and food for thought for each session. During the facilitation session the role of the tutor is to provide support and encouragement. They will make sure that the level of understanding is deep enough, clarify things when needed and challenge you where necessary.

4. Facilitations
For most meetings facilitators will be assigned. Together, they will be responsible for the full two hours of the session. They will have to present, discuss and illustrate the literature of the meeting while involving and challenging the audience. It is important to note that this is encompasses more than being a mere discussion leader. The tutorials added value is the application of the literature. As such a sequential summary of the articles is not sufficient and will be graded accordingly. Your tutor will provide you with several examples on how to facilitate a session in the first three meetings. A good synthesis requires that you work on the preparation as a team. Thus, the easy way of dividing the articles is not advised. What is advised, is that you both study the assigned literature extensively before meeting together. Then identify the common themes in the literature and develop the structure of the facilitation. A core concern here is to develop the objective of your session; what will be the red thread through your facilitation? This central question should also be presented to the tutorial group at the beginning of the meeting. At least 24 hours before the meeting you should send an electronic outline to your tutor. During the meeting you should help the audience to understand and integrate literature. Questions you should ask yourself in developing this could be: What is the main message of each article? How do the articles relate to each other? Do they offer differing perspectives, do they contradict, do they complement? How does this session relate to previous sessions? How do the articles fit in the broader context of the knowledge you developed in your first year? At the end of the meeting you should conclude with a statement that addresses your objective/ guiding question. This conclusion should be yours - this means that you should have prepared this in advance of the session. After your conclusion it is time for feedback. Remember the feedback rules from last year (to refresh your memory you can find them in the appendix). At the end of each meeting we will provide feedback to the facilitators. To help you and the group to develop, there is a feedback form in the appendix of this manual and on EleUM. Please bring three forms with you when you facilitate - one is for your tutor and two are for your fellow students. This way, you and the group are able to develop from the feedback provided. Please reserve 10 minutes at the end of the session for feedback. 3

Please use this section together with the facilitation tips and the feedback form in the appendix for preparing your facilitations.

5. Adding value as a group member

As a group member, you can add value each meeting. Being well prepared and having studied the literature is the obvious prerequisite. While reading the literature you should think about how the material fits with what you know from previous sessions and courses, your own (work) experience or the news. This will not only help you to better understand and critically evaluate the issues discussed in the literature; it will also make the course more interesting to yourself. During the sessions you can add value in many different ways: by asking questions, by making critical notes, by pointing out inconsistencies, by explaining and clarifying, by sharing your experiences and thoughts, by actively participating in the assignments and questions initiated by the facilitators, by integrating seemingly opposing points of view or by offering examples. All these contributions add to the learning climate in the tutorial. Because the success of each session is the outcome of the input of all those involved, your participation will be assessed by your tutor. The criteria used for assessing your participation are: 1. Adding to an improved understanding of the literature by: Sharing your perspective on the literature Explaining and clarifying issues Providing examples and experiences that fit with the theory Adding depth through pointing out linkages, asking intriguing questions or pointing out inconsistencies. 2. Contributing to a positive learning climate by: Responding to the assignments and challenges offered by the facilitators and your tutor Your role in the group balance (i.e. making sure that all voices are heard. When you have the tendency to dominate discussions be sure to allow room for others. When you have the tendency to hold out in discussions be sure to contribute to discussions as well.)

6. Grading
The overall grading in the course is a weighted average of your grade for the written exam, the facilitation and your participation. During the course no partial grades will be published, to prevent strategic behavior and possible unrest. All grades will be published together with the results from the exam. The deadline for the publication of the grades is 15 working days after the written test. Written Exam 60% The written exam is a 3-hour closed book test based upon the assigned materials and lecture(s). The exam consists of 60 multiple choice questions. The background and additional literature is not part of the exam. More information on the exam will be published on ELEUM during the course.

Resit: If you fail to meet the minimum requirement for the written exam, a second (written) exam will be offered in the same academic year (January 2014). The grading procedure for this exam stays the same. Exchange students: Please note that we cannot offer an extra resit opportunity for exchange students. This means that if you failed the first sit you will have to stay until the resit week or come back to take the resit-exam. Facilitation 20% The facilitation will be graded by your tutor. The grade for your facilitation represents the quality of the outcome of your teamwork. Please refer to section 4 (Facilitations) and the appendix for the requirements. Your tutor will provide qualitative feedback on your performance. (S)he cannot provide you with a grade (indication). If you fail to show up for a meeting in which you were supposed to facilitate this will result in a 0. If you can prove that the reason for not showing up was beyond your control you will have to write an extensive replacement assignment. The essay is offered as an opportunity to get a grade for students who cannot do facilitations for reasons beyond their control. However, an essay does not have the chance to be graded as high as facilitations because it is not as challenging. Participation 20% Because the success of each session is the outcome of the input of all those involved, your participation will be graded by your tutor. The participation grade is an overall reflection of your preparation of the literature, your contributions to the group discussions, your contribution to a positive learning climate and the quality of the feedback you provide. You are allowed to miss at most two tutorial sessions without consequences. Missing more than two tutorials will affect your participation grade negatively. At the middle of the course the tutor will provide you with an indication of your performance. Again, (s)he cannot provide you with a grade. Red: You have to change. Start participating. When you continue like this you will not receive a grade higher than 5.0 for your participation. Yellow: Your participation is sufficient. However, you can do much better. You might consider going into more depth with your contributions. Green: You are doing very well. Please continue like this. But remember: there is always room for improvement. Passing the course In order to pass the course you have to fulfill the following criteria: A minimum grade of 5.5 for the written exam. A minimum overall grade of 5.5 (which is standard at the SBE)

Repeat students For students who participated in prior years and take a resit this year there are two options. The first is only taking the exam. This is only possible when you fulfilled all sub-requirements (participation & facilitation). In this case the exam counts for 100% of the final grade and a minimum grade of a 5.5 is required to pass. This choice does mean that (s)he is not allowed to sit in the tutorial sessions; this is to avoid free-riding. However, repeat students can also choose to take the whole course once more 5

(when they did not fulfill the sub-requirements, they have to). This choice means that they have to participate fully, just as any other student, with all requirements concerning participation and facilitation. Please inform your tutor and the course-coordinator about your choice in advance of the first tutorial session.

7. Literature
This course builds upon articles from academic journals and specific chapters from books. This is the obligatory literature that is relevant for the exam. Additionally, some sessions provide background or additional literature. Students are expected to have prepared the background literature for the sessions. The additional literature is optional and provides additional information and perspectives on the topic of the session. All materials are available via the e-library, ELEUM or the internet in general. Consequently, not having found the article is no excuse for not being prepared.

8. Teaching staff & acknowledgments

The course coordinator of Management of Organizations is: Dr. A. van Iterson (a.vaniterson@maastrichtuniversity.nl) This course builds upon the work of the previous coordinator Ursula Glunk. Furthermore, the course coordinator would like to thank Jeanette Hommes and Christopher Buehler for their feedback, Anita Weijzen for her administrative support, and Thijs Mulder and Hetty van Emmerik for their valuable contributions.

9. Course schedule
Session / 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Date Wed, Sept 4 Fri, Sept 6 Wed, Sept 11 Fri, Sept 13 Wed, Sept 18 Fri, Sept 20 Wed, Sept 25 Fri, Sept 27 Wed, Oct 2 Fri, Oct 4 Wed, Oct 9 Fri, Oct 11 Wed, Oct 16 Subject Lecture: Course Opening Myth & Reality Paradigm shifts Paradox Learning Leadership Teams Creativity Ambidexterity CSR Female leadership Integration Q&A/Buffer In charge Ad van Iterson All All All Two facilitors Two facilitors Two facilitors Two facilitors Two facilitors Two facilitors Two facilitors All All

10. Sessions
The first three tutorial sessions will be led by your tutor. From session 4 onwards we will work with pairs of facilitators. The final session is in an integration session where we will combine all our acquired knowledge. For each session you are expected to prepare in advance and make sure that you: Understand the main message of each article. Understand the relation between the articles. How do they link together and/or do they contradict each other? Understand how the articles link to previous sessions and your broader knowledge of management. Searched for examples (either personal, academic or from the news) that illustrate the literature.

Some sessions have additional notes on preparation. Please pay attention to those!

Session 1: Myth & Reality

Normally, the first tutorial session is reserved for getting to know each other and managing practical issues. This we will do; however, we will also start with the first literature. In this session we will deal with the questions like: Why is learning to manage and lead so hard for new managers? What myths about the role of managers do they have to let go? Literature & notes: - Literature: Hill, L.A. (2007). Becoming the boss. Harvard Business Review, 85, 49-56. - Background literature: Jones, G.R. & George, J.M. (2011). Essentials of Contemporary Management fourth edition. New York, US: McGraw-Hill: pages: 4-11.

Session 2: Paradigm shifts

The aim of this session is to show how management ideas and practices are socially constructed. This session will allow you to see different perspectives of management that co-exist. You will be invited to critically look at your own taken-for granted or overly simplistic ways of thinking. Overall, this session aims to show that looking for the-one-best-way of managing is futile. Although tempting, it is an illusion. Additionally we will discuss about (and learn to pronounce) paradigm shifts. At the end of the session your thinking about management should be sharpened so that you will be able to create new realities instead of trying to fit into outdated management practice. Literature & Notes: - Literature: Glunk, U. (2009). A short summary on social constructionism (see ELEUM) - Background literature: Find a definition of the term paradigm shift (you can use the web) - Background literature: Terez, T. (2002). Eager for a paradigm shift? Not so fast! Workforce, pp 26-27 - Literature: Barker, R.A. (1997). How can we train leaders if we do not know what leadership is? Human Relations, 50, pp 343-361 (Use regular Google to find a pdf) - Literature: Harvey, M & Buckley, M.R. (2002). Assessing the conventional wisdoms of management for the 21st century. Organization Dynamics, 30, pp 368-378 - Additional literature: Jones, G.R. & George, J.M. (2011). Essentials of Contemporary Management fourth edition. New York, US: McGraw-Hill: pages: 35-39.

Session 3: Paradox
Paradoxical tensions form great challenges for individuals, teams, organizations, and world politics. In her paper, Lewis (2000) defines paradoxical tensions as socially constructed polarities, whose interrelatedness is obscured. Metaphors, referring to polarities as two sides of the same coin (or night and day, or inhalation and exhalation), have always helped us to better understand this obscured interrelatedness. Yet the repetitive use of these metaphors also shows that this struggle is ongoing. The balancing act for dealing with paradoxical tensions can be one of the toughest of all managerial challenges. Often we do not see that in order to gain and maintain the benefits of one pole, one must also pursue the benefits of the other. As a result, we tend to fall into polarity traps. Typical Paradoxical tensions for managers of organizations are: Cost - Quality / Innovation Relationships - Results Market driven - Product driven Centralization Decentralization Exploration Exploitation Collaboration Competition Stability Change Efficiency Creativity The art of management involves being able to move beyond polarized (or one-sided) thinking. If managers become single-minded crusaders of any of the above-mentioned poles, they will harm their organization. If managers are fundamentalist believers of an old or new paradigm (see session 2), they will not be able to reap the benefits of it. Johnson (1992) wrote a book on polarity management to help us understand the traps of polarized thinking in organizations (and the world). He distinguishes between upsides and downsides of the opposing poles. Organizations typically flip from downside to downside, get stuck in one downside (following a one-pole myth), or end up in the muddy middle of being without any clear commitment.

L+ (Left upside) (Right upside) R+ Pride in product Listening to customers Doing what we do best Being responsive Product driven Market driven Out of touch with customers Loss of pride Loss of market Loss of identity L (Left downside) (Right downside) RFigure 1: Example of a Polarity Map (adapted from Johnson, 1992) Literature & Notes: - Literature: Johnson, B. (1998). Polarity management a summary introduction. Polarity Management Associates (Use Google Scholar to find it; its the PDF from Daveatwood.com) - Literature: Martin, R. (2007). How successful leaders think. Harvard Business Review, 85 (6), pp 61-67 -Lewis, M.W. & Dehler, G.E. (2000). Learning through paradox: A pedagogical strategy for exploring contradictions and complexity. Journal of Management Education, 24, pp 96-104 Session 4: Learning As we saw in the first session, new managers have a lot to learn in their first position. Sessions 2 and 3 showed which complexities, paradoxes, and possibilities they will face. This session now zooms in on the topic of learning. Argyris classic article addresses a surprising and alarming learning dilemma 8

for organizations: the smartest and best-educated professionals do in fact find it incredibly hard to learn. This sessions literature will furthermore explore what is needed for learning to happen at the organizational level. Finally, we are warned for when learning is coerced. Literature & Notes: - Literature: Argyris, C. (2002). Teaching smart people how to learn. Reflections, 4 (2), pp4-15 (you can treat the commentary on pages 14 &15 as additional literature) - Background literature: Check the web for a better understanding of the concepts of single- and double-loop learning. - Literature: Anseel, F. Lievens, F. & Schollaert E. (2009). Reflection as a strategy to enhance task performance after feedback. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 110, pp. 23-35 (only pages 23,24, 33 & 34 are obligatory literature) - Literature: Garvind, D.A., Edmondson, A.C. & Gino, F. (2008). Is yours a learning organization? Harvard Business Review, 80 (3), pp 109-116 - Background literature: Check the web for a better understanding of individual vs. organizational learning -Literature: Coutu, D. (2002). The anxiety of learning. Harvard Business Review, 80 (3), pp 100-106 (An interview with Edgar H. Schein) Session 5: Leadership As we have seen in session 1, new managers also face the challenge to earn credibility, respect and trust among subordinates, peers and superiors. We also saw that in the previous sessions that they will be confronted with contradictory expectations and that they will experience successes and failures. This session explores which kind of leaders are likely to be able to deal with these challenges. For those interested the additional material offers a view on who might be able to deal with the challenges of the future. Literature & Notes: - Note: before you start reading write down how you would define leadership - Literature: Yang, O. & Shao, Y.E. (1996). Shared leadership in self-managed teams : A competing values approach. Total Quality Management, 7, pp 521-534 (Only pages 524-527 are obligatory literature) - Literature: Spreier, S.W., Fontaine, M.H. & Malloy, R.L. (2006) Leadership run amok: the destructive potential of overachievers. Harvard Business Review, 84 (6), pp 72-82 - Literature: Higgs, M. (2009) The good, the bad and the ugly: leadership and narcissism. Journal of Change Management, 9, pp 165-178 -Literature: Goffee, R. & Jones, G. (2005). Managing authenticity. The paradox of great leadership. Harvard Business Review, 83, pp 86-94 - Additional literature: White, W.J. (2006) Managing authenticity. The paradox of great leadership. letter to the editor Harvard Business Review, 84 (5), pp 151-151 - Background Literature: Check a management text-book for a definition of leadership (for example the first year text-book by Jones and George) - Additional Literature: Reeves, B., Malone, T.W. & ODriscoll, T. (2008). Leaderships online labs Harvard Business Review, 86 (5), pp 58-66

Session 6: Teams After looking at leaders and leadership in the previous session, we now turn our attention to the management of teams. What does actually make a team effective? Is it a mystery or quantifiable? And are there any lessons to be learned from sports about high-performance teams? This session offers great opportunities for relating the materials to your own experiences, as you most probably have been part of a (sports-)team yourself. So think about how the literature fits your experiences. Literature & Notes: - Literature: Katzenbach, J.R. & Smith, D.K. (1993). The discipline of teams. Harvard Business Review, 71 (2), pp 111-120 - Literature: Coutu, D. (2009). Why teams dont work. Harvard Business Review, 87 (5), pp 98-105 (An interview with Richard Hackman) - Literature: Pentland, A. S. (2012). The new science of building great teams, Harvard Business Review 90 (4), pp 60-70 - Literature: Katz, N. (2001). Sports teams as a model for workplace teams: lessons and liabilities. Academy of Management Executive, 15 (3), pp 55-67 Session 7: Creativity This session deals with the fascinating topic of creativity. As we have seen in previous sessions, being a (new) manager also means taking initiative for change and improvements while operating in an environment of paradoxical tensions. Fostering a culture of learning and creativity is central here. What role does playing play in this? And why should you do the dishes to be creative? These and other questions will be the topic of todays session. Literature & Notes: - Note: Watch the movie from TED: Tim Brown: Tales of creativity and play (Partially shown in lecture EBC 1001) http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_brown_on_creativity_and_play.html (Literature & Notes continue on the next page) - Literature: Sutton, R. (2001) The weird rules of creativity. Harvard Business Review, 79 (8), pp 94103 - Literature: Amabile, T.M. & Khaire, M. (2008). Creativity and the role of the leader. Harvard Business Review, 86 (10), pp 100-109 - Literature: Coyne, K.P., Clifford, P.G. & Dye, R. (2007). Breakthrough thinking from inside the box. Harvard Business Review, 85 (12), pp 70-78 - Literature: Elsbach, K.D. & Hargadon, A.B. (2006). Enhanching creativity through mindless work: A framework of workday design. Organization Science, 17, pp 470-483 - Background literature: Jones, G.R. & George, J.M. (2011). Essentials of Contemporary Management fourth edition. New York, US: McGraw-Hill: pages: 174-178.

Session 8: Ambidexterity In the previous session the article of Sutton (2001) already hinted about the need to be able to combine exploration and exploitation. In todays meeting will take a look at how to do this with the concept of ambidexterity. It furthermore links back to session three about paradox. It provides you with insights into how organizations can manage contradictory tensions of exploration and

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exploitation. It also provides ideas on where in their network managers find ideas for the one or the other. Literature & Notes: - Background literature: Check the term ambidexterity online - Literature: OReilly III, C. A. & Tushman, M.L. (2004). The ambidextrous organization. Harvard Business Review, 82, pp 72-81 - Literature: Birkinshaw, J. & Gibson, C. (2004). Building Ambidexterity into an organization. MIT Sloan Management Review, 45 (4), pp 47-55 - Literature: Mom, T.J., van den Bosch, F. & Volberda, H.W. (2007). Investigating managers exploration and exploitation activities. The influence of top-down, bottom-up and horizontal knowledge inflows. Journal of Management Studies, 44, pp 910-931 Session 9: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) With the different financial crises, environmental issues and the rise of new powers, CSR and stewardship are topics that have been widely discussed in recent years. Not only is it seen as an important charitable deed, cost, or constraint, but it also offers the potential for innovations and a unforeseen competitive advantages. Literature & Notes: - Literature: Kanter, R.M. (1999). From spare change to real change. Harvard Business Review, 77 (3), pp 122-132 - Literature: Hernandez, M. (2012). Toward an understanding of the psychology of stewardship. Academy of Management Review, 37 (2), pp 172-193 - Literature: Devinney, T.M. (2009). Is the socially responsible cooperation a myth? The good, the bad, and the ugly in corporate social responsibility. Academy of Management Perspectives, 23 (2), pp 44-56 - Additional Literature: Hart, S.L. (2005). Innovation, creative destruction and sustainability. Research Technology Management, 48(5), pp 21-27 Session 10 : Female leadership, labyrinths & cliffs Even though most in western society argue that there should be gender equality and that there are many steps to full emancipation (for example: women start to outnumber men at universities. Still, board rooms and leadership positions do not seem to be equitable.) Is this because of society? Or are the women to blame themselves? Should companies take special steps to accommodate equality in career opportunities? Is positive discrimination the solution? In this session we will take different perspectives on women (and diversity in general) and leadership. Literature & Notes: - Literature: Lucas, J.W. & Baxter, A.R. (2012). Power, influence, and diversity in organizations. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science , 639, pp 49-70 - Literature: Eagly, A.H. & Carli, L.L. (2007). Women and the labyrinth of leadership. Harvard Business Review, 85, pp 63-71 - Literature: Bruckmller, S. & Branscombe, N.R. (2010). The glass cliff: When and why women are selected as leaders in crisis contexts. British Journal of Social Psychology, 49, pp 433-451

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Session 11 : Integration In this session, we will put all we have studied in this course together. The article by Gabarro (2007) takes us a full round from the first article by Hill (2007); what do managers do when they take charge? The meeting asks you to take a helicopter view that allows you to discover connections that you overlooked when busy with the individual sessions. Finally, this session introduces you to the boss that breaks all the rules: Ricardo Semler. Literature & Notes: - Literature: Gabarro, J. (2007). When a new manager takes charge. Harvard Business Review, 85, pp 104-117 - Note: Watch the movie: The caring capitalist On: Youtube - Background literature: Haijtema, D. (2007). The boss who breaks all the rules. OdeMagazine (see: http://odewire.com/53859/the-boss-who-breaks-all-the-rules.html)

Session 11 : Q&A/Buffer In this session, we will organize a Q&A, with regard to the literatures. Also, if needed, we can use this session as a buffer session for facilitation(s)

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Appendix A tips for facilitators

Own your session. Make the session truly yours. If you as facilitators are interested and passionate about your facilitation there is a good chance your audience will be as well. The themes for presentation and interaction are based on the required literature. Align with your co-facilitator. Make sure that you share your expectations with your co-facilitator. Decide on how to work together and make sure that you truly lead the session together. Know your subject and make sure that you reread relevant chapters from your first-year management book that help you to place the topic of your session into a more general context. Think about the material: What does it mean? What is difficult about the topic? What is thought provoking? How can this be related to practice? What is your personal idea on the topic? Where do you agree with the author? Where not? If you find ideas from the literature unclear, clarify them by using additional resources. Remember, you do not have to do everything perfectly. The course is meant to give you the opportunity to learn and does not expect you to be perfect. Aim for synthesis- Each of you studies, i.e. more than just reading, the articles individually to identify common themes. Moreover, each of you should think about possible additional materials. Meet with your facilitation partner to discuss the material and the common themes identified. Then you develop together a structure for your facilitation. A core concern here is to develop the objective of your session; what will be the red thread through your facilitation? The most important thing is that you show that you are seriously engaged and that you add value for your group members. It might relieve you to state upfront what you are unsure about Dont lecture. You are asked to facilitate the session, not to provide the group with a lecture on the material. Involve the audience. They all have studied the mandatory literature. Involve them by using interactive, open questions, games, quizzes. Be creative. Feel free to be creative: It is up to the facilitators to determine how they structure the meeting. Also the form is up to you (e.g. whether or not you make use of power point, role plays, quizzes, or show movies). Do not worry if you have a crazy idea for involving the audience or for illustrating the material. Just try it out. Bringing your message across. If you use PowerPoint, keep text on the slides to a minimum. Aim at one core idea per slide. Use pictures to get your idea across. They are easier to remember, less distracting, and make more impact. Use stories and examples. They will get your idea across. They also have the added benefit of helping to engage your audience. Say difficult things in your own words. Dont use sophisticated words, foreign expressions, or obscure quotations from the original literature. Written language is different from spoken language. For instance: dont say, contingency theory assumes that changes in contingencies render variations around organizational forms. Rather. contingency theory states that the size or the technology of an organization has an influence on its structure. A large firm would for instance have more ... Make sure that you take a stance concerning the material provided: what is interesting, confusing, an eye-opener, or not convincing? If you disagree with your cofacilitator, discuss things before the session and in case you cannot resolve it, bring this discussion into the group.

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Ideas for illustrating the literature, involving and challenging the audience. Go to the library and search for books with the title Management or Contemporary Management, etc. Search for a chapter that relates to your topic and browse through their end of chapter sections for inspiration. Here you find suggestions for quizzes, role plays, movies, individual or group assignments. Also, the internet provides ample possibilities for finding illustrations. Whatever form you use for illustrating the material and for involving and challenging the audience, make sure that the audience understands how this relates to the literature. For involving and challenging the audience, be specific and direct in what you want them to do. Make sure that you really challenge the audience. This is only possible if you have thought about the literature yourself and discussed it with each other. Be explicit in your instructions. Often you see that a great idea turns out poorly because the instructions are poor. So, be sure that you are explicit in your instruction if you want to do exercises and/or games. You might even explain the game to a friend and ask him/her to explain it to you or your teammate to check whether the instructions are clear. Use constructive silences. When you ask the group a question, give them the time to process it and come up with an answer. Do not answer the question yourself, even when it seems like ages before the group reacts. A method for doing this is to count to 10, 20 or 30 (not out loud, that would distract your audience). Practice your presentation!

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Appendix B Feedback rules

In the simplest terms, feedback is a response given to another person about his or her behavior or communication. It is not possible to learn without receiving feedback from another. Only when you hear from other people about how they perceive your behavior can you learn about the effect of your behavior. The feedback can give indications about what to change in your behavior. The following specific suggestions should enhance your ability to provide useful feedback to others.

Basic rules for receiving feedback: - Be specific rather than general. Focus on concrete, specific, and clearly defined behavior. Being told that the presentation was good is vague. Better is to tell that the presenter gave summaries in between and that this helped you to keep attention. - Be descriptive rather than evaluative. Do not give interpretations or judgments about the behavior. Describe what you have seen and what effect it has on you. - Describe both good aspects and behavior that can be changed. - Do not overwhelm a receiver with unnecessary detail. If too much detail is provided in one dose, a listener will have difficulty knowing exactly how he or she should respond. Feedback should be selective. Hit the high points. - Give an opinion in the I form. This is less intimidating and, therefore, easier to accept. State that you could be wrong. - Deal with behavior that can be changed. Give suggestions how the behavior can be improved and provide alternatives. In general it is better to start with positive feedback. It is stimulating for the receiver to hear what went well. He/she will be more open to accept feedback about behavior to be changed. Basic rules for receiving feedback: - Listen. Try to understand the feedback before thinking of and giving counter arguments. Do not act defensively (do not say, yes, but) - Approach criticism constructively. - Ask further questions in case of unclarity, if necessary, from fellow students - Check your own interpretation (feedback understood?) - Determine whether the effect of your own behavior is desirable - Determine whether and how behavior can be changed

* Blok, G. van. (2000). Richtlijnen voor het geven van feedback. Maastricht, interne publicatie Til, C. van , & Heijden, F. van (2001). PBL study skills; an overview. Maastricht; Datawyse

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Appendix C Feedback form for facilitations

Names Facilitators: Absent/ Insufficient Structure & Objective - The facilitators -informed the audience how the meeting will be structured -stated an objective (what will be the red thread through the facilitation) Understanding of the literature - The facilitators -clarified vague or unclear concepts (when needed they consulted additional sources for better understanding) -used their own words to explain complex things -helped the audience understand the main message of each article Integration of the literature - The facilitators -integrated the different pieces of literature -related the literature to previous sessions and/or the broader context of management -the facilitation truly had a red thread throughout the session Illustration of literature - The facilitators -provided relevant examples, cases, movies etc. (that go beyond those stated in the literature) for illustration of the literature -linked the topic to personal experiences of the audience and/or themselves from outside the classroom -created personal experiences in the classroom that illustrated the literature. Involving the audience - The facilitators -Involved the audience through individual or group activities that were related to the literature -Asked questions to involve the audience -Gave room for questions from the audience -Guarded the topic and summarized group discussions Challenging the audience - The facilitators -Made provocative, controversial, thought-provoking statements that challenged the audience -Provided challenging discussion points Note: asking for definitions or readings from the literature is not challenging. What would you compliment the facilitators for? 1 1 2 2 Needs improvement 3 3 4 4 5 5 Outstanding 6 6 7 7

1 1 1

2 2 2

3 3 3

4 4 4

5 5 5

6 6 6

7 7 7

1 1 1

2 2 2

3 3 3

4 4 4

5 5 5

6 6 6

7 7 7

1 1

2 2

3 3

4 4

5 5

6 6

7 7

1 1 1 1 1 1

2 2 2 2 2 2

3 3 3 3 3 3

4 4 4 4 4 4

5 5 5 5 5 5

6 6 6 6 6 6

7 7 7 7 7 7

What would you recommend to improve for future facilitators?

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