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ZMM is Included in the Reading & Discussion List for The McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia.
Fall 2000 COMM 462: CLASSIC INSIGHTS IN BEHAVIOR AND ORGANIZATIONS
TEXTS TO PURCHASE:
1) Fictions of Business: Insights on Management from Great Literature by Brawer (B)
2) The Prince by Machiavelli (M)
3)In Search of Excellence by Peters and Waterman (PW)
4)Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (JK)
5)Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling (RK)
6)To be announced. Miscellaneous Poems and Test Instruments. See “The Perfect Storm”
COURSE PHILOSOPHY:
Many contemporary issues are universal and timeless human problems and situations. Our goal will be to
analyze classic literature of several types ("great books," business "how to's," and organizational histories)
to develop thoughtful and reasonable strategies for approaching them and to improve our skills in
analyzing and solving them.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
1) Oral Analysis (15%): Critical thinking skills include the abilities to communicate ideas orally in a logical
fashion and to assist others in developing their critical thinking and communication skills. Each student
will sign up for 2 classes to provide discussion leadership. The set of students responsible for each class
should meet before their class to organize and coordinate the leadership of that class session.
2) Written Analysis—Theme essays (40% total) Critical thinking skills include the ability to organize
random thoughts, identify a key issue or point, and write a coherent and logical analysis around that point.
Each student will write three essays.
The first essay (10%) will be due Friday, September 29th, by 11 am. In his introduction, Brawer has at least
three hypotheses:
H1: imaginative writers demonstrate how fundamental motives which drive us as individuals affect our
attitudes, behaviors, and decisions as business people
H2: the values and insights we glean from serious literature sensitize us to ourselves and by extension to
the problems inherent in managing people in an organization
H3: distinctions between art and life, the real world and the world of fiction, are far too slight to be
significant
He tests these hypotheses with the goal of stimulating reflection on the variety of ways in which we might
better understand and deal with contemporary business issues and situations.
In the first essay, chose, test and evaluate one of these hypotheses using the text material, our class
discussions, and any other business material you want to make your point. For the second and third
essays, each student can choose the type of essay he or she wants to write from the options listed below.
All essays should be no more than 1000 words. Each student should integrate at least three readings into
the essay. The second essay is due November 3rd at 5 pm; the third essay, on the second set of readings
is due Friday December 8th by 5 pm. (15% each).
Option 1: the student should choose an organizational, management, or leadership issue raised in the
readings. He or she should then analyze that issue integrating the readings, identifying key factors,
problems, and solutions associated with that issue.
Option 2: The individual can “personalize” the issues addressed in the course. Instead of analyzing
business problems in light of the issues raised in the readings, each student will analyze himself or
herself in light of goals, strengths or weaknesses, values, or plans. The paper could be a “personal
leadership plan,” an “analysis of personal influence tactics,” or similar personally significant topic. A
journal will be helpful to this option.
3) Reading Discussion (20%): The class will work together to decide on readings for the second half of
the course. Two students will be assigned to work together to organize and lead the discussion for one
class.
5) Personal Reading Project (25%)--With the explicit guidance of the professor, each student will design a
personal reading project for the semester to realize the primary goal of the course--to broaden one's
understanding of and develop responses to potentially universal issues and human problems in
organizations. Each student will choose an "organizing heuristic" --a question, theme, problem, issue,
concern, or topic-- and ˙select at least 3 major "classic" works of literature, history, drama, film, philosophy,
or biography, or current "popular" business literature or cases by which to address the issue. The student
will write a "theme essay" similar to the second assignment above that will be due at class on the last day
of class (December 6th). Each student should be prepared to briefly summarize the problem or issue,
the readings, and the lesson(s) he or she found in the readings in class on the last day.
Please note: for all written assignments, be sure to make soft and hard copies. I make every
effort to never lose or misplace a paper or assignment, but occasionally such incidents occur. You
should always be ready to quickly produce a second copy of any written work.
Class preparation and participation, Discussion leadership, Written analysis, Personal reading project, Policies and Procedures:
General class preparation and participation: The course is highly interactive with significant student
participation expected throughout the course. Students should be well prepared prior to each class,
completing reading and other assignments as required. Students will also be expected to participate in all
class activities, discussions, case studies, role plays, exercises, and other activities. The focus will be on
discussion and shared experiential learning, which requires enthusiastic participation of all.
Readings will be assigned for each class. To prepare, students should
(1) describe one current relevant example related to the primary issue of the reading
(2) generate one interesting discussion question that class could ponder together
(a) identify dilemmas or “puzzles” from the reading
(b) identify main point or develop a “take” on the reading or main point
Keep examples, discussion questions, puzzles and takes in notebook to bring to class and to assist in
preparation for written analyses.
1. Attendance
2. Participation
3. Preparation
4. Attitude
5. Discussion Protocol
6. Course Management
[The following books will be] Discussed in Fictions of Business:
Glencarry Glen Ross
The Financier
The Merchant’s Tale (Chaucer’s
Canterbury Tales)
Babbitt
The Way we Live Now
Office Politics
Man in Grey Flannel Suit
Catbird Seat
Death of a Salesman
Typhoon
Point of No Return
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Something Happened
Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Major Barbara
Re-engineering the Corporation
The Jungle
“Classic” Leadership Cases
All the King’s Men
Lord of the Flies
All MySons
The Mayor of Casterbridge
Billy Bud, Sailor
Moby Dick
A Christmas Carol
Mutiny on the Bounty
Great Gatsby
The Naked and the Dead
Heart of Darkness
The Odyssey Ù
Henriad
The Republic
Iliad of Homer
Richard II
A Jury of her Peers
Sun Tzu’s The Art of War
The Last Tycoon
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Gib Akin short stories:
Learning about work from Joe Cool
What the boss doesn’t know
Work Shoes
Others:
Bartle by the Scrivener
Course Outline Date, Topic, Reading, Assignment/Exercise
Wednesday, August 30 The Road Not Taken
Monday, September 4 Perception & Impression Management Chapter 1 (B)
Wednesday, September 6 Perception vs. Reality Chapter 2 (B)
Monday, September 11 Self-awareness, self-management, and performance Chapter 3 (B); Blind Menand the Elephant
Wednesday, September 13 NO CLASS
Monday, September 18 Decision-making, problem-solving, groupthink, language Chapter 4 (B)
Wednesday, September 20 Power and politics Chapter 5 (B)
Monday, September 25 Motivation Chapter 6 (B)
Wednesday, September 27 Wrap-up/Re-organization Mending Wall
Monday, October 2 Leadership & Power, The Prince (chapters 1-11)
Wednesday, October 4 Leadership & Power, The Prince (chapters 12-26)
Monday, October 9 Culture, socialization, change; Captains Courageous; “IF”
Wednesday, October 11 Decision-making, The Perfect Storm (movie)
Monday, October 16 Decision-making, Into Thin Air
Wednesday, October 18 Discussion
Monday, October 23 Reading day/Fall Break
Wednesday, October 25 In Search of Excellence Chapter 1
Monday, October 30 In Search of Excellence Chapters 5-8
Wednesday, November 1 In Search of Excellence Chapters 9-12
Monday, November 6 Bartleby the Scrivener http://www.bibliomania.com Short Stories, Herman Melville, Bartleby
Wednesday, November 8 Henry IV parts of Henriad
Monday, November 13 Henry IV parts of Henriad
Wednesday, November 15 Billy Budd
Monday, November 20 Lord of the Flies
Monday, November 27 Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Wednesday, November 29 Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (cont’d)
Monday, December 4 Boiler Room
Wednesday, December 6 Two Tramps in Mud Time, Wrap-up
Discussion Sign-ups sheets [will be provided for each session above.]
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