Prof Jacqueline Coyle-Shapiro NAB 4.33 and Dr Daniel Beunza NAB 4.27

*Course to be listed as core for the 'MRes/PhD Management: Organisational Behaviour' track

*Course to be listed as a second year option (Paper 8) for the 'MRes/PhD Management: Employment Relations and Human Resources' track

Pre-requisites will be comprised of new courses due to be taught in year 1 of the MRes. They are as follows: 

• MG506 - Micro-OB
• MG505 - Contemorary Topics in OB

This course extends the material covered in Micro OB and Organizational Theory by specifically focusing on the intersection between micro and macro theories and research.  This course will examine the challenges in integrating theories that explain phenomena at the individual or group level with theories that explain phenomena at the organizational level.  MMM will enhance student learning by exposing them to the challenges and opportunities of research that bridges the micro-macro divide and facilitate learning opportunities for their own PhD research.

30 hours of seminars in the LT.

The formative assessment will take the Year 1 paper (assessment for micro OB) and identify a macro level theory that would help further explain the organisational phenomenon of interest.  This enables students to build upon their earlier work in Year 1 and draws upon their prior learning on a topic and challenges them to take this further by identifying a macro level theory that would help explain the focal phenomenon.  This would also develop their analytical skills in conceptualizing across levels of analysis.

The course relies heavily on journal articles (for example, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Organizational Behaviour, Journal of Management, Administrative Science Quarterly). An extensive reading list is provided at the start of the course.  Indicative readings include:

Topics to be covered include: trust, strategic HRM, Technology and networks: from micro to macro, Emergent global phenomena & multi-site ethnography, sense making as a bridging theory

Rousseau, D.M (1978) Characteristics of departments, positions and individuals: Contexts for attitudes and behaviour. Administrative Science Quarterly

Molloy, J.C., Ployhart, R.E., & Wright, P.M (2011). The myth of “the” Micro-Macro Divide: Bridging system-level and disciplinary divides.  Journal of Management, 37(2) 581-609.

Huselid, M.A., & Becker, B.E. (2010) Bridging micro and macro domains: workforce differentiation and strategic human resource management.  Journal of Management

Hackman, J.R. (2003). Learning more by crossing levels: evidence from airplanes, hospitals and orchestras.  Journal of Organizational behaviour, 24, 902-922.

House, R., Rousseau, D. M., & Thomashunt, M. (1995). The Meso paradigm-a framework for the integration of micro and macro organizational-behavior. Research In Organizational Behavior: An Annual Series Of Analytical Essays And Critical Reviews, VOL 17, 1995, 17, 71-114.

Callon, M., & Latour, B. (1981). Unscrewing the big Leviathan: how actors macro-structure reality and how sociologists help them to do so. Advances in social theory and methodology: Toward an integration of micro-and macro-sociologies, 277-303.

Coursework (100%, 5000 words) in the LT.