Studies have revealed the challenges facing management and the role the manager has with respect to facilitating team development. This exercise builds upon the knowledge a management student gains via textbook and/or classroom lecture concerning the stages of team development and offers real-world examples of the challenges facing managers when…

It is easy to believe, after decades of research and ever-increasing awareness, that gender bias issues in our classrooms have subsided. Our current students, both undergraduate and many graduate, comprise what is arguably one of the most equity-aware generations in history. Equality, fair treatment, and unbiased interactions should be the norm…

We present a fictional short story about embezzlement, "Great Experiment" by Jeffrey Eugenides, as a resource for management classes. We begin by providing a brief description of the story, in which a decent and law-abiding 40-something man's lack of professional success and envy of his wealthy neighbors contribute to his decision to…

$50K @ Play Day is an in-class activity in which student groups apply their knowledge of organizational justice in a managerial decision-making scenario. In this simulation, student teams assume the leadership role of a successful corporate team and are tasked with distributing a monetary team award in a just manner. A comparison of student…

Decision-making is a critical topic in any management and organizational behavior course. Navigating and understanding the various processes and influences on decision-making, however, can be complicated. This article revises and expands on a common "employee ranking" format activity. It uses in-class student data to systematically…

Performance conversations are a critical and necessary part of performance management. Feedback is most effective when it is constructive and when it involves a dialogue rather than a monologue, but people often struggle with this skill. This activity includes an experiential exercise that applies a five-part process for performance feedback,…

We review the film "Other People's Money" as a teaching tool for introducing concepts of corporate social responsibility and board governance. The film's climactic shareholder meeting contains two vivid examples of stakeholder theory and shareholder primacy illustrated through the competing election speeches made by the lead characters.…

This article describes a game show-style classroom exercise that is appropriate for any management-related courses that wish to enrich students' understanding of a key phase of the hiring process. The activity introduces the importance of job descriptions and job specifications through a semiscripted unstructured interview patterned after a…

This article presents two in-class exercises designed to develop specific skill sets needed to think critically and make decisions in today's business environment. The first exercise, "Flossing your Teeth" is designed to build information literacy skills needed in the evidence-gathering phase of critical thinking. The second exercise,…

Employee selection and group decision-making skills are critical for ensuring hiring is valid, meets organizational goals, and considers ethical and legal limitations. This exercise has participants role-play members of a search committee reviewing job finalists using shared and unique information. A novel twist to traditional hidden-profile…

Why do I work? Despite instructors' best efforts, students struggle to understand how different people answer this question differently. This exercise enables students to explore what motivates them in comparison to their peers and previous generations while reinforcing the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Students…

We present a case-based role-play exercise that effectively simulates a crisis students must manage. In the exercise, a farm equipment manufacturing company has decided to redirect its product line, and this change requires laying off a significant portion of its workforce. Students must grapple with the fact that a local news report will be…

Leading organizational change is a daunting aspect of leadership. However, effectively leading change enables positive individual and organizational outcomes. Herein, we present a case-based classroom exercise to teach students about organizational change, demonstrate different aspects of the change process, and teach how to overcome resistance to…

Undergraduate students, particularly those with limited experience in business, struggle to appreciate the complexity of organizational communication dynamics. Communication complexities such as role conflict, position power, and individual perception--and their influence on effective communication--are particularly challenging for this…

This in-class, 75-minute exercise creates a context for students to observe some of the challenges to cross-functional collaboration and offers insight into processes to achieve more successful outcomes. By demonstrating how a failure by compliance and business operations to work cross-functionally negatively impacts outcomes in the form of…