Behavior Of Students In MGMT 386 Class

Behavior of Different Students in the Class

Why this class different compare to other classes that I have took. Very different due the professore personality and leadership skills.

This paper is focused on the people’s behavior in an organization. In this paper, the MGMT 386 class has been taken as real case study. There are various methods such as interviews, and observations are applied to analyze actual behavior of the students in this class. Depending on the remark, it has also been evaluated how this class is different from others.  There are various theoretical ideas and concepts have been implemented to build this paper. These theoretical ideas are such as decision-making, managing personal differences to achieve performance, controlling conflict and achieving change.  The professor of MGMT 386 class has unique leadership skill and personality, which has inspired all the students in the class. He has his unique capability to manage conflict and implementing change, which makes the course more attractive to the students.

More than 200 students attend the class of MGMT 386 every day. They belong to different communities and different cultures. For this reason, they often exhibit challenging behavior in the classroom. These students require extra support and guidance from the professors. It is the responsibility of the professor to recognize their wrong behaviors and address them appropriate values and norms so that they can change their behavior (Bainbridge, p. 326). Professors need to develop an effective student engagement policy to deal with challenging behaviors. This policy includes behavioral expectations from students, method to promote positive behavior and the severe impact of breaching behavioral expectations (Grace, Arantes and Berg, p. 345).

According to (Notgrass, p. 610), there is no common set of behaviors that can be recognized as challenging behaviors universally. For most of the universities, colleges or schools challenging behavior is that activity that interferes with the learning or safety of the students or others. There are some common set of challenging behaviors can be found in the MGT 698 classroom. They are mentioned below:

• Disruptive behavior: taking phone calls during class, refusing to follow orders given by professors, swearing, tantrums and screaming
• Withdrawn behavior: steering, shyness, truancy, class phobia, rocking and social isolation
• Unsafe or violent acts: punching, kicking, fighting with other students, threatening, smashing furniture and equipment
• Inappropriate social behaviors: stealing, inappropriate conversations, harassing others, inappropriate touching

There are various factors, which have a high influence on the behavior of students in a classroom. These factors are like biophysical factors, psychological factors, cultural factors, social factors, professor behavior. The biophysical factors are the medical condition or disabilities (Holten, Ann-Louise, and Brenner, p. 10). Lack of social skills and trauma can be treated as the physiological factors.

According to (Snyder, p. 102), it is often found students of a different culture are not able to adopt social practices of the different culture. It may cause risk to a project. The “Sorry Business” developed by the Koorie community is a significant example of social factor. The seating arrangement and the level of noise as have a high impact on the behavior of students. The practice of professor and their teaching technique also have a great influence on the students.  For example, if the lecture is boring or disorganized then students show very less interest to attend the class. The professor of MGMT 386 has his unique personality and leadership technique, which attracts students to attain his level. In the next section, it will be discussed in details.

Uniqueness of the Class

The MGMT 386 class is very different compared to other classes. The teacher is a very inspirational person. He has an adamant personality and unique leadership skills, which can inspire all the students in the class. He always tries to behave friendly with all students, which makes the class comfortable. The teacher mainly uses democratic leadership style to run the course. According to (San Lam and Higgins, p. 160), Democratic leaders freely share ideas with the team and openly discuss it. This type of leadership practice is very useful in such environments, which changes very rapidly (Holten, Ann-Louise, and Brenner, p. 11). Every day new students join and leave the MGMT 386 class. They come from different cultures and regions. They have their set of values, which can create conflict in the classroom (Snyder, p. 104).  Democratic leadership style helps the professor to deal with these conflicts. He encourages students to share their ideas with others.

Some specific personality traits make the professor an experienced leader. These personality traits are like honesty, forward thinking, competency, imaginative, straightforward. He is a very sincere person who has a high level of knowledge in his field of work. He has the high-level stamina that influences all the students both physically and mentally (Davies, Krebs, and West, p. 452). He is a very fair-minded and straightforward person. He never hesitates to say right words to the right people. As (Snyder, p. 102) mentioned that, prejudice is the adversary of justice. The professor always tries to avoid discrimination in the classroom related to gender, culture, and religion of students.  He always shows empathy towards the feelings, interests, values, and well-being of all the students. He always tries to show creativity in his teaching methods, which makes his class more attractive to students. According to (Herrmann and Felfe, p. 212), it is one of the primary responsibilities of the leaders to develop correct vision and goals for the followers. Professor always thinks about the future of the students. For this purpose, the professor gives some lessons about employability skills, which can help them to secure a job in future.  

There are various methods have been taken by the professor to improve the environment in the classroom. They are like managing personal differences to achieve performance, decision making, controlling conflict, and implementing change. According to (Candolin and Wong, p. 26), the method in which, persons or teams are managed both positive and adverse impact on the performance. The professor mainly uses performance appraisal method in the class to motivate students. In order to improve team performance, the professor assigns students those tasks, which they are comfortable to do.

Methods to Improve Environment of the Class

There are various techniques applied by the teacher to resolve conflicts in the class. The professor personally feels that none of the students tries to create conflict in the class.  Instead of taking a side, he always tries to remain neutral. He always tries to make open conversation between two parties. As (Davies, Krebs, and West, p. 453) mentioned that, open conversation is the best way to deal with conflicts of behavioral ecology. 

In order to implement change in the classroom, the professor develops a context of choice that supports change. He always tries to convince all the students about the positive impact of change. For example, professor changes the seating arrangement of the class every week to create a strong bonding within the class. As (Smith and Blumstein, p. 210) mentioned that a healthy relationship is a primary reason behind the success of a team. The Kotter’s 8-step model helps the professor to implement change in the classroom. At first, he creates the urgency of change and then he makes a powerful coalition convince students why the change is necessary. Then he creates a vision for change and implements it in the class. 

Conclusion

In this paper, an analysis has been done on the class environment of MGMT 386. There are more than 200 students, who attain this class regularly. Differences in their culture and point of view give raise various conflicts. However, the professor is quite capable of dealing with these conflicts. He often makes open conversation between all the students to resolve conflicts.  His great personality and leadership capability inspires many students in the class. Effective decision-making capability and implementation of changes make his class interesting to the students. He uses performance appraisal method to motivate students so that they can improve their performance.

Reference list

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