Course

Organizational Management Skills

Faculty
Commerce & Business Administration
Department
Business
Course code
BUSN 3310
Credits
3.00
Semester length
15 Weeks
Max class size
35
Method(s) of instruction
Lecture
Seminar
Course designation
None
Industry designation
None
Typically offered
To be determined

Overview

Course description
This course enables a student to develop necessary skills in preparation for a career in organizational management. By learning and practicing personal skills, interpersonal skills, and group skills, students can acquire critical management skills, including communications, motivation, delegation, managing conflict, gaining power and influence, problem solving, stress management, managing change and team building.
Course content

1.     Introduction—the critical role of management skills in business.

2.     Personal Skills:

  • Developing self awareness—cognitive style, attitude toward change, interpersonal orientation.
  • Managing stress—managing time, major elements of stress, managing stress, eliminating stressors, developing resiliency, stress reduction techniques.
  • Solving problems—creativity, innovation, rational problem solving, impediments to creative problem solving.

 3.     Interpersonal Skills:

  • Communicating—supportive communication, communication styles, coaching and counselling.
  • Applying communication skills—making oral and written presentations, conducting interviews.
  • Gaining power and influence—definition of power, gaining organizational power, transforming power into influence.
  • Motivating—diagnosing performance problems, enhancing the abilities of others, creating a motivating environment.
  • Managing conflict—diagnosing the sources of conflict, conflict response alternatives, resolving conflict.

 4.     Group Skills:

  • Empowering and Delegating—definition of empowerment, development of empowerment, delegating work.
  • Team building—definition of teamwork, stages of team development, conducting team meetings.
  • Managing Change—framework for leading positive change.
Learning activities
  • Lectures
  • Case studies—analysis and presentation, both written and oral
  • Experiential exercises
Means of assessment

Assessment will be in accordance with the Douglas College Evaluation Policy.

Assignment(s), reports(s) and/or case(s) 25-35%
Oral presentation or training seminar 10-20%
Self/Peer/Instructor Evaluation-Related Assignment(s)4    25-35%
Examination(s) and/or quizzes 20-40%
        100%

Notes:

1. At least 50% of the total coursework must be individual work.
2. To pass the course, students must achieve a cumulative grade of 50% in all non-group assessments as well as 50% overall in the course. In other words, students must have achieved at least 50% on their cumulative individual assessments in order to be eligible to earn marks from group work.
3. No single assessment (e.g., case study, exam, quiz, project, etc.) can be worth more than 30%.
4. To fulfill this requirement, students need to engage in self-evaluation, peer-evaluation and instructor-evaluation. Those components are not required to be in the same assignement(s). Examples could include: (a) self-reflection assignments, such as journals, (b) a 360-degree evaluation, (c) other assignments that require the students evaluating him/herself and/or being evaluated by others, or (d) a combination of these examples.
5. Students may conduct research as part of their coursework in this class. Instructors for the course are responsible for ensuring that student research projects comply with College policies on ethical conduct for research involving humans, which can require obtaining Informed Consent from participants and getting the approval of the Douglas College Research Ethics Board prior to conducting the research.

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the successful student will be able to:

  1. demonstrate an understanding of and apply such personal management skills as developing self awareness, managing stress and solving problems.
  2. demonstrate an understanding of and apply such interpersonal management skills as communication, both oral and written, gaining power and exerting influence, motivation, and managing conflict.
  3. demonstrate an understanding of and apply such group management skills as empowerment, delegation, managing change and team building.
  4. practice and integrate the above skills through using case studies and experiential exercises and activities, with an emphasis on interpersonal interaction.
Textbook materials

Textbooks and Materials to be Purchased by Students

Whetten, David A. and Kim S. Cameron.  Developing Management Skills, Latest Ed., New York:  Harper Collins.

Requisites

Course Guidelines

Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.

(Current)

Course Transfers to Other Institutions

Below are current transfer agreements from Douglas College to other institutions for the current course guidelines only. For a full list of transfer details and archived courses, please see the BC Transfer Guide.

Institution Transfer details for BUSN 3310
Acsenda School of Management (ASM) DOUG BUSN 1210 (3) & DOUG BUSN 3310 (3) = ASM BADM 302 (3)
Athabasca University (AU) AU COMM 2XX (3)
Capilano University (CAPU) CAPU BADM 106 (3)
Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) FDU MGMT 3361 (3)
Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) KPU BUSI 2XXX (3)
Langara College (LANG) LANG BUSM 2200 (3)
Okanagan College (OC) OC BUAD 2XX (3)
Simon Fraser University (SFU) DOUG BUSN 1210 (3) & DOUG BUSN 3310 (3) = SFU BUS 1XX (3) & SFU BUS 272 (3)
Thompson Rivers University (TRU) TRU ORGB 2810 (3)
University of British Columbia - Okanagan (UBCO) UBCO ELEV_O 2nd (3)
University of British Columbia - Vancouver (UBCV) UBCV COMM_V 2nd (3)
University of Northern BC (UNBC) UNBC COMM 2XX (3)
University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) UFV BUS 203 (3)
University of Victoria (UVIC) DOUG BUSN 1210 (3) & DOUG BUSN 3310 (3) = UVIC COM 220 (1.5) & UVIC COM 2XX (1.5)
University of Victoria (UVIC) UVIC COM 2XX (1.5)
Vancouver Island University (VIU) VIU MGMT 292 (3)

Course Offerings

Fall 2025

CRN Days Instructor Status
Maximum seats
35
Currently enrolled
35
Remaining seats:
0
On waitlist
5
Building
Anvil Office Tower
Room
624
Times:
Start Time
12:30
-
End Time
15:20
Section notes

BUSN 3310 001 - This section is restricted to Business Management Diplomas, General Business Diploma, Financial Services Diploma, BBA Management, BBA Financial Services & Administration, PDD Human Resource Management, PBD Advanced Human Resource Management, PDD and PBD Hospitality Services Management, and BSc Health Info Management until Friday, July 11, 2025, at 2 pm.

CRN Days Instructor Status
Maximum seats
35
Currently enrolled
34
Remaining seats:
1
On waitlist
0
Building
Anvil Office Tower
Room
608
Times:
Start Time
18:30
-
End Time
21:20
Section notes

BUSN 3310 050 - This section is restricted to Business Management Diplomas, General Business Diploma, Financial Services Diploma, BBA Management, BBA Financial Services & Administration, PDD Human Resource Management, PBD Advanced Human Resource Management, PDD and PBD Hospitality Services Management, and BSc Health Info Management until Friday, July 11, 2025, at 2 pm.