Evaluation of an Experimental Course in Organizational Behavior for Managers of Japanese Banks Eileen Connolly

Abstract

" Almost seven years ago the graduate programs of the College of Business and Engineering at Bradley University developed an Experiential Course in Organizational Behavior. [5] The course consists of 51 hours of class room activity: (five evenings; three weekend sessions: Friday nights and all day Saturday). It focuses on the development of skills and knowledge in areas such as communication, leadership, decision making, team work, management of change, management of conflict, and power/authority relationships. The course is designed to help the students, who are generally employed full time, learn in practical ways how to perform their jobs more effectively. It places a major share of the responsibility for learning on the student by active participation in case studies, group discussions, structured exercises, simulations, and ad hoc groups. The four instructors help the students to monitor their own behavior, assess the effectiveness of their own behavior, and develop behaviors that they think are more effective. Approximately two years ago during a meeting of a professional association, one of the members of a Peoria, Illinois, based consulting firm, The Asia Group, was approached by an officer of a major New York City bank. The officer asked if The Asia Group might be interested in developing an experimental program that would provide personnel of several Japanese banks an opportunity to become familiar with American banks, corporations and life in American homes. The Asia Group developed a proposal which gave the Japanese Bankers extensive contact with American life. One element of that program was the multidisciplinary course described above. The program was accepted and the nineteen Japanese bankers came to Peoria in the middle of the extremely cold winter of 1977. "