Special Topics in Organizational Behavio

Interpersonal collaboration, cooperation, and conflict This seminar will explore how individuals collaborate to get things done together (or fail to) and how people engage in cooperation, competition, and conflict. We’ll discuss and debate research and accounts on these topics related to evolutionary origins and the development of human societies, the individual development of related capabilities across the early lifespan (perspective taking, norm detection, etc.), and how these dynamics play out in work and organizational contexts and across cultures. Students will be expected to engage deeply with a broad set of readings and to actively discuss them during seminar meetings. Importantly, this course will be more than a basic survey of past work and simple discussion of readings. Students will be expected to iteratively develop, refine, and articulate their own questions and perspectives, linking the course’s themes to their own specific interests. The course will also employ selective hands-on activities, giving us first-hand experiences with collaboration, cooperation, and conflict that will fuel discussion. In addition, students will develop and test their own ideas for activities that might be relevant for studying, or teaching about, collaboration and other dynamics. This course itself will be a collaborative effort: students will be expected to be active and vocal participants throughout the course, not passive observers. The size of this course is capped to ensure high levels of engagement and participation. To apply, please email Daniel Ames (da358@gsb.columbia.edu) with your CV and one-page-maximum statement of interest in the course (such as how it relates to your interests, what you would bring to it, what you would hope to get from it).