Cooperative Learning Across The Business Curriculum

This paper will present an innovative approach to business pedagogy, which we have introduced across the curriculum. We will describe how we have been using collaborative learning in our divergent disciplines of finance and law. It is our belief that traditional business curricula have taught inappropriate behavior to students. Organizational behavior classes introduce cooperative techniques that are abandoned when students enter the functional classes. Typical finance or law classes isolate people and force them into competition. This paper will present basic concepts of collaborative learning which emphasizes cooperation and interaction We will explore the methods we are using to make this teaching methodology in our classes

Cooperative Warning: The Extended Jigsaw

The presenters have been involved in using cooperative learning strategies in their organizational behavior, human resource management, finance and business law classes. During the session we will engage participants in an exercise involving a cooperative learning technique called the jigsaw. The exercise will introduce the formal requirements of the cooperative learning model we use while allowing those attending the session to practice a cooperative learning method

Cooperative Learning across the Business Curriculum

This paper will present an innovative approach to business pedagogy, which we have introduced across the curriculum. We will describe how we have been using collaborative learning in our divergent disciplines of finance and law. It is our belief that traditional business curricula have taught inappropriate behavior to students. Organizational behavior classes introduce cooperative techniques that are abandoned when students enter the functional classes. Typical finance or law classes isolate people and force them into competition. This paper will present basic concepts of collaborative learning which emphasizes cooperation and interaction. We will explore the methods we are using to make this teaching methodology in our classes

Experiential Exercises and Pedagogy Track Workshop: Selecting a Manager for Maquiladora, Inc.

Selection is a human resource function that is deeply embedded in the cultural values and attitudes that predominate in the organization. NAFTA will lead to an increased need for cooperation between U.S. and Mexican firms in the selection of employees. This workshop will explore how cultural differences between Anglo-American and Mexican managers impact upon selection decisions. Participants will be engaged in an experiential exercise that simulates an inter-cultural selection procedure. We will review research on the relevant cultural variables and discuss the impact these have on our experience in doing the exercise

Cultural dimensions and gender discrimination law in the U.S. workplace: Hofstede\u27s theories of individualism and masculinity

It has been more than forty-five years since the passage of the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and forty-four years since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, there has been a persistent disparity in employment outcomes for women and men. Women comprise more than half of the population and 47 percent of the workforce, but hold only 16 percent of the corporate offices in Fortune 500 companies and 5 percent of the senior management positions in mid- to large-sized firms. The median pay for women employed full time is 80 percent of that of men. There have been many explanations for these disparities from diverse fields such as sociology, economics and psychology, as well as legal studies. The work of cultural theorists in international management has not been considered as an explanation for the disappointing lack of progress towards gender equity in the workplace. In this first Friday Forum of 2009, Profs. Virginia Arthur (Management), Jean Didier (Management), and Wendy Klepetar (Manager) describe the work done by a leading scholar of international organizational behavior, Geert Hofstede, and use his theoretical framework of cultural dimensions to discuss both the form gender discrimination law has taken in the United States, and its impact (or lack thereof) on employment outcomes for women

Experiential Exercises and Pedagogy Track Workshop: Experiencing Cultural Diversity in the Classroom (and the Hotel Meeting Room)

"How does cultural diversity effect our perceptions of others and our own interpersonal behavior? This workshop will increase our understanding of how cultural differences effect us and how, specifically, they effect business people engaged in negotiations. We will consider issues of multiculturalism in the United States as well as in the international business field. Participants will learn more about their own cultures’ values and will create a simulated culture in the workshop. They will then negotiate with members of another simulated culture, and analyze the efficacy of their results from the perspective of intercultural relations as well as profit enhancement.

AHC Interview with Eva E. Klepetar

Eva Klepetar, nee Tanzer, was born in Graz, Austria on March 6, 1917. Before World War II, she lived at Kolinska II, Prague, Czechoslovakia. She was trained as an X-ray technician and operating room technician, and worked as medical assistant in a German university hospital in Prague. She was deported to Theresienstadt Concentration Camp in July 1942, then Auschwitz. She was forced under slave labor in Oederan, Germany in a munitions factory. After the war, she went to Shanghai, China and in 1949 to the United States

The Organizational Leadership Program

The Organizational Leadership Program is a yearlong simulation including role playing, reading, and management curriculum for a select group of students. They are actively involved in the learning process, with emphasis placed on the dynamics of leadership. This paper highlights information about the program’s development, goals, structure, and activities

Vascular smooth muscle cells in cultures on biofunctionalized cellulose-based scaffolds

Viscose, dialdehyde cellulose and oxidized 6-car-boxycellulose with 2.1 or 6.6wt.% of –COOH groups were prepared. The materials were subsequently functionalized with arginine or chitosan. Both unmodified and biofunctionalized materials were seeded with vascular smooth muscle cells. The morphology of the adhered cells indicated that oxidized 6-carbo-xycellulose with 2.1% content of –COOH groups was the most appropriate of all tested materials for potential use in tissue engineering. The shape of the cells on this material was elongated, which demonstrates adequate adhesion and viability of the cells, while the morphology of the cells on other tested materials was spherical. Moreover, the stability of 6-carboxycellulo-se with 2.1wt.% of –COOH groups in the cell culture environment was optimal, with a tendency to degrade slowly with time. The highest stability was found on the viscose samples, whereas there was very low stability on oxidized 6-carboxycellulose with 6.6 wt. % of –COOH groups, and also on dialdehyde cellulose. Functionalization with arginine or chitosan increased the number of adhered cells on the materials, but not markedly. We did not obtain a significant elevation of the cell population densities with time on the tested samples. These results suggest the possibility of using a cellulose-based material in such tissue engineering applications, where high proliferation activity of cells is not convenient, e.g. reconstruction of the smooth mu-scle cell layer in bioartificial vascular replacements