People People...

OB- basically People Skills 101 and a core course of the MBA. Right now an extremely hot topic in management. If someone has honed communication skills, is respected- even liked- and know how to read others in order to motivate them, they are (theoretically) going to ultimately be effective managers.

While there is a great deal of resistance to Organizational Behavior as anything more than touchy-feely navel gazing- it is perhaps the subject that could make or break one's effectiveness managing the most important resource of their organization- the human resource.

It's more than just "This is how to be nice to people"- it's how to listen actively, and how to use that active listening to use effective people management as a strategic advantage over your competition. Why it can be perilous to play certain political games- and what it will mean to you as a manager if your employees are unhappy- how to realize they're unhappy, and what do about it.

All of it gets brought home with Case Studies from the real world with demonstrations of these principles and skills in action. That's the difference between navel gazing and hairy-fairy people skills- the case studies which show just what the results are- and what the implications are of handling things badly.