Study Skills
Some guidance on reading and essay writing READING FOR THE OB COURSE Some tips on reading To excel on this course students need to read widely, going well beyond the main textbook. In order to obtain maximum benefit on the course, and to develop a good foundation for future years of your degree course, you should read some of the key writings in the area. Huczynski and Buchanon (2001) is a very thorough and sound text, but others you may find in the library are also good. Got to the Management (658) section and browse. You are expected to read a good chapter on each of the modules topics. You may read chapters from a range of different text books. In addition, you may want to read some areas in more depth, for example you may want to seek out a book that just specialises in teams. You could also look on meta-lib at some of the journals that interest you, for example the sports journals, and do a search for articles that relate to topics that you are interested in. Please remember that a good OB essay in the exam must show signs of wider reading. How to improve your reading It is more than likely that as much as 80% of what you read is redundant. You will rarely, if ever, remember more than a small amount of the 20% of the information remaining in the written text. Even if you do, you may not find it useful. So how can you read more efficiently? How can you find the information you need and recall it when you need it? There are many ways you can improve your skills. Like all skills, these also require practice. Your aim should be to reach a state where you employ these 'automatically'. The following suggestions intend to get you started. How to prise out of a book all the information you need Reading a text from beginning to end is a very crude method of gathering information. There are more efficient ways. For example: Tony Buzan's book "Use Your Head", first published by the BBC in 1974 (ISBN 0 563 165529) is an excellent place to start to learn how "to study more
effectively, solve problems more readily and develop your own ways of thinking". Don't start looking for detailed information unless you know what you are looking for. Ideally, write down the question(s) you want answers to. If you have a specific enquiry, look in the index to locate the information you want. If you only have vague ideas about what you are looking for:
(S) Survey texts to get a general overview of what you will then
study in detail. Scan the contents table, introduction, headings, summaries and final paragraphs. Then,
(Q) think up Questions about the text.
These will guide your search and help you to read with anticipation. Only then,
(R) Read the material - two or three times but quite quickly rather
than once slowly. During this stage try to identify the author's framework of ideas, or the plan on which the idea/s are structured. Headings provide clues. Identify the main idea in each paragraph it is usually found in the first or last sentence. Search for important detail: proofs, examples, support for the main idea. Study the diagrams. These often make clear what the text does not. Think up your own examples. Be sceptical: expect the author to justify every statement - if they do not, then check with another author. What would happen if the alternative was true? Don't worry about skipping whole paragraphs or sections if you can see these are not relevant for your purpose. Then, stop after each section and
Make notes of the main ideas. Do not copy chunks of text. Use your own words to express the author's main ideas and/or any important detail. Work out the logical structure of the author's argument, make a diagram of it. Is it valid? Use a memorable layout for your notes. Use colours, diagrams, symbols (e.g. !, or *, >, <, etc) indentations, lettering, numbering for sections and sub-heads. Invent your own personal shorthand as well as using standard abbreviations. Don't forget to make a note of the source of your notes. Then finally,
(R) Recall what you have read.
(R) Review what you have read by going through the above
stages again, quite quickly. It is useful to test the accuracy of your notes in this review stage. If you still find a section difficult to understand, take a break. Discuss the difficulty - with other students, or tutors, bring it up in a tutorial. Then read it again, a few times if necessary.
This technique is often referred to as
"SQ3R": Survey, Question, Read, Recall and Review.
Using this technique can improve your lecture preparation, note taking and revision beyond your wildest dreams! How to read faster You can increase your reading speed by at least 50% and understand what you have read, perhaps even better! Here are some suggestions you may like to try. If you can't see efficiently you can't read sufficiently. It is worth getting your eyes tested - you may need glasses for continuous reading. If your eyes are OK, don't ruin them by attempting to read in poor light. Find the best illumination you can before you begin to read. Then try to figure out a way to improve illumination. You'll be surprised at the difference this makes, especially to long stints of reading. Don't 'mouth' words or say these aloud as you read. Try to read in 'thought units', two or three words, instead of single words. This is not easy at first but practice pays off. Your eyes then stop fewer times per lines, instead of every word. Build up your personal vocabulary. Use dictionaries whenever you meet new words. Make a personal glossary of common words in your subject area/s. Force yourself to read faster. It can be worrying at first, but persist. Time yourself and test your recall of contents. Read all your study material faster, especially if this means reading these more than once before you are satisfied with your recall of the contents. Test yourself on short articles at first. You'll be surprised with your progress if you practice diligently. Don't expect a text to yield its meaning on first reading. The author more than likely had more than one attempt to write it, to get their meaning clear. If you are trying to get the gist, you should be able to read two or three times faster than when you are trying to follow a carefully structured, complex argument. Your goal should be: ability to vary reading speed at will, according to the complexity of the material and the information you require. Even with very difficult material, complex arguments become clearer from a few quick readings, rather than step by step attempts to assimilate everything. !! WARNING !!
Reading is only one of the skills you need for studying any subject. Furthermore, it is not usually the best one. Examine your own study skills from time to time. Devise your own methods (always the best) for improving your study skills.
THE EXAM The exam is two hours long. You will have a choice of five long-answer questions, of which you answer two. The exam is designed to ensure that you have acquired the width and depth of understanding that is required. Obviously you will need to know a reasonable amount about all our topics and also know a few topics in rather greater depth. Especially in the longer answer we will be looking for an ability to use what you know, not just repeat it. But dont worry too much - the questions will be designed to help you show what you do know, not to trip you up. Please do not underestimate however the amount of work you need to do to pass the exam. We advise that you work consistently from here on in so that you do not have too much to do at the end and run out of time. You can use revision questions provided in this outline to test yourself as you go along. Tips on answering OB Exam questions. Outline Belbins approach to teams. How might knowledge of Belbin team roles assist a manager in creating a more effective team? This question is requiring you to show firstly your knowledge of what So you need to treat the question as two parts in the first instance and Belbin team roles are and then to offer a more reasoned account of how they may be useful. Treat them equally in order to get the best mark. A tip with the essays is to make good use of new paragraphs for each new point you want to make. Initially for the first part you could briefly describe how Belbin team roles came about - i.e. work at Henley on real management teams. Then you need to list all of the nine profiles with a brief description of each - if you can list one advantage and one allowable weakness of each too. I.e. you need to outline: 1. Shaper 2. Chair 3. Plant 4. Implementer 5. Resource investigator 6. Monitor evaluator 7. Technical specialist 8. Team worker 9. Completer finisher A good answer would put something in here about how various combinations of roles work better or conflict etc. Also maybe make some comment about how different stages of the team's work would require different kinds of aspects. You might also make some comment on successful teams. If you have anything interesting to add in here, say from any extra reading you may have done then do so.
Then onto the second part of the question which is actually harder as it requires you to show how well you understand how the theory may work in practice and apply to real managers. Just some of the things you will want to consider including here are: How an understanding of a poor balance leads to poor team performance How a manager can help team members identify their preferred and weakest roles to obtain satisfaction in teams and improve performance To assess and predict the teams weaknesses and strengths and how things can be improved Are we making use of all of the team roles needed? How can we make super teams? These would all benefit from examples either real or created to illustrate points made. A better answer would be able to make further comment then on how in the real world managers have practical constraints in terms of what the team is actually required to do and the people they have actually got. There may be an actual lack of choice, and people's interests may not always match what the manager is trying to do. The key issue is that you are trying to make real teams work not create an ideal.
When taking notes etc and preparing for exams try not to add more and more to your notes - select carefully from the material available - what will it add to the lecture notes? Have you got all lecture notes up to date? Have you got definitions for most things? Do you need to make any extra notes to help you understand something? Is there anything you can add that shows how something works in organizations or how managers can benefit? Writing essays in exams If it is organised properly you will get the message across. Therefore, spend some time in the exam to prepare a short plan either as a bullet point list, or as a mind-map, whatever suits you best. The main points to cover are: Basic Structure (1) Introduction What it says. This usually leads into explaining what you are going to say; what you understand the question to mean; and briefly how you plan to respond to it. Also define key terms, such as pluralism. Middle One paragraph for each main point. Sometimes it is easy, i.e. points for, then against. Conclusion
(2)
(3)
Summarise - draw together. You don't have to come down strongly on one side, e.g. on the one hand/on the other. Remember that a reader is likely to look at your first paragraph, your last paragraph and then the paragraphs between the two. The reader is likely to pay particular attention to the first and last sentence of each paragraph. Other tips (a) (b) Define/explain important terms - to show you understand what you're writing. Use examples to illustrate from lectures and own experience; but don't personalise. e.g. Dont write: 'At the place where I work' or 'My boss said'. Do write - 'In the lock industry' or 'In student committees, it can happen that i.e. generalise from experience. ABOVE ALL - Answer the Question Organise the essay to do this. Only include material which helps you do this. DON'T WAFFLE or regurgitate everything you know. Good application, that closely links to the question, is worth more marks than a list of facts. Demonstrate that you have considered the question and its implications. This is not a memory test (even if it feels like it!) it is a test of your ability to think, and to apply your thinking, with critical reference to the theory.
(c)
