PB436 Half Unit
Behavioural Science for Managing Work, People, and Time
This information is for the 2022/23 session.
Teacher responsible
Dr. Laura M Giurge
Availability
This course is available on the MSc in Behavioural Science, MSc in Organisational and Social Psychology, MSc in Psychology of Economic Life, MSc in Social and Cultural Psychology and MSc in Social and Public Communication. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.
Course content
Time is the most pervasive aspect of our lives. Every day we make decisions (or decisions are made for us) about how or with whom to spend our finite time in our personal and professional life. But what is time? How do we calculate the value of an hour, or the value of human life? Why are we more motivated to start a new goal on New Year’s or on our birthday than on a regular weekday? Why is it that time sometimes goes by faster or slower? What can we do to address gender inequality in time-use at work and at home? Is there an optimal way to allocate our time for well-being and productivity? How can leaders support employees to be productive at work and disconnect outside of work? And if time is our most precious resource, why is time theft not a crime?
This course seeks to address these questions and more. The insights presented in this course draw from a variety of disciplines including behavioural science as well as individual, social, and organisational psychology, and will include real-life examples across industries and cultures. Students taking this course will gain a multidisciplinary perspective on managing work, people, and time; will learn to think critically about their own experience and use of time, and how this shapes their expectations and behaviours in their personal life, at work, and in society; they will be able to recognize the psychological and behavioural barriers that prevent them from pursuing activities that are beneficial for them; will gain knowledge about how innovations and the growing knowledge economy has changed the way individuals think about time; and will learn how to formulate solutions that enable positive behavioural change in the way they use and experience time across all aspects of their lives. Afterall, how people spend their time is how they live their life.
Teaching
10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the LT.
This schedule is tentative and may change as the term proceeds. All changes to the class schedule will be announced in class and/or on Moodle.
- Time and the Person: Sessions 1-3 will focus