EXIN BCS Foundation Certificate in Organisational Behaviour

1. Organizational Principles

1.1 Delivering value

• Explain delivering value
• Competitive advantage – Porter’s five forces
• Value proposition
• Value stream analysis (not Lean)

1.2 Organization structuring

• Elements of organization structure
• The six structure levels
• The Leavitt Diamond

1.3 Budgets and departmentalized businesses

• The purpose of budgets
• Reasons for departmentalization
• Cost centers and profit centers

1.4 Types of jobs

• Work specialization
• Flat and tall hierarchies
• Span of control

1.5 Line management, staff, and functional relationships

1.6 Formalization of rules and procedures

1.7 Centralization versus decentralization

• Advantages
• Disadvantages

2. Operating Models

2.1 Organization structures and their characteristics

• Functional
• Divisional – product or service/geography/customer
• Matrix
• Team-based – cross-functional/cross-project

2.2 Organizational boundaries

• Boundaryless organizations
• Outsourcing
• Offshoring
• Hollow organization structures
• Modular organization structures
• Virtual organizations
• Collaborations and strategic alliances
• Agile organizations

3. Organizational Motivation, Behavior, and Culture

3.1 Organizational motivation (Object Management Group (OMG) Business Motivation Model)

3.2 Organizational behavior field map

3.3 Organizational effectiveness and the Balanced Scorecard

3.4 Understanding and analyzing culture

• Organizational cultural types
  • Deal and Kennedy’s model of corporate culture
  • Handy’s model of organizational culture
• Strong, weak, and appropriate cultures (Gordon and DiTomaso, Chatman et al, O’Reilly)
  • Groysberg’s internal and external company factors
• National cultures
  • Brooks factors affecting national culture
  • Hofstede’s five dimensions of national culture
• The cultural web

4. Group Formation

4.1 Groups and group dynamics

4.2 Formal and informal groups

• Groups and group tasks
• Characteristics of formal groups
• Homan’s theory of group formation
• Tuckman and Jensen’s theory of group development
• Characteristics of informal groups
• Social networks of informal groups

5. Principles of Financial Reporting

5.1 Statement of financial position (Balance Sheet)

• Purpose and structure
• The nature, purpose, and types of capital
• Current and non-current liabilities
• Current and non-current assets

5.2 Income and expenditure (Income Statement, Profit and Loss Account)

• The importance of operating profit
• Revenue (turnover)
• Cost of Sales
• Administrative expenses
• Profit after tax

5.3 Cash flow

• Cash flow forecasting
• Use of cash flow in decision-making
• Cash flow and profit

5.4 Costing and pricing

• Fixed and variable costs
• Direct and indirect costs
• Breakeven and contribution analysis

6. Project Finance

6.1 Evaluating a financial case

• Costs and benefits
  • Tangible and intangible
  • Benefits classification (Financial, Quantifiable, Measurable, Observable)
• Payback
  • Rationale for a payback calculation
  • Payback and risk
  • Limitations of payback
• Discounted cash flow/net present value (NPV)
  • Rationale for a discounted cash flow/net present value (NPV) calculation
  • The NPV decision rule
• Internal Rate of Return (IRR)
  • Rationale for IRR
  • How IRR is used
  • The IRR decision rule