OB in a Video Box

Abstract

The use of movies and television in teaching is growing in popularity. Although a number of publications describe movies for use in the classroom, no single suggestion has been offered as an example that covers all the basic concepts of an organizational behavior course. Disney's Remember the Titans is that movie and, as such, is a valuable tool for educators with limited budgets and limited time to manage extensive video libraries. Suggestions are offered for using the movie along with concept illustrations, thought items, and sample exam questions.

The Flight of the Phoenix

“…The movie is so rich in material that the authors could easily justify spending class time to watch it. However, as discussed in previous articles (see, Billsberry & Gilbert, 2008, or Holbrook, 2009), there are several options for viewing movies for classroom use.…”

“…Students engaged in “purposeful viewing” can learn a great deal about how people act, how they think, and the consequences of certain behaviors (Clemens & Wolff, 1999). Movies also give students a common experience to which they can apply theory and concepts while in the classroom (Holbrook, 2009; Huczynski & Buchanan, 2004), and which can be more effective in stimulating discussion and thinking than the students’ limited personal experiences.…”

“…Movies have already been successfully used in teaching roughly the same human aspects of management we are looking at here but not in the project management context. Billsberry and Gilbert (2008) consider the use of a movie in teaching human resources, whereas Holbrook (2009) describes the use of a movie in teaching organizational behavior. Our exercise is a more specialized version of Holbrook in that it considers organizational behavioral issues in the context of project management.…”