Session Notes

Reading guides, concept summaries, discussion questions, and review cards for People, Power, and Pay.

People, Power, and Pay

Session Notes

Reading guides, concepts, questions, and review cards

Session notes are added as the course develops. They are public-facing study guides, not substitutes for the assigned readings or the official Canvas page.

Session 1 Organizations, Contracts, and Transactions Why is work organized through firms, contracts, authority, and routines rather than spot markets alone? Week 1 · August 31, 2026 Session 2 Contracts, Norms, and Power I What holds a business relationship together when the written contract leaves important behavior unspecified? Week 2 · September 9, 2026 Session 3 Contracts, Norms, and Power II How do incomplete contracts create rents, authority, and power inside economic relationships? Week 3 · September 14, 2026 Session 4 Employment Rents, Exit, and Voice Why do workers stay, speak up, or leave when work becomes disappointing? Week 4 · September 21, 2026 Session 5 Wages, Unemployment, and Monitoring Why might employers pay more than the lowest possible wage, and how do monitoring and unemployment shape effort? Week 5 · September 28 and 30, 2026 Session 6 Team Production How should organizations reward effort when output is produced jointly? Week 6 · October 5, 2026 Session 7 Productivity and Management Why do firms with similar workers, technologies, and markets often perform so differently? Week 7 · October 12, 2026 Session 8 Behavioral Economics and Organizations What changes when workers and managers have limited attention, social preferences, identities, and mistaken beliefs? Week 8 · October 19, 2026 Session 10 Motivation and Nonmonetary Incentives When can recognition, mission, autonomy, and meaning motivate work better than money alone? Week 10 · November 2, 2026 Session 11 Control, Trust, and Workplace Norms Why can giving workers more discretion sometimes increase effort and cooperation? Week 11 · November 9, 2026 Session 12 AI and the Organization of Work When should an organization give decisions to people, algorithms, or some combination of the two? Week 12 · November 16, 2026 Optional Modules Remote Work, Unions, Inequality, and Worker Power Student-selected topics for the end of the semester, including unions, monopsony, noncompetes, and remote work. Weeks 14-15 · If selected