2013/2014 KAN-SOL_OS51 Organizing technologies
English Title | |
Organizing technologies |
Course information |
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Language | English |
Exam ECTS | 7.5 ECTS |
Type | Mandatory |
Level | Full Degree Master |
Duration | One Quarter |
Course period | Second Quarter |
Time Table | Please see course schedule at e-Campus |
Study board |
Study Board for MSc in Economics and Business
Administration
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Course coordinator | |
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Course responsible:
Ursula Plesner (up.ioa@cbs.dk)
Course secretary: Mette Ellekrog (mbe.ioa@cbs.dk) |
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Main academic disciplines | |
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Last updated on 05-08-2013 |
Learning objectives | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
At the exam, students should be able
to:
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Course prerequisites | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The course must be taken together with Organizing Processes, as they have a common exam. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Examination | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Course content and structure | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Technologies play a crucial role in
organizations and organizing processes. Rather than being neutral
tools to solve problems ((or instruments to steer processes)), they
can be considered constitutive of organizational realities. To
provide an understanding of the constitutive role of technology in
organizing, this course introduces the material turn in social
science and organization studies. The aim of the course is to
support students in identifying and analyzing how various
technologies are part of Strategy-making, Organizational practices,
and Leadership/management, and to use these insights in relation to
specific cases.
The course offers a very broad conception of technology. It places emphasis on technologies for managing economic aspects and the quantification of organizational life, for instance the tools that organizations use to make themselves transparent and accountable, such as user satisfaction surveys, evaluations, etc. However, the definition of technology is extended to include physical arrangements, including architecture and the use of material artefacts, and the course addresses for instance the role of physical set-ups in the creation of markets. Finally, the discussion of technologies covers Information and Communication Technologies that impact coordination or the management of collaboration. Content: The course covers four dimensions:
The first part of the course introduces various perspectives on technologies and organizing, and establishes a broad understanding of ‘technology’. We examine the claim that technology tends to be left out of the picture when we discuss strategy, organizational processes and leadership/management in organizations. We then reflect on how we may use insights from the material turn in social science to broaden the view of strategy, organization and leadership. In particular, the notion of performativity will allow us to open up otherwise naturalized technologies and reflect upon how they play a part in the constitution of organizational realities. The rest of the course is divided into three sections, each discussing how strategy, organizational processes and leadership/management are closely intertwined with various technologies. Each session explores a particular type of technology, to provide empirically rich examples of how otherwise unobtrusive elements of organizations and businesses play a decisive role for their constitution and conduct. The cases also serve to illustrate how development and implementation processes may benefit from an understanding of the organizing role of technologies. Overlap with the course Organizing Processes Both Organizing Processes (OP) and Organizing Technologies (OT) focus on the role of various of technologies in maintaining and transforming organizations. OT concentrates on the role of technologies, and draws extensively on Actor-network Theory. OP includes technologies in a narrower sense, by focusing on material framing of organizing processes. The theories used in OP are analytically consistent with those used at OT. The OP and OT courses are integrated in a shared workshop |
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Teaching methods | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dialogue-based lectures and case discussions. A workshop will be held with Organizing Processes. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Expected literature | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bloomfield, B. (1995). Power,
Machines and Social Relations: Delegating to Information Technology
in the National Health Service. Organization, 2(3-4),
489-518.
Boll, K. (forthcoming). Representing and Performing Businesses: A Segmentation Model in Action. Journal of Cultural Economy, accepted for publication Callon, M. (2008). Economic Markets and the Rise of Interactive Agencement. In T. Pinch & R. Swedberg (Eds.), Living in a Material World: Economic Sociology Meets Science and Technology Studies (pp. 29-56). Cambridge: MIT press. Callon, Michel (1986). Some elements of a sociology of translation: domestication of the scallops and the fishermen of St Brieuc Bay in J. Law, Power, action and belief: a new sociology of knowledge? Routledge, London, pp. 196-223 Chua, W.F (2007) Accounting, measuring, reporting and strategizing – Re-using verbs: A review essay. Accounting, Organizations and Society 32, 487-494 Dale, K. (2005) Building a Social Materiality: Spatial and Embodied Politics in Organizational Control, Organization 12(5), 649-678 Frandsen, A.-C. (2009). From psoriasis to a number and back. Information and Organization, 19(2), 103-128. Orlikowski, W.J. (2007). Sociomaterial Practices: Exploring Technology at Work. In Organization Studies 28(9), 1435-1448 Power, M. (1996) Making things auditable. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 21(2/3), 289-315 Raviola & Norbäck (forthcoming): Bringing technology and meaning into institutional work: Making news at an Italian business newspaper in Organization Studies Skærbæk & Tryggestad (2010): The role of accounting devices in performing corporate strategy. In Accounting, Organizations and Society 35, 108-124 Skærbæk, P. & S. Thorbjørnsen (2007). The commodification of the Danish Defence Forces and the troubled identities of its officers. Financial Accountability & Management, 23(3), 0267-4424 Skærbæk, Peter (2005) Annual reports as interaction devices: the hidden constructions of mediated communication. In Financial Accountability & Management 21(4), (pp.385-411) |
Last updated on
05-08-2013