• Master relevant terminology regarding current hot topics in management and associated theoretical models
• Analyze complex managerial issues using models learned in this course
• Understand, apply, and relate the theories explaining managerial choices addressing new burning issues
• Identify, evaluate and assess the benefits and drawbacks of the managerial decision on how to manage new organizational challenges

Managers face issues that were not imaginable a few decades ago, from cyberthreats to social media reputation. While courses in business schools teach systematic ways to analyze the world, new issues such as cyber security, organizational stigma, and failure learning are oftentimes only cursorily touched upon.

In this course, students will learn more about a set of hot issues and how to analyze their impact on organizations and assess how managers design response strategies to address them. In this course, students will learn more about eight hot topics. By emphasizing how to seek information and think around action options, students will develop a method they can apply to address future such challenges and other related ones as future managers. 

The course will be taught using a combination of (theoretical) material presentation and discussion of practical cases and issues. Each session is structured to allow as much interaction as possible between the students and the instructor(s). Questions are welcomed at any point in time in the class as they offer students the opportunity to learn from each other's curiosity and insights that complement the topics and the insights from the course. In-class exercises and activities will be used to allow students to directly apply, analyze, evaluate, and create content. We will use a 2+1 structure for the hot topics, with two classes covering readings and discussions about two different hot topics and the third class being a student-led tutorial whose focus is on the two hot topics. For each student-led class, students should select one of the two topics associated with that class and choose a task [not an overwhelming undertaking] associated with the selected topic. The idea behind each possible task is for students to conduct some research about the topic and be prepared to discuss the outcomes of their research in the class. The research for the student-led class should be seen as a lead-in to and might be used in the final written assignment for the course.

Examples of hot topics that might be covered in this course include:

• Cryptocurrency and blockchains
• Cybersecurity 
• Emotional intelligence
• Failure learning
• Forecasting
• Intellectual property tools and strategies
• Mindfulness
• Motivation  
• Organizational culture
• Organizational reputation
• Organizational stigma
• Platforms and ecosystems

Additional course categories: Managerial decision-making, Tools to solve novel managerial issues

The expected literature will be mostly based on peer-reviewed academic articles, practitioners-oriented journals, and news outlet articles.

Examples of readings associated with some of the possible hot topics include:

For failure learning:

• Dahlin, K., Chuang, Y. & T. Roulet. 2018. “Opportunity, motivation and ability to learn from failures and errors: Review, synthesis and ways to move forward.” Academy of Management Annals. 12(1): 252-277. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.5465/​annals.2016.0049
• Haunschild, P. R., Polidoro, F., Jr., & Chandler, D. 2015. Organizational oscillation between learning and forgetting: The dual role of serious errors. Organization Science, 26(6): 1682–1701.
• Kim, J., & Miner, A. S. 2007. Vicarious learning from the failures and near-failures of others: Evidence from the U.S. commercial banking industry. Academy of Management Journal, 50(3): 687–714.
• Stan, M., & Vermeulen, F. 2013. Selection at the gate: Difficult cases, spillovers, and organizational learning. Organization Science, 24(3): 796–812.

For organizational stigma:

• Devers, C. E., Dewett, T., Mishina, Y., & Belsito, C. A. 2009. A general theory of organizational stigma. Organization Science, 20(1), 154-171.
• Groysberg, B., Lin, E., Serafeim, G., & Abrahams, R., 2016. Working for a Scandal-Tainted Company Hurts Your Future Earnings. Harvard Business Review.
• Phung, K., Buchanan, S., Toubiana, M., Ruebottom, T., & Turchick‐Hakak, L. 2021. When stigma doesn’t transfer: Stigma deflection and occupational stratification in the sharing economy. Journal of Management Studies, 58(4), 1107-1139.
• Pollock, T. G., Lashley, K., Rindova, V. P., & Han, J. H. 2019. Which of these things are not like the others? Comparing the rational, emotional, and moral aspects of reputation, status, celebrity, and stigma. Academy of Management Annals, 13(2), 444-478.