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2017/2018  KAN-CPHIO1502U  Philosophical Investigations in Contemporary Worklife

English Title
Philosophical Investigations in Contemporary Worklife

Course information
Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Mandatory
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Quarter
Start time of the course Fourth Quarter
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Max. participants 70
Study board
Study Board for BSc/MSc in Business Administration and Philosophy, MSc
Course coordinator
  • Michael Pedersen - MPP
Main academic disciplines
  • Philosophy and ethics
  • Management
  • Organisational behaviour
Last updated on 15-12-2017

Relevant links
Learning objectives
To achieve the grade 12, students should meet the following learning objectives with no or only minor mistakes or errors:
  • assess and explain which self-management problems that are important in the assignment
  • be familiar with and able to analyze and compare the concepts, theories and perspectives presented in the course.
  • be able to apply these concepts, theories and perspectives to empirical examples
  • to critically reflect upon the practical and theoretical limitations and implications of the applied concepts, theories and perspectives
Examination
Philosophical Investigations in Contemporary Worklife:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Home assignment - written product
Individual or group exam Individual exam
Size of written product Max. 10 pages
Assignment type Written assignment
Duration Written product to be submitted on specified date and time.
Grading scale 7-step scale
Examiner(s) One internal examiner
Exam period Summer
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
At the make-up exam/re-exam, however, there is only 48 hours for the written home assignment, max. 10 pages
Course content and structure

The aim of the course is to provide students with knowledge about challenges in contemporary work-life. The main thesis put forward in the course is that these challenges can be framed as a question of self-management. In the course the students will gain insights into some of the contemporary issues that arise when the organization’s or collectives success stems from discretionary and unspecific employee behaviors that cannot be defined by job descriptions or controlled by management. Students will be working on various empirical examples about the challenges of being a self-managing employee in such a work-life. The student will learn to analyze and understand these examples in light of three questions: what does it mean to be a self-managing subject? What and how do individual and collective habits form our self-management? Which role does the current call for resilient employees imply for our conceptions of self-management? By combining management texts, philosophical concepts and empirical field work the student will get a practical as well as philosophical insight into these three questions.

 

The course runs over five weeks.
Teaching methods
Class time will include lectures, and discussion groups in which students will explore theoretical perspectives and apply them to specific empirical examples. The students are expected to have read and be familiar with the assigned readings when coming to class. As well as have done the work-task they are assigned between classes.
Feedback during the teaching period
Feedback through student to student exercises facilitated by teachers
Student workload
Lectures 36 hours
Exam 37 hours
Preparation 134 hours
Expected literature

Drucker, P (1999): ’Knowledge-worker productivity’, in California Management Review. 41(2), 79-94

  

 

Kunda, G. and Van Maanen, J.M. (1999) Changing Scripts at Work: Managers and Professionals,The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 56,: 64-68

 

Maravelias, C. (2007): Freedom at Work in the Age of Post-Bureaucratic Organization. Ephemera 7(4), 555-574

 

Ravaisson, F. (2008) Of habit. London: Continuum.p. 25-71.

 

Duhiggs, C. (2012) The Habit Loop, in The Power of Habit. New York. Random House. P. 3-30.

 

Dewey, J. (1922) Human Nature and Conduct: An Introduction to Social Psychology. New York, NY, USA: Henry Holt and Company. Read part one: Habit

 

 

Pedersen, M. (2008): Tune in, break down and reboot – new machines for coping with the stress of commitment. Culture and Organization, 14 (2), pp. 171-185

 

Evans, B and J. Reid (2014) Resilient Life – the Art of Dangerous Living. Cambridge: Polity Press
Last updated on 15-12-2017