| Learning objectives |
- Compare in detail the theoretical foundations and practical
consequences of the systems control perspective and the process
relational perspective on strategy, management and
organisation
- Define key process relational concepts including strategic
exchange, strategic enactment, and sense-making, and explain how
they help explain the dynamics and challenges that characterize the
management of complex organizations
- Use these theoretical concepts to define and evaluate the
nature of knowledge work, the skills and interests of knowledge
workers, and the complex nature of the organizational and
inter-organizational dynamics that characterize knowledge
work.
- Describe and evaluate the complexity of the challenges that
confront organizations populated by large numbers of experts,
professionals, and knowledge workers.
- Apply all of these concepts and perspectives to analyse a wide
range of cases chosen to exemplify strategic, organisational and
managerial issues and dilemmas that confront complex organizations
and the people who work in them.
|
| Examination |
|
Leading
Complex Organizations:
|
| 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 |
Case based assignment |
| Duration |
Written product to be submitted on specified date
and time. |
| Grading scale |
7-point grading scale |
| Examiner(s) |
One internal examiner |
| Exam period |
Summer |
| Make-up exam/re-exam |
Same examination form as the ordinary
exam
|
|
| Course content, structure and pedagogical
approach |
|
This course prepares students for careers as effective managers
by exploring the key practical and conceptual tasks and challenges
facing complex organizations and the people who work in them. These
challenges include organizing work as a series of diverse and
challenging projects; managing project portfolios; negotiating work
tasks with experts, professionals, and knowledge workers;
maintaining integration in very diverse workplaces; and grappling
with uncertainty and change. The course stresses that in such
contexts, the strategic, organisational and cultural aspects of
management practice always intersect and overlap. At the same time,
the course explores several theories that link these dynamics
tightly together.
The course further pursues the notion that management practices
rooted in industrial regimes of production increasingly have been
superseded in many instances by new management practices that
foreground collaboration, leadership, culture and the regulation of
identity. The course therefore includes discussion of those aspects
of organisational life that are often marginalised in standard
texts, including the politics and complexities of managerial
decision-making, the personal stresses associated with managerial
work, the roles played by ordinary human interaction,
relationships, and humour in organizational settings.
|
| Description of the teaching methods |
| Class time will consist of a combination of
lectures and case-based discussions. Students will participate
actively in and analyzing presenting readings and cases. Students
will be strongly encouraged to form study groups that meet outside
of class to prepare and discuss the readings and cases in
advance. |
| Feedback during the teaching period |
| Feedback will be given continuously in class
and/or during office hours. |
| Student workload |
| Lectures |
30 hours |
| Exam |
34 hours |
| Preparation |
142 hours |
| Total |
206 hours |
|
| Expected literature |
|
Course materials consist of a textbook, journal articles, and
business cases. All students are responsible for obtaining
all course materials and for showing up for class ready to discuss
them. The case materials assigned for this course are all
available for purchase at the Harvard Business School Publishing.
Indicative Literature:
Tony Watson, Organising and Managing Work. Financial Times/
Prentice Hall; 2 edition (10 Jan 2006).
|
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