• Define and formulate a research problem around the digital work
• Apply key concepts and theoretical frameworks from the course to analyze the case(s) of new digital work
• Identify and discuss management practices and strategies in the selected case(s)
• Reflect critically on your experience and learning process during the course

Knowledge work continues to develop and evolve as we have witnessed recently through the emergence of remote or hybrid workplaces, the advent of the gig economy, as well as the surge in digital nomads. The pandemic has further accelerated the transition to digital work practices due to a compelling need to continue organisations’ businesses operations and sustain employees’ livelihood. By harnessing the capabilities of digital technologies, digital work practices allow for more dynamic and fluid work arrangements regarding where and when work is done. This is especially relevant for high-skilled knowledge workers in different fields of knowledge-intensive industries including business, creative, financial, and service industries.

This course is targeted at students interested in learning about how to manage digital work (e.g. remote work and virtual teams) empowered by digital technologies. The course focuses on new approaches for managing knowledge, communication and innovation in the digital age. The course discusses how digital technologies (e.g., social media, artificial intelligence, digital platforms, and  data analytics) are leveraged to support collaboration and innovation within cultural and institutional contexts as well as the consequences, intended or otherwise, stemming from their usage. Additionally, we will deliberate on the role of leadership and its associated strategies for managing digital knowledge work alongside the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) being implemented by organizations. To comprehend the changing nature of work, we will draw on several management theories (e.g., paradox, self-determinantion and social dilemma theories) to uncover the strategic considerations underlying organizations’ transition to novel, digital forms of working and innovating.

The course will offer a fundamental coverage of the following topics:

• Dynamics of managing digital work practices for collaboration and innovation
• Managing remote work and virtual teams
• Socio-cultural issues related to managing and sharing knowledge
• Managing virtual communities
• Role of digital technologies in digital transformation of work
• Influence of digital work on identities and work lives in the age of digitalization
• Opportunities and challenges associated with new work practices involving novel, digital forms of organizing
• Implication of new work practices on knowledge, culture and innovation

Throughout the course, students are expected to critically reflect on managing knowledge work and digital transformation of work, both in terms of the opportunities and challenges as well as the potential consequences brought about by such work practices at different levels of analyses (e.g., individual, organizational or societal).

Some references for the course. The full list of readings will be available on Canvas.

Please note that that this is an indicative list of articles which is subject to change.

Barley, S. R., Bechky, B. A., & Milliken, F. J. (2017). The Changing Nature of Work: Careers, Identities, and Work Lives in the 21st Century. Academy of Management Discoveries, 3(2), 111–115. https:/​​/​​doi.org/​​10.5465/​​amd.2017.0034

Dery, K., Sebastian, I. M., & van der Meulen, N. (2017). The Digital Workplace is Key to Digital Innovation. MIS Quarterly Executive, 16(2), 135–152.

Johnson, S. L., Safadi, H., & Faraj, S. (2015). The emergence of online community leadership. Information Systems Research. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1287/​isre.2014.0562

Faraj, S., Jarvenpaa, S. L., & Majchrzak, A. (2011). Knowledge collaboration in online communities. Organization Science, 22(5), 1224–1239.

Faraj, S., Pachidi, S., & Sayegh, K. (2018). Working and organizing in the age of the learning algorithm. Information and Organization, 28(1), 62–70. 

Gal, U., Jensen, T. B., & Stein, M. K. (2020). Breaking the Vicious Cycle of Algorithmic Management: A Virtue Ethics Approach to People Analytics. Information and Organization, 30(2), 100301.

Leonardi, P. M. (2017). The social media revolution: Sharing and learning in the age of leaky knowledge. Information and Organization, 27, 47–59

Leonardi, P. M. (2021). COVID-19 and the New Technologies of Organizing: Digital Exhaust, Digital Footprints, and Artificial Intelligence in the Wake of Remote Work. In Journal of Management Studies. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1111/​joms.12648

Newell, S., Morton, J., Marabelli, M., & Galliers, R. (2020). Managing Digital innovation. Springer Nature (excerpts).

Razmerita, L., Brun, A., & Nabeth, T. (2021). Collaboration in the Machine Age: Trustworthy Human-AI Collaboration. forthcoming in M. Virvou, G. Tsihrintzis, & J. Lakhmi (Eds.), Advances in Selected Artificial Intelligence Areas - World Outstanding Women in Artificial Intelligence (p. 23). Springer Nature.

Razmerita, L., Kirchner, K., & Nielsen, P. (2016). What Factors Influence Social Media Communication? A social dilemma perspecive of social media. Journal of knowledge management, 20(6), 1225-1246

Zammuto, R. F., Griffith, T. L., Majchrzak, A., Dougherty, D. J., & Faraj, S. (2007). Information Technology and the Changing Fabric of Organization. Organization Science, 18(5), 749–762. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1287/​orsc.1070.0307