• Demonstrate knowledge of concepts and theories pertaining to Future-Ready Management and Work: Work-life balance, AI and Diversity
• Compare and assess the concepts and theories in the study of Future-Ready Management and Work: Work-life balance, AI and Diversity
• Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the concepts and theories assessed against empirical cases (country and business)
• Critically discuss the advantages and disadvantages of various tools to achieve future-ready management and work
• Be able to draw in empirical material (country and business cases and data) to illustrate the theories and concepts examined during the course

This exciting interdisciplinary course introduces you to various aspects of the future work contextualized with societal developments, from a management and worker perspective, with gender as a cross-cutting theme. Transformative changes of work include the evolution of the workplace, with less centrality of the specific physical place, and a shift towards tele-work and the hybrid workplace, entailing a more fluid approach to work and working time. This has advantages, as demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic, but also challenges, especially when men and women also engage in care tasks while working from home. Parallel to these developments, workers increasingly demand limits on their working time, wishing to make space and time for care and leisure activities. This, in turn, leads to demands for and experiments with the 4-day working week. Other aspects of relevance include how AI affects the workplace, from both the management and the worker perspective. AI on the modern work-place can be seen as a double-edged sword, which on the one hand could increase productivity and provide tools for monitoring effectiveness, but on the other hand, it could put constraint on workers, possible entailing negative repercussions for their well-being at work, and undermine their basic labour rights.

 There are several sub-themes in this course, including:  

(1) Trends and policies pertaining to the labour market, in particular the prevalence of the service economy and a highly educated work-force – with women having qualifications equivalent to men; the role of AI and automation for jobs displacements; societal structures to accommodate working parents (especially early childhood education and care and parental leave); ethical considerations of firms in a globalized context.

(2) Managing the changing workplace, including remote work, 4-day working week; diversity and inclusion, including women on boards and in management positions; accommodation of work-life balance policy for men and women, use of AI at the workplace.

Course overview: 

1. Introduction to course and European labour markets: institutional features and main longitudinal trends
2. Work-life balance policy: cross-national policy,practice and outcomes
3. Work-life balance policy and work engagement
4. The role of the firm in gender equality and diversity: tackling unconscious bias through specific policies and leading by example
5. Evolving Workplace Dynamics: Women in Leadership, Board Representation, and the Role of Quotas
6. Gender diversity at the workplace: the case of duolingo
7. AI and the workplace
8. Leveraging Artificial Intelligence for Diversity and Inclusion: Opportunities and Ethical Considerations (Natalie)
9. Executive Personality and Gender Dynamics: Shaping Leadership Diversity
10. Diversity and Inclusion Benefits and Considerations –  Simulation
11. Course Overview and studying for the exam

• Classic and basic theory
• New theory
• Teacher’s own research

• Analysis
• Discussion, critical reflection, modelling
• Peer review including Peer-to-peer

Adams, R. B., De Haan, J., Terjesen, S., & Van Ees, H. (2015). Board diversity: Moving the field forward. Corporate Governance-An International Review, 23(2), 77-82.‏

Arnalds, Ásdís Aðalbjörg, Guðný Björk Eydal, and Ingólfur V. Gíslason, 'Paid Parental Leave in Iceland: Increasing Gender Equality at Home and on the Labour Market', in Caroline de la Porte, and others (eds), Successful Public Policy in the Nordic Countries: Cases, Lessons, Challenges (Oxford, 2022; online edn, Oxford Academic, 20 Oct. 2022),  https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1093/​oso/​9780192856296.003.0018, accessed 6 Jan. 2025.

Avery, M., Leibbrandt, A., & Vecci, J. (2024). Does artificial intelligence help or hurt gender diversity? Evidence from two field experiments on recruitment in tech

Cardoso, A., & Winter-Ebmer, R. (2010). Female-led firms and gender wage policies. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 64(1), 143-163. Retrieved from https:/​/​www.jstor.org/​stable/​20789059

Cook,  A., & Glass, C. (2014). Women and Leadership. Gender, Work, and Organization, 21, 91-103. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1111/​gwao.12018

Daugherty, P. R., Wilson, H. J., & Chowdhury, R. (2019). Using artificial intelligence to promote diversity. MIT Sloan Management Review.

Dell’Acqua, F., McFowland III, E., Mollick, E. R., Lifshitz-Assaf, H., Kellogg, K., Rajendran, S., Krayer, L., Candelon, F., & Lakhani, K. R. (2023). Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier: Field Experimental Evidence of the Effects of AI on Knowledge Worker Productivity and Quality (SSRN Scholarly Paper 4573321). Social Science Research Network. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.2139/​ssrn.4573321

Dezsö, C. L., & Ross, D. G. (2012). Does female representation in top management improve firm performance? A panel data investigation. Strategic management journal, 33(9), 1072-1089.‏

Duvander, A. Z., & Cedstrand, S. (2022). Gender Equal Parental Leave Use in Sweden: The Success of the Reserved Months. In C. de la Porte et al. (Eds.), Policy Success in the Nordic Countries. Oxford University Press.

Eloundou, T., Manning, S., Mishkin, P., & Rock, D. (2024). GPTs are GPTs: Labor market impact potential of LLMs. Science, 384(6702), 1306–1308. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1126/​science.adj0998

Guest, D. E. (2002). Perspectives on the Study of Work-life Balance. Social Science Information, 41(2), 255-279.  https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1177/​0539018402041002005

Haas, L., & Hwang, C. P. (2018). Policy is not enough – the influence of the gendered workplace on fathers’ use of parental leave in Sweden. Community, Work & Family, 22(1), 58–76. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1080/​13668803.2018.1495616

Kowalewska, H. (2019). Bringing Women on Board: The Social Policy Implications of Gender Diversity in Top Jobs. Journal of Social Policy. DOI: https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1017/​S0047279419000722

Kowalewska, H. (2023). Gendered employment patterns: Women’s labour market outcomes across 24 countries. Journal of European Social Policy, 33(2), 151-168. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1177/​09589287221148336

Landay, K., Harms, P. D., & Credé, M. (2019). Shall we serve the dark lords? A meta-analytic review of psychopathy and leadership. Journal of Applied Psychology, 104(1), 183–196.

Lewis, J. (1992). Gender and the Development of Welfare Regimes. Journal of European Social Policy, 2(3), 159-173. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1177/​095892879200200301

Matsa, D. A., & Miller, A. R. (2013). A female style in corporate leadership? Evidence from quotas. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 5(3), 136-169.‏

Scherer, S., & Pavolini, E. (2023). Equalizing or not? Public childcare and women’s labour market participation. Journal of European Social Policy, online first. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1177/​09589287231183169

Terjesen, S., Aguilera, R. V., & Lorenz, R. (2015). Legislating a woman’s seat on the board: Institutional factors driving gender quotas for boards of directors. Journal of Business Ethics, 128, 233-251.‏

Wood, J., Oh, J., Park, J., & Kim, W. (2020). The Relationship Between Work Engagement and Work–Life Balance in Organizations: A Review of the Empirical Research. Human Resource DevelopmentReview, 19(3), 240-262. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1177/​1534484320917560