AØKA08026U Summer school 2024 + 2025: Organization Theory (Non-constituent course)

Volume 2024/2025
Education

MSc programme in Economics – elective course

Bacheloruddannelsen i økonomi – valgfag

The Danish BSc programme in Economics - elective course

 

The course is open to:

  • Exchange and Guest students from abroad
  • Credit students from Danish Universities
  • Open University students
Content

The study of organization and organizing becomes increasingly relevant as the organizational world today is characterized by many and profound changes caused by new technology, globalization, increased competition and new ideas about management. Such changes call for more flexible organizational designs, new managerial strategies and new ways of defining, monitoring and assessing the performance of the organization. The course focuses on work organizations, both business organizations (private firms) and organizations within the public sector. Organization theory is an interdisciplinary field and the course draws on perspectives from different social science disciplines. Both, the so-called rational and natural theories are covered in the course and a number of perspectives, from the more classical such as Scientific Management and Human Relations to more recent approaches such as Open Systems and Chaordic Systems are discussed. Other views such as Social Constructionism, Psychodynamics and the Requisite Organization are also explored. Various aspects of organizations such as structure, processes and culture are covered.

 

A central theme of the course is organizational structure, in other words, how work in an organization is divided into jobs, departments and hierarchical levels and how coordinated effort is achieved. A number of structural forms are discussed as well as how in particular, organizational strategy, size, technology and environment influence the structure of an organization. A special theme concerns the choice between market and hierarchy in coordination of economic activity. This leads to a discussion of mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing, virtual organization and hybrids between market and hierarchy such as strategic alliances and networks. Informal structure and group dynamics are also touched upon together with organizational culture comprising the values and basic assumptions of organizational members. Other themes concern organizational processes where decisions, power, leadership and motivation are the most important. Both rational, bounded rational, political and anarchic decision models are presented and power processes in organizations are discussed. Perspectives on leadership are outlined and leadership behavior and styles, value based leadership and contingency theories on leadership and change management are covered. Motivation and incentives in organizations are also essential themes where the relative significance of economic and non-economic motivations in particular is discussed. Both classical motivation theories and later content and process theories are part of the course as are the concept and function of performance related pay.

 

In essence, a number of ways of thinking are presented in the course which should enable the economist to think and reflect in a more professional way about the organizational contexts in which she/he will make a career. Organization theory has broad practical and vocational relevance, both for students aspiring for managerial and administrative positions in existing organizations as well as for those interested in starting their own venture.

 

Learning Outcome

After completing the course the student is expected to be able to:

 

Knowledge:

  • Describe the basic principles of classical and contemporary organizational theories about structure, strategy, culture, leadership, groups, change, communication, power, decisions and motivation.

  • Explain the differences and similarities between economic perspectives on organizations and perspectives from other social science disciplines.

Skills:

  • Select, justify and evaluate the applicability of these theories in real life organizational contexts.

  • Analyze and compare the theories, their strengths and weaknesses with regard to obtaining an understanding of actual organizations and practical organizational phenomena.

Competencies:

  • Apply relevant theory in analysis of organizational issues described in a real-life case in a written essay in a clear and coherent way.

  • Formulate and structure analytical solutions to real life organizational problems by integrating theory with case data.

Textbook:

 

Articles:

  • Bedeian, A.G. (2002). The Dean’s Disease: How the Darker Side of Power Manifests Itself in the Office of the Dean. Academy of Management Learning and Education. Vol 1 no. 2, 164-173.
  • Dessler, G. (2013). Performance Related Pay and Financial Incentives. In Human Resource Management. Thirteenth Edition. Essex: Pearson Education. Pages 418-437.
  • Dick, P. & Ellis, S. (2006). On Motivation. In Introduction to Organizational Behaviour. Third Edition. London: McGraw Hill Education. pp. 84-95, 98-101.
  • Eisenhardt, K. M., & Brown, S. L. (1998). Competing on the edge: Strategy as structured chaos. Long Range Planning: International Journal of Strategic Management, 31(5), 786–789.
  • French, R. B., & Simpson, P. (2010). The ‘work group’: Redressing the balance in Bion’s Experiences in groups. Human Relations, 63(12), 1859-1878.
  • Frey, B.S. & Osterloh, M. (2002). Successful Management by Motivation. Balancing Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation. Berlin: Springer. Pages 7-23, 68-70
  • Gilley, J.W., Morris, M.L., Waite, A.M., Coates, T. & Veliquette, A. (2010). Integrated Theoretical Model for Building Effective Teams. Advances in Developing Human Resources, Vol. 12 (1), pp. 7-28.
  • Hatch, M.J. & Cunliffe, A.L. (2006). Organization Culture. In Organization Theory - Modern, symbolic and postmodern perspectives. 2nd edition. Pages 175-194. 
  • Hultman, K. & Hultman, J. (2008). Deep Teams: Leveraging the Implicit Organization. Organization Development Journal, Vol. 26 (3), pp. 11-22.
  • Jaques, E. & Clement, S. (1999). Executive Leadership – A Practical Guide to Managing Complexity. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd. pp. 53-65, 91-97.
  • Kira, M. & van Eijnatten, F.M. (2008). Socially sustainable work organizations: a chaordic systems approach. Systems Research & Behavioral Science, Vol. 25 (6), pp. 743-756.
  • Lee, M. Y., & Edmondson, A. C. (2017). Self-managing organizations: Exploring the limits of less-hierarchical organizing. Research in Organizational Behavior, 37, 35–58.
  • McMillan, E., & Carlisle, Y. (2007). Strategy as Order Emerging from Chaos: A Public Sector Experience. Long Range Planning, 40(6), 574–593.
  • Perrow, C. (1986): Economic Theories of Organization. Theory and Society 15: 11-45.
  • Perry, J.L. (2000). Bringing Society in: Toward a Theory of Public-Service Motivation. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 10:2: 471-488
  • Robbins, S.P. Judge, T.A. & Campell, T.T. (2010). On Leadership. In Organizational Behaviour. Essex: Pearson Education. pp. 316-328, 341-348.
  • Romano, A., Sutter, M., Liu, J.H., Yamagishi, T. & Balliet, D. (2021). National parochialism is ubiquitous across 42 nations around the world. Nature Communications 12, 4456, 1-8.
  • Stoelhorst, J.W. & Richerson, P.J. (2013). A Naturalistic Theory of Economic Organization. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 90S, S45-S56.
  • Yukl, G. (2006). Leading Change in Organizations. In: Gary Yukl: Leadership in Organizations. Sixth Edition. New Jersey: Pearson. Page 288-307.

 

Cases:

  • 3M: Profile of an Innovating Company (20 pages)
  • Acer Inc: Taiwan’s Rampaging Dragon (20 pages)
  • Coloplast A/S – Organizational Challenges in Offshoring (16 pages)
  • Donna Klein and Marriott International (4 pages)
  • Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant: Motivating in Good Times and Bad (8 pages)
  • Leadership Development at Goldman Sachs (23 pages)
  • Motivated Reasoning, Leadership and Team Performance (7 pages)
  • People Management Fiasco in Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India Ltd. (17 pages)
  • Safe to Say at Prudential Financial (21 pages)
  • Shinsei Bank: Developing an Integrated Firm (20 pages)
  • The Treadway Tire Company: Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Tire Plant (12 pages)
  • Whitbread PLC (24 pages)

 

All articles will be available on Absalon for the students having signed up for the course.

The case studies will need to be purchased through the Harvard Business School Publishing Website. A special student course pack link with discounted prices will be provided to students registered for the course closer to the course period. These cases are an integrated part of the course, and the exam will be based on these cases.

There are no recommended academic qualifications other than the requirements of the study programme.
The sessions will involve short lectures and discussions based on course theory and analysis and mapping of the problems and possible solutions of the real-life cases that are a part of the course syllabus. The sessions will also involve group work where the class will work in small groups on solving the questions presented on the case studies.
This is a non-constituent elective.


Please be aware:
- That the workload of the summer school correspond to a fulltime course at the Master programme in Economics, University of Copenhagen.
- It is not possible to change course after the last registration period has expired.
- The schedule of the lectures can be changed without the participants´ acceptance. If this happens you can see the new schedule in your personal timetable at KUnet, in the app myUCPH and through the links in the right side and the link above.
- It is the students´s own responsibility continuously throughout the study to stay informed about their study, their teaching, their schedule, their exams etc. through the curriculum of the study programme, the study pages at KUnet, student messages, the course description, the Digital Exam portal, Absalon, the personal schema at KUnet and myUCPH app etc.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Lectures
  • 45
  • Preparation
  • 113
  • Exam
  • 48
  • Total
  • 206
Oral
Collective

Students will receive questions for the case studies for each session beforehand and will have to come to class prepared with their answers. In the classroom, students will discuss their answers with others in small study groups and present their agreed upon answers to the class. They will then get oral feedback from the instructor on these answers and workable solutions to the case problems will be captured on the board, pictures of which will be uploaded on Absalon after the session.

Credit
7.5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written assignment, 48 hours
Type of assessment details
Individual. Max 10 standard pages.
The students are allowed to talk together about the given problem-set but must work on, write and upload the assignment answer individually.
Exam registration requirements

Full participation at the summerschool is mandatory and the student must actively participate in all activities.

 

Aid
All aids allowed

Use of AI tools is permitted. You must explain how you have used the tools. When text is solely or mainly generated by an AI tool, the tool used must be quoted as a source.

Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
Exam period

Exam information:

Examination Dates can be found here

More information will be available in Digital Exam from the middle of July.

More information about examination, rules, aids etc. is available at  Master students (UK), Master students (DK) and Bachelor students (DK).

 

Re-exam

Same as the ordinary exam. 

 

Reexam information:

Exact day, time and place will be available in Digital Exam.

More info: Master(UK), Master(DK) and Bachelor(DK).

Criteria for exam assesment

Students are assessed on the extent to which they master the learning outcome for the course.

 

In order to obtain the top grade “12”, the student must with no or only a few minor weaknesses be able to demonstrate an excellent performance displaying a high level of command of all aspects of the relevant material and can make use of the knowledge, skills and competencies listed in the learning outcomes.

 

In order to obtain the passing grade “02”, the student must in a satisfactory way be able to demonstrate a minimal acceptable level of  the knowledge, skills and competencies listed in the learning outcomes.