AØKA08100U Advanced Strategic Management

The idea of the course is to provide the students with and understanding of how managers make decision and how strategy evolves under uncertainty in organizations located in a dynamic and complex environment. A further idea is to make the students aware of not only the economic but also the political, social, and psychological aspect of managing an organization and how these aspects affect the development of strategies in organizations both in the private and public sector.

In order to do so, the course will overall take a behavioralistic perspective on the organization. The implication of this perspective is that we will discuss the roles of the traditional strategy models, techniques, and approaches and look into how they are applied in different types of organizations and contexts.   

The course start by outlining a theoretical framework based on Scott, Chaffee and Whittington’s classifications of the organizational and strategic literature. Then we look at some schools and definition of strategic management and the classical approach to strategic analysis and development is discussed. This is compared with how strategy in practices is developed and how they evolve over time.

Next we look at how difference forces shape organizations, strategies and strategic management. We will focus on the impact of a strong management vision, different organizational structures, new technologies, strategic alliances, globalisation, and corporate and societal values effects on organizations and on strategic management.   

In the third section of the course our attention is on different types of organisations, their environment, strategies, management and strategy development processes. More specific we look at the small organization, the large fabrication and service companies, the professional organizations, the divisional firm, the innovative company and the company characterized by diversity.

During the classes students have to find and analyse a specific case company or a real organization which they can write a 3-5 page synopsis about. Here students have to relate and apply the curriculum text to the specific problems and situations of the chosen organizations. In the last part of the course there are time for presentation, discussion and feedback on the synopsis.