Vorlesungsverzeichnis

Foundations of Organization Theory (Vorlesung)

Inhalt: Organizations are all around us: Most of us are born in hospitals, learn in schools and universities, work in or for formal organizations, such as business firms, public organizations or NGOs, and even spend much of our leisure time in organizations such as cinemas, sport clubs, or theatres. Moreover, big organizations such as multinational corporations are increasingly recognized as powerful actors who are responsible for various societal challenges, including climate change, inequality, or financial in-/stability. But different forms of organization are also the only tools we have to address those challenges. Indeed, organization and organizing are a core managerial task, one that requires students of business and entrepreneurship to understand not only the behavior of individuals and groups in organizational settings but also of organizations as social systems in their own right. This lecture will introduce students to classic and contemporary theories of organization, thereby taking a multi-paradigmatic and problem-driven approach. We will focus on five generic problems of organization: (i) the design of organizational structures and processes, (ii) the integration of individual and organization, (iii) the handling of organization-environment relations, (iv) dealing with emergent organizational processes, such as those related to power, politics, and culture, and (v) coping with organizational change. Together, we will reflect upon the historical development of different theoretical perspectives, their anthropological assumptions, their insights and blind spots, as well as their practical application to contemporary problems of organization in the business world and beyond. Students will be given the opportunity to deepen their specific thematic interests by choosing one seminar that expands their knowledge on a specific sub-area of organization theory

Seminar #1: Emerging Technologies and Organizing (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Blagoy Blagoev

Inhalt: In the so-called "digital age", the relationship between organization and technology needs to be reconsidered. In a very explicit sense, technologies—in particular digital ones—have become fully intertwined with the social fabric of organizing: today, organization without technology seems impossible. The question whether technology determines organizational behavior or organizations (can) shape technology use is more pertinent than ever. New and emerging technologies—such as AI, robots, or deep learning—are often seen as paradigm-shifting inventions comparable in their potential impact on organization to the invention of the steam engine or electricity. Pessimists predict that such technologies might endanger a number of jobs and ultimately lead to a dystopic future of unemployment, surveillance, and domination of technology over human beings. Optimists see new and emerging technologies as vehicles of human liberation, prosperity, and domination of man over nature. This seminar will introduce students to research on organization and technology, providing both insights into foundational theoretical perspectives and into current debates as well as emerging ideas. It aims at enabling students to engage with and resolve practical and conceptual challenges related to organization and technology in a critical-reflective way. Rather than focusing only on how technologies can be used to advance firms' economic goals and performance, the seminar will take a broader perspective and invite students to consider the organizational, ecological, and socio-political implications of new and emerging technologies.

Seminar #2: Organizing in Times of Crisis: The case of COVID 19 (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Hannah Trittin-Ulbrich

Inhalt: The worldwide spread of the Covid19 virus poses a grand social challenge. Seriously threatening the health of the world’s population and accompanied by huge social and economic disruption, it is one of the largest immediate crises for Western societies since World War II and a humanitarian disaster for humankind around the world. Drawing on classic and contemporary organization theory, this course aims to illuminate many pressing questions surrounding the pandemic, such as how supply chains can be organized to ensure adequate supplies of health material, the strengths and difficulties of open science approaches to the development of a vaccine or capabilities of different forms of organization and coordination to quickly and adequately respond in times of crisis. Further information on the course and course material can be found here: https://timesofcrisis.org/about/

Seminar #3: Big Data in Organizationen (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Marie-Lena Frech

Inhalt: Kreditkartenbuchungen, Reisedaten im Navigationssystem, Käufe auf Amazon, Facebook-Einträge, WhatsApp- und Twitter-Nachrichten – wir alle hinterlassen tagtäglich unzählige digitale Fußabdrücke. Die Auswertung dieser riesigen Datenmengen – Big Data – ermöglicht die Erstellung individueller psychologischer Profile, die unter anderem Informationen über Persönlichkeit, kognitive Fähigkeiten, oder persönliche Werte einer Person enthalten. Diese Profile können von Unternehmen genutzt werden, um beispielsweise die Treffsicherheit der Kandidatenauswahl im Rekrutierungsprozess zu erhöhen oder um Informationen über Konsumenten zu erhalten. Big Data verändert die Wirtschaft, Kultur, Gesellschaft und das Leben des Einzelnen. Die Seminarinhalte befassen sich mit aktuellen Trends in der Verhaltensforschung im Zusammenhang mit Big Data sowie mit Chancen und Risiken dieser Entwicklung.

Seminar #4: Culture and Identity in Organizations (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Boukje Cnossen

Inhalt: Shared cultural ideas, meanings, beliefs, and concepts of “who we are” influence how people in an organization think, feel, and act. Organizations are also arenas where people perform and negotiate various work and non-work identities. Yet, organizations rarely simply passively observe such processes, but also actively seek to control and manage socialization and identification. This seminar will provide an introduction to organizational culture and identity, covering both theoretical foundations and their practical application to issues such as leading employees, managing innovation, and designing sustainable organizations. Building on an overview of the main approaches to organizational culture and identity, the seminar will examine a number of thematic issues such as socialization, identification, critical approaches to culture, identity and control, the relationship of work and non-work identities, and occupational identities. The seminar is based on student assignments (group work) designed to enhance students’ ability to think analytically and to develop a comprehensive understanding of the cultural dynamics of organizations.

Seminar #5: The Digital Workforce (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Laura Venz

Inhalt: Although topics such as remote work, the digitization of work processes, the flexibilization of work, digital collaboration tools, agile processes and many others have been on the management agenda for a while, the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated restrictions in people’s daily lives catapulted the world of work into its digital future within a very short time. This digitization and the associated increasing use of information and communication technologies in daily work comes along with numerous challenges, but also with diverse opportunities. In this seminar, we will deal with these very topics, focusing on how digitization affects people working in organizations. Accordingly, this seminar introduces students to research on the digital workforce, covering a number of topics such as digital leadership and virtual teamwork, work-related information communication technology use, work from home, and well-being and work-life balance in a digital world of work. On the basis of current empirical publications the seminar will address several questions surrounding the future of work, such as “What does work look like in the 21st century?”, What new employment relationships and forms of work are emerging?”, and “What do employees and managers need to survive in the digital world of work?” Finding answers to these questions, the seminar covers theoretical foundations and current empirical examinations as well as their practical application to modern work life. Based on the research findings presented, possibilities for designing the workplace of the future will be discussed.

Seminar #6: Job Satisfaction and Wellbeing in Organizations (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Thorsten Jochims

Inhalt: Die Arbeitswelt befindet sich aktuell in einem komplexen Wandel. Der Ausgang des Prozesses ist noch ungewiss. Insbesondere die Themen Arbeitszufriedenheit und Gesundheit/Stress erfreuen sich wieder eines reichhaltigen Interesses. Der Zusammenhang von Arbeitszufriedenheit und Gesundheit wird aktuell in Forschung und Praxis lebhaft diskutiert. Neben vielen neuen Erkenntnissen enstehen aber auch immer viel Halbwissen und sogar Unwahrheiten. Daher erweist es sich als bedeutend, Zusammenhänge fundiert zu ergründen und Unsinn klar zu benennen.

Seminar #7: Thinking, Playing and Doing: Creativity, Design and Innovation in Organisations (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Jay Mitrahttps://store.b

Inhalt: Organisations survive, grow and make an impact on the economy and the wider society by demonstrating their capabilities for innovation. This elementary idea of innovation is as important to organisations during times of economic stability as they are in difficult times, such as the one in which we live now under COVID-19, albeit in different ways . At its simplest form, we can regard innovation as the opportunity for and the development of new products or services, new forms of production, new sources of supply or new forms of organisation. Essential to any form of ‘newness’ is creativity, the process that organisations use to discover new ideas, experiment with possibilities, harness talent to explore prospects, and fundamentally, design ways in which the new ideas can be best developed, implemented and disseminated in the market. Creativity, design and innovation are, therefore, closely interlinked, used, and sometimes abused in business and other arenas of organisational activity. The interlink is manifest in the stitching together of leaves to make eco-friendly drinking mugs, the making of a jet engine, an AI driven could-based voice service, or the structuring of an organisation to meet changing market needs. Yet managers of organisations struggle to translate the idea of creativity, design and innovation (CDI) to practice. What is it about CDI that we need to understand to help realise its potential? Where does creativity start, where does design mediate and where does innovation end in an organisation? How is CDI best utilised in organisations? What kind of organisational culture, strategy and process can make CDI work effectively in organisations? What kind of environment facilitates collaboration, networking and productive outcomes for CDI for organisations of different types? How do organisations use CDI to address the ‘big issues of our times such as climate change or inequality? These are some of the questions that we will try and answer in this elective module by tapping our own creativity, designing processes for achieving learning outcomes, and innovating approaches to organisational development.

Seminar #8: Leading Organizations: Becoming Leaders who Matter (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Sarah Stanske

Inhalt: According to various experts, leadership has been heralded frequently as an important source for a sustained competitive advantage on the part of organizations. Yet, in very recent times, many people have become cynical about existing leaders in both public and private sectors. Nevertheless, it is clear from research that the display of effective leader behaviors are requirements for individuals attempting to progress in managerial positions in their careers. As such, it is important for aspiring managers to learn about the nature of effective leadership practices and how they can develop their own competencies in this area. Thus, this course deals with leadership ideas such as leader-follower dyads, group organizing across levels and also beyond an organizational boundary. Both traditional aspects of leadership are discussed, as well as more recently emerging concepts, such as transformational and socially responsible leadership.

Seminar #9: Führung in neuen Organisationsformen (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Britta Oehlrich

Inhalt: Viele Unternehmen sind heute noch organisiert nach Modellen aus den 1870er Jahren und leben damit die Denkmuster damaliger Zeiten. Mit der Popularität der New Work Welle seit den 2010 Jahren haben sich auch neue Organisations- und Managementformen wie Agilität und Holacracy ihren Weg in die Organisationen gebahnt. Als Folge führen die Enthierarchisierung, Entformalisierung und Dezentralisierung auch zu Veränderungen in den Kulturen der Organisationen. Führungskräfte kämpfen mit dem Gefühl des Autoritätsverlustes, Mitarbeitende suchen nach dem Purpose und das Gesamtunternehmen soll wirtschaftliches Wachstum verzeichnen. Die richtige Unternehmenskultur soll dabei Orientierung geben, aber, wie sieht die richtige Unternehmenskultur aus?