Om kursen
Registration and course secretary
Ann-Sofie Ullenius, Dept. of Technology Management and Economics, Chalmers, e-mail: doktfofu.tme@chalmers.se
Prerequisites: Being (1) Student in the Doctoral programme in Technology Management and Economics; (2) Doctoral student with a management topic from other Chalmers departments; (3) Other Doctoral students with a management topic. The course accepts a maximum of twenty doctoral students.
Aim: Organizations are one of the dominant institutions of contemporary life and in the modern society. The course introduces some of the main themes and fields of research in organization theory. Such themes include classic management theory notably scientific management and systematic management, bureaucracy theory, post-World War II research on institutional theory, decision-making theory, evolutionary theory, economic theories of organization, organizational learning theory and strategic management theory, and more recent domains of research such innovation management and network-based views of organization.
Course outline: The course is consisting of an introduction session, six seminars and a final seminar. At each seminar, students should hand in a review paper (see instructions below). Introduction session and final seminar are compulsory, and a student can only be absent at one of the six seminars to pass the course. There will be no additional complementary assignment for more than one absence. In events of non-anticipated events, there could be negotiations with the course examiner regarding an exception from the rule stated above.
Learning outcome: The students are expected to acquire a basic familiarity with central theoretical frameworks and schools of research in the field of organization theory.
Examination: The examination includes two parts: six review papers and one final paper wherein the Ph.D. candidate applies the course literature to his or her topic of research.
- Review papers: To prepare for each seminar, course participants are expected to read a number of assigned journal papers and hand in a review paper of the texts. The review paper should be maximum 2 pages and address the three parts: (1) What are the main arguments of the text?, (2) Why is this text possibly regarded as a seminal work in the field of organization theory?, and (3) in what way could I use this paper in my thesis work?
- The final paper: The final paper is a text of around 5,000 words that could be a part of a research paper intended for a conference or a journal submission, a section of the dissertation kappa, or a book chapter. The paper should address some of the literature used in the course at the same time as it should be a text that is of value for the author, the PhD. candidate. The Ph.D. candidate should prepare a presentation of the paper (more instructions to be provided during the course).
