Doctoral Course - Theories of Organizations in Management

LLSMA2006 - Theories of Organizations in Management – 5 ECTS

Prof. Régis Coeurderoy

Description

See the full course description here

Why do firms exist? And why markets and other arrangements among individual or collective actors exist? How can we explain the causes and consequences of interactions and collaborations between actors? How can we assess (and give sense to) performance evaluations (profit, efficiency, legitimacy...) at individual or organizational levels? Here are some of the core questions supporting a sizeable chunk of research works in management. To tackle seriously such issues, researchers need to develop intellectual frameworks that we call theories. Theories provide lens to analyse people actions and behaviors and to draw causal relations. Furthermore, theories create the common grammar that a community of researchers shares.

Albeit considered as a "practice matters at first" discipline, management also needs theories, not only to be accepted as an academic discipline, but also to create sound, replicative and cumulative knowledge. So far, theoretical approaches of organizations developed in management studies have been widely inspired by more old and established disciplines in social sciences – economics, psychology and sociology. More recently, researchers in management have developed efforts to create a more specific approach.

This course is an introduction to these theories of organizations widely used in the research field of management & organizations. We will review the main theoretical approaches through their disciplinary origin: economics (day 2), sociology (day 4) and psychology (day 5). We will also review the theories more “management based”: the competence approach (day 3) and the stakeholders approach (day 6). We will start by a brief introduction and an analysis of behavioural assumptions adopted in these social science theories.

The learning objectives are twofold. The very first learning objective will be focused on the basic features of each theoretical approach. We will help students (a) to acquire a helicopter’s view and a synthetic perspective on the different theories - useful knowledge to position your research on sound foundations (internal consistency); (b) to sort out concepts and frameworks and to be able to identify specific features of each theory and overlaps/contradictions between theories - other useful knowledge to position your research on sound foundations (external consistency). The second learning objective will be more oriented towards the development of a researcher’s skills. We will help students (a) to develop analytical reading skills – useful to manage huge volumes of articles; (b) to develop synthetic writing skills – useful to orchestrate discussion between papers and develop your own way.

The course is a PhD level course.

1.  Introduction to the theories of the firm
2. Firms, markets and other organizations: theoretical foundations for a puzzle
3. Behavioural assumptions: rationality and motivation
4. Theoretical foundations 1: the coordination issue
5. Theoretical foundations 2: the competence issue
6. Theoretical foundations 3: the institutional issue
7. Theoretical foundations 4: the network issue

Temporary Schedule 

Please note that this is a temporary schedule and it might be subject to changes. Do not forget to check it later if you register to the course

¹ 5 hour-intervention by Flore Bridoux, see title and abstract below

² 5 hour-intervention by Louis Mulotte, see title and abstract below

Registration

Flore Bridoux on February 19 

The stakeholder approach: organizations through the lens of relationships (Flore Bridoux, Erasmus University Rotterdam) – PHD Course

This class aims to introduce students to three recent, related trends in theories of organizations: the mainstreaming of stakeholder theory, the renewed interest in the purpose of the firm (with discussions around what value is), and the search for micro foundations. After introducing the foundations of stakeholder theory in the first part of the class, we will explore the recent stream of research on behavioral foundations of stakeholder theory (Developments). We will end the class with the debate about the objective(s) the firm is expected to pursue if we adopt a stakeholder view (Debates). This debate is not new but it is still highly relevant for anybody interested in theories of organizations.

Louis Mulotte on March 4 and March 25

Experience and Learning in Organizations – PhD Course, Louis Mulotte Tilburg U.

Drawing upon Organizational Learning Theory, research in strategic management traditionally argues that experience with an activity creates learning and results into improved performance and enhanced efficiency. This idea has been traditionally developed in the context of operational activities such as good manufacturing and service delivery. The purpose of this session is to examine whether this general idea of experiential learning applies in the same way in corporate development activities as in manufacturing type operational process