DSM Courses Schedule

Özgür Arslan-Ayaydin bio 

Dr. Özgür Arslan-Ayaydin is an award winning professor of finance and Assistant Department Head at University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). Dr. Arslan-Ayaydin has designed and has been teaching a variety of finance courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels at UIC since 2010. Recipient of the Jean Monnet Scholarship from the European Commission, Dr. Arslan-Ayaydin pursued her PhD studies in Financial Economics at the University of York, UK. Her research focuses on corporate finance, international finance, and corporate governance, culminating in publications in prestigious journals such as the Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Portfolio Management, Corporate Governance: an International Review (CGIR), and the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. Beyond her research, Dr. Arslan-Ayaydin serves as a member of the Editorial Review Board of CGIR. She also holds the position of treasurer at the Center for Energy and Value Issues (CEVI) in Amsterdam. With CEVI, she has edited four books on energy finance published by Springer. Additionally, Dr. Arslan-Ayaydin actively contributes as an external evaluator and rapporteur for research projects submitted to the European Commission.

5 ECTS

Profs. Julie Hermans, Amélie Jacquemin, Laurent Taskin

Academic year 2024-2025

Main objectives

The reading seminar aims primarily to introduce Critical Management Studies (CMS) and assist doctoral students in the construction and development of their doctoral research—especially in its critical stance. It provides a collective discussion and proposals around five core propositions of CMS: De-naturalization, Anti-performativity, Reflexivity, Challenging Structures of Domination, Multidisciplinary Research. Our intention is to better equip doctoral students in terms of methods and theoretical assumptions by discussing their own research design at the prism of the five core propositions.

The seminar will broaden the perspective and pose topical issues on management research. With the aid of critical theories, the seminar will help participants to understand how environmental and social concerns are framed, and how the roles of actors in the CMS agenda are defined.

From this point of view, each doctoral student should personally benefit from participating in this collective activity: direct benefit from the work done in relation to the five core propositions; indirect reflection on the themes of other researchers (mutual awareness). The reading seminar is therefore presented as a living interaction between researchers, participating in a community of knowledge. The community explicitly includes the doctoral researchers enrolled in the course, the visiting scholars that will be invited as experts for each of the five core propositions, senior (post)doctoral researchers as well as their stakeholders who will share their experience related to a specific core proposition, as well as the academic coordinators.

Language

French, but in an English-friendly context

Content and time frame

The doctoral course consists of 1 two-hour introductory session and 5 three-hour thematic sessions, each session being dedicated to one of five core propositions of CMS. The sessions will take place during the second term. Each session also draws on four complementary sources of learning: (1) the expertise of a visiting scholar and/or the testimony of a senior doctoral researcher, (2) key articles (in English and in French) related to the theme, and finally, (3) collective discussion.

Here are the details about these sessions:

Introductory session (by the 3 coordinating professors)

The tradition of critical management studies (CMS) has precursors and roots in humanistic critiques of bureaucracy and corporate capitalism (Grey & Willmott, 2005) as well as to the tradition of research inspired by labour process theory which relates forms of management control to the systemic, ostensibly rational exploitation of workers by employers (see Braverman, 1974). These important strands of critical analysis have been elaborated, challenged, and complemented in recent years by several other streams of thought, including Critical Theory, critical realism, feminism, postcolonialism, queer theory as well as poststructuralism, etc.

CMS accommodates diverse theoretical traditions, ranging from varieties of Marxism through pragmatism to poststructuralism. CMS proponents are broadly motivated by a concern to disclose and question the role of management in the perpetuation and legitimation of needless suffering, divisiveness and destruction, especially in the spheres of work and consumption. It is believed that much of this suffering and destruction is unnecessary and therefore remediable, and the desire to radical change it is a central motivating factor in their work.

Date: Tuesday 25th of March, 13.30-15.30

Topical sessions associated to the core propositions of CMS

1. Anti-performativity: CMS critiques the mainstream focus on performativity, which prioritizes efficiency and profitability over ethical or political concerns. It argues that people and organizational processes should not be solely evaluated based on their contribution to business performance, advocating for a broader understanding of the value of work and management.

Visiting Scholar: Christian Makaya (Ascencia Business School, Paris, France) 
Date: Tuesday 8th of April 2025, 10.00-13.00

2. Challenging Structures of Domination: CMS is committed to exposing how knowledge and power are intertwined. It seeks to reveal how supposedly neutral forms of knowledge often reinforce existing power relations, thereby perpetuating domination. CMS promotes the idea that such knowledge is not immutable but subject to contestation and change.

Visiting Scholar: Véronique Perret (Université Paris Dauphine-PSL, Paris, France) 
Date: Thursday 8th of May, 9.00-12.00

3. Multidisciplinary Research: CMS encourages breaking down disciplinary silos and engaging in dialogues across fields. It believes that critical understanding is enriched by integrating diverse perspectives, fostering deeper questioning of taken-for-granted assumptions in management studies.

Visiting Scholar: Xavier Lesage (ESSCA School of management/ENSCI-Les Ateliers, Pairs, France) 
Date: Thursday 15th of May 2025, 10.00-13.00

4. Reflexivity: CMS emphasizes the need for scholars and researchers to be aware of how their own contexts and power structures influence their work. Reflexivity involves recognizing that no research or organizational account is neutral, challenging the objectivism and scientism of mainstream management research.

Visiting Scholar: Olivier Germain (UQAM, Montreal, Canada)
Date: Tuesday 20th of May 2025, 14.00-17.00

5. De-naturalization: CMS challenges the assumption that current management practices are natural or inevitable. It problematizes the idea that social and organizational behaviors are fixed, asserting that they are contingent and shaped by struggles over power and resources. CMS aims to reveal the precarious nature of these practices, in particular by re-contextualising the emergence of the phenomena studied. De Vaujany (2022, 2024) explores the history of management and the way in which it naturalizes certain practices and visions of the company and the world..

Visiting Scholar: François-Xavier de Vaujany (Paris Dauphine PSL)
Date: Friday 23rd of May, 9.00-12.00

Learning method

For each session, participants should read the articles mentioned for the session and prepare their contribution to the workshop.  This preparation requires writing a summary of the readings associated with the topic (2 pages max.) and creating a slideshow to be presented during the session (cold calling). The presentation should highlight the key insights from the articles and identify clarification points (questions on the content and the meaning assigned by the author), discussion points (in relation to their own understanding, and to other texts) and preliminary take-aways (in relation to their own research design). 
After each session, participants are invited to reflect on the take-aways for their own research and to write max. 2 pages about what they have learned, why it is important for them as researchers, and what they would like to change in their research design or in the future by applying those take-aways. A final 2-pages synthesis of the five reflexive pieces, together with a reflection on the interconnectedness of the five propositions and implications for their own doctoral research, should finalize the work of the participant for this doctoral course.

Evaluation methods and criteria

1. Active participation in seminar sessions (50 %, individual)
2. Construction of a portfolio that documents the work done in relation with the doctoral course (50%, individual):
   1. the preparation before each session (summary 2 pages max + slideshow),
   2. the key learnings after each session (2 pages max per session)
   3. a final synthesis about key learnings (2 pages max)  

Registration process 

To register, please send an e-mail to the 3 coordinating professors (laurent.taskin@uclouvain.be; amelie.jacquemin@uclouvain.be; julie.hermans@uclouvain.be) by Friday, 28th February, at noon the latest.

Full course description in PDF