Advanced knowledge of organization theories. This course is reserved to master of science/master degree students (i.e. the Italian “laurea magistrale”).
Companies influence society because they control an important portion of our lives as individuals, workers, consumers, and even citizens. At the same time, society influences companies because companies need social legitimation in order to survive and/or be successful. Against this backdrop, the goals of this course are to develop the conceptual foundations, frameworks and methods for analysing, and understanding the intersection between companies and society, by focusing on some hot and controversial topics. More specifically, the course addresses, in a critical lens, topics that represent a breaking point in the balance between the company’s interests and social interests. At the end of this course, students will be able to analyse and understand both organizational and social impacts of the topics covered during the course.
The course is organized around the following topics:
- New ways of organizing work: pros and cons of smart working, remote working, hybrid working, south working and other “smart” way of working.
- Discrimination, diversity, inclusion: how can worker diversity be managed in order to be beneficial for both workers and companies?
- Creativity and innovation: Can creativity be managed? Can innovation be destructive?
Lectures, exercises, and discussion of case studies.
* Attending students will be evaluated on the following components:
- Individual class participation (max. 10 points) – This course is organized as a seminar, thus your ability to participate actively is critical for creating a good learning environment.
- Individual case analysis (max. 30 points) – I will give you – in class – a case you must analyzed. This activity will be on December 15.
- Team assignments (max. 30 points) – Each team will be asked to perform a series of in-class/out-of-the-class activities (discussions, exercises, etc.) that address issues related to the course content.
- Team paper/final presentation (max. 30 points) – Each team must choose a social topic and prepare a paper about this topic. Each team will also present this paper to the class during the last lesson on January 13.
At the end of the overall activities, the score in the 100-point scale will be converted in a grade in the Italian 30-point scale (the minimum number of points is 60).
* Non attending students will be evaluated on the following components:
- The term paper (max. 60 points)
- The take home exam (max. 40 points).
The term paper. The term paper should be an informed analysis, both theoretical and practical, of one of the social topics of this course. If you want to be a non attending student, you must follow this procedure:
- you must me contact me (stefano.basaglia@unibg.it) during the course or at least 1 month before the exam session you would like to attend. If you intend to take the exam in the first winter session (i.e. between mid-January and mid-February) you must contact me before the Christmas break (i.e. before December 20).
- After this first contact, in few days (i.e. 5/7 working days starting from your email message), I will assign you the topic and you have 7 days to send me a term paper proposal. The term paper proposal must contain: the title of the paper and a detailed description of your theoretical and empirical/practical part of the paper (1 page maximum, not just two sentences or a couple of bullet points). After my approval, you can start working on the paper. The deadline for the term paper is the date of the exam. You can find the format guidelines in the e-learning platform.
Take home exam. Three days before the day of the exam session you would like to attend, you will receive at your institutional email address your personalize take home exam (different students will receive different exams). The deadline for the take home exam is the date of the exam. The exam will be composed by several newspaper articles (e.g. two/three articles) and several questions (e.g. three/four questions). You must read the enclosed articles and answer the questions by using the proper theory/framework/concepts. Further information will be provided in the exam text you will receive.
At the end of the overall activities, the score in the 100-point scale will be converted in a grade in the Italian 30-point scale (the minimum number of points is 60).
* For both attending and non-attending students:
- Every exercise, presentation, and paper will be assessed according to the following criteria: relevance to the question/topic; ability to quote and use the most appropriate theories/frameworks/concepts; comprehensiveness in relation to the question/topic; inclusion of appropriate links; conciseness (without redundancy or repetition); command of language; clarity of presentation.
- you can find theories, frameworks, and concepts in the suggested reading list (see textbooks and reading lists and/or the e-learning platform).
* Section on creativity will be taught by Prof. Barbara Slavich (http://www.ieseg.fr/en/faculty-and-research/professor/?id=1631).