Faculty
Professor Jan Birkelund Mouritsen, Department of Operations Management

Course Coordinator
Professor Jan Birkelund Mouritsen

A prerequite for taking this course is that the PhD student has started her/his PhD project and made reflections on its empirical theme, theory and level of analysis.

The aim of the course is to identify and analyse central issues in relation to management technology, which relate to managerial economics, supply chain management, performance management and innovation management.
The objective of the course is to:
- enable the student to critically relate to the field with a view to reflect on and transgress established frames of understanding
- debate issues where the field's issues collide, particularly in relations between performance management and management of inter-organisational relations
- focus on systematic reflections of the premises of the field, its empirical propositions, theoretical hypotheses and methodology.

The course starts with the question how to study 'systems' when it is unclear, when one systems stops and another starts. The course thus is concerned with how systems are made manageable. Typically it relates to how systems' resources and activities can be made part of the production of effects and be attached to accountability.
There are many types of systems, but in this course they are typically relevant action nets. They do not have to be a firm. They can be a relevant inter-organisational relation, a value chain, a group etc., which in some way can be problematised from questions about sustainability, development, evaluation, coordination or transformation.
On this basis the course has the following themes:
- Management Technology
- Managing inter-organisational relations and performance
- Critical appraisal.

The teaching form includes teacher and student presentations, intensive reading of texts and writing of a small project.

No examination - but proof of participation requires handing in a paper, which has to be passed, and active participation throughout the course.

This is an advanced course, which introduces texts in organisational theory, operations management, and management control from e.g.:
- Scott, W.R. (2003) Organizations. Rational, natural and open systems. 5. ed., Prentice Hall
- Slack, N., Chambers, S., Harland, C., Harrison, A. & Johnston, R. (1998) Operations management. Pitman, London
- Berry, A.J., Broadbent, J. & Otley, D.T. (1998) Management control theory. Ashgate/Dartmouth, Aldershot.

In addition there will be a compendium with texts for each workshop.