Faculty
Professor Jan Birkelund Mouritsen, Department of Operations Management and Professor Wai Fong Chua, University of New South Wales

Course Coordinator
Professor Jan Birkelund Mouritsen

A prerequisite 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 the study of design and use of management technology, which are relevant in diverse areas such as managerial economics, supply chain management, performance management and innovation management. Management technology consists of practices of representing organisational activities in various types of measurement systems and management tools that create visibility of value and that bring remote places back to a decision centre which is then allowed to perform action at a distance. The PhD course discusses the processes of bringing the remote back and the efforts invested in influencing remote places from afar.
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 clear that 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 company. 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 papers, which have to be passed, reviewing two papers, and active participation in class throughout the course.