MPP conducts internationally oriented critically-constructive management research, educates students to become reflective practicians and makes a responsible and visible contribution to society by creating knowledge that makes a difference.

Management plays a central and significant role in modern society. At MPP we see management as a sociality-creating and transforming phenomenon. Our management research must be constructive to make it useful, but it must also be critical in order to create a distance to and added value for other organisations, whether private, public, political or voluntary.

The research field of the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy is management of all types of organisations. We focus on management as a sociality-creating phenomenon rather than management from an economic and efficiency-oriented point of view. Hence, we see management as something that creates norms, rules, terminologies, organisations, groups, regions etc. Since 2002, the Department's research has been organised in five research groups. Nevertheless, as a result of an external evaluation these groups were reorganised as of 1 January 2005. The new groups are: 1. Management Philosophy; 2. Public and Political Management; 3. Strategic Management; 4. Business History; 5. Knowledge Service.

The aim of the Philosophy Group is to understand the phenomena of society and sociality. It addresses this objective through a number of "traditional" philosophical approaches such as phenomenology, social analytics, system theory and critical theory. Typical subjects include knowledge, normativity (values, morals, ethics), aesthetics, organisation and power. More recent concepts such as corporate communication, social responsibility, loyalty, discipline and subjectivity production are also important. The Group houses the Center for Art and Leadership (CAL) and the new Center for Political Communication, which is in its start-up period. Several members of the group participate in the Center for Corporate Values and Responsibility (CVR).

The Politics Group focuses on policy-making on the borderline between the public and private domains and on new developments in public and political management. Both are highly productive areas for the study and observation of social change. Changes in the relation between state and market are pivotal to social change. Similarly, themes such as "corporate politicisation", "the politics of self", campaign management and management of NGOs have great potential for the understanding of social change and collective influence on individuals.

The Strategic Management Group mainly focuses on the dynamics of competitive advantages. This implies addressing how competitive advantages are created and recreated with special emphasis on entrepreneurship and the role of organisations in this process. The Group houses the Center for Knowledge Governance (CKG) and the Center for Applied Management Studies (CAMS).

The primary aim of the History Group (Center for Business History) is to understand the role of modern enterprises in social development with an emphasis on the development of the economy. Another focus area of the Group is the significance of social development for enterprises. It takes a methodical approach by focusing on historical analyses of the development of certain enterprises in a social (political and technological) context.

The Knowledge Service Group conducts research into management in relation to knowledge service enterprises. It focuses especially on enhancing the insight into and understanding of the special characteristics and management practices of these enterprises with a view to develop their management, organisation, research, services and customer relations. The Group houses the LOKResearchCenter and the planned Center for Knowledge Service.

The common focus of the Department is management as a sociality-creating phenomenon. Throughout 2004 we have addressed the themes of time, space, normativity and technology. Time categories such as change, speed, timing, transformation and stress are of increasing importance to management. In the same way, it is becoming more and more crucial to address spatial phenomena such as networks, aesthetics, construction of working spaces, communication and globalisation from a management point of view. Management technologies (e.g. Balanced Scorecard, Business Process Reengineering and HR development interviews) is increasingly important to ways of management. Hence, our focus is on the technology concept, and we try to understand how various management technologies work in organisations in general. Many MPP projects already incorporate normative phenomena such as ethics, values, modern working life and social responsibility.

The four themes are implemented mainly through new, typically externally-funded projects. In addition, an internal strategy-creating process has been launched with an interdepartmental group being in charge of initiating activities relating to "sociality" and the understanding of the "sociality" concept.

Increasing focus on international aspects in terms of visibility, contacts and visits.

MPP has a high publication rate. And more and more of our publications are subjected to international review. It is becoming increasingly important for us to subject our ideas and perspectives to a quality test by way of international review.

Figure 1: Types of Department publications 2000-2004

Nine PhD students completed their studies in 2004. Several of them published their theses in English, thereby getting their work reviewed internationally. This resulted in a lot of praise and several invitations to international collaboration.

An ever increasing number of Department researchers contribute to its international publication, but not all. We are therefore looking into several ways to get everyone to publish their results internationally. We prefer the international commitment to be a joint effort rather than something individual researchers have to bear on their own.

MPP sees itself as an academic platform to enable cooperation between those interested in management. We have numerous partnerships with other (both private and public) organisations working with management as a phenomenon. Our many business research centres, major research programmes, adjunct professors and our advisory board all contribute to achieving this in a more systematic and organised way. In addition to this invisible work, we have numerous cooperation projects with external partners. A large number of PhD students are funded by external organisations – for the purpose of solving specific tasks and to have a relation of commitment to the Department and our research. In general, Department researchers consider external relations rewarding and valuable. Trying to convert research results into practice is a highly efficient way to evaluate knowledge – and to get new inspiration.

In the course of 2004, the Department and affiliated centres held numerous conferences, seminars and lectures with participants mainly from public and private organisations.

The Department also experimented with generating income. Some of our arrangements have been financed through user fees (commercial activities). We have also attempted to create a wider range of executive education (through CBS Executive and HHE).

In 2004, the Department's visibility in the media increased even more. Many Department researchers acted as experts and opinion-makers in connection with a wide range of topics. Today, management, politics and philosophical social conditions are highly topical.

In 2004, our Advisory Board contributed many important comments, challenging our academic standards. Its eight members already put a lot of effort and commitment into our Department, providing several views and ideas that we have developed or are currently developing. Among other things, we have conducted a major study of CBS graduates with a special affiliation to MPP (FLØK (Business Administration and Philosophy), IMM (International Marketing and Management), SOL (Strategy, Organization and Management), MPA (Master of Public Administration); we collaborate with the Graduate School of Business to establish a new management programme at MSc. level, focusing on management; and on our initiative, CBS is preparing the establishment of a centre for global distribution of work.

As an indication of the Department's efforts to create partnerships and to acquire external research funding, Figure 2 shows a rapidly increasing level of activity in this area.

Figure 2: Department research funding in 2000-2004, DKK mill.

MPP has indeed grown into a large organisation – not least because of external funding. We have also been successful in sustaining a high external funding level at a time, when the business community has otherwise been under pressure. Notably, we managed to obtain funding for four PhD students in Business Administration this year. We have also ensured a very good and sound generational change in relation to permanent positions. So far so good. Nevertheless, in future it is important to speed up the internationalisation of the Department's research.