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CMF F33 - Organizational Philosophy*

Faculty
Dr Bent Meier Sørensen (CBS), Prof Paul du Gay (UK/CBS), Dr Sverre Spoelstra (SWE), Dr Ole Bjerg (CBS), Thomas Lobdrup Hjorth (CBS), Dr Christian Borch (CBS), Dr Anders Raastrup Kristensen
Course Coordinator
Dr Bent Meier Sørensen
Prerequisite/progression of the course
Interest in philosophy, organization and management is expected.
Course content, structure and teaching
The course will give an introduction to organizational philosophy and demonstrate how philosophy provides fundamentally new and different ways of conceptualizing and analyzing organizations and organizational phenomena. The course will consist
of lectures and cases, but the active participation of the students is a prerequisite for its success.
The course's development of personal competences
Students that have partaken in this course will be able to understand and analyze organizations and management with entirely novel concepts that are suited in a time of change and flux. Students will also become acquainted with what a critical approach to organizations mean, and how that strengthens one’s analysis of contemporary conditions of work.
Learning Objectives
At the end of the course, the student must be able to:
  • Formulate a problem which relates to the concepts discussed in the course: philosophical concepts used for the analysis of organizations
  • Describe, classify, structure, and combine the concepts, theories, methods, and models of the course.
  • Relate the texts of the course to their theoretical context.
  • Exemplify the chosen problem through the use of case-material
Type of examination, exam aids and assessment
Oral exam on the basis of a synopsis
Recommended literature
Philsophy and Organization
  • Deleuze, G. & Guattari, F. (1988) A Thousand Plateaus, Athlone Press.
  • Jones, Campbell and René ten Bos (eds.) (2007) Philosophy and Organization London: Routledge.
  • Sørensen, B. M. (2010) ‘St Paul’s Conversion: The Aesthetic Organization of Labour’, in: Organization Studies.
  • Sørensen, B. M. (2005) ’Immaculate Defecation: Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari in Organization Theory’ in: The Sociological Review, October, Vol. 53 Issue: Supplement 1.
Capitalism and Organization
  • Goux, J. (2009) ‘Values and speculations: The stock exchange paradigm, in Journal for cultural Research
  • Bjerg, O. (Forthcoming) ‘Poker as Class Struggle’, in: Parody of Capitalism, University of Michigan Press Organizing identity and personhood
  • Hobbes, T. (1994), selections from Part Two of Leviathan 'Of Commonwealth'. Pages 117-165, in: Leviathan, Cambridge University Press.
  • G. Becker (1986) 'The Economic Approach to Human Behaviour', in J. Elster Rational Choice, Basil Blackwell
  • Gay, P. du (2005) 'Which is the self in Self-Interest?' in The Sociological Review 53.3. 391-411 Weber, M. (1994) 'The Profession and Vocation of Politics' in: P. Lasasman and R. Speirs (eds.) Weber: Political Writings CUP
Organizational Atmospheres
  • Philip Kotler (1973/74) ‘Atmospherics as a Marketing Tool’, Journal of Retailing 49(4): 48–64.
  • Christian Borch (forthcoming) ‘Organizational Atmospheres: Foam, Affect and Architecture’, Organization.
  • Gernot Böhme (1993) ‘Atmosphere as the Fundamental Concept of a New Aesthetics’, Thesis Eleven 36: 113-126.
Sensory Organization
  • Drobnick, Jim (2006) ‘Eating Nothing: Cooking Aromas in Art and Culture’, pp. 342–56 in Jim Drobnick (ed.) The Smell Culture Reader. Oxford and New York: Berg.
  • Hans Jonas (2001) ‘The Nobility of Sight: A Study of the Phenomenology of the Senses’, pp. 135-156 i Jonas, The Phenomenon of Life: Toward a Philosophical Biology. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press.
  • Warren, Samantha (2008) ‘Empirical Challenges in Organizational Aesthetics Research: Towards a Sensual Methodology’, Organization Studies 29(4): 559-580.
Philosophy and Leadership
  • Dunne, Stephen and Sverre Spoelstra (2010) The gift of leadership. in: Leadership Today.
  • Marion, Jean-Luc (2002) ‘They recognized him; and he became invisible to them’, in Modern Theology, 18(2). Philosophy and the future of management
  • Hamel, G. (2009) ’Management Innovation, It’s now a moral imperative.’, in: Leadership excellence, may 200.
  • Hamel, G (2009) ‘Management 2.0, Become fit for the future.’, in: Leadership Excellence, November 2009.
  • Lipinay, V. (2007) ‘Economy of the germ: capital, accumulation and vibration’, in: Economy and Society, vol. 36 number 4.

Last updated by Electives Secretariat 25/05/2010