Faculty
Peter Skærbæk (PEØ) and Jytte Grambo Larsen (PEØ)

Course Coordinator
Peter Skærbæk (PEØ)

Co-requisite: OS42 must be taken together with OS43, as the exam is one combined exam.

Organisations use many different tools and technologies to make themselves transparent and accountable. Examples include activity-based costing (ABC), balanced scorecard, user satisfaction surveys, evaluations, quality control etc. This course analyses and works with these managerial technologies in order to examine their differences and similarities, their societal and economic effects and their importance for managing organisations. It focuses both on the ‘hard’ principles of the individual technologies and on the ‘soft’ organisational and societal issues related to the design, mobilisation and effect of the technologies.

The course covers five themes:

Individual themes comprise discussions pertaining to:

1) Production of measurement tools – and the production of input for the tools

2) Use of the tools - How are organisations translating, interpreting and using the numerical representations internally - and in relation to their environments

3) Function – what is the function ascribed to the tools and the produced knowledge?

4) Effects of the tools - Employees, activities, and content are affected by the way, in which they are rendered visible. For example, quality measurements require planning activities, so that they can be measured, and activities may be shaped by the same indicators that aim to measure them. Likewise, economic control systems determine the nature of the organisation’s economy - that is - the control system contributes to constitute the object that it is to control.

Joint exam with CM OS43: Organizational Design
Oral exam based on a group project

During the course, the class works with a number of different tools. Performance measurements are analysed (what kind of knowledge have they produced? which functions are they ascribing to themselves etc.?). Different types of tools are compared, and we discuss how performance measurements can be used strategically in relation to given objectives. In support of this work, lectures offer an overview of analytical approaches.

The students deal with two types of material. 1) Scientific studies of management technologies, their application and function. 2) Material conveying concrete experiences with the various tools. The idea is to couple theoretical and empirical perspectives. The theoretical literature will elucidate in part, how and why knowledge about economy and quality is established, and in part elucidate the implications of the tools for organising and management.

Examples of material: