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POL-PORT: Organisation Theory (Q2)

Faculty
tba
Course Coordinator
Erik Højbjerg, Department of Management, Politics, and Philosophy (LPF)
Prerequisite
None
Course content, structure and teaching
This course provides the students with an understanding of basic organisation theory; the theory on how behaviour, conceptualisations, and conditions for action are shaped in organisations. Students will learn to apply basic theoretical tools and conceptual models in analysing the phenomena of the organisation, management, and strategy from a sociological perspective.
Learning Objectives
After having followed the course, students should be able to:
  • describe, classify, and explain basic theoretical models of organisations (including theories on the social and physical structure of organisations; power, cultural, and technological aspects of organisations, and organisational environment)
  • formulate a simple research question relating to a particular organisation by applying relevant theories and concepts from the syllabus
  • select relevant data to produce justified answers to the research question - relating such data to choice theory and concepts.
Teaching methods
Lectures and group discussions. Minor cases will be presented by groups for plenary discussions.
Examination
individual 48-hour home assignment
Course literature
Indicative literature:
  • Hatch, Mary Jo (2006). Organization Theory – Modern, Symbolic and Postmodern Perspectives, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  • To be downloaded from the library:
  1. Granovetter, Marc (1985). Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness, Americal Journal of Sociology, Vol. 91, No. 3, pp. 481-510
  2. Allison, G.T. (1969). Conceptual Models and the Cuban Missile Crisis, American Political Science Review, Vol. 63, No. 3, pp. 689-718
  3. Cohen, Michael D., James G. March & Johan P. Olsen (1972). A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice. Administrative Science Quarterly, 17, 1, pp. 1-25.

Last updated by The International Office 11/06/2009