The management philosophy group is both large and heterogeneous, involving many empirical fields and theoretical approaches. The group’s task is to apply and develop philosophical disciplines in the context of business administration, whose core areas are management, organisation and communication. There are several reasons for this aim, of a principled as well as a historical kind. At the level of principle, it can be noted that the traditional meta reflexive considerations of the world of business administration are grounded in economic theory, sociology, psychology and the behavioural sciences, which have all been developed on the basis of philosophy, and which use basic concepts of existence and cognition in their efforts to understand and justify themselves. Philosophy is thus really the foundation of reflection upon reflexive practice itself. But business economics is also a normative discipline in so far as it prescribes strategies for the optimisation of organisational and individual action. Such strategies operate on the basis of criteria of success, which can all be traced back to the criteria of the good life. Philosophy has traditionally been the theory of the good life, both as practical philosophy, focusing on ethics and morals, and as political philosophy, focusing on power, institutions, legitimacy and authority.

The Management Philosophy Group is responsible for the BSc and MSc in Business Administration and Philosophy programme.

General field of research
The relation of an organisation to its employees, and therefore the problem of management, is increasingly being approached through philosophy. This is owed to the particular prerequisites for running a business that the knowledge society implies. Focusing on innovation and knowledge sharing, delegation of tasks, commitment and organisational imagination demands a form of expression that allows the inclusion of the employee’s existential situation in the management context. The development of independent and responsible employees presupposes the development of competent and reflexive human beings.

A series of interdisciplinary areas have therefore recently started to emerge, in which philosophy plays a decisive role. The idea of value-based management, which was the group’s point of departure, has been strengthened through the development of management philosophy and an organisation philosophy, and by bringing sensitivity and differentiation to ethical accounting. But it is important to be aware of the fact that the development of new areas of application for philosophy is not enough in itself. Such a development will demand basic research. The group is strongly positioned in this respect by virtue of its differentiated and probing research. It takes an active and creative approach to leading international developments in philosophy such as phenomenology, systems theory, dialogical philosophy, the theory of the social, discourse analysis, constructivism, aesthetic philosophy and critical theory.

Specific research areas

Management of Self-management

Leadership and organizational philosophy
To develop and strengthen the awareness of managers and organizations in regard to the importance of establishing a reflexive meta-level that will enable them to observe all the paradigmatic and theoretical approaches to management and organizing from a careful critical perspective and in light of the consequences these approaches have for the development of the individual and the community.

Art and leadership
To draw the mindset of the artist and the manager into a productive dialogue so that an understanding of the inner qualities of creativity and its possibilities can become the basis for the development of the organization

Modern work life
Modern work life focuses on the challenges for management and cooperation when the employees are self-managing. Self-management demands that the employees administer their own thoughts, imaginations, feelings and actions in ways that contribute to the realization and development of the employees themselves while they create value for the corporation. To manage oneself therefore is to balance between freedom and obligations. The research area emphasizes how we managerially and collectively address the fact that employees have to be able to manage themselves in this balance.

Economics in the age of immaterial labour
’Immaterial economy’ traces the conceptual outline of the contemporary tendency of the immaterialization of the economy. Here production and comsumption seem to be a matter of empathy, experience and knowledge as opposed to the material products and processes of the traditional economy, which are delimited by time and space. The group’s research concerns the impact of this displacement on value-creation, worklife, sociality and how new forms of management and organization come to terms with this change.

Group members: Anders Raastrup Kristensen, Bent Meier Sørensen, Christine Mølgaard Cleemann, Dorte Hermansen, Kristian Gylling Olesen, Line Kirkegaard, Marius Gudmand-Høyer, Michael Pedersen, Ole Bjerg, Ole Fogh Kirkeby, Ole Thyssen, Rasmus Johnsen, Sanne Kjaersgaard Møller, Signe Groth-Petersen, Steen Vallentin, Sverre Raffnsøe, Thomas Lopdrup Hjorth, Tommy Moesby-Jensen, Tommy Larsen, Tobias Dam Hede, Thomas Sønderskov, Øjvind Larsen.

Research Director: Sverre Raffnsøe