Organisations, Organising and Calculative Practices (1 - 5 October 2012)

Faculty
The Professors Jan Mouritsen & Martin Kornberger

Course Coordinator
Professor Jan Mouritsen

Prerequisite/progression of the course

PhD

Aim of the course

The purpose of the PhD course is to investigate relations between organisation studies and accounting. More specifically, the aim of the course is to explore relations between calculative practices and organisational action. Any performance measure is a calculative practise that renders certain aspects of organisational practices visible; at the same time calculations, their representation and mobilization are framed by organization. Hence the course wants to shed light on the organisational construction and consumption of calculation on a variety of issues.

The objective of the course is to

Enable the student to critically examine the roles calculative practices in making activities visible and amenable to intervention.
Understand accounting as providing an account of something - either through numbers, narratives or other articulations. Requesting and providing accounts are fundamental to organisational systems of accountability.
Carry through analysis of the format and consequences of various types of calculation in relation to key organisational processes such as decision making, search, and accountability.

The main idea of the course

The course emphasises attention to relations between calculation and organisational practices. The topic is divided into three questions:

Calculation and search: How do accounting practices that make the value of new ideas tangible and visible impact on organizational search?
Calculation and decision-making: How do calculative practices influence organizational decision making processes?
Calculation and accountability: How do calculations found e.g. in sustainability reporting practices define and inscribe ethics and morality?

Each question will be investigated using literature from accounting, organization theory and related fields. The discussion will start with a reading of an accounting paper that captures the state of the art. We will then consult papers from organization theory and related fields to a.) Question the assumptions of accounting, b.) Complexify issues and assumptions and c.) Discuss implications for organizational action and design. In so doing the seminar establishes connections between accounting as calculative practice and organizational issues.

Course content, structure and teaching

STRUCTURE: WORKSHOPS, REFLECTION AND PERSPECTIVE

The course is organised as a 5 day learning experience. The pedagogy includes teacher and student-presentations, break-out sessions, “PhD trouble shooting” sessions (a short on-demand session focused on a specific problem or challenge one of the participants encounters in their PhD work which might be relevant to others) and intensive reading of texts.It is an advanced course and it requires thorough reading of key papers from high quality journals such as Accounting, Organisations and Society; Organization; Management Accounting Research; Organisation Studies and others. The papers used in the course may differ from those mentioned below which are used to indicate the character of the PhD course.

Information on course literature and lecture plan will follow.

Last updated by Blazenka Blazevac-Kvistbo 24/05/2012