GRB Fellow Seminar: The dark & unexpected side of digitalization

Seminar facilitated by Professor Dennis Schoeneborn (MSC)

Mainstream management and organization scholarship tends to celebrate the proliferation of digital technologies such as social media, algorithms, artificial intelligence, and big data, for their disruptive potential and for the creation of new business opportunities. In contrast, this seminar will give scholars the chance to discuss work-in-progress ideas on what can be dark and and unexpected effects of digitalization, for instance, how digital technologies threaten individual rights of organizational members and citizens, increase the power and authority of businesses, and of certain well-known internet firms in particular, and the accompanying power shifts in and around organizations. Hence, in this workshop, the aim is to facilitate critical debates on the impact of digital technologies and internet firms on organizations and organizing.

The workshop will include a thematic introduction by Hannah Trittin and presentations of work-in-progress ideas by the workshop participants with interactive feedback rounds. Hannah Trittin is also one of the guest editors of a Special Issue at the journal Organization in the same thematic context (together with Andreas Georg Scherer, Glen Whelan and Iain Munro) that was most recently announced (see Call for Papers; deadline for submissions: June 30, 2019). Participants in the seminar will have the chance to learn more about the thematic directions and key milestones of the Special Issue.

Hannah Trittin is Assistant Professor of Business Ethics at Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany, as well as a Research Fellow of the “Governing Responsible Business” (GRB) research environment at CBS (2018/2019). Her current research interests include corporate social responsibility (CSR), CSR communication, and the impact of digital technologies, particularly gamification and social media, on organizations and organizing. Her research has been published in the Journal of Business Ethics, Corporate Communication: An International Journal, or the Journal of Management Inquiry, amongst others. She is also co-initiator of a recently launched research network on “Grand Challenges and New Forms of Organizing“ that is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

How to participate
Abstracts of workshop contributions (max. 1-2 pages + references) should be sent by Aug. 27, 2018 via email to Hannah Trittin (hannah.trittin@leuphana.de), acceptance will be announced soon after (i.e. by Aug. 30, 2018).