Department of Management, Society and Communication

Sébastien Brossard gains his PhD degree

On 20 October 2025, PhD Fellow Sébastien Brossard successfully defended his PhD dissertation titled ‘Exploring agency and power dynamics at work in algorithmic management systems. An activity-centered and relational inquiry’.

Based on 16-month observations in several workplaces, Sébastien Brossard's PhD project examines employees’ ambivalent response to algorithmic management systems (AMS), using relational ethnography and a techno-anthropological approach informed by Simondon’s perspective on human-technology relations.

The research challenges the prevailing view in organizational

studies of employees’ confrontational resistance to AMS, proposing instead the concept of ‘resistive participation’ to capture their ambiguous engagement with technology. Through this lens, it highlights subsequently employees’ dual agency in AMS use, arguing the emergence of a ‘techno-subject’ characterized by its potential to appropriate technology for its own benefit. This is further supported by findings on organizations’ reliance on employees’ autonomy and ‘non-formal’ labor for AMS to function, thereby upending established roles in technology use.

Ultimately, the dissertation deepens understanding in organizational research of how AMS reshape employees' agency and autonomy at work, and the implications for power dynamics in the digital workplace.

Dorothee Nussbruch gains her PhD degree

On 7 October 2025, PhD Fellow Dorothee Nussbruch successfully defended her PhD dissertation titled ‘Local Business at the Frontlines: Cross-Sector Dynamics in Disaster Response and Resilience’.

Dorothee Nussbruch’s PhD project investigated the role of local businesses in disaster response and resilience by examining a local intermediary organization that represents business interests and works to integrate them into disaster governance systems across multiple levels. The dissertation focuses on the processes that shape the inclusion and exclusion of local businesses in cross-sectoral efforts and analyses how intermediary organizations navigate engagements with national and international humanitarian structures.

Drawing on extensive fieldwork in Vanuatu, the study develops a socio-

spatial perspective on cross-sector collaboration, highlighting how local business actors negotiate their roles in disaster response and resilience work and seek access to international aid spaces. Through three interrelated articles, the thesis advances debates on organizational resilience, cross-sector collaboration, and the spatial politics of humanitarian governance.

Overall, the research calls for more equitable and effective disaster governance that centers local knowledge and supports meaningful participation from local business actors in shaping recovery and resilience futures.

Mette Morsing becomes Interim Dean at Saïd Business School

Congratulations to Professor Mette Morsing (University of Oxford/MSC), who as of 22 September has joined the Oxford University Saïd School as Interim Dean. At MSC, we are very proud on her behalf! 

Mette comes from the position as Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and Environment. At the Smith School, she has led an interdisciplinary team committed to international, innovative and impactful research, teaching and engagement, to drive the green transition and ensure people and nature thrive together.

Throughout her tenure at Oxford, Mette has retained a fractional position at MSC – but whilst serving as Interim Dean, Mette will be on unpaid leave from her Alma Mater.

Read more on the Saïd Business School website here.

The Department of Management, Society and Communication

The department came into existence on 1 January 2017 as a result of the merger of the Department of Intercultural Communication and Management and the Department of International Business Communication. Read about MSC's research profile here and about its research-based education here.

MSC is located in the Dalgas Have part of the CBS campus. As one of CBS' largest departments, it occupies most of the second floor of the building.