Students will be required to do a considerable amount of reading and to contribute intelligently to class discussion. Students should have knowledge of the basics of organisation theory and have taken at least (!) one introductory course to strategy. Another imperative prerequisite is a willingness to read, and discuss, a set of articles and book chapters.
Good knowledge of current business and political events is definitely helpful for success in this course.
At the end of the course, the student should be able to:
– understand the notion of dynamic, complex organisational systems
– breakdown complex organisational problems using the appropriate methodology
– predict how business and economic cycles could affect organisational strategy
– thoroughly examine a complex business situation
– discuss the “new” meanings of control, management, and strategymaking
-realise the limits of any notions of “strategy” and “planning”
The post-modern business environment makes it increasingly difficult for managers to pursue the kind of strategies that might have been the base for a firm’s success ten or twenty years ago. This course will investigate the meaning of a hyper-dynamic environment both inside and outside the organisation, and willl critically discuss the implications for strategy-making, “muddling through”, and the role of the individual in such a demanding, and ultimately unpredictable, environment.
This course will introduce students to the principles of process thinking and draw heavily on the tenets of Systems Theory.
