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Instructors: Prof. Dr. Rick Vogel
Event type:
Seminar
Displayed in timetable as:
Organiz. Crisis_PUNO
Hours per week:
2
Credits:
6,0
Language of instruction:
German/English
Min. | Max. participants:
10 | -
Comments/contents:
The worldwide spread of the Covid19 virus poses a grand social challenge. Seriously threatening the health of the world’s population and accompanied by huge social and economic disruption, it is one of the largest immediate crises for Western societies since World War II and a humanitarian disaster for humankind around the world. Drawing on classic and contemporary organization theory, this course aims to illuminate many pressing questions surrounding the pandemic, such as how supply chains can be organized to ensure adequate supplies of health material, the strengths and difficulties of open science approaches to the development of a vaccine or capabilities of different forms of organization and coordination to quickly and adequately respond in times of crisis.
The course comprises 12 classes, each dealing with a particular aspect of the Covid19 crisis in relation to different theories of organization and organizing. It is a collaborative effort of organizational scholars from different Austrian and German universities that have expertise in researching grand challenges, different forms of organizing and crisis management. Given the current need for distance learning, the whole course can be completed online and asynchronously.
All course materials can be found here:
Learning objectives:
Students of this course should learn to:
- Analyze the current Covid19 crisis through the lens of organization theory;
- Understand the role of different organizational forms such as bureaucracies, high-reliability organizations or inter-organizational networks in coordinating responses to crisis;
- Understand alternative and open forms of organizing and their advantages and difficulties;
- Understand the role of leadership in crisis situations and reflect on different types of sensemaking with regard to open communication and transparency on the one side and uncertainty and an unknown future on the other side;
- Understand the challenges of organizations to communicate in times of crisis, and the role of social media for and in crisis communication,
- Reflect on how organizations can be designed to respond to unexpected events and be responsive and resilient;
- Understand how crisis can be a trigger for entrepreneurship, innovation and change;
- Understand the ways in which grand challenges relate to inequalities, including gender inequality;
- Critically engage with both theoretical concepts and practical contemporary phenomena;
- Reflect on what organization theory and practising managers can contribute to addressing grand societal challenges.
Didactic concept:
Before listening to lectures: For each class, students read the relevant core reading(s) and contemporary news article(s) provided in the course outline.
After listening to lectures: Students complete the weekly post-lecture assignment (300-600 words) for each class individually.
After completion of all classes: Students write a short essay (1.500 words) on a topic of their own choosing following the advice given in the “How to write an Essay” mini lecture.
The course will be administered on OpenOLAT.
Literature:
Each class comprises a short recorded lecture and a set of core and background readings in addition to links to contemporary newspaper articles.
Additional examination information:
Both the weekly assignments (300-600 words) and the final essay (1.500 words) can be completed in English or German language and have to be submitted on OpenOLAT. The final essay has additionally to be submitted as "Hausarbeit" to the examination office.
The tasks for the weekly assignments will be sent every Friday (starting on May 1st), 12pm, for completion until next Friday, 12pm. Students have to pass 10 out of 12 assignments to be admitted to the final essay (and hence to complete the course successfully).
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