Please describe the refined course objectives. This should be in line with module descriptions in the course syllabus.
In the first module we will examine the development and the shortcomings of the main approaches to strategy that have been put forward in the last 50 years. It will be shown that, since the end of the Second World War, organisations have begun to take a strategic perspective on their activities. They have increasingly sought to take a long-term overview, in order to plan for and cope with the vagaries of the future. However, their freedom of action is seen as being constrained or shaped by the unique set of organisational, environmental and societal factors they face. Fortunately, these constraints are not immutable. Similarly, managers can exert some influence over strategic constraints and, potentially at least, can select the approach to strategy that best suits their preferences.
The second module starts by examining the three basic types or models of strategy that organisations usually adapt to the set demands by the intensified global competition and the changing needs of the consumers: the Quality Management Systems; Business Process Re-engineering and the Total Quality Management approach. The analysis involves the attractiveness of these approaches to modern organisations. In the unit we do not cover the big issue of mergers and acquisitions, which is another extremely popular in nowadays form of organisational change and development. The respective issue will be covered on the course 5 because it is strongly coincided with organisational politics and cultural aspects of change.
The third module attempts to show how organisations, as we know them today, have evolved, what the forces are that are causing them to change and what the shapes and forms of new and future organisations are most likely to be. We examine certain paradigms of new production and work methods that have evolved over the years as alternative options to the traditional mass producer organisation under the taylorist-fordist auspices. Finally the session ends up with a discussion of the convergence-divergence thesis that is currently at the forefront of the global debate about the future of work.
English
Ελληνικά
German