What’s New about New Forms of Organizing?

Why do organizations exist? Why do they exist in the way that they are existing? Put differently – what purpose do organizations really serve, and why? How can it be that after over a century of theories about organizing, we still not have found the right way? And how shall we expect that to change in the future? Is there anything we can learn about organizations of the past—irrespective if they are real or fictional, for profit or not—that will help us design better organizations to solve the problems of today, or leverage future opportunities such as the Internet of Things, Blockchain, robotics, artificial intelligence, and so on? This lecture introduces students to theories of organizations and their relevance to practice. Based on key readings in organization theory, newspaper and magazine articles, and case studies, students will learn about why organizations exist and how they function, use that knowledge to analyze a non-characteristic organization, and showcase their versatility in dissecting organization in a poster competition. As a result, this lecture will equip students with a thorough understanding of why organizations are the way they are, are run the way they are run, and how they may change – or not – in the future. Hence, students will be able to comment and analyze on existing organizations, and ideally capable of becoming future organization designers. Hence, topics include, but are not limited to: - What is (not) an organization? - The role of organization structure: does structure follow strategy or strategy follow structure? - Simple perspectives on organization structure: contingency and configuration perspectives - Organizing as farce: institutional theory - Deterministic perspectives: population ecology, imprinting, and path-dependence - Growing organizations - Organizing as searching: the behavioral theory of the firm - Organizations as power and networks: resource dependence and network theory - Open forms of organization - Organizing under extreme uncertainty: design thinking, abduction, and temporary organizations - Holacracy and agile organizations - The Future of Organizing – Organizations of the Future?

Knowledge-related outcomes Upon completion of this module, students will be able to: - Define, explain, and apply in practice key theories of organizations - Interpret, classify, and assess the conduct and performance of any organization - Describe, compare, and appraise different existing organization design solutions for a given situation - Distinguish the newly learned theories of organizations from previously learned perspectives - Evaluate how environmental change may affect existing organization designs and theories - Compose new organization designs Skill-related outcomes - Improve diagnostic and analytical skills (i.e., structured problem-solving) - Build up critical thinking and interpretation skills - Enhance verbal and argumentation skills via presentations and group discussions - Hone ability to integrate into and interact with a team professionally, academically, and socially (including leadership and project management skills, intercultural competences) through the group tasks

This module is examined via exercises (“Übungsleistung”), using four elements to assess the different learning goals of this course. - Oral, individual: 40%. For each session of class, you will be given in advance a set of question to prepare. We will assess your contributions to solving these question in class to see whether you can define, explain, and apply key organization theories; describe, compare, and appraise existing organization design solutions; and compose new organization designs . Students do not have to be active or even present in every session to achieve full marks; given to be defined circumstances and instructor permission, students may also submit written solutions prior to class as a basis of grading - Written, individual: 20%. At the end of the course, you will submit an individual reflection paper, highlighting one key learning in this course, so as to show that you can distinguish the newly learned theories of organizations from previously learned perspectives - Written, group: 20%. as a group, you analyze one non-traditional organization drawing on concepts learned in class to showcase that you can interpret, classify, and assess the conduct and performance of any organization - Poster, group: 20%. for same non-traditional organization as for the group paper, you will create a poster to highlight the viability of the same organization for the future, to show you can evaluate how environmental change affects existing organizations

English. Given the highly interactive nature of the module (entirely in English), students should feel comfortable expressing their opinion and interacting in English. Therefore, very good written and spoken English language skills are required. While there are no formal perquisites to attend this course, we very strongly recommend that you have previously attended an introductory course on economics (such as “Principles of Economics”) and management (such as “International Management”). These introductory courses should have given you some first insights into what organizations are and how they operate – that means how organizations are structured, and why they are structured in a certain way – very often building on microeconomic theory. Courses on strategy will be similarly helpful; courses on leadership, HR, or marketing most likely not. While we will not block you from joining the course per se, we want to clearly point out that we will not go back to re-explain some of the first principles taught in such courses, but we will assume that you know them, or freshen up on them on your own time. Indeed, understand how the perspective on organizations you will receive in this course is different from the perspectives you have gotten to know in other course may be one of the key learnings you will achieve.

The largest share of this course will be co-developed by the course participants and the instructor(s) through discussions of course materials and newspaper articles, as well as short presentations. The lecturer will help facilitate and guide the course discussion through questions, by taking notes on whiteboards, and by providing links across the different course sessions. Students are strongly encouraged to take notes to facilitate cumulative learning across sessions of class. Specific topics and definitions may be presented using PowerPoint slides. We will frequently use the hall in the Entrepreneurship Center for exercises, in which students will apply and inductively further develop content. Finally, a large share of learning will occur through students preparing individually and in groups for the in-class session. Techniques to do so will be introduced in the first session of class. Information on what materials to prepare will be provided for each course session—this information will be available in the course syllabus, which will be available weeks before the course on TUMonline.