Critical Perspectives on Management

About this course: This course is designed for students of all backgrounds who have an interest in how firms are governed, the forces that have helped define modern management practice, and the outcomes of that practice not only for the firm itself, but also for the societies in which they operate. For students who are thinking of a career in management, it may also prove useful as a basic introduction to some of the conceptual vocabulary and ideas behind modern theories of management. Using a wide disciplinary approach - from economics and history to social theory and even a smattering of biblical criticism - the course will invite students to consider several core management strategies and priorities from often unexpected perspectives in order to judge their success or failure. The key objective of the course is to bring into critical focus how we think about the function and culture of management, how managers understand their role within a firm, how they take decisions, set priorities and benchmark success and failure. Topics include: the function of the firm; the role of incentive; the ways in which narrative forces shape decision making, and how market relationships define the managerial culture in ways that can lead to sub-optimal outcomes.

Created by:  IE Business School

• Taught by:   Rolf Strom-Olsen , Professor

  Humanities

Commitment 6 weeks of study, 2-3 hours/week Language English How To Pass Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. User Ratings 4.8 stars Average User Rating 4.8See what learners said Coursework

Each course is like an interactive textbook, featuring pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects.

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IE Business School IE Business School is an internationally recognized business school where the leaders of tomorrow shape their ideas and learn to become global citizens. For over 40 years, IE Business School has promoted innovation and change in organizations, equipping managers with an entrepreneurial mindset that generates employment, wealth, and social well-being. Regularly featured among the top business schools in the world, IE Business School has an urban campus in Madrid and a faculty of more than 400 professors who teach students from approximately 90 countries in its undergraduate and master programs. IE uses innovative online, face-to-face, and blended learning formats, including the IE Communities Platform where knowledge and experiences are exchanged with over 50,000 IE graduates that currently hold management positions in more than 100 countries worldwide.

Syllabus


WEEK 1


The Lessons from Rome Part I



In Ancient Rome, merchant organisations very similar to modern firms were critical to capitalising key markets and to solving serious logistical problems to enable a vibrant trading network across the Mediterranean, including, critically, supplying the city of Rome itself with the food its citizens needed to survive. We will examine the Roman grain market and the organisations that operated within that market to ask: what, exactly, is a firm? What led to the firm's evolution? And what is the issue of agency that a firm inevitably entails?


5 videos, 3 readings expand

1. Video: Before We Begin
2. Reading: Syllabus & Readings
3. Reading: Grading and Logistics
4. Reading: Reading & Study Questions
5. Video: Introduction
6. Video: The Problem of Information
7. Video: The Problem of Transaction Costs
8. Video: Institutional Solutions and The Agency Dilemma

Graded: One: The Lessons from Rome Part I

WEEK 2


The Lessons from Rome Part II



This lecture expands upon the first discussion, drawing from the insights gained about firm organisation in the Ancient world to ask about the effectiveness of the Forced Distribution Ranking Scheme (also known as "stack and rank", "up and out", etc...) to evaluate and promote or terminate employees, widely used by many of today's leading corporations.


4 videos, 1 reading expand

1. Reading: Reading & Study Questions
2. Video: The Value of Monitoring
3. Video: Some Drawbacks
4. Video: Weighing the Method
5. Video: Concluding Lessons from the Roman Grain Market

Graded: Two: The Lessons from Rome Part II

WEEK 3


What is Innovation?



We live in the innovation economy. Firms have chief innovation officers. Innovation is, so we are told, the key to securing the future. And there are quite literally millions of books on the subject of innovation. So, what does it mean? And is it a useful idea for management? We'll consider both questions.


5 videos, 1 reading expand

1. Reading: Reading & Study Questions
2. Video: Defining Innovation
3. Video: The Box: Explaining Its Introduction
4. Video: The Box: Conditions for Success
5. Video: The Box: The Story of Failure
6. Video: Conclusion: Thinking Beyond Innovation

Graded: Three: What is Innovation?

WEEK 4


The Power of Narrative



What do Hollywood movies, the Synoptic gospels, housing bubbles, Alan Greenspan's monetary policy, and the world's worst merger have in common? This week's lecture will develop a reading of narrative in order to explore a common pitfall that affects many managerial decisions.


9 videos, 1 reading expand

1. Reading: Reading & Study Questions
2. Video: Examples of Commonplace Narratives
3. Video: Towards a Metacritical Concept of Narrative
4. Video: Home-Buying as An Investment
5. Video: Irrationality in The Marketplace
6. Video: Context Analysis
7. Video: The Behavior of Market Actors
8. Video: A Cognitively Dissonant Market?
9. Video: Why Didn't The Federal Reserve Act?
10. Video: Narrative Structures and Managerial Decisions: Concluding Remarks

Graded: Four: The Power of Narrative

WEEK 5


Is Shareholder Value a Good Idea?



Perhaps the most important lecture of the course. Almost all publicly traded firms are beholden, either explicitly or implicitly, to the principle of creating shareholder value. This week, we look at the history of this idea, how it has become widespread as a principle of corporate governance and how it has changed fundamentally the nature of the firm over the last 40 years. We will look at who the shareholders are, where their interests lie and what they have gained from this development. We will consider the wider and long-term consequences both for the firm and society. And we will ask - is this the kind of capitalism we really want?


6 videos, 1 reading expand

1. Reading: Reading & Study Questions
2. Video: Shareholder Value: Origins I
3. Video: Shareholder Value: Origins II
4. Video: Regulatory and Market Changes
5. Video: Shareholder-centric Strategy
6. Video: Who is The Shareholder?
7. Video: Conclusion

Graded: Five: Is Shareholder Value a Good Idea?

WEEK 6


Case Studies



We look at the examples of two companies whose recent experiences encapsulate many of the core ideas of the course. The first is Apple, which, in the context of reporting their quarterly earnings in the Spring of 2013, committed an unprecedented amount of its capital reserves to a share repurchase scheme and dividend increase. We will look at the motivation and logic for this move. The second is Nokia (which has subsequently sold off its mobile phone business to Microsoft). We will look at how the company rose - and then dramatically fell - from its position as market leader in mobile communications.


7 videos, 1 reading expand

1. Reading: Reading
2. Video: Case Studies: Apple
3. Video: The Rise and Fall of Nokia I
4. Video: The Rise and Fall of Nokia II
5. Video: Assessing Nokia's Strategy
6. Video: Explaining Nokia's Decline
7. Video: Conclusions
8. Video: Now It's All Over

Graded: Six: Case Studies
Graded: FINAL EXAM