Study guide for the master course “Foundations in Management”

Course responsible: Elena Raviola

Credits: 15 ECTS

Course period: August 31 – November 2, 2021

Contact: elena.raviola@gu.se

Teachers:

Elena Raviola (ER), course responsible

Herman Stål (HS)

Rebecka Arman (RA)
Andreas Diedrich (AD)
Maria José Zapata Campos (MJZ)
Maria Norbäck (MN)
Sara Brorström (SB)

This document contains up-to-date information about the content and the structure of the course
“Foundations in Management”. It also aims at providing students with guidelines and instructions
needed to attend the course and make the most out of it.

The content of this document might be updated before and during the course. I will notify you if
updates are made.

All communication during the course will take place through Canvas. Please, make sure you check
Canvas at least once a day.

Presentation of the course

“Foundations in Management” is a 15 ECTS credits course, running full-time between August 31 and
November 2, 2021. This means that a full time study engagement is expected by the students in
order to be able to fulfill the learning objectives of the course.

The course has a strong research base and involves a team of researchers that teach students about
their own research. The course aims at giving students the theoretical foundations which are needed
to follow the subsequent courses in the master programme as well as at presenting a variety of
applications of such theoretical foundations in different areas of management studies.

The course also aims at coaching students to the reading of scientific texts, to the writing of scientific
texts and to the scientific analysis of empirical material.

Structure of the course

The course structure is organized along two dimensions: theories and fields of management studies.
Part 1 focuses on the theories: Institutional theory, practice and process, actor-network theory and
sensemaking & narratives are the four theoretical perspectives selected for this course, as they are
the ones most frequently recurrent in our master programme in Management and in management
studies as a research field.

Part 2 focuses on the application of these theories to different management phenomena (fields of
management studies), such as organizational change, strategy, sustainability and interorganizational
relations. In this part, researchers in Management and Organization at the school present their own
research in which they have applied the theories introduced in the first part of the course.

Forms of teaching

Teaching in the course is scheduled for two to four days a week during a nine-week period. It takes
different forms: lectures, workshops, project presentation seminars.

The lectures include two moments each: the pre-recorded videos and the live lecture on zoom. The
videos are meant to present theoretical perspectives and their applications to the students. They are
performed by the teachers, but require the active listening of students. The videos will be published
on the Canvas course page in the module “Videos” half a working day before the live lecture on
zoom. The live lectures on zoom will take place on our virtual classroom and the whole class will
meet the assigned teacher to discuss and work in groups about the relevant theoretical concepts.
They are aimed at discussing the theoretical perspective presented and responding to students’
questions.

The workshops are of different kinds: reading workshops, testing workshop, analysis workshops, skill
workshops. All workshops take place in our virtual classroom with the whole class. In Part 1 of the
course, there are reading workshops. The reading workshops are close-reading workshops where
specific texts are closely analyzed and discussed. In this way, students train reading and making sense
of scientific texts. During these workshops, the students are required to have carefully read a specific
text (already discussed in the lecture), to have it available for close reading during the workshop and
to work on specific tasks related to the understanding of scientific texts and their argumentation.
During the reading workshops, the students will write in teams a one-page reflection on what they
have learnt during the workshop.

At the end of Part 1, there will be a testing workshop, where students will have the chance to write,
discuss and reflect on different theories studied in the course in their teams. At the end of this
workshop, each team will hand in the answers to the given questions on theory. Feedback for the
assignment performed in this workshop will be given in the following meeting.

In Part 2 of the course, there are three analysis workshops. In the analysis workshop, students will
choose a case to work on, collect secondary material and conduct a scientific analysis of it. In this
way, students practically train analyzing field material in. At the end of each workshop, the students
will be asked to write in teams one-two pages on the specific task performed during the workshop.

The students have the opportunity to have a supervision session of half an hour with HS or ER for
their team project.
In Part 2, students will also present their team projects and review others’ project. In the
presentation seminars they will receive feedback on which they will be able to work before handing
in the team project.

Throughout the whole course there are also skill workshops aimed at learning to work in groups and
search for literature. Students will write a reflection paper on their experiences and learning of
working in groups.

Forms of learning and assessment

It is expected by the students an active participation throughout the whole course. Students are
expected to read the assigned readings and be able to discuss them in each lecture workshop as well
as to lead and actively participate in close-reading, analysis and skill workshop. Each of the students’
review and analysis assignments as well as reflection papers will be assessed. See the introduction
ppt for details about the assignments.

In the second part of the course, the students will be writing a team project in which they will
scientifically analyze field material, provided by the course responsible. They will need to define a
problem, choose a theoretical perspective and scientifically analyze the material at hand. The team
project results in a scientifically-written project report.

The students will be assessed through a written exam, focused on the reading and understanding of
the literature, and the team work, focused on understanding theory, analyzing field material and
writing academically. The written exam will give a maximum of 70 points, while the team work,
including the review and analysis assignments and the scientifically-written report, will give a
maximum of 30 points. All team assignments are mandatory: The reviews and the analysis
assignments are graded with pass or fail, while the larger team project is graded on a scale 0-30.

Schedule

https://cloud.timeedit.net/gu/web/webres_emp/ri1Y6v9yQ6w511QY75Q2071XZY057ZQ7.html
Literature

Lecture 1 – History of Management Studies

Wren, D. and Bedeian, A.G. (2009) A prologue to the past. In Wren and Bededian, The Evolution of
Management Thought. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Lecture 2 – Institutional Theory

Czarniawska, B. and Sevón, G. (2005) Introduction. In Czarniawska and Sevón (eds.) Translating
Organizational Change. Berlin: De Gruyter.

DiMaggio, P. J. and Powell, W.W. (1983) The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and
Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields. American Sociological Review 48:147-160.

Lawrence, T., Suddaby, R. and Leca, B. (2009) Introduction: theorizing and studying institutional work.
In Lawrence, T., Suddaby, R. and Leca, B. (eds.) Institutional Work. Actors and Agency in Institutional
Studies of Organizations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lounsbury, M. (2007) A Tale of Two Cities: Competing Logics and Practice Variation in the
Professionalizing of Mutual Funds. Academy of Management Journal, 50: 289-307

Meyer, J.W., and Rowan, B. (1977) Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and
Ceremony. American Journal of Sociology, 83(2), 340.

Maguire, S., Hardy, C., & Lawrence, T. B. (2004). Institutional entrepreneurship in emerging fields:
HIV/AIDS treatment advocacy in Canada. Academy of management journal, 47(5), 657-679.

Lecture 3 – Practice Theory

Feldman, M. and Worline, M. (2016) The Practicality of Practice Theory. Academy of Management
Learning and Education, 15(2): 304-324.

Nicolini, D. (2012) Chapter 1-3 (Introduction. Praxis and Practice Theory. Praxeology and the Work of
Giddens and Bourdieu). In Nicolini, D. Practice Theory, Work and Organization. An Introduction.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Tsoukas and Chia (2002) On Organizational Becoming: Rethinking Organizational Change.

Organization Science, 13(5): 567-582

Lecture 4 – Actor-Network Theory

Callon, M. (1986). Some elements of a sociology of translation: domestication of the scallops and the
fishermen of St. Brieuc Bay. The Sociological Review. Special issue: Power, action, and belief: A new
sociology of knowledge, 32, 196-223.

Latour, B. (1986). The powers of association. The Sociological Review, 32(S1), 264-280.

Law, J. (1992). Notes on the theory of the actor-network: Ordering, strategy, and
heterogeneity. Systems practice, 5(4), 379-393.

Lecture 5 – Sensemaking and Narrative

Alvesson, M. (1993) Organizations as Rhetoric: Knowledge-intensive Firms and the Struggle with
Ambiguity. Journal of Management Studies, 30 (6): 997-1015.

Boje, D. M. (1991). The storytelling organization: A study of story performance in an office-supply

firm. Administrative science quarterly, 106-126.

Czarniawska, B. (2004) Narratives in Social Science. London: Sage. Chapter 1-2: Pp 1-24.

Weick, K.E. (1993) The Collapse of Sensemaking in Organizations: The Mann Gulch Disaster.
Administrative Science Quarterly, 38(4): 628-652.

Lecture 6 - Methods

Czarniawska, B. (2012) Organization Theory meets Anthropology. Story of an Encounter. Journal of

Business Anthropology, 1(1): 118-140.

Flyvberg, B. (2006) Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research. Qualitative Inquiry, 12: 219-
245.

Lecture 7 – Using Paradox Theory to Study Sustainability

Hahn, T., Figge, F., Pinkse, J., & Preuss, L. (2018). A paradox perspective on corporate sustainability:
Descriptive, instrumental, and normative aspects. Journal of Business Ethics, 148(2), 235-248.

Lecture 8 – Using Institutional Theory to Study Sustainability

Zapata, P., & Zapata Campos, M. J. (2019). Cities, institutional entrepreneurship and the emergence
of new environmental policies: The organizing of waste prevention in the City of Gothenburg,
Sweden. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 37(2), 339-359.

Lecture 9 – Using ANT to Study Downsizing in Organizations

Bergström, Ola., & Diedrich, Andreas. (2011). Exercising social responsibility in downsizing: Enrolling
and mobilizing actors at a Swedish high-tech company. Organization Studies, 32(7), 897-919.

Lecture 10 – Using Practice Theory to Study Strategy

Brorström, Sara (2019) The Strategy Process as a Result of Learning, Questioning, and Performing in a
City Organization. International Public Management Journal.

Other suggested readings for theory application

Arman, R., Kadefors, R., & Wikström, E. (2021). ‘We don't talk about age’: a study of human
resources retirement narratives. Ageing & Society, 1-27.

Egels-Zandén, N. (2014) Revisiting Supplier Compliance with MNC Codes of Conduct: Recoupling
Policy and Practice at Chinese Toy Suppliers, Journal of Business Ethics 119(1), 59-75. 
Lindberg, K., & Walter, L. (2013). Objects-in-use and organizing in action nets: A case of an infusion
pump. Journal of Management Inquiry, 22(2), 212-227.

Raviola, E., & Norbäck, M. (2013). Bringing technology and meaning into institutional work: Making
news at an Italian business newspaper. Organization Studies, 34(8), 1171-1194.

Raviola, E., & Dubini, P. (2016). The logic of practice in the practice of logics: practicing journalism
and its relationship with business in times of technological changes. Journal of Cultural Economy,
9(2), 197-213.