ALTERNATIVE MANAGEMENT

SPRING 2024

“The very fact that we find it hard to conceive of an alternative to limitless economic
growth is an indication of our spiritual condition” (Stanley Hauerwas)

Professor: Shoaib Ul-Haq Class: Zoom

Office Hours: 1 hour after the class time Credit hours: 3
Email: shoaib_ulhaq@yahoo.com

INTRODUCTION AND COURSE DESCRIPTION:

Growing income inequality, unequal access to affordable healthcare, climate change,
global poverty, and the fear of precarious jobs are not only challenging the credibility of
businesses but also generating fundamental questions about the contemporary social
system of neoliberal capitalism. These questions include the following: Have we reached
the end of history? Is Margaret Thatcher’s famous statement ‘There is no alternative’
true? Is there nothing beyond the corporate order that bestrides our planet? Is there any
other option besides the shareholder wealth maximising model for organizing private
economic activities? Is the market our new god? Is capitalism our salvation and free
markets our gospel? Is this indeed the victory ball? At whose expense then? And can we
do better?

If you are interested in the above questions, then you will find this course useful.

The course is structured along three modules. In the first module, we explore why there is
a need for an ‘alternative’ and when does organizational action become a true alternative
as opposed to a mere variation on the much flogged and trite shareholder value mantra of
mainstream management. This part establishes the context to explore the second part of
the course: ‘What is to be done?’ Here we look at present day experiments in motion in
various parts of the world where alternatives are being articulated to the current
hegemonic corporate model. These experiments range from trying to play within the rules
of the game (e.g., corporate social responsibility, microfinance) to challenging the game
itself (e.g., providing different templates for organizing activities such as worker
cooperatives, Akhuwat’s model).

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By the time you reach the third module of the course, you should hopefully have
developed a ‘bias for hope’ and some intellectual content to start forging your own
alternatives in solidarity with others, alternatives that will allow you to live meaningful
lives rather than a philosophy of futility. The last part is thus dedicated to providing you
with certain imaginations for crafting these alternative models to produce socially and
morally desirable outcomes.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES:

The learning outcomes for the course are as follows:

1. Understanding the meaning of alternative management and organizing models.

2. Understanding the need of an alternative with reference to the social system of
neoliberal capitalism and societal grand challenges.
3. Gain familiarity with a variety of concepts related to alternative management
including sustainable business models, ethical imagination, the tragedy of the
commons, alternative finance etc.
4. Gain familiarity with existing on-ground alternative models of managing and
organizing including workers cooperative, fair trade, complementary currencies,
Islamic banking etc.
5. Understand key challenges facing organizations addressing societal grand challenges
such as environmental and social issues and some of the tools and solutions used to
address those challenges.
6. Clarify and articulate your own alternative values and opinions on matters of business
and social importance.

MBA PROGRAM LEARNING GOALS:

The objectives of the program are:

 Effective communication skills

 Knowledge of all business disciplines
 Critical thinking skills
 Ethics
 Glocal mindset

Course Learning Outcomes mapped to Program Learning Outcomes:

Learning Communication Knowledge Critical Ethics Glocal

outcomes skills of core thinking mindset
business
areas
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3 
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5 

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 WORKLOAD:
This course is labor intensive, both individually and in groups. In addition to term
project, you will be responsible for case preparation, completing assigned readings,
various presentations, and other deliverables that will be described in this syllabus. High
performance in this course requires participation and preparation in all aspects of the
course.

COURSE DELIVERY:
This course will be conducted live via videoconferencing using Zoom and will not
involve in-person instruction. The Zoom link will be distributed via email before the first
class. For recording attendance and class participation, you will be expected to have your
camera and microphone on during class time. Have your microphone muted and unmute
yourself only when you speak. The students are expected to have their full name visible
on Zoom.

STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Students are expected to be ready and willing to discuss both the assigned material,
videos and cases for every session listed in this outline. This will require 4-5 hours of
advanced preparation for each session.
- Students are expected to attend class regularly and be responsible for any course-related
announcements which may be made in class, even if not present for the session in which
the announcement is made.
- Students are required to form their own groups for the term project and the same group
can also be used as a study group for support in pre-class preparation. Ideally, this group
should comprise people with knowledge of a variety of business areas (marketing,
finance, operations etc.) as well as skills in effective communication (writeup,
presentations etc.). A well-functioning study group can also add a great deal to the
learning experience and enjoyment of this course. Please note that members of the team,
once selected, will not change during the term.
- Students are also expected to select a company where they can access the data.
- A student who misses a session is solely responsible for getting notes from other students
and making him/herself aware of announcements made, handouts delivered, or any other
activities conducted in class.

COURSE PRE-REQUISITES:
Introductory courses in management, marketing, accounting, finance, operations
management, and organizational behavior.

COURSE MATERIALS:
All the course materials are available at LMS and at dropbox.

REFERENCE BOOKS:
1. Davis, G. F. (2016), The Vanishing American Corporation: Navigating the Hazards
of a New Economy, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Ann Arbor, MI.

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 2. Parker, M., Cheney, G., Fournier, V. and Land, C. (Eds.) (2014), The Routledge
Companion to Alternative Organization, Routledge, New York.
3. Varman, R. and Vijay, D. (Eds.) (2022), Organizing Resistance and Imagining
Alternatives in India, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
4. Klein, N. (2008). The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.
Metropolitan Books.

GRADING & EVALUATION:

The nature of this course does not lend itself to objective questions; generally, there are
no “right” or “wrong” answers. There are, however, different levels of quality.

All the assignments are considered late if not turned in at the scheduled time. Exceptional
circumstances which might jeopardize your ability to meet deadlines must be brought to
my attention prior to the due date, or else they will not be considered. If you are involved
in any co-curricular activities (e.g., sports), you will need to negotiate your contribution
with your team members. The team may complete and submit the term project
deliverables prior to the deadline. Please note that each team member will receive the
same grade for the project.

Your final grade in the course will be computed using the following weights:

Assessment item Individual/Group Percent

Class Participation Individual 20%
TED Talk Assignment Individual 10%
Quizzes (n-1) Individual 15%
Mid exam (take-home) Individual 25%
Final exam (take-home) Individual 30%

A word to the wise:

The final grade in this course is not just the result of how intelligent a student is. It is the
result of many factors which include your knowledge, skills, study and writing habits, the
availability of time and personal issues (to name a few), and how each of these things
interact with one another. My advice to you is to design your own strategy for this
semester so you can pay full attention to the assigned readings and assignments. This will
be an investment that you will not regret!

RELEVANT MOVIES:
Bazaar (2018) Dead Poets Society (1989)
Enron the smartest guys (2005) Equity (2016)
Inside Job (2010) American Psycho (2000)
Citizen Kane (1941) Modern times (1936)
Wall-E (2008)

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CLASS PARTICIPATION:
Class attendance is a requirement. If you’re not in class, you can’t participate. You
should notify me in advance via email if you cannot attend a class. Missing multiple
classes can seriously jeopardize even the best student’s chance of success in this class.
When there are speakers or student presentations, class participation (or lack
thereof) counts double.

Participation is evaluated by the quantity and quality of your input. Thus, students are
expected to adequately prepare for all classes. Overall, let’s try to create discussions
around interesting, creative, and insightful comments that stimulate the minds of all
students.

You are strongly encouraged to bring in outside information (stories/facts) pertaining to

strategy that will interest the class. We can spend a few minutes at the beginning of class
sharing your stories. Participation here will strongly contribute to your overall
participation grade. Think of your class as your business meeting. Come prepared!

QUIZZES:
Individual surprise quizzes will take place at the beginning of class in 2 or 3 sessions of
this course. If you miss a quiz a 0% will be recorded for that quiz – there are no make-up
quizzes. Quizzes will essentially cover material from the lectures and conceptual learning
from the cases. Quizzes will be closed book, closed notes.

TED Talk ASSIGNMENT:

You can watch a video on any TED Talk platform available on youtube.com. You will
submit a review of this video (max: 3 pages). The video should include a finding from
strategy or a closely related topic within the management discipline. Be bold: I applaud
originality.

In this assessment, I expect you to provide:

(a) A short description of the management related topic
(b) The overall argument, perspective, and insights of the speaker
(c) A critical assessment of the argument; what strikes you as noteworthy or
important; is the argument convincing; how the talk enhanced your understanding
of strategy?
(d) Originality. Is the topic or argument or any empirical evidence presented in the
video original? By original I mean does it challenge your background
assumptions.
(e) Link with the course. How is the topic related to course contents?
(f) Follow academic writing practice which implies that your work should be
scholarly, ethical (provide citations) and trustworthy.

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MID AND FINAL EXAM:
Mid and final exams will be case based and will test you on your knowledge of the
content of the course. These will be take-home exams and you would need to turn them
in by uploading your response on LMS.

COURSE OUTLINE:

MODULE ON THE NEED FOR ALTERNATIVE MANAGEMENT

Session 1: Introduction: Setting the stage

- Parker, M., Cheney, G., Fournier, V. and Land, C. (2014), "Advanced capitalism:
Its promise and failings", in Parker, M., Cheney, G., Fournier, V. and Land, C. (Eds.)
The Routledge Companion to Alternative Organization, Routledge, New York, pp. 1-
17.
- Varman, R. and Vijay, D. (2022), "Capitalist deathworlds, alternative
worldmaking", in Varman, R. and Vijay, D. (Eds.) Organizing Resistance and
Imagining Alternatives in India, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 1-40.
- Parker, M. (2019), "Alternatives to management ideas", in Sturdy, A.,
Heusinkveld, S., Reay, T. and Strang, D. (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of
Management Ideas, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Supplementary readings:
- Milanovic, B. (2016), Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of
Globalization, Belknap Press, Cambridge, MA.
- Armytage, R. (2020). Big Capital in an Unequal World: The Micropolitics of
Wealth in Pakistan. Berghahn.

Watch the following videos:

- History of capitalism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIuaW9YWqEU
- Noam Chomsky1 on capitalism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=_FHNMZbnvYU

Key concepts introduced: Capitalism, means of production, wage labor, alternatives.

Preparation for class discussion:

1. Do you agree that contemporary Pakistani businesses are embedded in the
capitalist order? If yes, why? If not, why not?
2. Do you agree that capitalism breeds inequality? What are the processes that lead
to this inequality?
3. Do you agree with the definition of alternatives provided in the PowerPoint
slides?

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See Wikipedia’s entry on Noam Chomsky if you are reading his name for the first time.

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Session 2: Disaster Capitalism
- Klein, N. (2008), The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism,
Metropolitan Books, New York.

Supplementary reading:
- Parker, M. (2018), Shut Down the Business School: What’s Wrong with Management
Education, Pluto Press, London.
- Ch-2, “Mechanization takes command: Organizations as machines”, Morgan, G.
(1986), Images of Organization, Sage, London.
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Session 3: Leadership
- INSEAD Case: “Ricardo Semler: A revolutionary model of leadership”. 2014.
- HBS Case: “Humanistic capitalism at Brunello Cucinelli”, 2019.

Background reading:
- Collins, J. C. (2001), "Level 5 leadership: The triumph of humility and fierce
resolve", Harvard Business Review, Vol. 79, pp. 66-76.
- Kravatzky, A. and Stephens, M. (2021), "Twelve reasons why boards and
executives should be clear that profit is not the purpose of their company", Board
Leadership, Vol. 2021 No. 175, pp. 1-8.

MODULE ON ALTERNATIVE MODELS

Session 4: Worker Cooperatives

- HBS Case: Mondragon Corporacion Cooperativa (MCC)

Supplementary readings:
- Snikersproge, I. (2020), "Milkerie worker cooperative in France: Some evidence
on why cooperatives struggle to propose an alternative to capitalist enterprise", in
Wood, D. C. (Ed.) Research in Economic Anthropology, Volume 40: Anthropological
Enquiries into Policy, Debt, Business and Capitalism, Emerald, Bingley, UK, pp.
127-148.
- Webb, T. and Cheney, G. (2014), "Worker-owned-and-governed co-operatives
and the wider co-operative movement: Challenges and opportunities within and
beyond the global economic crisis", in Parker, M., Cheney, G., Fournier, V. and
Land, C. (Eds.) The Routledge Companion to Alternative Organization, Routledge,
New York, pp. 64-88.

Session 5: Fair Trade

- Case: BeautifulCoffee and fair trade: Working with local farmer co-operatives in
Nepal.

Background reading:
- Raynolds, L. T. and Keahey, J. (2014), "Fair trade: Social justice and production
alternatives", in Parker, M., Cheney, G., Fournier, V. and Land, C. (Eds.) The

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 Routledge Companion to Alternative Organization, Routledge, New York, pp. 165-
181.

Session 6: Alternative finance - I

- AJMC Case: Akhuwat: Measuring success for a non-profit organization.

Supplementary readings:
- Assadi, D., Ashta, A. and Jung, A. (2018), "A tale of three musketeers of
alternative finance: Stagnating microcredit, growing P2P online lending and striving
for slow money", Journal of Innovation Economics & Management, Vol. 26 No. 2,
pp. 13-36.
- North, P. (2014), "Complementary currencies", in Parker, M., Cheney, G.,
Fournier, V. and Land, C. (Eds.) The Routledge Companion to Alternative
Organization, Routledge, New York, pp. 182-194.

Session 7: Alternative finance - II (Islamic banking)

- LUMS Case: Momin Islamic banking: Launching an Islamic credit card.
- Ul-Haq, S., Lone, R. A. and Ashraf, N. (2022), "A theory of capitalist co-optation
of radical alternatives: The case of Islamic banking industry", Organization, Vol. 29
No. 1, pp. 129-154.

Session 8: Open-source movement

- Stanford Case: Mesosphere: Creating lasting value on top of open source
software.
- Pearce, J. M. (2014), "Free and open source appropriate technology", in Parker,
M., Cheney, G., Fournier, V. and Land, C. (Eds.) The Routledge Companion to
Alternative Organization, Routledge, New York, pp. 308-328.

Session 9: Environmentally friendly business models

HBS case: Patagonia.

Key concepts introduced: Product lifecycle initiative.

Preparation for class discussion:

1. Evaluate Patagonia’s business model. How important to Patagonia’s business model
is its environmental position?
2. What is your assessment of the Product Lifecycle Initiative (reduce, repair, reuse, and
recycle)?
3. How fast can Patagnoia grow? How fast should it grow?
4. How would Patagonia’s business model differ if the company were publicly held?

MODULE ON RADICAL IMAGINARIES

Session 10: Management alternative based on religion (Christianity and Islam)

- Zaman, A. (2019), "Islam’s gift: An economy of spiritual development",
American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 78 No. 2, pp. 443-491.

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- Zaman, A. (2014), "Islam versus economics", in Hassan, M. K. and Lewis, M. K.
(Eds.) Handbook on Islam and Economic Life, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, pp.
45-70.
- Zaman, A. (2009), "The origins of Western social sciences", Journal of Islamic
Economics, Banking and Finance, Vol. 5 No. 2, pp. 9-22.
- Ul-Haq, S. and Khan, F. R. (2018), "A sufi view of human transformation and its
organizational implications", in Neal, J. A. (Ed.) Handbook of Personal and
Organizational Transformation, Springer, Cham, Switzerland, pp. 833-865.
- Peters, R., Ricks, J. M. and Doval, C. (2017), "Jesus centered leadership and
business applications: An alternative approach", Business and Society Review, Vol.
122 No. 4, pp. 589-612.

Session 11: Iqbal and management

- Ul-Haq, S. (2022), "Reversing the colonial warp in education: A decolonial
encounter with Muhammad Iqbal", Higher Education, Vol. 84, pp. 399-414.
- Ul-Haq, S. (2022), "Emancipation as submission: Muhammad Iqbal, storytelling,
and critical theory", in Alakavuklar, O. N., Barros, A. and Peredo, A. M. (Eds.)
Business Storytelling and Postcolonialism, World Scientific Publishing, London.

Session 12: Imagining alternatives

- Ul-Haq, S. (2022), "Introduction: Indigenous alternatives and ethical
imagination", in Jammulamadaka, N. and Ul-Haq, S. (Eds.) Managing the Post-
Colony, Volume 1: Ways of Managing, Organising and Living: Focus on South Asia,
Springer, Cham, Switzerland, pp. 29-37.
- Parker, M. and Lightfoot, G. (2014), "Imagining alternatives", in Parker, M.,
Cheney, G., Fournier, V. and Land, C. (Eds.) The Routledge Companion to
Alternative Organization, Routledge, New York, pp. 31-42.

Supplementary reading:
- Henderson, R. (2021). Reimagining capitalism.
- Porter, M. E. and Kramer, M. R. (2011), "Creating shared value", Harvard
Business Review, Vol. 89, pp. 62-77.

COMMENTS/SUGGESTIONS:
Students can contact me anytime during the course in case of any problem/issue they are
facing. My preferred method of contact is email.

TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENT:
There is no specific technology required for this course.

ACADMIC CONDUCT:
I refer to IBA’s policy on academic conduct available in the student handbook.

ATTENDANCE POLICY:
I refer to IBA’s policy on attendance.

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PLAGIARISM POLICY:
I refer to IBA’s policy on plagiarism.

WIITHDRAWAL POLICY:
I refer to IBA’s policy on course withdrawal available in the student handbook.

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