Sociological approach of management and HRM

Duration

30h Th

Number of credits

Lecturer

Christophe Dubois, Grégory Jemine, Frédéric Schoenaers

Language(s) of instruction

English language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the first semester, review in January

Schedule

Schedule online

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

The seminar aims to assess the impacts of digitalisation on organisations. While recent developments in the field of digital technologies are repeatedly reported to heavily influence organizations, their consequences are neither systematically identified nor systematically empirically verified within academic literature.
Students will therefore be invited to explore one or several subthemes related to the digitalization of organisations during the seminar, including for instance (the following list is not exhaustive and subject to change):
-       Algorithmic management, digital surveillance and control;
-       New Ways of Working in organizations;
-       The influence of IT on well-being and health;
-       Emerging and changing professions due to technological change;
-       Big data, metrics and big data analytics;
-       Paperless and virtual organizations;
-       E-reputation and cyber security;
-       Digital capitalism and digital labour;
-       Digitized training and online learning;
-       Confidentiality, data privacy and the GDPR;
-       Digital media technology and networks;
-       Connection, disconnection, and work-life balance

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

The seminar aims to stimulate students' capacity to develop reflective and critical thinking towards managerial (and HRM) issues related to digitalisation in organisations. Students are also asked to address the topic of digitalisation in a scientific manner, through the realisation of a collective working paper, an oral, cross-groups discussion of their work, and the writing of a concluding ethnographic report.
Consequently, at the end of the seminar, students should be able to:
-       Understand managerial challenges underlying digitalisation processes;
-       Build a research question around a problematized research object;
-       Identify and mobilize relevant scientific literature on a research object;
-       Adopt an analytical and sociological perspective throughout their work;
-       Incorporate the theoretical elements from the course within a collective working paper;
-       Discuss other research papers from their peers;
-       Reflect on their progress and learning through the redaction of an ethnographic report

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

The seminar is partly built on face-to-face sessions which introduce students with thematic content (on digitalisation and issues related to digitalisation) and theoretical, analytical and methodological perspectives on digitalisation.
The seminar also heavily relies on team-based and project-based learning, as students will, by small groups, develop a research question. Addressing this research question may include conducting interviews, realizing a literature review and writing a critical analysis.

Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning)

The seminar consists of five face-to-face sessions, for which attendance is mandatory (see Organizational remarks below).

Recommended or required readings

The course is based on key scientific papers among which the following are highly recommended readings:
Abrahamson, E. (1996). Management Fashion. The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 21, No. 1, p. 254-285.
Alvesson, M., & Spicer, A. (2012). A Stupidity-Based Theory of Organizations. Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 49. No. 7, p. 1194-1220.
Cascio, W. F., & Montealegre, R. (2016). How technology is changing work and organizations. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 3, 349-375.
Edwards, R., & Fenwick, T. (2016). Digital analytics in professional work and learning. Studies in Continuing Education, 38(2), 213-227.
Maharg, P. (2016) Disintermediation, The Law Teacher, 50:1, 114-131.
McAfee, A., Brynjolfsson, E., & Davenport, T. H. (2012). Big data: the management revolution. Harvard business review, 90(10), 60-68.

Assessment methods and criteria

The evaluation of the course is divided in three parts of equal weighting:
      A collective working paper on their research object (~ 33%);
      A collective oral performance during a "Conference Day" in January (~ 33%) that imitates an actual scientific manifestation during which students:

• Defend their paper in front of their peers;
• Actively discuss other groups' working paper;

Work placement(s)

Organizational remarks

Classroom sessions will take place on the 8/10, 22/10, 12/11, 19/11 and 17/12 (9.00 to 12.00 AM). Students attendance is mandatory.

Contacts

F.Schoenaers@uliege.be
C.Dubois@uliege.be 
GJemine@uliege.be

Items online