Organizations, institutional change and sustainability
This course discusses new sustainability research in the sociology of organizations and organizational theory. The focus of the papers is on institutional theory and qualitative research to better understand institutional and organizational change triggered by sustainability considerations. We will discuss for example institutional entrepreneurship, institutional logics or institutional decoupling; we will also discuss the issue of social and ecological sustainability of organizations and/or institutional change. The topics covered rely mainly upon journal articles. The aim is to develop own criteria to understand, evaluate, synthesize and critique recent research.
At the beginning of term, we will read and discuss academic papers. In the second part of the term, small groups of three to four students will work independently on an issue of the course (”mini research project”; e.g. current developments in Small and Medium Sized Companies (SMEs) initiated through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) issues). The student groups will receive time during class to work on their projects, but are also asked to meet outside class. Finally, the student groups will present their results in class in a final workshop.
Requirements: To meet the requirements for earning a certificate (Leistungsschein) participants are asked to give a very short input (5-7 min) of one of the topics and to prepare an excerpt (input/excerpt 2-5 pages), to participate actively in the group work and the workshop (output of the group work) and to take an oral examination (mündliche Prüfung) or to write a term paper (Hausarbeit). Course language is English. |