Organizational Learning

Several different approaches to organizational learning and change, as well as considerations concerning the management of employee issues during change processes will be discussed. However, these approaches differ considerably in addressing the subject of learning and knowledge, which necessitates a clear distinction between these concepts. In addition, internationalization of companies leads to opportunities for and constraints of organizational learning. The course will therefore also discuss an approach to the management of subsidiaries in different countries.

This course aims at exploring the different ways in which organizations learn from past experiences and subsequently conduct change. Since decisions on important organizational changes can be undertaken successfully only if the organizational members are willing and able to learn from prior experiences they need to overcome their (quite natural) resistance to change. Therefore this course also aims at understanding different methods of bringing organizations to learn and change reliably.

In presence

The course consists of different kinds of sessions: lectures and discussion of business cases. The business cases are connected to the preceding lectures, however, in most cases, not fully. There will also be two in-class assignments (quizzes).

• There will be a final exam on the topics discussed in class.
• There will also be two in-class assignments during the semester.
• The in-class assignments count for 30% of the grade, while the final assignment counts for 70% of the grade