325-407 Advanced Management Theory

Entry into the honours program.

This subject critically examines the core concepts, ideas and beliefs that inform our understanding of what organisations are, what they do, and how we manage them. This involves combining cultural, historical, sociological, and philosophical approaches to the theoretical and practical issues of organisation and management to answer the following questions: What are 'organisations'? What do we know about organisations? How do we know it? Topics to be covered include the history of management ideas; established approaches to organisation and management theory such as systems theory, population ecology, and institutional theory; and alternative approaches to organisation and management theory such as cultural anthropology, discourse analysis, and theories of the organisational subject. Finally, we consider whether there is such a thing as postmodern organisation and a postmodern manager.

• High level of development: interpretation and analysis; critical thinking; receptiveness to alternative ideas.

• Moderate level of development: written communication; collaborative learning; problem solving; application of theory to practice; synthesis of data and other information; evaluation of data and other information; accessing data and other information from a range of sources.

• Some level of development: oral communication; team work.

A 3-hour examination (60%) and assignment(s) totalling not more than 4000 words (40%).