New Ways of Working

COURSE OBJECTIVE
After completing the course, students will:

• Understand how the properties of digital technologies require, as well as enable new approaches to working and organizing
• Have knowledge of relevant theories of how working, coordinating, and managing in these new environments is different from traditional workplaces and critically reflect upon the underlying assumptions
• Understand the interplay between technology and work practices and be able to analyze and demonstrate that interplay
• Be able to apply academic insights to analyze and develop solutions for a real life case

COURSE CONTENT
In this course we focus on the demands digital technologies put on organizations and society, and on how new ways of working and organizing help adapt to these challenges. Topics addressed in this course include, amongst others, how new ways of working (for example workers as digital nomads, expert systems as alternative for legal workers, or production done by 3d-printers) and new distributed and networked organizational forms (for example peer to peer communities or crowdsourcing) have advantages and disadvantages over traditional organizational practices and structures. In addition to learning about these topics in interactive lectures, students will also be required to fulfill a number of assignments related to “real-life” challenges of new ways of working and organizing. The assignments are related to a particular organizational problem and will require students to apply theories discussed during the lecture to a particular case. These “hands-on” assignments are aimed to get a better understanding of the connection between theory and practice. With the assignments, students become academically prepared to understand and support the design, introduction and use of digital innovation and its implications for new ways of organizing and working in new distributed environments.

TEACHING METHODS
The course will consist of a combination of interactive lectures, guest lectures, seminars, and assignments. The lectures will also include a critical discussion of selected readings, stimulated by obligatory individual reflections on the literature. The seminars will be used to have students present, discuss, and further develop the assignments.

TYPE OF ASSESSMENT
Individual assignments and Group project assignment