LFU:online

Learning objective: 

Students develop an in-depth understanding of creativity research as a current topic in theories and practice of organizations and learn to reflect critically on them. As this is a master course, we will dive directly into challenging material. We examine organizations in modern societies, review classical and modern theoretical frameworks that have been central to organization studies, and apply them to analyze the organization of creativity. We discuss images/metaphors  of organizations and discuss consequences for creativity. 

Students are expected to: 

•  Become familiar with “classic” and “modern” theoretical frameworks for understanding organizations

•  Apply these frameworks to understand creativity understood as the emergence of novel and useful ideas/products/processes in organizations, networks, and organizational fields

• Learn to take an analytical approach to the study of the organization of creativity, drawing on several theoretical perspectives simultaneously

• Learn to read, understand, and judge research articles and scientific literature, comprehending complex and ambiguous relationships as they appear in organizations and in management 

•  Become able to critically reflect on organizations and the various roles they play for creativity in modern society – socially, politically, economically, and culturally

• Apply what they have learnt to their own research projects and  living worlds. The students should draw links with other social phenomena and their own research projects (e.g., master thesis).  

• Cultivate debates and intellectual discourse through discussions and the ‘Battle Talks’.  

• Illustrate organizational phenomenon creatively based on an interpretative film analysis. Students will learn  alternative ways of illustrating organizational phenomena and creativity theories. 

• Become familiar with AI-supported software (ChatGPT) and apply it in a purposeful manner. 

Content: 

• Metaphors of Organizations: Organizations as machine, organism, brain, culture, network,...

• Creativity Theories: Creativity and the individual, in groups/collectives, organizations, networks, society 

• Empirical work in Creativity Research 

• Studying creatively - Qualitative Interpretative Film Analysis

Learning design:

Learning activities in individual and group work include:  

• Discussion of literature, video and audio files

• Sociological film interpretation as a qualitative method in organization studies 

• Written work (short essays and response papers) 

• Presentations (short presentations and long presentations)

• Debates and  ‘Battle Talks’ 

We divide the students into teams who, based on the learning content, alternate each week between giving short presentations (prepared in class) and submitting short written assignments (prepared at home). Students will additionally conduct the film analysis and the related presentation within those groups. 

Assessment VO: Written Exam on May 10th (questions on the literature marked as relevant for the exam) 

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