LFU:online

The overall learning objective of the course is in-depth basic knowledge of the socio-philosophical, sociological, and psychological foundations as well as the characteristic theories, principles, research approaches, methods, results and scientific theoretical developments of an explicitly critically oriented stream in international management research. This includes the ability to summarize and synthesize as well as to critically and theoretically analyze and evaluate the international literature and to independently draft or elaborate and assess scientific texts, empirical studies, organizational practices, and interventions from such a perspective. Successful attendance of the course enables students to concisely describe the characteristic features and approaches of the research paradigm of critical management studies, to differentiate, compare, and contrast them with the conventional "functionalist" orientation of mainstream management and organizational scholarship, to identify and explain the conflicts and tensions arising from this incommensurability, to concretize these by applying them to organizational problems and research questions, and to develop and evaluate approaches to overcome or reduce these contradictions. The assimilation and independent evaluation of the paradigmatic critique of society and economy introduced in the course should display evidence of a knowledge- and fact-based, scientifically sound, as well as critically reflective, socio-moral, and ethical opinion-forming process.

The course content focuses on advanced basic knowledge of the academic field of critical management studies, an explicitly socially and economically critical stream in international management research, which has increasingly established itself as an independent and influential scientific paradigm within the last decades. This includes communication and joint elaboration of the socio-philosophical, sociological and psychological foundations of this perspective, its central theories, principles, research approaches, methods, and results, as well as developments in scientific theory, based on analyses, summaries and reading assignments of the current international English-language literature. Concrete contents include the elaboration of the three basic definitional principles of denaturalization, reflexivity, and anti-performativity, as well as the four domains of critical analysis, namely, interests, institutions, ideologies and identities. Building on this foundation, thematically discernable discourses and controversies are identified and analyzed, specifically, the evidence-debate between representatives of the critical paradigm and the functionalist mainstream, the performativity-debate within critical management studies, and the collusion- or managerialism-debate with more radical proponents of critical theory and Marxist labor process theory. Further addressed will be the influence of critical management studies on the field of psychology, especially on the emergence of a critical stream in applied work and organizational psychology.

Lectures by the course instructor and oral reports by course participants; reading assignments and literature reviews; written summaries; discussions and exercises; development, presentation, and written documentation and elaboration of guided study projects in small groups and/or individual assignments.

Grades in this course are based on continuous assessment. This includes fulfilling regular attendance requirements; active participation in class discussions and exercises; oral presentations and submitted materials; written reports and documentation of study projects. Specific components and their weighting will be discussed in the first day of class.