Course information
Course title in Danish
Course title in English
Managing performance, resources and organizing in the digital firm.
ECTS
30 ECTS
Department
Department of Management
Study programmes
Cand.merc.
Forms of instruction
Lectures, Class instructions, Case discussions and Supervision
Comments on the forms
of instruction
Ordinary lectures, case-based teaching, classroom teaching where students
present examples and exercises. Active student participation is required. The
course is divided into modules. For each module the student has to submit
written assignments. The students will give oral presentations of some of the
assignments. The assignments will be done in groups of 3-4 students. The
groups should be diverse with respect to background and culture. The students
can suggest the group composition. Final group composition will be
determined by the coordinator of the particular module.
A study tour including lectures and company visits in collaboration with
Columbia University, New York.
Course type
30 ECTS elite semester.
Description of
qualifications
Managing performance, resources and organizing in the digital firm is a key
challenge from both a theoretical as well as a practical perspective. This course
will take an inside out perspective on how to manage the resources in the firm
in the context of the digital firm.
The Digital Firm is a general term for organizations that have enabled core
business relationships with employees, customers, suppliers, and other external
partners through digital networks. These digital networks are supported by
enterprise class technology platforms that have been leveraged within an
organization to support critical business functions and services.
The course covers how digitalization effects our current knowledge of firm and
firm behavior – from a theoretical perspective and as well as from a practical
perspective. This includes:
•
How and why digitalization.
•
What challenge accepted theories and practices: Performance
motivation, collaboration, organizational behavior, business law,
accounting, innovation, operations management, and finance, etc.
•
Which new skills are required of managers and employees in the
digital firm, e.g. with respect to business intelligence and performance
management.
The course addresses these challenges from the perspective of firms that are
disrupted by the new technology as well as the disruptor.
In every module, the students use theories, cases, knowledge and skills to
understand and analyze the complex new demand facing existing models in the
digital economy. This includes the perspective of network, communities and
ecosystems.
After following the course students should be able to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Discuss and analyze how technological development affects corporate
strategy and organizational design.
Discuss and analyze employee dynamics in the digital firm including
motivation, collaboration, innovation, and leadership
Analyze how digitalization affects firm management including
performance management, business intelligence, and resource
planning (financial, human, and capital resources)
Discuss how classical theories of organization and management apply
to the digital firm
Apply knowledge of the digital firm to address organization challenges
of the digital company.
Identify and describe key characteristics of the digital firm
Syllabus
Not relevant.
Academic prerequisites
A bachelor’s degree in Business or Economics with an average grade of 7.
Basic knowledge of organization, organization behaviour, HR, statistics and
ICT. As prerequisite for attending one or more modules, it is expected that the
student is motivated to independently study some topics in order to achieve a
sufficient academic level required by the module. E.g. it might be necessary
for students that have not studied HR courses at a masters level to study
independently some HR topics at master level for the module in Human
Resource Management.
See more details in the “Maximum enrolment” section below.
Period:
To be offered in the autumn semester 2016.
2
Hours – weeks – periods
The course is divided into a number of modules that deals with specific areas
of the digital firm. The modules are taught sequentially. A module can be one
or more weeks. There will be 12 teaching hours per week except for the week
of the study tour. The honors course is challenging and a considerable amount
of preparation and group work outside class hours should be expected.
Contents
Module 1: The Digital Firm (two weeks)
Challenges and opportunities:
Digital Technologies are changing the business world in a variety of different
ways, and the design, creation and marketing of digital products is of
increasing importance to many industries, not just limited to those commonly
thought of as “high-tech.” Further, the internal operation of the firm are now
digitalized allowing for different organization, employment and outsourcing.
Module one will involve a number of case discussions to illustrate these ideas,
along with lectures.
The module will present a framework for analyzing digitalization both from
the point of view of the disruptor and the disrupted.
Digital Platforms:
Various digital platforms that were discussed in the cases will be introduced
both from a technical and a managerial perspective.
From a technological perspective, they define the information and
communication infrastructure of the entity and they enable new ways to
digitize processes.
From a managerial perspective, they facilitate new coordination and
communication within and across entities, enable new organizational forms,
change the information environment underlying the business, and permit new
incentive and monitoring structures.
It will include web, cloud and mobile platforms. From a management point of
view, it will cover Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Supply Chain
Management (SCM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Knowledge
Management System (KMS), Enterprise Content Management (ECM), and
Warehouse Management System (WMS) among others. The purpose of these
technology platforms is to digitally enable seamless integration and
information exchange within the organization to employees and outside the
organization to customers, suppliers, and other business partners. In particular,
it will be discussed how these platforms affect the basic economic transaction.
Performance Management and Analytics
The digital economy opens up new opportunities to capture and analyze data in
ways unthought-of before. How can performance data be used to deliver new
insights that drive ever better service? Techniques and metrics for analyzing
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data provided by the various digital platforms will be covered from the point
of view of managing performance.
Module 2: Organization, Management and Leadership (four weeks)
Information technology and digitalization is challenging the way organizations
look and work. Organizations now take on radically different forms compared
to only few decades ago. Management and governance is conducted using new
media and focused on different challenges. Workers are becoming independent
and much less attached to their workplace in both a legal and physical sense.
Organizations are increasingly working on a virtual arena, where expert
employees are gathered from around the globe to collaborate on complex
projects and tasks. This poses some new challenges to leaders, as they no
longer have a person-to-person contact with the people the have to lead. What
are the specific traits of virtual work and how can leadership address these
challenges in an efficient way? Related to this is also the cross cultural
leadership as virtual work often implies diverse teams from multiple cultures.
In the digital age innovation is no longer a matter confined to the R&D or
product development departments. Rather, the digital age opens up to a much
greater involvement of employees from around the organization. How can
leadership incite employees to partake and contribute in innovation work?
Furthermore, as more and more employees from around the organization
participate in innovation work, what is the role of leadership in enhancing
collective learning and creative problem solving?
This module aims to provide an advanced and indepth understanding of
organizations in the digital economy. By contrasting received wisdom and
existing theories with the new realities, the goal is to provide an understaning
of current organizational challenges
The module will address questions such as:



How will the digitalization effect our current knowledge of organizations
and management – from a theoretical perspective and as well as from a
practical perspective.
What challenges will digitalization give to accepted theories and practices?
Which new skills are required by employees and mangers to succed in the
digital firm?
Module 3: Study tour: Technology Management (one weeks)
Visiting Columbia University with two days of intensive teaching on
Technology Management and visiting companies with a focus on Technology
Management.
Module 4: Human Resource Management (four weeks)
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The widespread use of electronic technology has entirely changed the concepts
of Human resource management. Technology helps in all processes from
recruit to retire functions and has drastically changed the way employees and
managers get access to the human resource data. How to use technology in a
human resource perspective to connect people and information is the challenge
faced by the business leaders presently. HR-IT has achieved much importance
because of its use in most of the organizations to increase the productivity
through maximizing the value of the organization’s most significant asset,
PEOPLE. In the digital age, it is imperative to train a human resource base
who are capable to handle large amounts of information and subsequently
transfer the same information, after processing and repackaging the formation,
efficiently, faster and effectively.
As more and more teamwork happens virtually, HR managers will face new
challenges in relation to management and communication. For example, there
are special challenges related to employee motivation in such environments,
there are distinct demands to communication with employees and among team
members, and as virtual teams are often global, intercultural issues may also
arise.
Digitalization allows for certain HR service and administrative functions to be
outsourced to external suppliers. But how should this be managed in practice?
HR managers will confronted with challenges such as strategic alignment,
coordination and the integration of information systems.
Much of the workforce of the future will be recruited in under developed
countries in which there is only limited access and knowledge to IT and
technology. Future HR departments will have to engage in socio-economic
collaborations with local governments, universities, schools, etc. around the
world to build up the necessary digital competences. This type of work is
entirely new to most HR professionals and will require other than traditional
HRM tools.
The module will include:
•
•
•
•
•
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Evaluate new technologies available for today’s HR professionals and
decide how and when to adopt them
Develop a strategy that will keep human resources aligned with
today’s digital world
Apply various digital means for the effective recruitment and selection
of talent
Balance between employees’ digital needs and organizational security
policies
Distinguish between human resources information systems (HRIS) and
interactive platforms
Assess digital and social learning and how they contribute to people
development
5
•
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Explain performance and feedback systems in light of new assessment
methodologies
How to work in virtual teams using new communication and
collaboration media.
Module 5: The Nature of the Firm in the Digital Age (one week)
Transaction costs decrease dramatically in the digital age. As transaction costs
decrease, the value of services relative to products increases. That is because
one of the key selling points of a product is that it eliminates future transaction
costs once it has been purchased. Software as a service, media as a service,
transportation as a service, manufacturing as a service—these are the engines
driving economic growth in a digital economy. Their rise to prominence
entails a shift to consumption economics, a world in which risk has been
transferred from buyer to seller.
Low-cost operational excellence based on supply-chain efficiencies is
becoming so sufficiently universal that is no longer a strategy for
differentiation in a developed economy. It will still be possible to differentiate
on price, but that will largely be based on revamping sales, marketing, and
distribution processes leveraging big data and analytics—factors beyond the
bill of materials.
This module summarizes the course and present an analytic and theoretical
framework for analyzing the effects of digitalization. This includes theoretical
elements from transaction economics, property rights, risk management,
agency theory and financial management.
Lecturer
Børge Obel (coordinator), Andrea Carugati, Anders Ryom Villadsen, Jacob
Eskildsen, Michael S. Dahl, Lars Frederiksen, Karen Brunsø and Charles
Snow.
Language of instruction
English
Academic term
Cand.merc. third semester.
Literature
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Maximum enrolment
The course is offered under the rules of “Talentforløbet/Excellence ved Aarhus
Universitet” that can award the student a degree with first-class honours
(Graduation with distinction). It offered to students in all MSc in Economics
and Business Administration programmes with the exemption of MSc in
Accounting and Auditing, where special rules apply.
A bachelor’s degree in Business or Economics with an average grade of 7 is
required.
A maximum of 20 students will be accepted.
A written application will be the basis for individual evaluation in order to
accepting the student to the course where following criteria will be taking into
consideration:
1. Motivation
2. How the student sees digital transformation relate to the “major”
chosen.
3. Knowledge and previous interest in digitalization.
Location
The course is taught in Aarhus.
Exam Details
Form of examination
Oral exam
Examiner(s)
External co-examination: the exam is assessed by the examiner and one or
more external co-examiners appointed by the ministry.
Assessment
7-point marking scale
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Notes
The oral exam is based on a random selection of two of the written
assignments. The written assignments can be done in groups, but the oral exam
is individual.
The length of written assignments is 4-6 pages.
Prerequisites for exam
participation
The course is divided into 5 modules. For each module a participation in an
exercise is required to demonstrate that the actual skills and knowledge can be
used in the context of the digital firm. The participation in the exercise is
documented in an assignment report of 4-6 pages. The student can only
participate in the oral exam if all assignment reports are submitted and if the
student has held the group presentations in class.
Exam duration
The oral exam will last for approximately 30 minutes.
Preparation time
Exam language
Assignments must be written in English and presentation must also be held in
English. The individual oral exam can be passed in Danish if the examiner
agrees.
Aids
All
271114/sbunk/chs/esm
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