Time to Reorganize! Understand Organizations, Act, and Build a Meaningful World.

About this course: We are in constant relationship with many organizations. Our world is submitted to regular changes as organizations evolve, come and go. Understanding your memberships and attachments to organizations will help you act on your world. You'll learn how to evaluate the influence of organizations around you and how to transform your relationships to reach a stronger coherence. Do you feel sometime that the world around you is disorganized? Can you make sense of all the information at your reach and have an impact on this situation? Have you ever thought that this conundrum may be due to all the organizations that emerge, strive or wane, and disappear every day? Organizations are ubiquitous, from clubs and associations to firms and public agencies. Organizations confer meaning to all of us, and our attachment and membership to organizations have a profound effect on all areas of our lives. But in our increasingly turbulent world, these organizations run the risk of disappearing or losing their legitimacy, steering a sense of pointlessness and absurdity. This course develops an integrative approach to understanding organizations and their behaviors, termed ‘orgology’. It explains that organizations can act strategically to protect and renew the sense of membership and attachment of individuals. So doing, organizations that survive and thrive impose their logics of action onto society, thereby influencing what is legitimate or not. In turn, individuals, you, all of us, must reinterpret our multiple associations with organizations and contribute to reinforce or inhibit social evolutions. This new way of understanding organizations’ relationships with society results in reconsidering management and the role of individuals in building their future. There is no prerequisite to this course, you are all welcome ! Students and people interested in the fields of management, sociology, strategy, economics leadership etc… will benefit a lot from this course. For the session of this course starting on January 11th, Professor Rodolphe Durand will actively be participating and interacting with learners. He will be offering "office hours" sessions through google hangouts and answering learner questions from the forums. We hope this direct interaction will add to your learner experience! Please enroll today!

Created by:  HEC Paris

• Taught by:  Rodolphe Durand, Strategy Professor. GDF-SUEZ Chair holder.

  Strategy and Business Policy department.

Commitment 1-3 hours/week Language English, Subtitles: French How To Pass Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. User Ratings 4.4 stars Average User Rating 4.4See what learners said Coursework

Each course is like an interactive textbook, featuring pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects.

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HEC Paris HEC Paris, founded in 1881 by the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is one of France’s oldest elite higher education Grandes Ecoles. Throughout its 130-year history, HEC Paris has consistently attracted individuals highly capable and talented, innovative and entrepreneurial, ambitious and open-minded, capable of becoming architects of a responsible world. What makes HEC unique is its conviction shared by the HEC community: knowledge determines the freedom and entrepreneurship required for a better world.

Syllabus


WEEK 1


Our World is “Organizational”
We present and study how organizations influence our own identities and analyze the means by which we, as individuals, are taking part into this process.


9 videos, 7 readings, 1 practice quiz expand

1. Reading: Welcome to Module 1
2. Reading: Syllabus
3. Reading: Organizations are everywhere!
4. Video: 1.1.1 Why Organizations Matter
5. Video: 1.1.2 Organizations and You
6. Practice Quiz: Personal Test - Video 1.1.2
7. Reading: Living in a world centered around organizations
8. Video: 1.2.1 From the Organization of Production to the Production of Organizations
9. Video: 1.2.2 The Creusot Steam Hammer Example
10. Video: 1.3.1 What Organizations Are
11. Video: 1.3.2 Sociology of the Social
12. Video: 1.3.3 Sociology of Association
13. Reading: Powerful organizations
14. Video: 1.4 Defining Organizations as Solution Providers
15. Video: 1.5 From Res-sources to the Construction of Meaning
16. Reading: To complete the course...
17. Reading: Suggested Readings

Graded: Graded Quiz 1

WEEK 2


When an Organizations-based World Gets Disorganized
Let's explore the public space that is where we meet organizations and where they interact. Organizations follow sets of rules and practices that are of prime concern to them, to us, and to society: the logics of actions.


8 videos, 6 readings expand

1. Reading: Welcome to Module 2
2. Reading: Individuals without organizations?
3. Video: 2.1 Organizations versus Individuals
4. Video: 2.2 Where Organizations and Individuals Meet: the Public Space
5. Reading: Introducing the interface between individuals and organizations
6. Video: 2.3.1 The Public Space and the Logics of Action
7. Video: 2.3.2 A Typology of Logic of Actions
8. Reading: The implications of the logics of action
9. Video: 2.4 Logics of Actions and the Legitimacy of Organizations
10. Video: 2.5 A Source of Disorganization: Legitimacy Loss
11. Reading: Bernard Ramanantsoa, Former Dean of HEC Paris - biography
12. Video: Bernard Ramananstoa, Former Dean of HEC Paris, answers Rodolphe's questions about Logics of Action
13. Reading: Martin Hirsh, director of the AP-HP, Assistance Publique des Hôpitaux de Paris - biography
14. Video: Martin Hirsch, Director of the AP-HP Paris, answers Rodolphe's questions

Graded: Graded Quiz 2
Graded: Describe a situation

WEEK 3


Competition and Competitive Advantage
Competition among and between organizations leads to regular occurrences of disorganization. We’ll present and discuss the sources of competitive advantage, and the meaning of performance and competition.


7 videos, 7 readings, 2 practice quizzes expand

1. Reading: Welcome to module 3
2. Reading: Competition & competitive advantage: an integrative framework
3. Video: 3.1 Logic of the Market, Performance Test
4. Video: 3.2 Competitive Advantage: a Definition
5. Video: 3.3 Competition: External Analysis
6. Video: 3.4 Competition: Internal Analysis
7. Reading: Competitive advantage: discussions & implications
8. Video: 3.5 Competitive Advantage and Meaning
9. Video: 3.6 Limits of Performance
10. Video: 3.7 Meaning, Performance, and Competition
11. Reading: About Article Quizzes
12. Reading: Article: How marijuana legalization became a majority movement
13. Practice Quiz: Article Quiz: How Marijuana Legalization Became a Majority Movement
14. Reading: Article: Sharing economy : the next phase for the sharing economy
15. Practice Quiz: Article Quiz: Sharing Economy: the Next Phase for the Sharing Economy
16. Reading: Article: Myanmar’s mobile phone revolution

Graded: Graded Quiz 3
Graded: Graded Article Quiz: Myanmar’s Mobile Phone Revolution

WEEK 4


Understanding Change: Time to Reorganize
How to define your attachments and memberships in this organizational world? What are the various paths of actions that are opened to you following different situations? What is and how to use management?


9 videos, 9 readings, 2 practice quizzes expand

1. Reading: Enriching your experience
2. Reading: Interacting with organizations
3. Video: 4.1 Disorganization and You
4. Video: 4.2 Time to Reorganize: Engage!
5. Video: 4.3 Time to Reorganize: Resist!
6. Video: 4.4 Time to Reorganize: Rearrange!
7. Reading: Food for thoughts
8. Video: 4.5 Understanding Sources of Disorganization
9. Video: 4.6 Management and Organizations
10. Video: 4.7 Time to Reorganize
11. Reading: Emmanuel Faber, CEO of Danone - biography
12. Video: Emmanuel Faber, CEO of Danone
13. Reading: Gérard Mestrallet, Chairman and CEO of GDF SUEZ - biography
14. Video: Gérard Mestrallet, Chairman and CEO of GDF-SUEZ
15. Reading: About Article Quizzes
16. Reading: Article: 3D Printing
17. Practice Quiz: Article Quiz: 3D Printing
18. Reading: Article: Billionaires With Big Ideas Are Privatizing American Science
19. Practice Quiz: Article Quiz: Billionaires With Big Ideas Are Privatizing American Science
20. Reading: Article: Edward Snowden, Whistle-Blower

Graded: Quiz 4
Graded: Graded Article Quiz: Edward Snowden, Whistle-Blower
Graded: Find a way to reorganize when facing a situation

WEEK 5


Final Article Quizzes and Final Exam
Description goes here


4 readings, 4 practice quizzes expand

1. Reading: Article: Will MOOCs be Flukes?
2. Practice Quiz: Article Quiz: Will MOOCs Be Flukes?
3. Reading: Article: Amazon counts cost as Christmas veto campaign gathers
4. Practice Quiz: Article Quiz: Amazon Counts Cost as Christmas Veto Campaign Gathers
5. Reading: Article: Is Uber the worst company in Silicon Valley?
6. Practice Quiz: Article Quiz: Is Uber the Worst Company in Silicon Valley?
7. Reading: Article: Can Whole Foods Can Change the Way Poor People Eat?
8. Practice Quiz: Article Quiz: Can Whole Foods Can Change the Way Poor People Eat?

Graded: Final Exam (graded)