Hanken Moodle

This course has received high points in student course feedback during previous years.

Strategic thinking in action involves the ability to identify relevant information, to formulate and develop rigorous reports, and to judge the outcome of the analysis. The analytical skills are essential when managing organizations in different situations and changing contexts. This course addresses strategic issues (such as competition, governance, internationalization, politics, culture, change) through cases and provides analytical tools as well as an in depth understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of different analytical methods in strategic management.

The course introduction takes place on Tuesday 3.9 at 10:15 in room 308. The Moodle key will be given some day in advance before the intro session.

You are all warmly welcome! /Eva-Lena

Strategic thinking in action involves the ability to identify relevant information, to formulate and develop rigorous reports, and to judge the outcome of the analysis. The analytical skills are essential when managing organizations in different situations and changing contexts. This course addresses strategic issues (such as competition, governance, internationalization, politics, culture, change) through cases and provides analytical tools as well as an in depth understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of different analytical methods in strategic management.

This course has received high points in student course feedback during previous years.

The course introduction takes place on Thursday 30.10 at 12:30 in room 308. The Moodle key will be given some day in advance before the intro session.

You are all warmly welcome! /Eva-Lena

Welcome to this course in Personnel Assessment! You can find a preliminary version of the course description openly available here in Moodle. I will send out the Moodle key to all those who have successfully registered after the course has started. Our first session will be held on Tuesday March 18th in aud. 411. Although class attendance is not mandatory, it is strongly recommended.

Department of Management and Organisation, Vaasa & Helsinki
Introduction to Management 2025, Vaasa & Helsinki (22082)


Credits: 8 cr
Type of course: Intermediate Studies
Recommended study level: First or second year of Bachelor studies
Teaching Period 4: 17.3–9.5.2025, Easter holiday: 17.4–23.4.2024
Available to students from Vaasa and Helsinki, as well as Open University students.
Exam Week for Period 4: 12–16.5.2025
Course delivery: Online lectures; One workshop on-site (in Vaasa and Helsinki, respectively)
On-site final exams in Vaasa or Helsinki.


‘The presumption that managerial activity exists independently from the activities of managers leads to a grouping of all kinds of disparate activities under the heading of management. In that case, rather than electing a democratic rescue of management (as a general human attribute) from colonization by a named group of people (managers), critics would be in danger of endorsing the colonization of all human activities by casting them in terms of management. Whereas the demise of management might suggest that `we are all managers now', the critical response should not be that `we always were'. Instead the response to the demise of the special status of management should be that notions of management are now to be regarded as redundant. This then opens up the space for the construction of forms of subjectivity which are not conceived in terms of the discourse of management and manageability, rather than closing down the space in which such alternatives might exist. To put these points rather differently, I am suggesting that visions of a `post- managerial' future need to be handled with considerable caution. They appeal to critical writers because they appear to address the unjustifiable separation of management as a special activity. The restoration of management to `everyone' seems to be democratic in that it disperses influence and power. But the crucial issue is the terms on which this occurs. The demise of management does not imply an end to the co-ordination and control of human activities: rather, it installs this co-ordination and control in an ever-wider set of activities. As noted earlier, it is in this sense that the demise of management is fully compatible with the ascendancy of managerialism. By drawing the many rather than the few into management, managerial power - if not the power of managers - is extended rather than diminished.’

(Grey, C. (1999). “We Are All Managers Now”; ’We Always Were’: On the Development and Demise of Management. Journal of Management Studies, 36, 561–585.)

Course description

Introduction to Management is a bachelor-level course, which introduces students to the fascinating world of management in the context of modern organizing. The course aims to develop capabilities for independent thinking about management as a phenomenon ultimately concerned with a particular relationship to the human subject at work. This is achieved through a course structure that recognizes the cultural-historical specificity of management in modern Anglo-Saxon and European cultures. The course content is organized along three thematics. The first theme locates the emergence of management within the historical context of modern and industrial capitalism. Students will be introduced to three lines of critique of early industrial society and its particular modes of organization. This includes the analytical categories of anomie, alienation, rationalization and the objects of division of labour, the labour process, work ethic and bureaucratic organization. A second theme allows students to engage in managerial ideas and practices in terms of their origins, intentionalities, development and effects in the course of the 20th century. This includes scientific management, human relations and organizational psychology, systems theory, the management of culture and Human Resources. A third and final theme considers the technological horizon of possibility and discusses the self and subjectivity in contemporary organization as well as imaginations of future modes of managing. The latter includes themes of self-management, and issues about self-work, privacy and surveillance at work.

The course is guided by the conviction of a learning experience where students are treated as ‘young adults’ whose independent thinking in the world of management and organization studies can be cultivated through a collaborative mode of learning, akin to that in other parts of the social sciences and humanities, where problematizing of the object of study is considered germane. As such the course aims at sophistication rather than simplification (or ‘dumbing down’) and problematizing rather than prescribing thinking and analysis of the thought-world of management.

Learning Goals

Upon the successful completion of the course students should be able to:

• have a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of management and the particular organisational modes it relates to.
• comprehend the historical conditions for the emergence of management thought and practices
• analytically apply key sociological concepts in examining modern capitalism and its management
• consider the continuities and sustained relevance of the critical thought of key thinkers about early modern capitalist society
• identify the conditions of possibility for key managerial practices
• recognize several of the social scientific sources that underpin the heterogenous character of thinking that make up management
• analyse critically the management of work in organisations
• analyse the particular point of view and assumptions inherent in managerial thought and the production of the human subject at work in the course of the 20th century and beyond

International Learning Experience

The course examines management as an international phenomena in trans-atlantic cultures. The course examines International cases and examples analyzed and discussed in the readings. The course emphasizes the strong international academic understanding of examined phenomena.

Literature and Course Material

Required course readings include journal articles and book chapters, to be announced in course description, lectures and through Moodle. Additional course literature may be provided during the course.

Learning activities

The course is delivered through (online) lectures and seminars. It requires independent study and collaborative work. Two workshops are held on site (one in Vaasa and one in Helsinki)
 
Principal Lecturer and Course administrator

Fredrik Weibull
Hanken School of Economics
Department of Management and Organization
fredrik.weibull@hanken.fi

Virtual office hours
Office hours by appointment only, and through Microsoft Teams.

Instruction:
Course sessions and assignments.

Course Assessment and Assignments
The course assessment comprises various individual and/or group-based assignments and a written classroom-based (in-person) exam.
Various individual and/or group-based assignments: 60%
Written on-site exam: 40%

Please note that the points you receive for the sub-parts are valid only this academic year.

Total Student Workload:
214 hours divided into
Scheduled contact hours: 32 h
Non-scheduled work: 182 h

Målet med denna kurs är att fördjupa studerandes vetenskapliga förmåga för att förbereda studeranden för kandidatexamensarbetet och vetenskapliga projekt i yrkeslivet. Vägledning och viktiga verktyg för utförandet av vetenskaplig forskning inom företagsekonomisk forskning ges. Kursen behandlar bland annat vetenskapsteori, forskningsdesign, forskningsfrågor, litteraturbehandling, forskningsetik, datainsamling samt analysmetoder. De vanligaste kvalitativa och kvantitativa datainsamlings- och analysmetoderna behandlas. Kursen består av föreläsningar och praktiska övningar.

This seminar is your launchpad for writing a successful master’s thesis in your major subject. You’ll receive personal guidance from your supervisor, peer feedback, and structured support throughout the process. Expect to work hard—but also to grow as a researcher and thinker.

The course aims to support the writing of the master's thesis in the major subject. . During the course you will partly work on your own thesis and partly review and comment on your co-student’s thesis projects.


Students enrolled in the integrated Swedish-speaking programme are expected to write their thesis in Swedish, even though the handouts are provided in English.

COURSE INTRODUCTION 27.10 at 10.15 in aud 307

Note also the mandatory online module to be completed at your own pace, during the first two weeks of the course (see information below).

The course is based on blended learning, meaning an online module completed individually and mandatary sessions in class (not streamed/recorded). The mandatory attendance can be compensated with a reading assignment.

The firm’s capability to build strong, customer driven relationships is critical for success in business landscapes characterized by service competition. The ability of the firm to adopt, implement and employ a genuine service based perspective is key in this respect. An in-depth understanding of value creation and a learning based organizational culture open up new opportunities for marketing in firms defining themselves as service and customer driven businesses. This course provides an in-depth understanding of models and concepts related to customer logic, value creation, learning and business models. We will also explore the changing role of the actors in the market context and the implications of this. The course is based on learning in an interactive and constructive environment focusing on analysis and discussion of the course themes. The ability of the students to reflect and to stretch their mindsets will be enhanced.

Part of the work in the course Customer-driven Service Strategy (23105) is an online module Principles of Service management on the Digicampus platform (www.digicampus.fi). The purpose of this module is to get an overall understanding of the key theories in service and customer strategy based on Grönroos (2015). The online module is mandatory and completion is a prerequisite for course participation. The deadline of completing the course is November 9 (23.59).

Please register at Digicampus as a Hanken user with Hanken Shibboleth.

1. Go to the course page on Digicampus: https://digicampus.fi/course/view.php?id=6466
2. Log in with the option Haka Login and use your Hanken user ID to log in.
3. Go to the bottom of the page to “Self enrolment (Student)”.
4. Use the following enrolment key to register to the course page: Hanken2025-2026
5. Note: you need to use the above enrolment key to enrol to the course. If you use the enrolment key for independent studies, you cannot receive study credits for the course.