Dr Lucia Garcia-Lorenzo QUE.3.23

This course is available on the MSc in Human Resources and Organisations (Organisational Behaviour), MSc in Organisational and Social Psychology, MSc in Social and Cultural Psychology and MSc in Social and Public Communication. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Other students on degrees without a psychology or management component may only attend subject to numbers, their own degree regulations and at the discretion of the teacher responsible for the course.

The course focuses on how people work together in a number of contexts, from project teams within particular organisations to inter-organisational networks and alliances from the perspective of organisational knowledge. It offers students a theoretical and practical understanding about how organisations construct, disseminate and share knowledge in those settings. The focus is both theoretical and practical. Students will be expected to engage with both current theoretical debates and emerging practical issues in organisational life.

The course will cover topics such as: Organisations in the knowledge economy, knowledge-intensive companies, organisational learning, communities of practice, storytelling as knowledge transmission, teams and project organisations, virtual spaces, networks, alliances and partnerships, collaborative work, innovation and knowledge creation, implications for research and practice.

10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the LT.

Students will be expected to make extended use of the course intranet - for on-line discussions and group presentations.

Students will be expected to produce 1 piece of coursework in the LT.

Reading lists will be provided for each topic, the following are of general use; Castells, M. (1996) The Raise of the Network Society. Oxford: Blackwell; Czarniawska, B. (1998) A narrative approach to organisation studies. Qualitative research methods series. London: Sage; Dierkes, M.; Natal, A. B.; Child, J. and Nonaka, I. (2001) Handbook of Organisational Learning and Knowledge. Oxford: Oxford University Press; Little, S.; Quintas, P. and Ray, T. (2002) Managing Knowledge. An essential reader. London: Sage and Open University Press; Heckscheer, C. and Adler, P.S (2006) The firm as a collaborative community. Oxford: Oxford University Press; Tsoukas, H. (2005) Complex Knowledge: Studies in Organisational Epistemology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Weick, K. E. (1995) Sensemaking in organisations. London: Sage..

Essay (100%, 3000 words) in the ST.