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Semester 2

Strategies for Collective Action (BUST10152)

Subject

Business Studies

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Visiting students must have completed at least 4 Business courses at grade B or above. We will only consider University/College level courses.

Course Summary

How do groups get things done? If you are interested in how governments respond to crises, how companies develop innovations, or how NGOs change the way we think about issues, these are questions of Collective Action. This course examines Collective Action as a central part of human activity. We will explore how groups accomplish tasks, such as building or transforming organisations, running major projects, and campaigning for social change. In particular, the course will focus tackling grand challenges. This course will appeal to students who want to learn more about how to get things done and are keen to learn from different sectors to do so. The course provides a comprehensive overview of strategies for collective action, drawing on influential theories from Management & Organisation Theory to shed light on key strategic and organisational practices.

Course Description

Academic Description: We begin the course by exploring how organisations use their past as a key strategic resource for navigating their future. We will unpack the concept of institutional logics and study how different logics shape organisations through clashes and complementarity. Recent years have seen attention paid to hybrid organisations, we will think through how they work and how to construct one. Policy makers are very interested in Mission Led organisations and they are part of the government/corporate zeitgeist. We will examine their claims and assess how their role in Collective Action. The course will shift its focus from the organisation to individuals / teams through highlighting the importance of identity work and institutional work in shaping how strategies are shaped. This segues into developing our understanding of sensemaking and framing, which helps us understand why people do what they do and what frames constitute ¿common sense¿. At various junctures of a Collective Action process, subtlety and skill will be required. We will look to the world of peacebuilding and negotiation to understand how agreements get accomplished. We will extend this analysis through discussing the importance of cultural, economic and social capital in getting things done. 1. Introduction to the Course 2. Collective Memory & Rhetorical History: Using the Past as a Strategic Resource 3. Institutional Logics: Contests, Complementarity and Creative Tension. 4. Building Hybrids: Conforming v Dissenting. 5. Mission Led Organisations: the zeitgeist? 6. Identity Work & Institutional Work: who am I? What are we doing? 7. Sensemaking & Framing in Collective Action: the battle for meaning. 8. Diplomacy, Mediation and Skill: Getting things over the line. 9. A Capitals Perspective: the importance of cultural, economic and social capital. 10. Conclusion Student Learning Experience: The course will involve lectures and interactive learning experiences such as case analyses, text-based group discussions, guest talks etc. There will be a real-life case study, where participants will study a practical problem that shows the importance of strategies for collective action.

Assessment Information

Written Exam 0%, Coursework 100%, Practical Exam 0%

view the timetable and further details for this course