Critical Perspectives on Management (MOOC)By Rolf Strom-Olsen

Syllabus

Week 1 - The Lessons from Rome (I)

Description

In Ancient Rome, merchant organisations very similar to modern firms were critical to capitalising

key markets and to solving serious logistical problems to enable a vibrant trading network across

the Mediterranean, including, critically, supplying the city of Rome itself with the food its citizens

needed to survive. We will examine the Roman grain market and the organisations that operated

within that market to ask: what, exactly, is a firm? What led to the firm's evolution? And what is

the issue of agency that a firm inevitably entails?

Required Reading:

         Rolf Strom-Olsen, The Logistics of the Roman Grain Trade: details and implications  (IE

Business Publishing, 2013). (Available online for free to all enrolled students).   

Video Lectures

Released Mon, Jan 13 00:00 UTC

1 - 1 The Roman Grain Trade: Introduction (04:11)

1 - 2 The Roman Grain Trade: the problem of information (10:42) 

1 - 3 The Roman Grain Trade: the problem of transaction costs (08:09) 

1 - 4 The Roman Grain Trade: institutional solutions and the agency dilemma (12:38)

 Supplemental Reading

Although the lecture is short, we cover quite a lot of material that you may be unfamiliar with. 

You may wish to consult the Wikipedia (or Investopedia) articles on the following terms:

         Information Asymmetry 1, 2, 3 (Market for Lemons) 

         Transaction Cost Theory 1, 2, 3 (video explainer on Transaction cost economics)   

         Moral Hazard Article 1, 2, 3, 4 (video) 

         Adverse Selection 1, 2 

         Principal Agent Problem 1, 2, 3 (video) 

If you are interested in learning more about Ancient Rome, Diana Kleiner's Open Yale course is

now being offered as a MOOC. Sign up for it here (begins the same time as my class): 

https://www.coursera.org/course/romanarchitecture

 

Quiz

Posted Wed, Jan 15 00:00 UTC

Deadline Tues, Jan 21 23:59 UTC (+12 hr grace period)

Week 2 - The Lessons from Rome (II)

Description

This lecture expands upon the first discussion, drawing from the insights gained about firm

organisation in the Ancient world to ask about the effectiveness of the Forced Distribution

Ranking Scheme (also known as "stack and rank", "up and out", etc...) to evaluate and promote

or terminate employees, widely used by many of today's leading corporations. 

Required Reading:

Same as week 1

Video Lectures

Released Mon, Jan 20 00:00 UTC

2 - 1 FRDS Weighing the Method (12:42)

2 - 2 FRDS Some Drawbacks (12:09)

2 - 3 FRDS Outcomes and Contrasting Evidence (09:53)

2 - 4 Concluding Lessons from the Roman Grain Market (11:04)

Supplemental Reading

Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind, How Microsoft and Netflix Lost their

Way (2012). http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/08/how-microsoft-and-netflix-lost/

Marcus Buckingham, Trouble with the Curve? Why Microsoft is Ditching Stack

Ranking (2013). http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/11/dont-rate-your-employees-on-a-curve/

 Quiz

Posted Wed, Jan 22 00:00 UTC

Deadline Tues, Jan 28 23:59 UTC (+12 hr grace period)

Week 3 - What is Innovation?

Description

We live in the innovation economy. Firms have chief innovation officers. Innovation is, so we are

told, the key to securing the future. And there are quite literally millions of books on the subject of

innovation. So, what does it mean? And is it a useful idea for management? We'll consider both

questions. 

 

Required Reading:  

Marc Levinson, The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the

World Economy Bigger (Princeton, 2008), chapters 1, 2 & 3. (Available online for free to all

enrolled students). 

Video Lectures

Released Mon, Jan 27 00:00 UTC

3 - 1 Innovation: Defining innovation (09:39)     

3 - 2 The Box: explaining its introduction (12:00)           

3 - 3 The Box: Conditions for success (08:59)  

3 - 4 The Box: The story of failure (08:48)         

3 - 5 Conclusion: Thinking beyond innovation (10:18)

Supplemental Reading

NA

Quiz

Posted Wed, Jan 29 00:00 UTC

Deadline Fri, Feb 7 23:59 UTC (+48 hr grace period)

 Week 4 - The Power of Narrative

 Description

What do Hollywood movies, the Synoptic gospels, housing bubbles, Alan Greenspan's monetary

policy, and the world's worst merger have in common? This week's lecture will develop a reading

of narrative in order to explore a common pitfall that affects many managerial decisions.

Required Reading:  

Karl E. Case and Robert J. Shiller, "Is there a bubble in the housing market?" in Brookings

Papers on Economic Activity (2003, no. 2): 299-362. (Available online for free).   You only

need to read from the section entitled "The 1988 Survey" to the end. Page numbers are

indicated in the Readings section. Pay close attention to the tables included in the article.  

 Video Lectures

Released Mon, Feb 3 00:00 UTC

4- 1      Beyond Narrative: Examples of commonplace Narratives (13:01)

4- 2      Beyond Narrative: Towards a metacritical concept of Narrative (12:59)

4- 3      Beyond Narrative: The Housing Bubble: homebuying as an investment (09:53)

4- 4      Beyond Narrative: The Housing Bubble: irrationality in the marketplace   (09:40)

4- 5      Beyond Narrative: The Housing Bubble: context analysis (08:26)

4- 6      Beyond Narrative: The Housing Bubble: the behaviour of market actors (09:40)

4- 7      Beyond Narrative: The Housing Bubble: a cognitively dissonant market? (13:11)

4- 8      Beyond Narrative: The Housing Bubble: why didn't the Federal Reserve act? (09:02)

4- 9      Beyond Narrative: Narrative structures and Managerial decisions: concluding remarks

(08:13)

 Supplemental Reading

 Quiz

Posted Wed, Feb 5 00:00 UTC

Deadline Sun, Feb 16 23:59 UTC (+48 hr grace period)

 Week 5 - Is Shareholder Value a Good Idea? 

 Description

Perhaps the most important lecture of the course. Almost all publicly traded firms are beholden,

either explicitly or implicitly, to the principle of creating shareholder value. This week, we look at

the history of this idea, how it has become widespread as a principle of corporate governance

and how it has changed fundamentally the nature of the firm over the last 40 years. We will look

at who the shareholders are, where their interests lie and what they have gained from this

development. We will consider the wider and long-term consequences both for the firm and

society. And we will ask - is this the kind of capitalism we really want?   

 Required Reading:

Lynn A. Stout, The Shareholder Value Myth: how putting shareholders first harms investors,

corporations, and the public (Berrett-Koehler, 2012), Chapters 1 & 5. (Available online for

free to all enrolled students).

 Video Lectures

Released Mon, Feb 10 00:00 UTC

5- 1  Is Shareholder Value a Good Idea? - The origins of shareholder value - the orthodox view

(12:23)

5- 2  Is Shareholder … Idea? - The origins of shareholder value - an alternative view (08:17)

5- 3  Is Shareholder … Idea? - Regulatory and market changes (06:30)

5- 4  Is Shareholder … Idea? - Core competence as a shareholder-centric strategy (11:17)

5- 5  Is Shareholder … Idea? - Who is the shareholder? (10:19)

5- 6  Is Shareholder … Idea? - Conclusion: short-term vs. long-term perspectives (10:58)

Supplemental Reading

         Wealth Distribution in America Video. You can access it here.

 Quiz

Posted Wed, Feb 12 23:59 UTC

Deadline Fri, Feb 28 23:59 UTC (+48 hr grace period)

 Week 6 - Case Studies 

 Description

We look at the examples of two companies whose recent experiences encapsulate many of the

core ideas of the course. The first is Apple, which, in the context of reporting their quarterly

earnings in the Spring of 2013, committed an unprecedented amount of its capital reserves to a

share repurchase scheme and dividend increase. We will look at the motivation and logic for this

move. The second is Nokia (which has subsequently sold off its mobile phone business to

Microsoft). We will look at how the company rose - and then dramatically fell - from its position as

market leader in mobile communications.

 Required Reading:

 Serena Mujtaba and Rolf Strom-Olsen, The Extraordinary Rise and Rather Undistinguished

Decline of Nokia (2011). (Available online for free to all enrolled students).

 Video Lectures

Released Mon, Feb 17 00:00 UTC

6- 1      Case Studies: Apple and Shareholder Value (17:33)

6- 2      Case Studies: The rise and fall of Nokia: recognising market opportunity (09:11)

6- 3      Case Studies: The rise and fall of Nokia: pioneering success (17:04)

6- 4      Case Studies: Assessing Nokia's strategy (13:10)

6- 5      Case Studies: Explaining Nokia's decline (14:07)

6- 6      Case Studies: Conclusions (05:03)

 Supplemental Reading

Quiz

Posted Wed, Feb 19 00:00 UTC

Deadline Fri, Mar 7 23:59 UTC (+48 hr grace period)