MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORY

The course in Management and Organizational History is characterized by the variety of disciplinary approaches of advanced studies in the disciplines of Management. Addresses issues at the frontier of research in critical management studies, in the history of management, organizations and stimulates participants to elaborate personal reflections on theories, practices and events.

The course stimulates a critical reflection on the conventional conception of management and conceived as a social and cultural artifact, a set of practices around which power and interests are negotiated and political processes implemented.

Skills will be acquired in critical reading of theories and management techniques, useful to question their neutrality and universality and to grasp their transformation over time, together with the theoretical awareness of the retrospective nature of the historical approach, useful to compare the strategic vision of the actors with the historical outcomes of their actions.

Knowledge of basic historical notions, knowledge of the main approaches to the study of management and organizations

The course of Management and Organisational History suggests that a different methodological attitude is needed to take into account the interpretative and instrumental nature of managerial knowledge, focusing on the structural inertia of routines and practices, the contingent conditions which make it possible to change them and the constitutive effect of cultural categories. This retrospective approach, which contrasts the strategic vision of the actors in their time with the hindsight of the scholar, opens the way to a critical assessment of the tension between past and future perspectives and the multiple temporalities that pervade management and organizations.
A presentation of the ongoing debate on historical approaches to research in management will be followed by student presentations and critical discussion of papers focusing on specific theoretical, methodological and empirical issues concerning the practice of organizational history. Finally, the students will be engaged in the preparation of a project paper, which will be discussed in class and with the teacher at different stages.

S. Decker, W.M. Foster, E. Giovannoni (eds.). (2023). Handbook of Historical Methods for Management. Edwin Elgar.

Further readings will be identified focusing on students' research interests.

Students will be required to present and discuss a scholarly paper, and their performance will contribute to 50% of the final grade.
A final project paper adopting historical methods to answer a management research question will be evaluated, contributiing to 50% of the final grade.

written and oral

Regarding the grading of the votes (how the votes will be allocated):
A. Scores in the 18-22 range will be awarded if:
- sufficient knowledge and understanding applied to the programme;
- limited ability to collect and/or interpret data, making independent judgements;
- sufficient communication skills, especially in relation to the use of specific language related to the historical method;
B. Scores in the 23-26 range will be awarded if:
- discrete knowledge and understanding applied in relation to the programme;
- Considerable ability to collect and/or interpret data, making independent judgements;
- discrete communication skills, especially in relation to the use of specific language related to the historical method;
C. scores in the range 27-30 will be awarded if:
- good or excellent knowledge and understanding applied to the programme;
- good or excellent ability to collect and/or interpret data, making independent judgements;
- fully appropriate communicative skills, especially in relation to the use of specific language that relates to the historical method.
D. The honors will be awarded in the presence of excellent applied knowledge and comprehension skills in relation to the program, judgement and communication skills.

Teaching integrates lectures and highly interactive methodologies. Presentation of international papers in the classroom, interactive discussion and the construction of a paper are the main activities of the course, along with a few lectures.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Circular economy, innovation, work" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development