Content, progress and pedagogy of the module

The goal of this course is to develop the competences to design appropriate structures and processes that support effective operations and innovation management. Building on contingency theory, the students will learn to critically analyze the relationship between goals, organizational structures, and organizational environment, to make appropriate design choices.

Learning objectives

Knowledge

• Explain contingency theory and its application in operations analysis and design.
• Explain the dimensions of operations analysis and design and describe different design options for these dimensions.
• Explain how various contingency factors impact the effectiveness of operations design configuration.
• Describe the role of operations design in fostering or constraining innovation, change, and operational efficiency within organizations.

Skills

• Select and apply appropriate operations design theories to analyze case studies of organizations to evaluate the alignment between structures, goals/strategy, and context.
• Select appropriate data collection and analysis methods to investigate the operating tasks/models/concepts, industrial/competitive, strategic, and technological aspects for these problems.

Competences

• Illustrate the effect of operations design choices on innovation and operations management through concrete case examples.
• Independently formulate and justify operations design choices that support specific operational and innovation strategies within a concrete case, using appropriate frameworks and tools.

Type of instruction

The teaching is organized in accordance with the general form of teaching. Please see the programme cirruculum §17.

Extent and expected workload

Since it is a 5 ECTS course module the expected workload is 150 hours for the student.

Exam

Exams