Designing organizations to achieve strategic goals is a complex and central issue for managers. This course covers the core dimensions of strategic organization design, i.e. strategy, structure, processes, and people. It addresses central theoretical concepts within each dimension and interlinkages between them based on fundamentals of strategic management and organization theory.
Continuous in-class discussions of real world examples and student presentations ensure practical application of the concepts and theories. Issues such as how organizations function and how managers can actively design and modify organizational parameters will be discussed.

Course content:

1. Dimensions of strategic organization design
   1. What is strategy?
   2. Organization structure and new forms of organizing
   3. People in organizations (boards of directors, top executives, middle managers, employees)
   4. Processes
2. Interlinkages between dimensions of strategic organization design
3. Discussion of many international company examples

Students will learn to analyze and address important strategic and organizational challenges. They will learn different theoretical perspectives and frameworks and how to combine them to understand strategic and organizational interlinkages. The course therefore integrates many issues that students have to handle in their prospective managerial jobs.

After completing this course students will have the ability to:

• Discuss strategic organization design and the underlying dimensions from a comprehensive perspective
• Explain basic theoretical concepts and models in strategic management and organization theory
• Apply theoretical concepts and models to real world company situations
• Analyze and critically evaluate central strategic decisions and organizational implications
• Analyze various aspects and challenges of strategy and organization in practice

Apart from that, completing this course will contribute to students' ability to:

• Improve their oral and written communication and presentation skills (in English)
• Learn to give and receive constructive feedback
• Learn to translate their insights to practical problems
• Work on solutions for real-life case studies

Full attendance at all sessions is expected. We require an attendance of minimum 80% of all sessions (both in-person and online, if applicable) in order to successfully complete the course.

If you are unable to attend a session due to unforeseeable circumstances, you need to inform your lecturer before the session takes place.

• Lecture with discussions
• Team Presentations
• Final Exam

All reading materials for the course will be supplied via CANVAS.

Course Materials and Use of AI

• Exam (50%)
• Team Presentation (35%)
• Final team report (15%)

Please note that students must participate in all three grading components in order to pass the course.
We expect all students to actively participate in the in-class discussions.

IOD guidelines for AI use:

1. Is the use of AI-based software in your course/exam permitted?

The use of AI-based software is permitted for writing support (e.g., Grammarly) as long as its use is referenced correctly. If you use AI-based software (e.g., ChatGPT) for text and content generation in your presentations or written work, it is mandatory to:

a) verify the information generated,

b) reference the generated content and the AI-based software correctly, and

c) be prepared for in-class discussions, where we will challenge your results and insights.

Please note that it is not permitted to upload any data to AI-based software; this concerns both:

a) licensed material accessed through WU (e.g., uploading a paper you accessed through the WU library to ChatGPT) and

b) primary or secondary data that you have or collected during the course (e.g., transcribing and analyzing interviews with ChatGPT).

2. How do you adequately reference AI-based software?

You need to provide a reference in the footnotes AND add a detailed appendix with the specific "prompts" you entered and the “responses” you received from the AI-based software.
Please find more information on how to reference the use of AI-based software here.

3. What happens in a suspected case of unauthorized use of AI-based software?

We apply software that indicates the use of AI-based software. In the case of suspected unauthorized use of AI-based software, we will initially set up an additional individual oral audit interview with the student and then determine further steps.

Please log in with your WU account to use all functionalities of read!t. For off-campus access to our licensed electronic resources, remember to activate your VPN connection connection. In case you encounter any technical problems or have questions regarding read!t, please feel free to contact the library at readinglists@wu.ac.at.