This course explores the strategy, how it being made and its relation to organization and leadership. The course deepens students’ understanding of the key themes of strategy, organization and leadership by focusing on actual practices and processes of strategizing. Understanding how strategy is actually done includes (but is not limited to) an intensive discussion of the following questions:

• How is strategy made in organizations?
• Which use tools and maps contribute to an effective strategy process? 
• How to engage diverse stakeholders, including the public through new forms of participatory democracy? 
• How to organize collaborations between the public, private and third sector? 
• How to leverage strategy for internal cultural change processes? 
• How are politics and power entangled in the strategy process and how to manage them? 
• How can strategy facilitate leadership?

By engaging with this case and this course, students will:

• Understand how strategy works in practice
• Have awareness of organizational, cultural, and political dimensions of strategy making  
• Understand how to create impactful strategies
• Have awareness of the unintended consequences and paradoxes of strategy 
• Be able to critically reflect on leadership
• Develop analytical, social and communication skills through group case work and presentations

Attendance is mandatory in all units that are held in presence mode on campus as well as in all synchronously held online units of the course. Justified and pre-announced absences of no more than 20% of the mandatory teaching hours will be tolerated.

The course will include theory inputs that help to develop practical tools for thinking strategically. Participants will work with the case studies and discuss in groups with each other how to translate learnings into organisational contexts. Thinking out loud (text-based reflection, discussion etc.) will alternate with working out loud (case work, presentation etc) with the aim to design an intellectually challenging and practically useful learning experience.

100% = 100 points; minimum requirement > 50 points

The final grade of the course will depend on three elements:

Element 1: 40% mid-term strategic case analysis (individual assessment)

• After Session 2 you should write a strategic analysis of a case study (max 1,000 words). You should use two of the four perspectives that we will discuss in session one and two.
• Marking criteria: Use of perspectives and analytical rigour (40%); mobilization of case study and fit between theory and case (40%); criticality, argumentation and form (20%)
• Deadline: 7.4.2022, 9am  

Element 2: 40% Group presentation in final session on a strategic analysis of a live case study (group assessment)

• In groups you should find an organization, approach it and analyse its strategy. You should study available documentation (reports, newspaper articles, websites etc) of the case organization. The analysis should use perspectives discussed in class to make sense of the case. It should also contain a critical assessment of the status quo and recommendations how to improve the strategy process. You will present your analysis in the last session (20 minutes, use max 10 slides).
• Marking criteria: Use of perspectives and analytical rigour (30%); case study and empirical depth (30%); criticality and recommendations (30%); argumentation and form (10%)
• Deadline: 23.6.2022, 9am  

Element 3: 20% Individual reflection paper on group presentation (individual assessment)

• After Session 3 you should write a critical reflection paper that highlights what you learnt from the case study, the presentation and the feedback you received. Your critical reflection paper should be no longer than 500 words. In terms of structure the paper might outline (1) your learnings and (2) possibilities to improve the work presented in your group.  
• Marking criteria: Criticality of reflection (40%); creativity to improve case work (40%); argumentation and form (20%)
• Deadline: 30.6.2022, 9am