Organizing Education by Drawing on Organizational Studies

This study explores how scholars researching organizations and organizing processes can use and exploit their knowledge not only in terms of course contents, but also in organizing and managing students' learning activity.A design-oriented research approach is used in order to develop grounded design principles for organizing education.By drawing on the literature about organizational design and learning, several preliminary design ideas for organizing undergraduate education are described.Subsequently, two examples of how these design ideas can be applied are discussed.The first example involves the design of an undergraduate course in Organizational Behaviour.The second example is a tool for collaboratively supervising thesis projects.The design principles grounded in these two cases are, in sum: designing education as an authentic organization; exploiting the benefits of peer mentoring and assessment; acting and delegating as a senior manager; and setting vivid standards.Finally, the contribution that organization studies can make to educational theory and practice is explored, and the role of design methodologies is discussed.organizational learning;education;organizational structure

Design science as experimental methodology in innovation and entrepreneurship research:A primer

As a research methodology, design science operates at the interface of creative design and explanatory science to create and test innovative solutions. Design Science (DS) methodologies have emerged in various disciplines such as information systems, operations management, innovation management, and entrepreneurship. A major source of inspiration for the rise of DS is Simon’s monograph (1969) "The Sciences of the Artificial." DS is a broadly applicable methodology because it can be applied to tangible artifacts (e.g. hardware and software), intangible artifacts (e.g. innovation processes and team collaboration), or combinations of the two (e.g. a system for creating deep-tech ventures). Moreover, it can draw on a diverse set of (semi)experimental and related methods for collecting and analysing (qualitative and/or quantitative) data, which also enables its application to innovation settings in which the number of observations and cases initially is rather small. DS therefore differs from action research by focusing on solutions as artifacts as well as adopting a broader and more flexible approach to data collection and analysis. DS also goes beyond merely problem-solving, because it draws on evidence-based protocols and also fuels theory development. This primer outlines what DS is, what it is good for, and how it can be used.<br/

The construction of the COVID-19 pandemic:Designing societal solutions that would prevent a full lockdown

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered one of the deepest economic recessions in human history, largely as a result of the full lockdown strategy adopted by many national governments. This lockdown strategy was primarily motivated by the limited capacities of Intensive Care Units and a lack of medical staff and equipment. In this essay, I argue that the COVID crisis and the widely used lockdown response are socially constructed, which invites a public discourse on how we can design societal solutions that would prevent the need for an indiscriminate lockdown response to a future pandemic or any other similar crisis. One potential solution is further developed in this essay: the design of latent capabilities for responding to any future emergencies. These latent capabilities, embedded in many host organizations, can help in quickly resolve shortages in professional skills and resources, which are likely to occur in any future crisis. Here, the COVID-19 crisis provides a major learning opportunity, to be exploited as soon as possible

Revitalizing the quest for professionalism in business and management:purpose, knowledge, behavior, and expectation

One of the biggest challenges of our time is to develop the management discipline into a true profession. In this respect, business schools have been accused for failing to promote better policies and management practices as well as failing to educate students, as prospective managers, about their moral and social responsibilities. This essay outlines a multi-dimensional framework for professionalization, involving the dimensions of purpose, knowledge, behavior, and expectation. Subsequently, this framework is used to define and explore various paths out of the current intellectual stasis of the field of management and business. A key pathway is creating a shared sense of professional purpose and responsibility; another important route involves developing a professional body of knowledge informed by both discovery and validation; third, so-called ‘trading zones’ need to be developed, to offer opportunities for (professionals with) different voices and interests to meet; and the expectations that societal stakeholders have of professional conduct and performance by managers should be raised. Finally, the implications arising from these four pathways for business schools are explored. One of the most challenging implications is the need to improve the alignment between what management professors say they do and what they actually do – as researchers and educators