GRA 2261 Managing for Excellence - Generative Practices
GRA 2261 Managing for Excellence - Generative Practices
This is a course on how to manage for excellence in organizations through a dual attention to what makes people thrive and grow and what creates extraordinary performances. The course assumes that employee and group thriving is the key to organizational excellence and that we need to understand how work practice can be generative for both individuals and organizations. The course draws from a fairly new and exciting tradition of research and managerial practice called Positive Organizational Scholarship. It also borrows from recent developments within practice-based approaches to organizations, narrative psychology and the field of "design thinking". You will be challenged to discover and/or cultivate those generative practices in which you yourself can thrive, manage at your best and be valuable to others. In line with the focus on practice, the course will present rich examples from recent research along with new theory and historical overviews.
The overall objective of the course is to provide knowledge and attitudes for how to cultivate generative practices and manage for excellence in organizations. Three types of learning outcomes are sought:
Students will get an overview of recent key contributions to generative practices, with an emphasis on empirical research and path-breaking new concepts.
- Practical tools: Students will get familiar with examples of tools to enable generative practices in organizations, ranging from exercises of reflective best self-portrait to the making of physical space for creative work.
- Personal development: The course will seek to practice what it preaches in terms of offering students possibilities to use theory and tools purposively to generate more learning and vitality in themselves and others.
Students will be encouraged to maintain a critical approach and learn of research approaches that lend themselves particularly well to study and understand generative practices, with an emphasis on qualitative research, interventions and practice-based studies.
The course will focus on the five sets of generative practices:
- Practices of fostering quality and energy in interactions;
- Practices of experiential learning with a focus on learning through action experiements;
- Practices of meaning making and identity formation;
- Practices for making space for creative collaboration;
- Practices of positive organizational change.
This is a course that relies heavily on active participation in class and that presupposes thorough preparations for each session.
For each of the five main components of the course - the five sets of generative practices - the following learning strategies will be pursued:
- Discussion of real life situations and cases, with small guest appearances by leading practitioners;
- Discussion of articles, some of which are presented in plenary (by teacher), some in smaller groups (by students);
- Brief overviews of theoretical roots (by teacher)
- Discussion of tools, some of which are the subject of active experimentation by students with small written assignments to reflect on what was learned
Computer-based tools: It's learning/homepage, Padlet; Menti
Continuous assessment will no longer exist as an examination form from autumn 2023. For questions regarding previous results, contact InfoHub.
It is the student’s own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class.
All courses in the Masters programme will assume that students have fulfilled the admission requirements for the programme. In addition, courses in second, third and/or fourth semester can have specific prerequisites and will assume that students have followed normal study progression. For double degree and exchange students, please note that equivalent courses are accepted.
Disclaimer
Deviations in teaching and exams may occur if external conditions or unforeseen events call for this.
| Assessments |
|---|
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Handin - all file types Weight: 30 Grouping: Individual Duration: 1 Semester(s) Comment: Portfolio submission. A collection of assignments and a video-recorded presentation are submitted, compiled in one document. Exam code: GRA 22612 Grading scale: ECTS Resit: Examination when next scheduled course |
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Weight: 70 Grouping: Group/Individual (1 - 2) Duration: 48 Hour(s) Comment: Home examination Exam code: GRA 22613 Grading scale: ECTS Resit: Examination when next scheduled course |
All exams must be passed to get a grade in this course.
| Activity | Duration | Comment |
|---|---|---|
Teaching | 30 Hour(s) | |
Student's own work with learning resources | 60 Hour(s) | |
Submission(s) | 16 Hour(s) | |
Seminar groups | 24 Hour(s) | |
Examination | 30 Hour(s) |
A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 6 ECTS credits corresponds to a workload of at least 160 hours.