APPLIES TO ACADEMIC YEAR 2014/2015

GRA 2207 Managing Knowledge Work, Creativity and Innovation

Responsible for the course
Miha Skerlavaj

Department
Department of Leadership and Organizational Behaviour

Term
According to study plan

ECTS Credits
6

Language of instruction
English

Introduction
Managing knowledge work, creativity and innovation is a course that will provide an overview of contemporary research and practice based knowledge of the most important topics, concepts, and contributions within the fields of knowledge, creativity and innovation management. It will facilitate experiential learning of the competences needed to lead change in organizations (especially with focus on. Above all, the course will deal with three questions: 1) why do individuals, team, and organizations need to manage knowledge, create and innovate at work; 2) what is knowledge work, creativity and innovation within the organizational settings, and 3) what can leaders, human resource managers and professionals, employees, and organizations in general do to facilitate learning, creativity and innovation processes within and around their organizations.

Learning outcome
Acquired knowledge:
The students will obtain an in-depth understanding of contemporary research evidence-based knowledge in the integrated fields of creativity and innovation management, and get an overview of the most important topics, concepts, and contributions within this field.

Acquired skills:
After completing the course, the students should be able to critically examine theories, studies and practice in knowledge work, creativity and innovation management. They should know how research in this field may be conducted, and see how this knowledge may be applied to real life situations. And vice versa, the students shall be able to construct new knowledge from real life situations that the course will enable them to engage with.

Acquired competence:
The students should be able to communicate and discuss knowledge work, creativity and innovation concepts, processes, real-life practices in order to construct, communicate and utilize knowledge about the managing knowledge, creativity and innovation at work.

Prerequisites
A Bachelor degree qualifying for admission to the MSc Programme

Compulsory reading
Books:
Newell, Sue ... [et al.]. 2009. Managing knowledge work and innovation. 2nd ed. Palgrawe Macmillian. Chapters 1-6, 8-9
Tidd, Joseph and John Bessant. 2013. Managing innovation : integrating technological, market and organizational change. 5th Edition. Wiley. (Chapters 1-9, 11-12)

Other:
Annet: During the course there may be hand-outs and other material on additional topics relevant for the course and the examination
Artikkelsamling: A compendium of scientific articles will be made available before the course starts.


Recommended reading

Course outline
PART ONE: MANAGING KNOWLEDGE WORK
1.1. Introducing Knowledge Work: Processes, Purposes and Contexts
1.2. Individual Knowledge Sharing and Hiding
1.3. Knowledge-intensive Firms
1.4. The Role of ICT for Knowledge Work
1.5. Managing Knowledge Creation in Teams
1.6. Project-Based Organizations and Knowledge Work
1.7. Human Resource Management and Knowledge Work
1.8. The Role of Social Networks for Knowledge Work
1.9. Managing Knowledge for Innovation

PART TWO: MANAGING CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION
2.1. Creativity and Innovation Processes: Definitions, Typologies, Rationale
2.2. Context: Building the innovative organization & Developing an innovation strategy.
2. 3. Search: Sources of innovation, Creatvitiy and innovation networks.
2.4. Select: Decision making under uncertainty, Building the innovation case.
2.5. Implementing creative ideas: Creating new products and services.
2.6. Capture: Capturing the benefits of innovation, Capturing learning from innovation.

Computer-based tools
Presentation software, It's learning/homepage, Software to prepare MKCI TV video clips (tutorial will be provided via the BI learning lab), You tube/BI Media Server channel MKCI TV.

Learning process and workload
The course is structured as a combination of lectures, discussions, in-class activities, and compulsory student presentations. It requires substantial amount of preparation by the students and active involvement during class. A course of 6 ECTS credits corresponds to a workload of 160-180 hours.

Please note that it is the student’s own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class that is not included on the course homepage/It's learning or text book.

Examination
The course grade will be based on the following activities and weights:
30% - Student presentations – MKCI TV clips, cases or research articles (in groups of 2 or 3 students)
20% - Student activity in the classroom (individual) - active participation in in-class discussions, short cases, and other individual activities
50% - Term paper (individual). The term paper must be handed in both electronically and in paper
To get a final grade in the course, students need to complete and achieve a passing grade in all parts of the evaluation.

In this course class attendence is mandatory. Absences can result in a lower score. Specific Information regarding student evaluation will be provided in class. This information may be relevant to requirements for term papers or other hand-ins, and/or where class participation can be one of several elements of the overall evaluation.

This is a course with continuous assessment (several exam elements) and one final exam code. Each exam element will be graded using points on a scale (e.g. 0-100). The elements will be weighted together according to the information in the course description in order to calculate the final letter grade for the course. You will find detailed information about the point system and the cut off points with reference to the letter grades on the course site in It’s learning.

Examination code(s)
GRA 22071 continuous assessment accounts for 100 % of the final grade in the course GRA 2207.

Examination support materials
Examination support materials at written examinations are explained under exam information in the student portal @bi. Please note use of calculator and dictionary in the section on examination support materials.

Re-sit examination
It is only possible to retake an examination when the course is next taught.
The assessment in some courses is based on more than one exam code.
Where this is the case, you may retake only the assessed components of one of these exam codes.
Where this is not the case, all of the assessed components of the course must be retaken.
All retaken examinations will incur an additional fee.

Additional information
Honor Code
Academic honesty and trust are important to all of us as individuals, and represent values that are encouraged and promoted by the honor code system. This is a most significant university tradition. Students are responsible for familiarizing themselves with the ideals of the honor code system, to which the faculty are also deeply committed.

Any violation of the honor code will be dealt with in accordance with BI’s procedures for cheating. These issues are a serious matter to everyone associated with the programs at BI and are at the heart of the honor code and academic integrity. If you have any questions about your responsibilities under the honor code, please ask.