MAN 5147 Leading in Digitized Workplaces
MAN 5147 Leading in Digitized Workplaces
As digital technologies advance, the pace, scope, and complexity of change experienced in organizations have reached unprecedented levels. It is important for companies and leaders to understand how digitalization affects the business and to learn how to lead a success business strategy moving forward. This course aims to equip leaders at various levels with the skills needed to adapt themselves to the change and challenges faced in dynamic, fast-paced, increasingly digitized work contexts, and to support effective technological adaptation, adoption, and innovation within their teams.
Leading in digitized workplaces requires having both a “digital mindset” regarding technological changes and transformation, and an understanding of how to adapt and move the organization forward in volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environments. As organizational success, in this context, largely relies on employees’ willingness and ability to be adaptable and innovative, leaders are thus responsible for relaying and supporting change and innovation within their teams.
Given the demands of leading in digitized workplaces, the course has two foci. The first explores what it takes to be an effective leader in a dynamic and increasingly digitized business environment. Here the focus is on understanding the drivers and implications of your own behavior, and learning how to lead yourself to be more effective in a fast-paced, digitalized workplace. The second focus is concerned with how to lead others in a fast-paced, digital era. This part of the course emphasizes what it takes to make team members, and the organization as a whole, more resilient and adaptive towards change and new technologies, and how to generate the innovation necessary to survive in this environment. It also explores how traditional models of leadership may or may not hold in the digital age.
This course is relevant for leaders in both private and public organizations and across industries. By attending this course, leaders will develop the knowledge and skills to lead more effectively in an age where digitization and constant change are the new reality. Further, they will develop a level of awareness about their own leader behavior and reflect on how that may be received by their team.
By the end of the course, participants should
- Have more comprehensive knowledge about different issues related to managing team collaboration, technology adoption, employee adaptation and innovation processes in increasingly digitized work contexts, and what relevant solutions for different issues might be
- Better understand what the different drivers and implications of behavior are in digitized work settings, and as a result better understand how to more effectively lead oneself and others in the digital age
Participants completing the course should be able to:
- Apply knowledge gained in the course to identify and analyze issues related to the changes and challenges faced in increasingly digitized workplaces, and come up with reasonable solutions to address these issues
- Apply techniques and tools learned in the class to facilitate more effective communication, adaptation, technology adoption, and innovation processes within their teams
- Apply knowledge gained in the course to create a workplace that motivates team members to embrace change and realize their potential through new technology
- Monitor and mold their own behavior to become a more effective and digitally-minded leader in this context
As a result of this course, participants should:
- Develop a better understanding the different responses they themselves and their employees could have towards the changes and challenges that arise in increasingly digitized work contexts, and what positive actions can be taken to improve these responses
- Develop a broader competence for leading organizational change, particularly as it relates to new technology or digital transformation
Topics covered in the course include:
- The workplace of the future: Major trends and challenges related to leading in digitized workplaces and digital transformation initiatives
- Implementing agile, digital teamwork: Learning agile implementation methodology, strategy and the benefits of working within or executing a flexible project plan
- Crafting jobs to jumpstart digitalization: How proactive innovations in job design can be leveraged to facilitate change processes
- Developing and leveraging digital mindsets: Gaining a better awareness of fundamental beliefs about technological change and how to both develop and leverage the mindsets needed in the organization
- Enabling innovation and digital transformation: How leaders create the adaptive space needed for the learning and innovation necessary for digital transformation to flourish
- Leveraging digital platforms to lead organizational transformation: Learning how digital systems can facilitate digital transformation at higher levels
This course is conducted through a combination of on-campus and online learning modules. There are two (2) on-campus modules both consisting of two (2) full day class sessions. The online modules will combine different web-based learning activities, to be completed both individually (e.g., reading, reflection activities) and in groups (e.g., open discussions). The combination of the on-campus and online learning modules equals 75 lecturing hours over one semester.
Please note that while attendance of the on-campus modules is not compulsory, it is the student's own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class that is not included on the learning platform (Insendi) or in other course materials.
Students attending the course are evaluated through a 72-hour individual home exam and a term paper. Both evaluations must be passed to obtain a certificate for the course.
The 72-hour individual home exam accounts for 40% of the total grade and consists of two parts. The sum of the grades from the two parts will contribute to the total grade of the 72-hour individual home exam. Student will submit both parts in one document within the exam deadline given.
Part I: Self-reflection paper (20%): In this short written assignment, students will analyze their learning from the online activities and reflect on how they have applied this learning in practice (or their thoughts about how it could be applied).
Part II: Online contribution (20%): Student’s online contribution will be evaluated based on the extent to which they participate in online module learning activities. Students will submit a report compiling all of their online contributions with screenshots.
Students who must retake the 72-hour individual take home exam will be given a self-reflection based assignment that accounts for 40% of the total grade.
The term paper accounts for 60% of the total grade, and may be written individually or up to groups of three, maximum.
Term paper supervision/guidance differ in each Executive Master of Management course. Given the nature of the term paper assignment in this course, students will receive developmental consultation on their papers throughout the course based on their submission of up to five (5) intermediate assignments. This consultation accounts for approximately 2 hours of supervision/guidance per term paper.
The term paper complies with national regulation regarding the independent work requirements for a master’s degree, equivalent to 9 ECTS credits per course. For the Executive Master of Management degree, the independent work required for the degree represents the sum of term papers from all the taken courses/programmes.
Software tools used in the course:
Insendi, the courses online learning platform
AdobeConnect, webinar platform
Class engagement tools, e.g., Mentimeter.
A selection of articles will be made available prior to course start. Articles will be from journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Harvard Business Review, Human Resource Management, Human Resource Management Journal, Journal of Organizational Behaviour, as well as from other relevant journals and sources.
There may be other material distributed during the course that is relevant for course activities and the examination.
Bachelor degree, corresponding to 180 credits from an accredited university, university college or similar educational institution
The applicant must be at least 25 years of age and at least four years of work experience. For applicants who have already completed a master’s degree, three years of work experience are required.
Covid-19
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there may be deviations in teaching and learning activities as well as exams, compared with what is described in this course description.
| Assessments |
|---|
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Weight: 40 Grouping: Individual Duration: 72 Hour(s) Comment: Individual 72 hours home exam, counting 40% of the total grade. Exam code: MAN 51471 Grading scale: ECTS Resit: Examination when next scheduled course |
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Weight: 60 Grouping: Group/Individual (1 - 3) Duration: 1 Semester(s) Comment: Term paper, counting 60% of the total grade. Exam code: MAN 51472 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 | 32 Hour(s) | On-campus teaching |
Digital resources
| 43 Hour(s) | Webinars and online teaching |
Student's own work with learning resources | 325 Hour(s) | Self-study online/offline and term paper/exam |
A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 15 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of at least 400 hours.