Open uni, Designing Adaptive and Creative Organisations

About this programme

Learning outcomes The ability to design organizations is a vital skill for managers. The aim of the course is to offer theoretical and practical understanding on how to design organizations – with a special focus on how to design organizations that foster adaptivity and creativity. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to: demonstrate knowledge and comprehension of the seminal and latest academic research in organizational design, organizational culture, organizational practices, organizational change, and strategic entrepreneurship; analyze, evaluate, and reflect upon how established companies and startups can design and implement processes and practices that allow them to adapt to changing environments and be innovative; analyze, evaluate, and reflect upon the capabilities, mindsets, and skills that managers and employees need to design adaptive and creative organizations, and to work in them; apply analytical techniques, tools and frameworks taught in the class on a company-based group project to produce original work in evaluating how a company addresses its redesigning challenges; and reflect upon how you personally can act as a designer of organizational structures and practices that foster creativity and change within existing companies or startups. Furthermore, through the completion of this course, students will have practiced: Analytical skills in defining and solving problems Decision-making skills Research skills Reflection skills Learning by doing from a real business experience Group management and teamwork skills Communication and presentation skills Networking among Finnish companies This course will be particularly valuable to students who are interested in business development functions, consulting in change management and strategy implementation, organizational transformation, development of work practices, and human resource functions. The course enables students to be more effective designers of coordination, creativity and change to any organizations they join, whether large, established companies or startups. Content In this course, the focus is on developing knowledge, competences, and practical experience on how to design organizations and companies that foster adaptability and creativity. You will learn how both established and nascent organizations can reconfigure their structures and practices toward value-creating and value-protecting opportunities. Drawing on the perspectives of organizational design, organizational culture, organizational practices, and strategic entrepreneurship, students will learn to apply theoretical and practical frameworks and tools needed to: a) analyze the impact of organizational structures, organizational cultures, and practices on organizational adaptability and creativity b) design organizational structures and cultures that foster and maintain adaptive and creative ways of working, and c) organize and coordinate bottom-up initiatives to facilitate change that acknowledge how both employees (bottom-up processes) and managers (top-down processes) can be involved in this process by employing their agency. Please read the registration and payment policies as well as the study instructions: Registration, payments and rules You can find full course description and schedule in Aalto University Open University Course Selection Aalto University Open University contact details