Organization Management

Course Overview

In this lecture, we will build a proper understanding of environmental adaptation, which is a fundamental element of Management Studies. By doing so students will nurture their abilities to actively find problems in organizations, and to solve them (the skill to investigate independently). In the first half of the semester, lectures will center on interactions between external environments and organization objectives. In the second half, detailed explanation of theories for internal environmental adaptation needed to fulfill organization objectives will be provided.

Key Features

Just knowing the theories of management is not enough to fully understand management itself. By asking the question "Why are firms unable to manage according to Theory?" and starting by understanding the dynamics of management, students will start to notice that management studies is close to practical studies. In these lectures, we concentrate on "seeing the actual phenomenon through Management Theories." Here, students are taught with examples of various cases, and are given time to discuss the management of familiar firms. In this way, I endeavor to let students have a concrete image of what they learn.

Also, I intend this course to be an interactive one, where students are questioned and are free to do so vice-versa. (Nagoya University students tend to be quiet, but after years of interactive courses, I feel that everyone is becoming more active in raising questions and stating opinions.) Furthermore, the reviews of the course by past students are posted on the lecturer's website to utilize the feedback.

Schedule

Session	Contents
1	Management Organization (Introduction): What is "Environment Adaptation?"
2	External Environment Adaptation (1): Draw a line
3	External Environment Adaptation (2): Look in all four directions
4	External Environment Adaptation (3): Thinking in terms of three
5	External Environment Adaptation (4): Two opposing axis
6	External Environment Adaptation (5): Taking the first step
7	Midterm Discussion (Case Study A)
8	Internal Environment Adaptation (1): Contingency Theory
9	Internal Environment Adaptation (2): Principle of organization design
10	Internal Environment Adaptation (3): Incentive system
11	Internal Environment Adaptation (4): Motivation Theory
12	Internal Environment Adaptation (5): Leadership theory and its limits
13	Acquiring management thinking, not management theory
14	Final discussion (Case Study B)
15	Review

Grading

Exam (No materials allowed, 70 points), Midterm report (30 points), class attendance (absence, lateness, participation points)

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