Postgraduate course
2025/2026
Contemporary Research in Management
Type:
Compulsory course
Delivered by:
Department of Management
When:
1 year, 1 semester
Open to:
students of one campus
Instructors:
Galina Shirokova
Language:
English
ECTS credits:
2
Contact hours:
28
Course Syllabus
Abstract
The primary goal of this course is to equip PhD students with the deep theoretical foundation and critical analytical skills necessary to become proficient consumers, evaluators, and ultimately, producers of influential research in organization and management theory. The course aims to transform students' understanding of organizations from a set of practical problems to a landscape of intellectual puzzles and research opportunities.
Learning Objectives
- Foundational Knowledge Goal: To provide a comprehensive and critical understanding of the major paradigms that have shaped, and continue to shape, the field of organization and management theory.
- Critical Thinking Goal: To develop the ability to critically analyze, compare, and contrast these theoretical lenses, evaluating their assumptions, explanatory power, and limitations.
- Research Application Goal: To bridge theory and empirical research by learning to apply theoretical frameworks to analyze complex organizational phenomena and to formulate novel, theory-driven research questions.
- Scholarly Development Goal: To foster the development of a distinct scholarly identity and the ability to engage in high-level academic discourse, both orally and in writing.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- Evaluate the relative strengths and weaknesses of competing theoretical explanations for contemporary organizational challenges (e.g., digital transformation, ecosystem competition, institutional complexity).
- Identify and describe the core premises, key constructs, and boundary conditions of major theoretical schools (e.g., Contingency Theory, Behavioral Theory of the Firm, Resource-Based View, Resource Dependence Theory, Neoinstitutional Theory, Organizational Ecology, Sensemaking)
- Map the historical evolution of management thought, explaining the intellectual context and key debates that prompted paradigm shifts
- Differentiate between the core ontological and epistemological assumptions underlying different theoretical traditions
- Critique scholarly articles by identifying underlying theoretical assumptions and assessing the alignment between a theory's research question, methodological approach, and conclusions
- Synthesize concepts from different theoretical paradigms to generate more robust and nuanced explanations for empirical observations.
- Formulate a significant and viable research question that is grounded in a clear theoretical gap or tension within the literature.
- Design a conceptual framework for a research study that logically links a theoretical foundation to testable propositions or a qualitative research approach.
- Articulate and defend theoretical arguments clearly and persuasively during interactive seminar discussions.
- Produce a high-quality analytical essay that meets the standards of scholarly rigor, including a clear thesis, logical structure, and critical engagement with both foundational and contemporary sources.
- Reflect on and articulate how the course content shapes their own emerging research interests and theoretical preferences within the field of management.
- Analyze a given organizational phenomenon using multiple theoretical lenses, highlighting what each lens illuminates and what it obscures
Course Contents
- Session 1: Introduction. Metatheory of Management: What is Theory and How Does it Evolve?
- Session 2: When Context Matters: Contingency Theory and Its Development
- Session 3: Behave Yourself! Behavioral Theory of the Firm (BTOF)
- Session 4: Sense Matters: Organizational Sensemaking
- Session 5: May the Force Be With You! Resource Dependence Theory (RDT)
- Session 6: The Internal View: Resource-Based View of the Firm (RBV)
- Session 7: Legitimacy and Isomorphism: Neoinstitutional Theory
- Session 8: Natural Selection: Ecology of Organizational Populations
- Session 9: Configurational Approach: Synthesis through Typologies
- Session 10: Integration and Conclusions. The Landscape of Contemporary Research Programs
Assessment Elements
- Performing a leading discussant roleEach meeting (starting from class 2), 1 or more student(s) (depending on the number of class participants) will be appointed to be leading discussant(s) of the session. Each student is expected to take part at least in 2 sessions as a leading discussant. Organizing a discussion around the compulsory papers will be their main responsibility. Namely, they are expected to open the seminar with a 20-25 minute session opener talk and then use that to drive our discussion of the themes that emerge from considering each paper’s motivations, argumentation, and implications. Here are the guidelines for these session opener talks: 1. Do not retell but rather analyze the papers. 2. Bring 1-3 pages handouts if feels necessary. 3. PowerPoint slides are not forbidden but also are not required. 4. Conclude with a set of questions that we will debate and discuss. In sum, good discussants will deliver an opener that does the following: 1. Integrates the readings identifying and making explicit the commonalities and differences in their ideas and assumptions. 2. Where possible, exposes theoretical gaps and flaws of the theories presented in the readings. 3. Engages the other session participants in a discussion of the readings by taking a clear and perhaps provocative (!) position.
- Participating in class discussionsEach student is expected to have read every piece of compulsory reading and actively take part in the discussion triggered by the leading discussant.
- Proposal on how theoretically ground your researchA 5-8 double-spaced pages piece covering the following elements: 1. Your research question. 2. A brief description of the essence of you study and the methodology you plan to apply (or are applying right now!) 3. Detailed reflection on how you can ground your assumptions and potential (or already actual!) findings in the organization and management theories, explanation of the theoretical framework you are going to apply to your research. NB: there is no need to limit yourself only to the theories brought up in this course. Late submissions of the final proposal and review are penalized with 10% deduction out of the final grade.
- Review of one of your peer’s proposalA 1-page journal-like review of your colleague’s work. Do not repeat the content but rather critically assess it paying specific attention to theoretical argumentation. Please, not only be critical about the ideas, but also provide advice on how to remedy the issues you raise. Late submissions of the final proposal and review are penalized with 10% deduction out of the final grade.
Interim Assessment
- 2025/2026 1st semester0.2 * Participating in class discussions + 0.3 * Performing a leading discussant role + 0.3 * Proposal on how theoretically ground your research + 0.2 * Review of one of your peer’s proposal
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- Barney, J. (1991). Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage. Journal of Management, 17(1), 99. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639101700108
- DiMaggio, P. J., & Powell, W. W. (1983). The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields. American Sociological Review, 48(2), 147–160. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095101
- Lawrence, P. R., & Lorsch, J. W. (1967). Differentiation and Integration in Complex Organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 12(1), 1–47. https://doi.org/10.2307/2391211
- Making sense of the organization, Weick, K. E., 2001
- Organization theory : modern, symbolic, and postmodern perspectives, Hatch, M. J., 2006
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- Tushman, M. L., & O’Reilly III, C. A. (1996). Ambidextrous Organizations: MANAGING EVOLUTIONARY AND REVOLUTIONARY CHANGE. California Management Review, 38(4), 8–30. https://doi.org/10.2307/41165852