MAN 659: Understanding and Tackling Societal Challenges through Management Research

Contents
“Grand challenges” are formulations of global problems that can be plausibly addressed through coordinated and collaborative effort. In this seminar, we discuss management research that examines societal problems that individuals, organizations, communities, and nations face around the world. Based on research publications in top management journals we will cover topics such as: “the interplay between nonprofits, institutional actors and the community”, “health care’s grand challenges”; “climate change”; “water supply”; “corporate volunteering for societal causes”. Besides, methodological issues when studying grand challenges will be discussed.

Learning outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, students

… are able to point out who or what is impacted by ethical issues.
…are able to evaluate academic literature based on profound research skills.
…are able to summarize academic literature

Necessary prerequisites
–

Recommended prerequisites
–

ECTS credits	6
Graded	yes
Workload	180h
Language	English
Form of assessment	Presentation
Restricted admission	yes
Further information	Website of the Chair / “Student Portal”

Examiner

Performing lecturer

Prof. Helmig hat kurze graue Haare und trägt ein dunkles Jacket, ein hellblaues Hemd und eine rote Krawatte.

Prof. Dr. Bernd Helmig

Frequency of offering	Fall semester
Range of application	M.Sc. MMM, M.Sc. WiPäd, M.Sc. VWL, M.Sc. Wirt. Inf.
Preliminary course work	–
Program-specific Competency Goals	CG 3, CG 4
Literature	Gerard George, Jennifer Howard-Grenville, Aparna Joshi, and Laszlo Tihany: Understanding and Tackling Societal Grand Challenges through Management Research, in: Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 59, No. 6, 2016 (http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amj.2016.4007)
Course outline	Requirements: Each student receives a research article which has been published in a top management journal. Each article covers a topic related to grand challenges. Each student has to work him-/herself through this (“his/her”) article and has to present it in front of the class. After the presentation the paper is discussed in class. Each student has to read all of the papers (max. 14) in order to be able to participate in the discussion. Examples for articles/papers: Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 59, No. 6: “Coordinated Exploration for Grand Challenges: The Role of Advocacy Groups in Search Consortia” Anders Ørding Olsen, Wolfgang Sofka and Christoph Grimpe Published Online: 12 Sep 2016 https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2015.0730 Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 59, No. 4: „Grand Challenges and Inductive Methods: Rigor without Rigor Mortis” Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, Melissa E. Graebner and Scott Sonenshein Published Online: 12 Jul 2016 https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2016.4004 Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 59, No. 6: „Understanding Community Dynamics in the Study of Grand Challenges: How Nonprofits, Institutional Actors, and the Community Fabric Interact to Influence Income Inequality” Pascual Berrone, Liliana Gelabert, Federica Massa-Saluzzo and Horacio E. Rousseau Published Online: 16 Aug 2016 https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2015.0746 Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 59, No. 6: „Health Care’s Grand Challenge: Stimulating Basic Science on Diseases that Primarily Afflict the Poor” Keyvan Vakili and Anita M. McGahan Published Online: 28 Jul 2016 https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2015.0641 Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 60, No. 5 „An Inconvenient Truth: How Organizations Translate Climate Change into Business as Usual” Christopher Wright and Daniel Nyberg Published Online: 7 Nov 2016 https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2015.0718 Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 63, No. 5: „Water Wars in Detroit: Custodianship and the Work of Institutional Renewal” A. Wren Montgomery and M. Tina Dacin Published Online: 2 Nov 2020 https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2017.1098 Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 60, No. 5: „Corporate Volunteering Climate: Mobilizing Employee Passion for Societal Causes and Inspiring Future Charitable Action” Jessica B. Rodell, Jonathan E. Booth, John W. Lynch and Kate P. Zipay Published Online: 10 Jan 2017 https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2015.0726

MAN 659: Understanding and Tackling Societal Challenges through Management Research

Dekanat | Fakultät für Betriebswirtschaftslehre

FORUM