The assignment aims at providing an opportunity to pick up and investigate a topic that has been raised and/or discussed during the course. Choose

The assignment aims at providing an opportunity to pick up and investigate a

topic that has been raised and/or discussed during the course. Choose something

that interests you, and where you would like to know more and get a chance to

challenge and elaborate your own thinking! You may find inspiration from the

extended literature list, from discussions in seminars and lectures, as well as

from current debates in media and elsewhere. Once you have chosen your topic

or issue, your specific task is to:

a) develop a research question that helps you to investigate some particular

aspect of the specific phenomena/issue of interest,

b) do a literature review within the particular research field that helps you to

frame and position your work theoretically and give you ”tools” to analyse your

empirical findings.

c) design and conduct a “doable” ( i.e. limited) empirical study that answers to

your research question, and

d) write a report in the form of a complete scholarly paper that conforms to the

following standards:

1. Addresses a research problem that is interesting and relevant from a

theoretical and practical viewpoint.

2. Contains a well-formulated and convincing argumentation that leads to the

problem.

3. Presents a clear aim that is related to the problem statement.

4. Contains a review that covers relevant scientific research and a clear

”conclusion” of the literature review (e.g. a summary, model, framework of

hypothesis).

5. Contains an empirical study, including independent and relevant data

collection.

6. Contains a reflective and convincing analysis of the empirical material that is

clearly related to the theoretical framework.

7. Draws relevant and credible conclusions on the basis of the findings.

8. Shows the correct use of references and list these in accordance with the

”Harvard system”.

9. Is logically structured and written in ”proper” English.

One important thing to note:

While you are free to choose your topic of interest, you need to be able to relate

this to the course literature. This means that you don’t need to take the “direct”

perspective of the given literature, but you need to engage with the course

literature in some way.

However, you also need to move beyond the course literature, to find relevant

and interesting research articles and books that directly speak to your interests

and chosen research question. You thus need to independently search for

literature and previous studies on your topic, and to search for data (primary

and/or secondary) for your empirical study. The paper should conform to the

standard requirements of academic writing, including correct references to the

literature and to other sources of information, a clear structure, and a coherent

argument, and – not least! – make a contribution to knowledge.

The final individual course paper should cover approx. 8-9 pages (excluding the

cover page, the reference list and attachments such as questionnaires), 1.5

spaced, Times New Roman, 12 points.

Course Readings

Lecture 1: Governance, Organisation and Standards – An Introduction

Ahrne, G. and N. Brunsson (2005), ”Organizations and meta-organizations”, Scandinavian Journal of Management 21, pp. 429-449.

Ahrne, G. and N. Brunsson (2011), ”Organization outside organizations: the significance of partial organization”, Organization 18(1), pp. 83-104.

Brunsson, N., Rasche, A., and D. Seidl (2012), ”The Dynamics of Standardization: Three perspectives on Standards in Organization Studies”, Organization Studies 33(5-6), pp. 613-632.

Djelic, M-L and K. Sahlin-Andersson (2006), ”Introduction: A World of Governance: Therise of transnational regulation”, in M. L. Djelic and K. Sahlin-Andersson (eds.),

Transnational Governance. Institutional Dynamics of Regulation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-28.

Sahlin-Andersson, K. (2006), Corporate Social Responsibility: a trend and a movement but of what and for what? Corporate Governance vol. 6, pp. 595-608.

.

Lecture 2: Measuring sustainability

Graeber, D., (2012). ”Dead zones of the imagination. On violence, bureaucracy, and

interpretive labor”. Hau: Journal of Etnographic Theory 2(2), pp. 105-128.

Power, M., 2004, “Counting, control and calculation: Reflections on measuring and

management”. Human Relations, vol. 57, no. 6, 765-783.

Schwartz, J., Beloff, B., and Beaver, E., (2002). ”Use Sustainability Metrics to Guide

Decision-Making”. (Downloadable by http://people.clarkson.edu/~wwilcox/Design/sustain.pdf).

Lecture 3: Medialization and sustainability

Hjarvard, S. (2008). The Mediatization of Society: A Theory of the Media as Agents of Social and Cultural Change. Nordicom Review, 29(2), 105-134.

Pallas, J., Fredriksson, M., and Wedlin, L., “Translating institutional logics: when the media logic meets professions”, work in progress.

Schultz, F., Suddaby, R., and Cornelissen JP. (2014). The role of business media in

constructing rational myths of organizations. In J. Pallas, S. Jonsson & L. Strannegård (Eds.),

Organizations and the Media: Organizing in a Mediatized World (pp. 13-32). London:

Routledge.

Lecture 4: Social Movements and Sustainability

Ahrne, G., & Brunsson, N., (2011), ”Organization outside organizations: The significance of partial organization”. Organization, 18(1), pp. 83–104.

Benford, Robert D., and David A. Snow. "Framing processes and social movements: An overview and assessment". Annual review of sociology (2000): 611-639.

Power, Michael. "The audit society—Second thoughts”. International Journal of Auditing 4.1 (2000), pp. 111-119.

Wijkström, F. 2004. Changing focus or changing role? The Swedish nonprofit sector in the new millennium, Strategy Mix for Nonprofit Organisations, pp. 15-40: Springer.

Lecture 5: Public procurement as a political tool for sustainability

Amann, M., Roerich, J. K., Eβig, M. And C. Harland (2014), ”Driving sustainable supply

chain management in the public sector. The importance of public procurement in the

European Union”, Supply Chain Management. An International Journal. 19/3, pp. 351-366.

Lecture 7: Concluding Lecture

Previous readings for the GOS-course.

Grolin, J., (1998), ”Corporate Legitimacy in Risk Society: the case of Brent Spar”, Business

Strategy and the Environment 7, pp. 213-222.

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