Student guide Faculty of Economics A.Y. 2007/08

The learning objectives of the course are:
1. To equip students with the elements necessary for understanding the organisational workings of companies and other social institutions, with a view to "inhabiting" them effectively.

2. To impart criteria and tools for designing the organisation and its information systems, applicable to the company as a whole, to its individual operating units and to its professional functions and roles.

3. To make connections between economic and business-economic constraints, and the instruments for assuring that the various participants make a stable and effective contribution to the organisation.

1.   Analysis of the conditions for organisational functioning.

1.1        The organisation as a part of the company, as an activity/function and as a theory-vision.

1.2        Fundamentals of the study of organisations and the principal problems addressed in the historical development of organisational theories. Models and paradigms of the "classical" period: Taylorism and Scientific Management; Human Relations, studies of bureaucracy. Critique of the "mechanistic" view of the organisation. The systemic approach and the "organic" model. Recent developments in organisational studies.

1.3       Fundamental organisational schemas.

1.4        Organisational structures and schemas based on projects, product managers and matrices.

1.5        Diversity of organisational configurations and forms. Reference types and interpretation criteria. Elementary/simple, centralised mechanical, decentralised managerial, innovative and professional forms.

1.6       Analysis of the organisational system according to the systemic model. Environment, context and organisational variables.

 

2.        Design of organisational configurations.

2.1   Evolution of the corporate organisational structure. Relations between strategy and structure.

2.2    The link between analysis and design. Analysing and evaluating organisational complexity as a prerequisite to designing structures and mechanisms.

2.3    Design of basic organisational units and the search for flexibility.

2.4  Analysis and design of organisational functions and roles. The content of organisational roles: technical-specialist, relational and managerial aspects. Professionals within the firm, and modes of operation of the professional organisation.

2.6   Organisations centred on complex functions; innovation-oriented modes of organisation. The learning organisation.

 

3.      Role of information systems in the company's organisational configuration.

3.1   Organisational functions within the company. The role of internal and external specialists, the role of senior management and of "line" managers.

3.2   Organisational impact of information and communication technologies. Evolution of information systems within the firm.

3.3    Integration of business information systems and the role of ERP projects.

3.4    Conditions for the success of projects for organisational change based on information and communication technologies.

There will be an oral examination at the end of the course. Students who attend class will also have the opportunity to take written progress tests during the course.

Rebora, G., Manuale di organizzazione aziendale, Carocci, Roma, 2001.