Strategy, Organisation and Leadership

• Emerging Markets, their Institutions and Challenges (10 ECTS)
• Organisational Theory (10 ECTS)
• Methods in Management and Organisation Research (10 ECTS)

• Organisational Change and Leadership (10 ECTS)
• Strategy and Business Development (10 ECTS)
• Human Resource Management and Development (5 ECTS)
• Organising and Leading Digitalisation (5 ECTS)

• Elective Courses (30 ECTS)

• Master's Thesis (30 ECTS)

Four prerequisite courses cover fields of study, which provide you with the basic skills required to study subsequent courses:

Organisational Theory: Structure and Behaviour shows how various theories and models within the fields of organisational sociology and personality psychology may individually and in combination, provide an expedient approach to creating an understanding of organisations as both structural and behavioural.

Emerging Markets, their Institutions and Challenges. This course aims at providing an analytical framework for understanding emerging markets and their institutions. The importance and growth potentials of emerging markets, such as for example the Chinese, means that they cannot be ignored, but their particularities at the same time pose serious liabilities of foreignness for Western firms. Overcoming these liabilities must start with an understanding of the institutional differences between the emerging markets and the economies of the West.

Management Research Method focuses on the production of qualified and justified knowledge, which meets the scientific quality criteria. This is an unavoidable issue for any candidate in business economics, who wishes to make decisions on an informed background. The course introduces a variety of research designs applicable when carrying out research in the area of organisation and management and related areas. Focus will first be on the philosophical issues pertaining to the creation of valid knowledge. In the second part, focus will be on techniques for data collection and analysis. These techniques include qualitative as well as quantitative approaches.

Organizational Change and Leadership approaches organizational change and leadership from a broad perspective, and traditional planned change models and leadership theories are supplemented with recent contributions. It is a central point of departure that organisational change and Leadership is viewed differently from different levels in the organisation. The course will take students through organisational change and leadership from the perspective of executive, middle management, team and employee level. Finally, through the lens of practice and process theories, change efforts across different levels in the organisation will be in focus.

Strategy and Business Development seeks to train your ability to apply central strategic tools for diagnostic purposes and subsequent business development, in connection with the resolution of managerial aspects of development issues at a strategic level.

Organising and Leading Digitalisation will emphasize the human aspects of digitalisation, more specifically it investigates how the company directs and orchestrates the processes and people involved. Resistance to digitalisation fuelled by fear of change of work designs, skill inadequacy and/or possible job obsolescence are likely to occur if those affected are not involved in the decision and implementation phases. Moreover, increased organisational digitalisation may require a degree of learning and knowledge sharing amongst employees not supported by the existing organizational values, culture and/or schemes of incentives. The course emphasises analysis, assessment and facilitation of digitalisation processes.

Human Resource Management and Development will give you a fundamental theoretical and practical insight into and understanding of the Human Resource Management (HRM) field – the dynamic interplay of person, job, and organisation. The course aims at training your ability to identify and understand different HRM issues and dilemmas within the field, and also in different forms of organisations.

In the third semester, you can choose elective courses within your areas of interest. The courses can be taken either at Aarhus BSS during the semester, at the AU Summer University or at one of our more than 300 partner universities abroad. You can also participate in internship programmes either in Denmark or abroad.

The fourth semester is devoted to the Master's thesis. You may freely choose the topic of the thesis and thereby get a chance to concentrate on and specialise in a specific field of interest. The thesis may be written in collaboration with another student or it may be the result of your individual effort. When the thesis has been submitted, it is defended before the academic advisor as well as an external examiner.