IV2035 Organisations, IT-Systems and Management 7.5 credits

Companies today are looking for people who understand how IT can be used in order to develop the business and make it more effective. Knowledge about the relations between organizational development, leadership and IT constitutes a valuable competitive weapon. The basic idea is to give systems scientists and students from other IT-programs an academic framework that will help them develop an organisational perspective on their technical knowledge. In the course, we discuss what IT has done and is doing for organisations. Organizational and process theories, decision-making, cognition, learning, management in general and IT-management in particular are dealt with during the course.

The course gives an introduction to modern and alternative approaches to organisations, systems development, cognition and decision-making. At the same time this course represents a deepening in systems theory.

The overall aim of the course is to give the student tools to study, diagnose and change organisations by using IT. This demands for an understanding of how IT is used in organisations and by decision makers, in what way people behave, how decisions are made, and how we learn.

After completing the course, the student should be able to:

- apply systems thinking to organisations

- diagnose an organisation's viability by using a systemic model

- model business processes based on principles for coordination and communication

- reason about platforms for information and communication from a holistic perspective

- compare different approaches to process thinking

- compare different approaches to decision-making

- distinguish important characteristics of a learning system

- characterize and explain the role of an IT-manager

For single course students:

• 180 ECTS credits (hp) in Information Technology/ Computer Sciences/ Computer and Systems Sciences and
• documented proficiency in English A or equivalent. 

Course in systems theory/systems thinking, e.g., IV2034 "Systems Theory and IT" or IV2036 "Systems Theory and Security".

Preliminary:

Understanding Computers and Cognition, Winograd, T., Flores, F. Upplaga: 15th print. Oct 2000 Förlag: Addison-Wesley År: 1987

Essentials of Organizational Behavior, Stephen P. Robbins, Upplaga: edition 6, 7 or 8 Förlag: Prentice Hall År: 2002, ISBN: 0-13-035309-4

Compendium with extracts from literature and articles, lecture slides.

If the course is discontinued, students may request to be examined during the following two academic years.

• INL1 - Assignment, 1.5 credits, grading scale: P, F
• TEN1 - Examination, 6.0 credits, grading scale: A, B, C, D, E, FX, F

Based on recommendation from KTH’s coordinator for disabilities, the examiner will decide how to adapt an examination for students with documented disability.

The examiner may apply another examination format when re-examining individual students.

Written exam, grading system: A/B/C/D/E/Fx/F
Assignments, grading system: pass and fail (P/F)

To pass the course, the student needs to pass both the written exam and the assignments. The grade of the course as a whole is based on the grade of the written exam.

Anders Västberg

• All members of a group are responsible for the group's work.
• In any assessment, every student shall honestly disclose any help received and sources used.
• In an oral assessment, every student shall be able to present and answer questions about the entire assignment and solution.