Foundations of Business Administration-Period 1

New approaches to business and management constantly emerge. The course on the Foundations of Business Administration provides insights on traditional and new business approaches, while adopting an even-handed appreciation for theory and practice. The course familiarizes the students with the three main theoretical perspectives on organizations - Modern, Symbolic and Post-modern perspectives - and presents analytical tools rooted in those perspectives. It puts the students in a situation where those tools must be used for providing ideas to be explored by a real-world firm. These lectures are organized in five parts: (1) introduction of the three perspectives and their assumptions over time; (2) interdependency between organizations and their environment; (3) organizational social structure and organizational culture; (4) technology and physical structure of organizations; and (5) organizational power, control and conflict. Throughout the lectures, each perspective, concept and analytical tool is presented by referring to real-world and current business situations.

Contact hours listed under a course description may vary due to the combination of lecture-based and independent work required for each course therefore, CEA's recommended credits are based on the ECTS credits assigned by VU Amsterdam. 1 ECTS equals 28 contact hours assigned by VU Amsterdam.