Our Different Approach
Events
OUBS Seminar Series: Penrosian Thoughts on Organizational Routines, Capabilities and Rhetorics
8th December 2009
13.00 - 15.30
Location: Presentation area, Michael Young Building, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA
A seminar by Professor JC Spender.
Abstract: In the 1930s, a time of heightened anti-trust concern, micro economists looked beyond price theory and market behavior and thought about the appropriate size of the firm - of central importance to managers and regulators alike. Given economies of scale, how come the first mover was not able to monopolize the whole industry? The theories of Coase and Penrose, in particular, were framed by this concern. Likewise Chandler's later work on the containment of the diseconomies of scale presented the question to organization theorists. Once again we are thinking about managing and regulating the firms that are 'too big to fail', yet we seem to have no better grasp of these issues.
Over the intervening years the question of firm size has deepened into the more fundamental question of why firms even exist - provoking several 'theories of the firm', of which Williamson's Nobel-winning transaction cost (TCE) model is probably the best known. While TCE deals with management's administrative and boundary setting choices, 25 years of 'resource-based' discussion has drawn attention to the firm's resources and how they delimit management's options. While the RBV argues the mere possession of strategic resources is what matters, Penrose, who was no god-mother to the RBV, reminds us that management knowledge is the strategic variable intervening between the firm's resources and its goals. This shift from what the firm possesses to what it has learned and must discover as it adjusts to change, has been addressed in the 'organizational routines and capabilities' literature.
The technical problem is that given bounded rationality and its implicit rejection of realism, naive or critical, this literature lacks a foundational theory of learning. It is unclear if the firm or its sub-units, such a project teams, can learn or if methodological individualism must prevail. In this seminar I draw on the individualistic notion of human agency and argue learning results as managers harness the agency of others, such as the employees, to their firm's goals. While theories of motivation head in this direction they fail under conditions of uncertainty for the appropriate incentives cannot be determined. I turn to the theory of rhetoric as management's principal strategic tool, restating and reframing the old truth that leadership matters.
01908 655520
Professor Spender's websiteStuttgart - Business and Management Information Session
20th January 2010
18.00 - 20.00
Location: Hotel Steigenberger Graf Zeppelin, Arnulf-Klett-Platz 7, D-70173 Stuttgart
There will be a presentation at 18:00 followed by questions and answers on our MBA and Certificate and Diploma in Management
Contact +49 89 89 70 90 48
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Munich - Business and Management Information Session
21st January 2010
19.00 - 21.00
Location: Hilton Munich City, Rosenheimer Strasse 15, 81667 Munich
There will be a presentation at 19:00 followed by questions and answers on our MBA and Certificate and Diploma in Management
Contact +49 89 89 70 90 48
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Madrid - Business and Management Information Event
21st January 2010
18.00 - 20.00
Location: The Open University Business School, King's Training, Plaza Pablo Ruiz Picasso s/n, Edificio Serantes, 28020 Madrid
Come at any time to find out more about our MBA degrees and our Certificate and Diploma in Management programmes
Contact +34 (0)91 578 1616
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Vienna - Business and Management Information Event
10th February 2010
19.00 - 21.00
Location: The Open University Business School Representation in Austria, Goldschmiedgasse 10/303, 1010 Vienna
There will be a presentation at 19:00 followed by questions and answers on our MBA degree and Certificate and Diploma in Management Programmes
Contact +43 1 533 2390
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Munich - Business and Management Information Session
11th February 2010
19.00 - 21.00
Location: Hilton Munich City, Rosenheimer Strasse 15, 81667 Munich
There will be a presentation at 19:00 followed by questions and answers on our MBA and Certificate and Diploma in Management
Contact +49 89 89 70 90 48
No Related Links
Stuttgart - Business and Management Information Session
17th February 2010
18.00 - 20.00
Location: Hotel Steigenberger Graf Zeppelin, Arnulf-Klett-Platz 7, D-70173 Stuttgart
There will be a presentation at 18:00 followed by questions and answers on our MBA and Certificate and Diploma in Management
Contact +49 89 89 70 90 48
No Related Links
Madrid - Business and Management Information Event
18th February 2010
18.00 - 20.00
Location: The Open University Business School, King's Training, Plaza Pablo Ruiz Picasso s/n, Edificio Serantes, 28020 Madrid
Come at any time to find out more about our MBA degrees and our Certificate and Diploma in Management programmes
Contact +34 (0)91 578 1616
No Related Links
Vienna - Business and Management Information Event
10th March 2010
19.00 - 21.00
Location: The Open University Business School Representation in Austria, Goldschmiedgasse 10/303, 1010 Vienna
There will be a presentation at 19:00 followed by questions and answers on our MBA degree and Certificate and Diploma in Management Programmes
Contact +43 1 533 2390
No Related Links
Gibraltar - Business and Management Information Event
11th March 2010
18.00 - 21.00
Location: Rock Hotel, Gibraltar
Please come along any time between 18.00 and 21.00 for an informal discussion with an advisor about your study requirements.
+34 91 578 16 16
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Munich - Business and Management Information Session
11th March 2010
19.00 - 21.00
Location: Hilton Munich City, Rosenheimer Strasse 15, 81667 Munich
There will be a presentation at 19:00 followed by questions and answers on our MBA and Certificate and Diploma in Management
Contact +49 89 89 70 90 48
No Related Links
Barcelona - Business and Management Information Event
17th March 2010
18.00 - 20.00
Location: The Open University Business School, King's Group, Diagonal 608, 08021 Barcelona
Come at any time to find out more about our MBA degrees and our Certificate and Diploma in Management programmes
Contact +34 9 15 78 16 16
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Stuttgart - Business and Management Information Session
17th March 2010
18.00 - 20.00
Location: Hotel Steigenberger Graf Zeppelin, Arnulf-Klett-Platz 7, D-70173 Stuttgart
There will be a presentation at 18:00 followed by questions and answers on our MBA and Certificate and Diploma in Management
Contact +49 89 89 70 90 48
No Related Links
Madrid - Business and Management Information Event
17th March 2010
18.00 - 20.00
Location: The Open University Business School, King's Training, Plaza Pablo Ruiz Picasso s/n, Edificio Serantes, 28020 Madrid
Come at any time to find out more about our MBA degrees and our Certificate and Diploma in Management programmes
Contact +34 (0)91 578 1616
No Related Links
Munich - Business and Management Taster Workshop
25th March 2010
18.00 - 21.00
Location: Address on Registration
To register for this Taster Workshop, please email t.sage@open.ac.uk
Contact +49 89 89 70 90 48
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