On this page you’ll find information about doctoral courses in Business Administration. The courses are aimed at doctoral students within the ÅAU doctoral programme in Business Administration, as well as doctoral students from other universities. For details regarding target group, please see course information.

Currently available courses

The Artful Making of Management and Organization (AMMO) 8–10.6.2022

A doctoral course organized by Åbo Akademi University and sponsored by Svenska Kulturfonden and Nordic Academy of Management 

Time: June 8-10, 2022

Place: Hanaholmen Cultural Center and Svenska Teatern (the Swedish Theatre) in Helsinki, Finland

Application deadline: April 30, 2022

AMMO Course application form (Word)

Learning goals and objectives

How can performing arts and theatre enrich and inform the study of organizing? How might creative impulses and insights from these performative contexts inspire and develop the study of management and organization? How can the doctoral project be developed and ‘staged’ through artful and playful making, embodiment, dialogue, and reflexive listening?

This course focuses on the encounters and connections between performing arts (theatre), aesthetics, and theoretical debates in the field of organization and management studies. The course invites doctoral students (especially in the field of organization and management) from all Nordic countries to an intensive three-day doctoral course (including interactive workshops, seminars, and ongoing dialogues) to creatively develop their own research projects and research practice. This will be done in an open, inclusive and reflexive manner together with professional artists and researchers with expertise within arts, aesthetics, ethics, philosophy, process theory and practice. The course develops a creative and critical appreciation of different arts-based theoretical approaches and methods to the study of organization, organizing and social relations at work. Through the encounter with artists and professionals from Svenska Teatern the participants will gain inspiration to creatively reflect upon their own research practice in general and the writing process in particular. The course is inclusive of full board and lodging at Hanaholmen Cultural Center, June 8-10, 2022.

 After completing the course, students are better able to

• create dialogue and openings between artistic frameworks, artistic practices, and different streams of theorizing in the field of management and organization studies
• generate interesting and innovative research questions and input to the PhD project with the help of artistic frameworks and -practices
• analyze processes, practices and forms of ‘artful making’ in contemporary organizations
• creatively discuss, stage and reflect upon theoretical topics orally, performatively and in a written form, at a level appropriate for a doctoral student

Instruction and examination: Active participation in discussions, workshops and course activities during the intensive 3-day period is expected, and will be used as basis for elaborating on a 10-15-pages final research report which each student is asked to submit not later than one month after the course.

Credits: 6 ECTS

Grading: Five-level grading scale (0-5): sufficient, satisfactory, good, very good, or excellent. The instructors of the course make the evaluation based on the final research report written after the course.

Prerequisits: Required readings. Students are required to read all the assigned journal articles before the course. This course will hinge on students engagement with the readings and the ideas they put forward. Students’ contribution is indispensable for a dynamic collective learning experience.

Admittance: Maximum number of participants is 20. Deadline for course applications: the 30th of April, 2022. Applications should be sent by email to the course coordinator Astrid Huopalainen (astrid.huopalainen@abo.fi). Please fill in the AMMO Course application form (Word), and attach it to your email.

Students will be notified of acceptance by the 15th of May, 2022.

Course instructors

Henrika Franck, adjunct professor (title of docent) in organization and management, Åbo Akademi University and dean of research at Arcada UAS, Finland
Anette Hallin, professor in organization and management, Åbo Akademi University, Finland, and Mälardalen University, Sweden
Astrid Huopalainen, adjunct professor (title of docent) and senior lecturer, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
Bengt Kristensson Uggla, Amos Anderson professor in Philosophy, Culture, and Management, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
Jenny Helin, associate professor at Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University, Campus Gotland, Sweden
Joachim Thibblin, CEO, Svenska Teatern
Actors and other professionals from Svenska Teatern

Course coordinator and contact information: Astrid Huopalainen