Organising for the Unexpected

Introduction

This is a Master of Management program (15 ECTS), addressing Organising for the Unexpected, designed for the Norwegian Armed Forces and other organizations working with security issues. It constitutes part 3 of 5 in a 90 ESCTS Executive Master of Management program specializing in Security and Cultural Understanding.

This sub-programme will discuss coordination, communication and decision-making ability under uncertainty, and has been developed for the Norwegian Armed Forces.
Experiences from the Gjørv Commission and the In Amenas incident are the main initial topics, followed by an extension of the “macro to micro” logic from the first sub-programme. In this sub-programme we are concerned with the organising of operations under insecurity. We will focus on the pinnacle of the organisation and discuss what organisational theory has to say about organising for the unexpected.
Classical organisational theory and modern organisational theory contributions on network defence are combined in this sub-programme. Insights into how hierarchical and network structures affect the quality of decision-making are given a particular focus.

Course content

Module 1
Classical organisational theories relating to problems concerning coordination and handling of unexpected situations

Module 2
Simulation game with subsequent feedback on decision-making process at team and individual level

Module 3
Decision-making theories, with an emphasis on explaining decision pitfalls and decision processes