Organisation (ORG)

Research area

Management & Organisation

Keywords

Business Ethics, Corporate Governance, Innovation, Organisational Behaviour, Sustainability, Leadership, Teams

Mission of the programme

To develop and test fundamental theory in applied organisational research

Current programme coordinators

Daan van Knippenberg  Professor of Organizational Behavior

Rob van Tulder Professor of International Business-Society Management

Strategy, policy, and programme design

People are core to all business activities. They shape the internal organisation of companies, define organisations’ relationships with their stakeholders and society at large, and lie at the core of organisations’ potential for learning, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation. These aspects of organisational life are all crucial to successful and sustainable organisational performance. They are the object of research of the ORG research programme, with its mission to develop and test fundamental theory in applied organisational research. The programme potentially covers a vast range of issues, from the very micro level of analysis (e.g., the behaviour of individuals and teams in organisations; the genetic determinants of occupational choice) to the very macro level (e.g., the development and behaviour of networks and populations of organisations; the nation-wide consequences of organisational forms). In practice too, all these levels of analysis and associated research questions are addressed by researchers within the ORG research programme.

While we leave room for talented individuals to pursue alternative research questions and methodologies, so as not to forego promising areas within the larger ORG field (e.g., research on China), we are in a position to generate research of the highest quality in two coherent research themes:

1. Organisational Behaviour
2. Corporate Engagement, Sustainability, and Governance 

THEME 1: ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

People may well be an organisation’s greatest asset, and effective management of human resources is a critical factor in building a sustainable competitive advantage for contemporary organisations. Not surprisingly, then, Organisational Behaviour is one of the focal points within the ORG programme. Key questions in this research are how the work can be organised and employees be managed to motivate and develop employees, to achieve synergy within and between teams and work groups, and to realise employees’ potential for learning, creativity, and innovation. The OB part of the research programme thus focuses on the micro levels of analysis in management and organisation – the behaviour of individuals and work groups.

THEME 2: CORPORATE ENGAGEMENT, SUSTAINABILITY, AND GOVERNANCE

The research group Corporate Engagement, Sustainability, and Governance focuses on the interaction of economic organisations with their institutional, societal, and natural environment. Both the recent financial crisis and the problems associated with climate change demonstrate that corporate, societal and environmental flourishing are indissolubly connected, and that future managers will face formidable challenges in ensuring that performance in one domain does not come at the expense of another. These developments have also resulted in research questions moving from the periphery to the core of management research, teaching and practice. A core strength of this research group is its comprehensive perspective on these issues, involving multiple levels of analysis.