Teaching Staff: dependent on your theme-group
Contact Person: R. Torner (IBA)
Coordinator: Dr. B.A.S. Koene
Term: fall
ECTS: 5
Course description and learning objectives
The interim project is a short intensive course that is driven by current events wherein students combine their understanding of the theoretical concepts they’ve been learning in the previous years to issues that are currently at hand in our society and within organizations (such as sustainability, political influences, Europe, flexibility and certainty, diversity and inclusion, regional and global development, corporate governance, etc.)
The course follows the part of the curriculum that introduces you to the various professional disciplines of management studies. It precedes your work on the bachelor thesis. During the interim project, you are challenged to independently explore a societal theme and debate and aim to make a small contribution to the advancement of the debate. Central to this course is the development of professional values and skills necessary for this.
The general themes for the project are set by staff members and can be different each year. The themes reflect contemporary dilemma’s. When faced with a dilemma, one must make a difficult choice between 2 (or more!) alternatives. What makes the choice difficult lies in the fact that choosing one will be disadvantageous to the other. Dilemmas cannot be resolved. General solutions do not exist, but actors need to engage with the issue and constant (re-)negotiation is required.
Rather than solving the problem yourself, your assignment is therefore to to make a well-argued contribution to the ongoing debate that helps the involved actors to engage with the issue and move forward constructively.
During the course students work in teams that are required to operate relatively independently, drawing on their own creativity. An important part of the assignments is