Master Electives

Thinking and working internationally is one of your most important goals. the MSC GBSM programme encourages you to follow one master elective abroad and one elective in Rotterdam.

Governance and Strategic Challenges of Family Enterprises

As portrayed in the media, family enterprises are often cloaked in mystic, intrigue, and drama. In large part this is due to their private nature and to a lack of understanding about their distinctive characteristics. This course is designed to provide you with an overview of the unique challenges and opportunities faced by family firms.

Typically, family enterprises are thought of as the local pub at the corner. Yet, family firms are actually the most prevalent ownership structure in the world, and research shows that these firms drive our global economy. In Europe, family firms represent over 80% of all companies, and about 75% of employment. Wal-Mart, Fiat, ALDI, IKEA, Michelin, Louis Vuitton, Heineken, and Porsche are just a few of some of the largest family firms around the world.

At some point in your professional lives you will either establish, work in, or consult to family firms as: owners; family members who work or do not work within the business; non-family employees with or without ownership interests; consultants; investment bankers; or in other roles. This course aims to prepare you to work effectively and professionally in, and with, family firms.

Developing Leadership in Creating Internal Support for Strategic Change 

Strategy implementation often fails because top management does not spend enough time and effort to communicate in a clear and honest way with employees. However, organizations are lost without full-hearted support of internal stakeholders. Support from employees for the new strategic objectives of their firm appears to create a higher degree of motivation, resulting in more productivity and, as a consequence, a higher financial performance.

The course will increase your understanding of the mechanisms that explain resistance or support among internal audiences regarding the implementation of a new strategy.  In addition to the theoretical frameworks available in academic literature, the course will provide a rich overview of practical solutions that can be found in real life case studies, both in written format, and illustrated in class room presentations by managers that have been in charge of this change process.

Through this course, students will be able to get acquainted with the most recent academic insights in strategy implementation, more specifically the role of internal motivation and communication programs in achieving sustainable support from employees. The theoretical notions will be applied in cases enabling students to become familiar with leadership skills that will enable them to make sound decisions in change processes where internal stakeholders have to be pursued to support a new strategic direction. Development of these skills will be stimulated by a range of learning modes:  discussing academic papers in class room settings, applying the notions of these papers in case studies and finally, developing a consultancy report where the key theoretical notions are applied in practice through a group assignment

Companies and Ecologies 

Have you ever wondered about climate change or the state of the world’s fresh water? If you don’t know much about ecology, you might find yourself missing critical strategic opportunities in management.

This master elective explores state-of-the-art ideas concering corporate sustainability and systems thinking. Further, it is delivered in a personalised and ecologically-centred format, in which lessons will often be taught in natural, outdoor environments. You wil be required to maintain a field journal or undertake an individual project concerning how to reduce your ecological footprint, in addition developming a strategic plan to help a company reduce its own footprint.

Doing Good Done Better: Effective Management of Philanthropic “NGO” Organisations

The relation between businesses and non-profit organisations is developing: from a philanthropic act of charity to a full and strategic integration of CSR into the vision and mission of the corporation. On the other hand, the relation between business and non-profit organisations is shaped by the increasingly ‘business-like behaviour’ of non-profits. Work processes are becoming more formalised and professional, and many non-profits seek to have a relationship with businesses. The skills and knowledge needed, however, differ from those that are required in common business settings. In this elective, you will work as a student consultant for a non-profit organisation. You will be advising and working together with managers, volunteers and other stakeholders. You will gain insight into managing non-profits, business/non-profit relations, and the diversity of the non-profit field. We will prepare you to consult, manage or govern non-profit organisations and collaborate with businesses and nonprofits from a business point of view.

Corporations and Justice 

Many of our most heated debates involve the role of markets and the ethical limits to the unbridled pursuit of profit by modern corporate enterprise. Is the free market fair? Are there also goods which we should not try to provide via the market? What are these goods and what is wrong with buying and selling them? Especially in the wake of the recently financial crisis, all traditional questions of business ethics seem to have become more poignant. There are basically two reactions to this crisis: either people will argue that we need ethics more than even in the present times of crisis, or people will say that ethics is a luxury we can no longer afford.

In this course we will build on a series of lectures on the history of political theories of justice from Aristotle to John Rawls. This series is developed by Harvard professor of Government Michael Sandel. We will seek to refine this framework so as to apply it to some major questions relating to markets and justice.