Inleiding Verantwoordelijke Organisatie

The opening lecture of the course. We introduce ourselves and the teaching team, set out how the course works, and start with the question that runs through the whole block: for whom does an organisation create value, and at whose expense?

An Opening Case

We open with a company most students have used and some have worked for: Uber Eats. Four parties are trying to get a grip on the same business model at the same time. The Labour Inspectorate wants to close the platform in the Amsterdam region; a union has litigated for years over whether couriers are employees or entrepreneurs; the Dutch Data Protection Authority has fined the company for automated account deactivation; and a claim organisation is challenging the algorithm that sets the fare. They do not point in the same direction, and one wins where another loses. The case has no tidy moral at the end, which is exactly why we use it.

Professional Management

The course teaches three questions to ask before you decide:

• Ethics. Are we doing the right thing, or are we only following the rules?
• Responsibility. Who feels the consequences of what we do, and do we take responsibility for that?
• Sustainability. Which resources do we use, and will they run out if we keep going like this?

Professional is not a title you are given. It is the question you ask before you decide.

Practical Matters

We go through the course structure, the weekly rhythm, the assessment, the house rules, and how to reach the teaching team. We also introduce the Young Innovators Project and explain how the groups are allocated.

Required Readings

No readings are required for this lecture. During this week you read Chapter 1 (Management in Context) and Chapter 2 (Management in Practice), which are covered in next week’s lecture.

About the Course

This lecture is part of Inleiding Verantwoordelijke Organisatie, a first-year course in the BSc in Business Administration at Radboud University. The course examines how organisations create social, environmental, and economic value, and introduces the three dimensions of professional management: ethics, responsibility, and sustainability.

Alongside the lectures, students work in teams on the Young Innovators Project with the regional network organisation Lifeport MKB: each team researches an organisation in the Nijmegen region, visits it, and reports on what it found.