Designing Adaptive and Creative Organizations

The projects are part of the assessment for the Designing Adaptive and Creative Organizations course at the Master’s Program of the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management (TuTa). The student teams have backgrounds ranging from industrial engineering to entrepreneurship and leadership, emphasizing organizational design, organizational change, and entrepreneurship. 

Students are allocated to course projects by expressing their preferences in a motivation letter, which ensures a good fit and motivation of the student teams for the projects.

What can the company expect from taking part in this project?

These projects are tailored to companies larger than 20 employees, which seek to understand how they can improve their organizational design to be more adaptive, innovative, and/or entrepreneurial.

The participating company will receive:

1. An evaluation of how certain design factors contribute to the focal challenge the company has identified regarding its ability to be more adaptive, innovative, and/or entrepreneurial.
2. An evaluation of how the company’s organizational designs needs to evolve to address the focal challenge.
3. Recommendations and up-to-date knowledge to achieve the redesign requires to address the focal challenge; and
4. A presentation summarizing the project’s analysis, findings, recommendations, and action plan by end of March 2025. 

What is required from the company?

The company representative is expected to 

1. Develop a 1-page project brief outlining the adaptation, innovation or entrepreneurial challenge the company (or the business unit) faces and which the team will study;
2. Provide twice feedback to students on their progress (either via email or through a meeting); and
3. Provide access to a team of 5-6 students to collect data (conduct interviews with managers and employees, secondary data) between February and March 2025. 

If requested, students and the course instructor can sign a confidentiality/non-disclosure agreement with the company regarding the use of the data collected.

What do the students receive?

During the course, students analyze how a real company could redesign its processes, systems, and structure to be more adaptive, innovative, and/or entrepreneurial, apply knowledge and develop solutions for it, and report their work according to the company’s needs. The course’s responsible professor coaches each student team.

Course details

• Contact: University Lecturer Frank Martela, [email protected]
• Project duration: 2 months (February - March), 5 cr
• Number of students per project: 5-6 
• Project fee for a company: none, just time
• Application period for companies: By January 9th, 2025