module specification

This final-year core module “The Practice of Management” aims to enable students to:

- study and apply a range of management theories and techniques to critically evaluating their personal development and management style
- study and apply a range of management theories and techniques to critically analyse large PLCs, plus to wider global issues. 

The Module will be based around two themes:
(i) Theme 1: Personal and Academic Development, where they will study, reflect on, and use management theories and techniques to assess their own qualities and career ambitions.  By doing this, students will be closely engaging with and evaluating classic and contemporary theorists, and directly applying the ideas from these theorists to their own experience. 
(ii) Theme 2: Professional Development, where they will study, analyse, and evaluate the management and performance of large corporations, and, looking ahead, consider these corporations in light of the UN’s Global Sustainability Goals 2030, justifying ways in which their selected PLCs will need to be strategically re-aligned and managed internally in order to contribute to these long-term external goals.  By doing this, students will be closely engaging with and evaluating management and business strategy and performance, and creatively re-designing corporate strategy to contribute to wider social, political, and cultural objectives.

Each theme will conclude with an assignment: Theme 1 will conclude with an individual formative assignment, and Theme 2 will conclude with a pairs-based summative assignment.  Once complete, this Module aims to enable students to understand a long-term time line.  Firstly, students will ‘look back’ and be exposed to classic and contemporary texts, theories, and techniques, which they will apply to their personal and professional development.  Secondly, they will ‘look forward’ and evaluate how contemporary PLCs can contribute to future wider global socio-political objectives, namely the UN’s Global Sustainability Goals 2030, which will strengthen their professional development.

The Module will be divided into two themes: (i) Theme 1: Personal and Academic Development, and (ii) Theme 2: Professional Development.  A long-term time will provide a link between the two themes.   LO1

In Theme 1, students will study, reflect on, and use key classic and contemporary management texts (from writers such as Drucker, Mintzberg, and Amabile), case studies, and academic articles, which they will then directly apply to their own performance and intended career.  LO2

In Theme 2, students will look ahead to studying and reflecting on the UN’s Global Sustainability Goals 2030, and consider how contemporary corporations can contribute to these goals.   LO1 and LO2

Classes in both Themes will be student-centred, and will contain tasks, exercises, close readings (of academic articles, company websites, annual reports, journalism / media articles), discussions, presentations, activities, videos, feed-back, and feed-forward, designed around preparing students for the assignments   LO1 and LO2

Scheduled teaching will involve sessions which will include formal lectures, student-led sessions, workshops, seminars, discussions, presentations, online readings and tasks, and formative tasks.  All materials and readings are available online, directly building blending learning directly into the Module.

Theme 1 will conclude with a formative task, for which the students will receive written and verbal feedback to reflect on, and will feed directly into the Theme 2 summative assignment.  Students will receive ‘feed-forward’ for the summative assignment, followed by written and verbal feedback after submission.  These activities will allow students to reflect on their learning style and academic performance on this Module and on other Modules also.

These class and online activities will contribute directly to the student’s Personal and Professional Development  (PDP), as Theme 1 is based around Personal Development, and Theme 2 is based around Professional Development

By the end of the Module, students will be able to:

LO1: Identify, reflect on, and evaluate their own strengths, abilities, and performance, and the impact of them in relation to their future management style, employability and career. 

LO2: Critically evaluate and re-design the internal management and performance of large corporations in order to contribute to external long-term global sustainable goals.

The summative assignment, Assignment 1(100% weighting), 2,500 words maximum, produced in pairs, will be a critical analysis of two UK-based PLCs (chosen from the lists provided above), evaluating the PLC’s management structure and performance, and how the PLCs can be strategically re-designed to meet the UN Global Sustainability Goals 2030. 

Within this assignment, the pairs will also reflect on their own learning styles, and style of management analysis, referring to the core readings and materials (listed above).

By completing this summative assignment, students will directly address and each of the two Learning Outcomes (detailed above).

Assignment must be passed to complete the Module

Core (all either online or will be made available online with PDFs):
Amabile, T, and Kramer, SJ (2011) The Power of Small Wins, Harvard Business Review, see: https://hbr.org/2011/05/the-power-of-small-wins

Davis, J (2018) Management Education for Sustainable Development, Stanford Social Innovation Review, September 2018, see: https://ssir.org/ 

Drucker, P (2007), The Manager of Tomorrow, pp. 320-330, from Drucker, P (2007) The Practice of Management, 2nd Edition, Routledge (PDF to be made available online)

Mintzberg, H (2018) How Experienced Practice Can Inform Management Education: Personal experience is central to the education and development of managers, Stanford Social Innovation Review, September 2018, see: https://ssir.org/ 

Rogers, C (1954) Towards a Theory of Creativity, pp. 137-151 from Vernon, P (ed) (1970) Creativity, Penguin Modern Psychology (PDF to be made available online)

Websites:
London Stock Exchange, FTSE All-Share, see:
https://www.londonstockexchange.com/indices/ftse-all-share/constituents/table

London Stock Exchange, FTSE Alternative Invest Market (AIM) All-Share, see: https://www.londonstockexchange.com/indices/ftse-aim-all-share/constituents/table

United Nations (UN) Global Sustainability Goals, 2030, see: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs

Journals:
British Journal of Management, see:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14678551

International Journal of Management Reviews, see: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14682370

Journal of Management Education, see: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/jme