Students

BBA 350 – Strategic Management

2018 – S1 Day

General Information

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Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit Convenor and Lecturer
Edward Wray-Bliss
edward.wray-bliss@mq.edu.au
Contact via email
Building E4A, Room 651
To be announced in the lecture
Yang Yang
yang.yang@mq.edu.au
Credit points Credit points
3
Prerequisites Prerequisites
39cp at 100 level or above
Corequisites Corequisites
Co-badged status Co-badged status
Unit description Unit description
This unit enables students to understand and analyze the highly influential discourse of strategic management. Starting with the premise that the ideas and practices of strategic management are far too significant to be reduced to a set of simplified tools or techniques, this unit draws upon a wide range of academic work across the fields of management, organization studies, and strategy to examine the topic. Using this research, strategic management is considered in terms of the social, political, ethical and global effects that it engenders and encourages in today’s organised world. Students will have the opportunity to synthesize these areas of knowledge through analyzing the strategic lessons to be drawn from major organizational and societal events, including those of high-level corporate fraud and environmental crisis.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  • Critically assess the nature and origins of strategic management
  • Identify and analyse strategic issues in a management context
  • Demonstrate awareness of the major conceptualisations of strategic management
  • Demonstrate awareness of contemporary challenges for and critiques of Strategic Management

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Hurdle Due
Assignment One 20% No Week 5
Assignment Two 40% No Week 10
Final Examination 40% No University Examination Period

Assignment One

Due: Week 5
Weighting: 20%

Essay questions and guidance will be made available on ilearn in Week 2.  The essay will require you to discuss the history of Strategic Management. 

Submission.

On-Line, via Turnitin, on the unit ilearn site by 12pm (mid day) on the Friday of Week 5. 

Extensions and Penalties:

No extensions will be granted. There will be a deduction of 10% of the total available marks made from the total awarded mark for each 24 hour period or part thereof that the submission is late (for example, 25 hours late in submission – 20% penalty). This penalty does not apply for cases in which an application for disruption of studies is made and approved. No submission will be accepted after solutions have been posted.
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Critically assess the nature and origins of strategic management

Assignment Two

Due: Week 10
Weighting: 40%

Essay questions and guidance will be made available in week 7.  This essay will require you to critically discuss the theory, practice and ethical implications of strategic management.

Submission.

On-line, via Turnitin, on the unit ilearn site by 12pm (mid day) on the Friday of Week 10.  

Extensions and Penalties:

No extensions will be granted. There will be a deduction of 10% of the total available marks made from the total awarded mark for each 24 hour period or part thereof that the submission is late (for example, 25 hours late in submission – 20% penalty). This penalty does not apply for cases in which an application for disruption of studies is made and approved. No submission will be accepted after solutions have been posted.
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Identify and analyse strategic issues in a management context
  • Demonstrate awareness of contemporary challenges for and critiques of Strategic Management

Final Examination

Due: University Examination Period
Weighting: 40%

A two (2) hour final examination under closed book conditions and within the University formal examination period.
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Demonstrate awareness of the major conceptualisations of strategic management
  • Demonstrate awareness of contemporary challenges for and critiques of Strategic Management

Delivery and Resources

Classes

There are 3 hours of face-to-face teaching per week, consisting of 1 x 2 hour lecture and 1 x 1 hour tutorial.  You are very strongly encouraged to attend both the lectures and the tutorials.  From experience, students who attend both lectures and tutorials throughout the semester have a much better understanding of the subject and do better in the assessment tasks.

Timetables for classes can be found on the University web site at www.timetables.mq.edu.au

Prizes

A Certificate Prize will be awarded to the student/s achieving the highest mark within this cohort.

Required and Recommended reading

The required reading for this unit consists of a collection of academic articles on strategy and management that will be uploaded for you on the unit ilearn site.  You will need to download and read the designated article before your tutorials each week and to bring the article and your notes on it to the tutorial.  Your understanding of each of these articles is examined in the final exam and assessed in the two essays. 

In addition, there will be a number of further articles uploaded on ilearn under each week's topic area.  You will need to read a selection of these and use them in your assignments.    

Unit web Page

The web (ilearn) page for this unit can be found at htp://ilearn.mq.edu.au

Technology

Access to a personal computer is required for downloading resources from ilearn.

Passing the unit.

To complete the unit satisfactorily you must achieve an overall score of 50 marks or more.  There is no hurdle in this unit, this means that it is only your overall mark that determines whether you pass this unit or not.

 

Unit Schedule

Week

Topic

Tutorial (All articles are on ilearn and need to be downloaded, read and brought to your tutorial.  Tutorial content follows a week behind the lecture)

1

Introduction: Ambiguous Strategy

No tutorial

2

Contexts 1:

Military Histories of Strategy

Mintzberg, H. (1987) ‘The Strategy Concept I: Five Ps For

Strategy’ California Management Review 30 (1): 11-24.
3

Contexts 2:

Neoliberalism and Strategy

 Knights and Morgan, G. (1990) ‘The concept of strategy in sociology’ Sociology 24(3): 475-483.

4

Understanding Strategy 1:

Technical strategy

Bockman, J. (2016) 'Neoliberalism' Contexts (12(3): 14-15..

5

Understanding Strategy 2:

Ethical Strategy

Carter, C., Clegg, S. and Kornberger, M. (2008) A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book About Studying Strategy.  London, Sage.  Chapters 2 and 3.

First Assignment due

6

Understanding Strategy 3:

Cultural Strategy

Stansbury, J. and Barry, B. (2007) ‘Ethics Programs and the

Paradox of Control’ Business Ethics Quarterly 17(2): 239-261.

7

Understanding Strategy 4:

Global Strategy

Ackroyd, S. and Crowdy, P. (1990) 'Can Culture be Managed? Working with "raw" material: the case of the English slaughtermen' Personnel Review 19(5): 3-12
8

Understanding Strategy 5:

Financial Strategy

 Klein, N. (2000) No Logo. London, Flamingo. Ch. 9

9

Strategy Cases:

Enron, Part One

Oxfam (2016) The Hidden Billions. Oxfam Research Reports, Oxfam, Australia

10

Strategy Cases:

Enron, Part Two

McLean, B. and Elkind, P. (2003) The Smartest Guys in the Room, Portfolio/ Penguin, New York. (Chapter 15, ‘Everybody loves Enron’

Second Assignment Due

11

Strategy Cases:

The Environment, Part One

Grant, R. and Visconti, M. (2006) 'The Strategic Background to Corporate Accounting Scandals' Long Range Planning 39: 361-383

 

12

Strategy Cases:

The Environment, Part Two

Jacques, P. et al. (2008) 'The Organisation of Denial: Conservative Think Tanks and Environmental Scepticism' Environmental Politics 17(3): 349-38

13

Revision

Revision quiz in the final tutorial

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policy-central). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Undergraduate students seeking more policy resources can visit the Student Policy Gateway (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/student-policy-gateway). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.

If you would like to see all the policies relevant to Learning and Teaching visit Policy Central (https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policy-central).

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/study/getting-started/student-conduct​

Results

Results shown in iLearn, or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au.

Student Support

Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/

Learning Skills

Learning Skills (mq.edu.au/learningskills) provides academic writing resources and study strategies to improve your marks and take control of your study.

Student Services and Support

Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Service who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies.

Student Enquiries

For all student enquiries, visit Student Connect at ask.mq.edu.au

IT Help

For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/. 

When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.

Graduate Capabilities

Discipline Specific Knowledge and Skills

Our graduates will take with them the intellectual development, depth and breadth of knowledge, scholarly understanding, and specific subject content in their chosen fields to make them competent and confident in their subject or profession. They will be able to demonstrate, where relevant, professional technical competence and meet professional standards. They will be able to articulate the structure of knowledge of their discipline, be able to adapt discipline-specific knowledge to novel situations, and be able to contribute from their discipline to inter-disciplinary solutions to problems.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Critically assess the nature and origins of strategic management
  • Identify and analyse strategic issues in a management context
  • Demonstrate awareness of the major conceptualisations of strategic management
  • Demonstrate awareness of contemporary challenges for and critiques of Strategic Management

Assessment tasks

  • Assignment One
  • Assignment Two
  • Final Examination

Engaged and Ethical Local and Global citizens

As local citizens our graduates will be aware of indigenous perspectives and of the nation's historical context. They will be engaged with the challenges of contemporary society and with knowledge and ideas. We want our graduates to have respect for diversity, to be open-minded, sensitive to others and inclusive, and to be open to other cultures and perspectives: they should have a level of cultural literacy. Our graduates should be aware of disadvantage and social justice, and be willing to participate to help create a wiser and better society.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcome

  • Demonstrate awareness of contemporary challenges for and critiques of Strategic Management

Assessment task

  • Assignment Two

Changes from Previous Offering

One of the weekly readings has been changed since the previous semester's offering.

Global Contexts and Sustainability

This unit examines Strategic Management from a critical academic perspective.  As such, we will be questioning the theories and practices of strategic management as much as learning them.  A major aspect of this questioning will be an examination of the global, ethical and environmental impacts of dominant corporate strategies.

Research and Practice

This unit requires students to engage with contemporary and classic research texts on strategy, drawn from the leading management and strategy journals and texts. As such, the unit fosters student's abilities to read and understand published academic research on the subject area.