ULMS Electronic Module Catalogue

The information contained in this module specification was correct at the time of publication but may be subject to change, either during the session because of unforeseen circumstances, or following review of the module at the end of the session. Queries about the module should be directed to the member of staff with responsibility for the module.
Title STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT SIMULATION
Code ULMS774
Coordinator Dr DK Anderton
Strategy, IB and Entrepreneurship
Dane.Anderton@liverpool.ac.uk
Year CATS Level Semester CATS Value
Session 2023-24 Level 7 FHEQ First Semester 10

Pre-requisites before taking this module (other modules and/or general educational/academic requirements):

 

Modules for which this module is a pre-requisite:

 

Programme(s) (including Year of Study) to which this module is available on a required basis:

 

Programme(s) (including Year of Study) to which this module is available on an optional basis:

 

Teaching Schedule

  Lectures Seminars Tutorials Lab Practicals Fieldwork Placement Other TOTAL
Study Hours 10

15

      3

28
Timetable (if known)              
Private Study 72
TOTAL HOURS 100

Assessment

EXAM Duration Timing
(Semester)
% of
final
mark
Resit/resubmission
opportunity
Penalty for late
submission
Notes
             
CONTINUOUS Duration Timing
(Semester)
% of
final
mark
Resit/resubmission
opportunity
Penalty for late
submission
Notes
Individual assignment. There is a resit opportunity. Standard UoL penalty applies for late submission. This is an anonymous assessment.    70       
Group presentation. There is a resit opportunity. Standard UoL penalty applies for late submission. This is not an anonymous assessment.  15    30       

Aims

This module provides opportunities for students to consider their learning across a range of business areas and apply it in a simulated environment. It enables them to apply their learning in strategy, finance, marketing, and operations management to a simulated business environment and critically reflect on their decisions.


Learning Outcomes

(LO1) Students will be able to critically evaluate how the processes of strategic management assist organisations in major corporate and business decisions relating to the scope, scale and direction of an organisation’s activities.

(LO2) Students will be able to critically analyse and evaluate the steps in an organisation's strategic decision making process from a holistic and integrated understanding of the key functional areas of management, such as: HR; R&D; Production; Marketing; and Finance.

(LO3) Students will be able to demonstrate awareness and utility of key theoretical models and the managerial accounting framework to support financial decision-making in relation to costing, budgeting, and performance evaluation.

(LO4) Students will be able demonstrate the role of responsible business and its impact on how organisations evaluate and measure the success of a strategy.

(LO5) Students will be able to reflect on and evaluate their own decision making process.

(S1) Negotiation/ Influencing skills.
This is developed within the group exercise as a series of decisions have to be made in real time. students will have to come to agreement about these to progress each stage of the simulation. They will need to negotiate with the group and persuade the other members to take their preferred decision, or else try to compromise. The assessment requires them to identify how decisions were made, and analyse consequences.

(S2) Decision-making skills.
Students access a range of information. They have to agree on decisions about strategy, finance, operations, marketing and HR based on ongoing feedback and information from the simulation. The student has to critically evaluate key personal learning related to complexity, temporal impacts of decisions, and performance, and their role in the process.

(S3) Communication skills.
Students are put into groups and have to agree their roles and processes as well as their decisions. They have to communicate within the group to reach agreement on decisions and processes, and their assessments draws on team activities and the individual and team performance.

(S4) Personal reflection.
Students are prepared and encouraged in sessions prior to the simulation to consider what their potential role, and the team dynamics, might be. They are then required to analyse and reflect on what actually happened during the simulation, and the impacts, in their individual assignment.

(S5) Presentation skills.
Students will have to deliver a business professional presentation pitching their strategic plan to a hypothetical CEO.

(S6) Group Working.
In the presentation assignment students will be required to work in groups and manage the interaction and relationships with other group members. In doing so, they will gain experience in negotiation, persuasion, influencing and managing conflict.


Teaching and Learning Strategies

2 hour lecture x 5 weeks
3 hour seminar x 5 weeks
36 minutes asynchronous or peer to peer directed learning x 5 weeks
72 hours self-directed learning


Syllabus

 

Designing and implementing strategy overview;

Guidance and instruction accompanying the simulation software;

Establishing team norms and ground rules;

Group working, collaboration and conflict resolution;

How the processes of strategic management assists organisations in major corporate and business decisions relating to the scope, scale and direction of an organisation’s activities;

Strategic decisions making processes;

How organisations measure the success of a strategy;

Theories and models of critical self-reflection.

Alongside strategic management frameworks, students will use reflective models to analyse their decision-making, make sense of complexity, temporal impacts and performance.


Recommended Texts

Reading lists are managed at readinglists.liverpool.ac.uk. Click here to access the reading lists for this module.