This module aims to:

Enable students to develop knowledge and understanding of the multi-level processes involved in the strategic conduct and performance of formal organisations and their constituent groups and individuals through active learning, authentic assessment and critical reflection;

Support students to become familiar with leading-edge theory about organisation and international management and how such processes relate to strategy, organisational environment and strategic performance in different contemporary organisations and cultures, through processes of application, analysis and problem solving;

Enable students to develop the skills required to identify, and critically analyse contemporary strategic business and management challenges and issues to support effective decision making in a strategic context.

(LE1) Internationally aware.
Students will explore the challenges for managing across different national and cultural values, contexts, and frameworks through group tasks and consideration of global forms of organisation.

(LE2) Experiential learning.
Students will be able to demonstrate learning through reflection on proposed solutions and experiences; making meaning based on individual and shared experience using reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation, and active experimentation to generate realistic outcomes.

(LO1) Students will be able to elaborate on the linkage between organisation, environment, and strategic performance, in a variety of different cultural contexts.

(LO2) Students will be able to identify, analyse and apply theoretical and conceptual knowledge to strategic issues and challenges in contemporary international organisations.

(LO3) Students will be able to critically evaluate a range of strategy and strategic management perspectives, theories, and concepts.

(LO4) Students will be able to critically analyse and evaluate strategic management practices in relation to the formulation and implementation of strategy, across a variety of different cultural contexts.

(LO5) Students will be able to diagnose strategic and organisational issues and appreciate alternative choices and approaches for the strategic management of people and processes in a range of organisational and environmental contexts.

(LRE1) A problem solver.
Students will be challenged to think critically about organisational strategic issues and dilemmas. They will do this by gathering and synthesising information, analysing alternative perspectives and options, and presenting a considered course of action in their module assessment.

(LRE2) Ethically aware.
Students will gain theoretical and practical tools with which to identify, analyse and evaluate strategic ethical challenges within and affecting organisations relating to purpose, values, stakeholders, corporate responsibility, and enterprise.

(LRE3) Flexible and adaptable.
Students will acquire the attributes necessary to effectively cope with change; view problems from multiple perspectives; make decisions and act without having full, unequivocal and complete information; and handle risk and uncertainty.

(LRE4) A lifelong learner.
Students will take part in action learning and will have the opportunity to develop and practice this method as a form of lifelong learning.

(LRE5) Commercially aware.
Students will reflect on the implications of strategy and strategic management for different forms of organisation in different contexts and apply perspectives, concepts, and theories to real-life examples.

(LRE6) Empirical research.
Students will engage in secondary desk qualitative and quantitative empirical research into organisations and critically evaluate the validity and reliability of empirical evidence.

(LRE7) A team player.
Assessed group work and in-class group assignments will require students to work in teams and manage the interaction and relationships with other group members. In doing so, they will gain experience in negotiation, persuasion, influencing, and managing conflict.

The module will primarily be delivered through eight weekly e-lectures, delivered through a variety of methods, covering key concepts, theories and case studies. These will be supported by individual online tasks, such as blogs, collaborative tasks, and discussion boards, which will be used to develop and apply learning. These activities will be moderated by the module instructor. Students will also be directed to key academic and practitioner readings to further develop their learning.

Unscheduled Directed Student Hours: 10 hours

Description: The e-lectures will equate to 1.25 hours/week over 8 weeks undertaken asynchronously.
Attendance Recorded: Yes – tracked via the learning platform.

Students will also participate in eight weekly e-seminars where they will engage in peer discussion of key concepts and application to their own work contexts and/or real-life examples of contemporary organisations. Seminars will be conducted via a discussion board wit h input from the module instructor.

Unscheduled student hours: 8 hours
Description: The e-seminars will equate to 1 hour/week over 8 weeks undertaken asynchronously.
Attendance Recorded: Yes – tracked via the learning platform.

Additionally, students will participate in virtual action learning sets, where students will form small action learning groups. They will collaboratively choose a case study (either from their own professional experience or provided by the module instructor) and work together to identify and solve current strategic dilemmas. This will be facilitated by the module instructor.

Unscheduled student hours: 12 hours
Description: The active learning will take place over six sessions, equating to 2 hours per session, undertaken asynchronously.
Attendance Recorded: Yes - tracked via the learning platform.

Self-directed learning hours: 120 hours
Description: This will involve directed and independent reading of the academ ic and scholarly literature and independent empirical secondary desk research into case study organisations.

Understanding concepts of organisation, strategic management, strategy and environment: This introduces the subject of strategy and strategic management. The evolution of the discipline is examined and contemporary views of strategy and strategic management in different contexts and levels of strategy are explained. Students are made aware of the multi-perspective, contested, and evolving nature of the discipline.

The nature and source of competitive advantage – the positioning school: business level strategy strategic choices and the prescriptive implications of this perspective.

The nature and source of competitive advantage –the resource-based, knowledge-based and dynamic capabilities view, or inside-out perspective, of competitive advantage.

Forms of organising and managing as strategic acts. There are two broad perspectives that students will encounter in the context of real-life case studies: the linear model of organising and managing stra tegic action through rational strategic planning and the incremental model of continuous learning and adaptation.

Strategic purpose, vision, mission, values and leadership: Students will consider the role of vision, mission, governance, social responsibility and ethics in the context of strategic management. Key concepts of stakeholder influence, social responsibility, and social enterprise will be critically examined.

Strategy, inertia and change - the role of history and culture: This topic considers both exogenous drivers of change and inertia arising from the competitive and institutional environment, and intra firm path dependency, routines and organisational culture.

Contemporary organisational conditions and challenges: corporate level strategy: This topic will support students in integrating their knowledge and understanding of strategy context, process and context in examining the nature of multi-business corporations and the prescriptive logics of adding va lue to diversified activities.

Contemporary organisational conditions and challenges: Strategy in high velocity environments, hyper-competition, innovation and entrepreneurship. Different types of innovation: strategic, product and process in different industry environments will be introduced and the nature and source of innovation will be explored via contemporary case examples. The growth of the firm – entrepreneurial foresight, capabilities, opportunities and social entrepreneurship are examined.