School of Management, Unit Catalogue 2007/08 |
MN50384 Organisation in context |
| Credits: 12 |
| Level: Masters |
| Academic Year |
| Assessment: CW 35%, EX 65% |
| Requisites: |
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Only available to students on the MSc Advanced Management Practice. Aims: The main aim of this unit is to develop students' understanding of organizations as complex adaptive systems of people located in evolving economic, cultural, social and political systems. The unit aims to develop the understanding through educational methods as well as the content. As a postgraduate level unit, students will be encouraged to engage critically with organizational research, popular management literature and contemporary debates. Concepts and theories will be illustrates with reference to a broad spectrum of industries, sectors and national/cross-cultural/ global contexts. Learning Outcomes: An understanding of organizational context is developed through an analysis of the contextual dynamics of the AMP group. In addition, the student should have/be able to demonstrate by the end of this unit: * an understanding of organizational theories and concepts, in particular the relationship between the context of organizations/organizing and their purpose and outcomes; * the ability to discuss critically the implications of particular approaches to organizing with regards to a range of different organizational settings and situations; * the capability to analyse particular organizational settings and develop recommendations, using appropriate conceptual lenses. Skills: Understanding of literature - taught and assessed Critical thinking - facilitated and assessed Research skills - facilitated and assessed Begin to analyse organizational dynamics - facilitated. Content: Topics covered will include: debates about strong versus weak (or 'tightly/loosely coupled') organizations, contingency perspectives, control, and innovation; contemporary theorizing into network forms of organizing and organizational ecologies; the social and environmental context of organizing; national culture as organizational context; improvising organizations and implications for understanding creativity, innovation and action; critical perspectives on organizations, emotions in organizations, and organizational politics. |