| Unit name | Global Strategy |
|---|---|
| Unit code | MGRCM0011 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1A (weeks 1 - 6) |
| Unit director | Professor. Holt |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | School of Management - Business School |
| Faculty | Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
Why is this unit important?
As the title suggests, this unit focuses on the intimacy between global thinking and action and strategic practice. It is not a course about how commercial organizations can succeed in global markets. It is a course about the basic nature of what it is any organization (big or small, public or private) does when they engage in strategy. As such, it is a course that takes you through discussions about the idea of strategy and how this idea is intimate with attempts to think and act globally.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study
In the context of the MSc International Business and Strategy: Global Challenges programme, this unit serves to introduce students to the two grounding concepts of ‘strategy’ and ‘global’. It introduces students into the question of thinking and acting globally. What does it entail to think in terms of a globe and how is the global experienced? Inspired by the history and the origins of strategic thinking, but firmly grounded in the current challenges facing all organisations, the course enables students to understand how specific frames, concepts, ideas, and models in strategy have emerged from prevailing epistemological frames and technological ordering. Some of the core questions centre around:
An overview of content
Each session the course will cover a distinct topic (strategy and the sea, strategy and technology, strategy and vision, strategy and speed) through which we can begin to think through what it means for an organization to think and act globally. The topics are not exhaustive or even comprehensive. In other words, there are many more ways the course could have approached the concern with strategically thinking and acting globally. What they are, however, is provocative. The intent is to question continually the prospects and feasibility for gaining and maintaining strategic oversight. More critically, the intent is to consider whether strategy should concern itself with 'seeing' or with being 'over' or 'above' things at all.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit.
Students will be able to think critically about why certain concepts and understandings prevail in strategic practice. They will become interested in how strategic practice can limit as much as expand and enhance understanding of the world and their place within it.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the unit, students will have achieved the following learning outcomes:
The course will be structured as block teaching held over five weeks, with a further week for reflection and assignment.
The lectures will involve group case study work, set readings, recorded lectures, videos, exercises. Further, the unit requires independent study, including broader reading and desk research.
The clinic at the end of the lecture period will be a space for deliberation, queries and the like.
The group presentations will be based on a single task and question oriented around a global strategic challenge set at the end of the lecture. The students will work through library-based research, supported by the unit lead, during which time they learn to collaborate on how to compose a unified piece of work able to address different perspectives on a salient topic. They will acquire skills in teams work and presentation skills. Feedback will be given by both peers and unit lead.
Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):
Each week the course will run twice, so two three-hour sessions. The teaching days will be structured with a two-hour opening lecture, including an open clinic for queries. Group (of 5-6) work will follow, for one hour.
At the end of each session students will meet in plenary with group presentations and open discussion based on a question that elicits the use of concepts introduced during the lecture. Indicative concepts include: global, competition, knowledge, vision, and control. In this way students will gain a critical understanding of how to think through concepts.
The presentations will emerge from the group-based work and the lecture and clinic. Students will be encouraged to use and stretch their understanding of the conceptual framings presented in the opening two-hour lecture and clinic.
MGRCM0011 will be over the first half of the semester, and MGRCM0013 over the second half. MGRCM0013 will also use the same groups. The groups will be the same through the unit.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
The final week dedicated to preparing and drafting a 2000-word written assignment (60% of the unit marks).
The individual essay draws on, develops, and synthesises the entries and the learnings from weekly group sessions and presentations. Assessment of the essay will consider analytic (ILO2) and critical (ILO1) aspects, as well as concern for how and why strategy still matters in an age when decision making is increasingly subsumed in machine-driven orders (ILO4). Throughout the essay should refer to distinct global conditions (ILO3) around which strategy might cohere.
As such, students should refer to theories and ideas concerning the global and elaborate on how strategy practice has attempted to embody and apprehend ideas of the global.
The second part of the summative assessment is an oral held at the end of the semester. This will be in collaboration with the sister unit on the program, MGRCM0013. The oral examinations will be run by the unit heads for both programs. Each group will be asked to respond to a set question based on material from the presentations they have been undertaking in both modules. Each group will be required to create a 10 min presentation for the oral. The question will be such that the group can chose to emphasize the content of one unit or the other, but they will be expected to combine learning from both units. The oral examination will be half an hour.10 mins presentation followed by 20 minutes questioning and discussion. All group members will be expected to attend and contribute.
Each group will be awarded a mark for the WHOLE group. This is 40% of the mark for both units.
When assessment does not go to plan
Students who do not pass the unit overall will be re-assessed using like-for-like assessments:
If the student fails in an individual task, they are expected to resubmit a 2,000-word essay on a modified question resulting in a different reflective essay (60%).
If students fail in group tasks, they are expected to submit a 5-minute recorded audio presentation and a 1,000 word report on a modified question (40%).
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. MGRCM0011).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
