| Unit name | Grand Challenges and Strategy Practice |
|---|---|
| Unit code | MGRC30002 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Dr. Pyrko |
| 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:
Managers face an increasingly fast-changing and complex, global environment. This means having to adapt to new technologies and ways of working, and keeping up with the pace of global innovations and developments. At the same time, organisations and societies are faced with grand challenges and wicked problems that can unfold gradually, such as climate change, or happen in the form of sudden, acute shocks to many industries, such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Consequently, managers require the right tools, concepts, and language for thinking, talking, and acting with respect to these contemporary challenges. These concerns are at the heart of this unit. By engaging with the most recent research and practice in strategy, we will explore strategy-making as a social process in which organisations learn how to work across the traditional silos and prepare themselves for new ways of thinking and working.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study:
This unit engages with specialised and contemporary topics in the area of strategic management. It adds distinctiveness to the programme, whilst also being aligned strongly with the value of the University of Bristol with its attention and sensitivity to critical scholarship and the global challenges. While doing so, this unit seeks to develop students’ learning to explore how current strategic thinking can be applied key contemporary challenges for organisations and societies.
An overview of content:
The overarching story of the unit is to appreciate the challenge of working with strategy in today’s rapidly changing and interconnected world. Strategy will be presented as a practice and a social process that is riddled with tensions, paradoxes, and the need for continuous negotiation among stakeholder groups (block 1 – first three lectures). Based on this understanding, students will be shown how strategists need to manoeuvre through the increasingly complex landscape of technology, innovation, and digitisation (block 2 – next three lectures). Finally, in block 3 (comprising of four lectures), students will use their new learning to reflect on the grand challenges and the ethical and sustainability challenges faced by today’s strategists. Students will also be encouraged to connect the need for responsible and ethical leadership practices as essential for the implementation and development of strategy.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit:
Students will gain knowledge of contemporary and specialised topics which represent the most recent developments in the research and practice of strategic management. Students will develop their critical thinking, debating, and presenting skills with respect to strategy and will in effect, be prepared better for engaging with the real-world of strategy and organisations as practicing managers.
Learning outcomes (aligned closely with the Bristol Skill Framework):
At the end of the unit a successful student will be able to:
1.Understand and explain strategic management as a social process and practice requiring coordination and negotiation among different stakeholder groups with diverse interests and priorities.
2.Evaluate how organisations make sense of technological and environmental change and develop innovative capabilities to support their strategy-making process.
3.Develop and appraise suitable strategies for addressing grand challenges and the ramifications of grand challenges that can affect organisations and their everyday strategic activities and processes.
4.Create recommendations concerning strategic problems drawing on contemporary research in the field.5.Build team-working, presenting, and critical thinking skills.
Teaching will be delivered through a combination of synchronous and asynchronous sessions including lectures, tutorials, drop-in sessions, discussion boards and other online learning opportunities.
Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative)
Formative assessment is a group project in which students will work in teams to address a contemporary strategic challenge that affects an organisation or an industry. Students will have an opportunity to choose from 4 pre-prepared strategic problems, or suggest their own strategic problem to work on. Depending on the cohort’s size, the group sizes will be between 4-6 students. Students will be asked to independently frame and address the strategic problem in question. This project will be announced in week 1, and teams will have five weeks to complete the task. Teams will collaborate on analysing the problem, applying relevant theory and concepts, and presenting their findings. Each team will then deliver a presentation outlining their work and recommendations and submit a two-page summary document. Teams will then receive verbal and written feedback regarding such items as the structure of their discussion, the critical thinking evident in their argument proposed, and the application of strategy concepts to the analysed issues.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative)
Individual assignment (100%) 3,000 words
Summative assessment is an individual essay in which students usually choose a strategic problem related to the organisation or industry from the formative assessment – but it does not have to be the same problem. Thus, students can i) continue the work on the strategic problem chosen by their group, or ii) choose a new strategic problem of their own interest. Alternatively, they may select another strategic problem from the initial pre-prepared list. Students are asked to review 6 relevant academic articles in depth, and drawing on this review, analyse the problem through questioning, and provide recommendations. For example, if the group formative assessment has been concerned with sustainable strategies in the car industry, the individual summative assessment may look at the specific strategic issues faced by a selected company in that industry.
When assessment does not go to plan
In the event reassessment is permitted on this unit, the reassessment weightings will be the same as the original assessment. Students will be asked to submit another assignment in which they undertake an analysis of a new real-life strategy problem. Subsequently, students will have to apply the appropriate strategy tools, concepts, and ideas with respect to that real-life problems, and justify their choice of this conceptual underpinning of their discussion (as in the original summative assessment).
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. MGRC30002).
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 Faculty 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. If you have self-certificated your absence from an
assessment, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (this is usually in the next assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any extenuating circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
