GRA 6831 Foundations of Strategic Management: Processes & Decisions

APPLIES TO ACADEMIC YEAR 2012/2013

GRA 6831 Foundations of Strategic Management: Processes & Decisions

Responsible for the course
Debbie Harrison, Bente Løwendahl

Department
Department of Strategy and Logistics

Term
According to study plan

ECTS Credits
6

Language of instruction
English

Introduction
The course develops your understanding and perspectives of different strategy process phenomena and how these can be managed within the organisation. Of central concern are the phenomena of strategic thinking, values and strategic decision making, strategic change and renewal, strategy formation, strategic planning, the micro foundations of strategy development and an understanding of the purpose of the organization.

Learning outcome

Acquired knowledge - Understand the key phenomena of strategic decision making and process.

Acquired skills -
(i) Ability to structure values and develop vision, mission and strategic goals for an organization, as well as making trade-offs and dealing with risk and uncertainty.
(ii) Compare and critique key strategy development theories
(iii) Improve skills in team work, case analysis and presentations

Reflection -
(i) Appreciate how processes of strategic decision making are influenced by political and economic factors
(ii) Appreciation of corporate responsibility as strategy.

    Prerequisites
    A bachelor degree qualifying for admission to the MSc Programme

    Compulsory reading
    Books:
    Løwendahl, Bente R.. 2005. Strategic management of professional service firms. 3rd ed. Copenhagen Business School Press
    Wit, Bob de, Ron Meyer. 2010. Strategy : process, content, context : an international perspective. 4th ed. South-Western Cengage Learning

    Articles:
    Articles will be used throughout the course - see the Course Outline for more details
    The articles to be used on the course will be taken from journals such as Journal of Management Studies, Organization, Strategic Management Journal

    Other:
    During the course there may be hand-outs and other material on additional topics relevant for the course and the examination.


    Recommended reading

    Course outline
    Strategic Thinking, sense making and cognitive strategising
    Organisational purpose and strategy
    Ethics and values
    Uncertainty and risk
    Decision making
    Strategy development processes
    Strategy as practice

      Computer-based tools
      TBA, It's learning

      Learning process and workload
      A course of 6 ECTS credits corresponds to a workload of 160-180 hours.
      Students are expected to participate actively and to be well prepared before attending class.

      Please note that while attendance is not compulsory in all courses, it is the student’s own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class that is not included on the course homepage/It's learning or text book.


      Examination
      Class presentation and hand-ins in small groups (40% of the overall grade for the course)
      3-hour individual written exam (60% of overall grade for the course)

      Specific information regarding student evaluation beyond the information given in the course description will be provided in class. This information may be relevant for requirements for termpapers or other hand-ins, and/or where class participation can be one of several elements of the overall evaluation.

      This is a course with continuous assessment (several exam elements) and one final exam code. Each exam element will be graded using points on a scale (e.g. 0-100). The elements will be weighted together according to the information in the course description in order to calculate the final letter grade for the course. You will find detailed information about the point system and the cut off points with reference to the letter grades on the course site in It’s learning.

      Examination code(s)
      GRA 68311 accounts for 100% of the final grade in the course

      Examination support materials
      Bilingual dictionaries only. Exam aids at written examinations are explained under exam information in our web-based Student handbook. Please note use of calculator and dictionary. http://www.bi.edu/studenthandbook/examaids

      Re-sit examination
      It is only possible to retake an examination when the course is next taught.
      The assessment in some courses is based on more than one exam code.
      Where this is the case, you may retake only the assessed components of one of these exam codes.
      Where this is not the case, all of the assessed components of the course must be retaken.
      All retaken examinations will incur an additional fee.

      Additional information
      Honor Code
      Academic honesty and trust are important to all of us as individuals, and represent values that are encouraged and promoted by the honor code system. This is a most significant university tradition. Students are responsible for familiarizing themselves with the ideals of the honor code system, to which the faculty are also deeply committed.

      Any violation of the honor code will be dealt with in accordance with BI’s procedures for cheating. These issues are a serious matter to everyone associated with the programs at BI and are at the heart of the honor code and academic integrity. If you have any questions about your responsibilities under the honor code, please ask

      Semesters

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