GRA 6831 Behavioural Foundations of Strategic Management

APPLIES TO ACADEMIC YEAR 2013/2014

GRA 6831 Behavioural Foundations of Strategic Management


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 behavioural strategy 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 process, 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 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

    Articles:
    The articles to be used on the course will be taken from journals such as Journal of Management Studies, Organization, Strategic Management Journal. The exact reading list will be provided in the course outline

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


    Recommended reading
    Books:
    Kahneman, Daniel. 2011. Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

    Course outline
    The topics to be covered will include many of, but are not limited to, the following:

    Strategic thinking and sense making
    Strategic decision making
    Strategy development processes
    Strategy as practice
    Leadership
    Strategy implementation
    Strategic change
    The strategy-organisation link

      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
      There are two general forms of assessment in this course;
      3-hour individual written exam (60% of overall grade for the course)
      Participation (40% of the overall grade for the course). The exact requirements for obtaining the participation grade will be detailed in the course outline.

      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 continuous assessment accounts for 100% of the final grade in the course

      Examination support materials
      Bilingual dictionary 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