GRA 6831 Behavioural Foundations of Strategic Management
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APPLIES TO ACADEMIC YEAR 2014/2015
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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. 2012. Thinking, fast and slow. Penguin books
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
The course grade will be based on the following activities and weights:
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.
To get a final grade in the course, students need to complete and achieve a passing grade in all parts of the evaluation.
In this course class attendence is mandatory. Absences can result in a lower score. 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 term papers 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 6831
Examination support materials
Bilingual dictionary only.
Examination support materials at written examinations are explained under examination information in our web-based Student handbook. Please note use of calculator and dictionary in the section on support materials.
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