GRA 6831 Behavioural Foundations of Strategic Management

APPLIES TO ACADEMIC YEAR 2016/2017

GRA 6831 Behavioural Foundations of Strategic Management


Responsible for the course
Debbie Harrison

Department
Department of Strategy

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, strategic decision making, strategic change and renewal, strategy process, and the micro foundations of strategy development.

Learning outcome

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

Acquired skills -
(i) Compare and critique key strategy development theories
(ii) 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

    All courses in the Masters programme will assume that students have fulfilled the admission requirements for the programme. In addition, courses in second, third and/or fourth semester can have spesific prerequisites and will assume that students have followed normal study progression. For double degree and exchange students, please note that equivalent courses are accepted.

    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

    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


      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.



      Form of assessment Weight Group size
      Written examination 3 hours 60% Individual
      Class participation 40% Individual

      Specific information regarding student assessment will be provided in class. This information may be relevant to requirements for term papers or other hand-ins, and/or where class participation can be one of several components of the overall assessment. This is a course with continuous assessment (several exam components) and one final exam code. Each exam component is graded using points on a scale from 0-100. The final grade for the course is based on the aggregated mark of the course components. Each component is weighted as detailed in the course description. Students who fail to participate in one/some/all exam components will get a lower grade or may fail the course. You will find detailed information about the points system and the mapping scale in the student portal @bi. Candidates may be called in for an oral hearing as a verification/control of written assignments.

      Examination code(s)
      GRA 68311 continuous assessment accounts for 100% of the final grade in the course 6831

      Examination support materials
      Bilingual dictionary
      Permitted examination support materials for written examinations are detailed under examination information in the student portal @bi. The section on support materials and the use of calculators and dictionaries should be paid special attention to.

      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. All retaken examinations will incur an additional fee. Please note that you need to retake the latest version of the course with updated course literature and assessment. Please make sure that you have familiarised yourself with the latest course description.

      Additional information
      Honour code. Academic honesty and trust are important to all of us as individuals, and are values that are integral to BI's honour code system. Students are responsible for familiarising themselves with the honour code system, to which the faculty is deeply committed. Any violation of the honour code will be dealt with in accordance with BI’s procedures for academic misconduct. Issues of academic integrity are taken seriously by everyone associated with the programmes at BI and are at the heart of the honour code. If you have any questions about your responsibilities under the honour code, please ask. The learning platform itslearning is used in the teaching of all courses at BI. All students are expected to make use of itslearning.

      Semesters

      Translations