Newcastle University

Aims

To provide students with an advanced appreciation of the concept and practice of business strategy within an international and global context.

Original Summary:
This module will introduce participants to the field and practice of strategic management. The objective, through students’ independent study together with reinforcement from the lecturer, will be to provide a sound understanding of the problems, approaches and techniques associated with strategy and competition within an increasingly globalised context.

By the end of the module students should be able:

- To outline the development of strategic management as a subject and to outline the strategic issues involved in contemporary internationalised competition.
- To identify key perspectives offering alternative ways of thinking about and ‘doing’ strategy.
- To discuss critically the use of ‘rational planning’ techniques associated with strategic analysis, choice and implementation within multi-business and internationalised organisations.
- To understand the significance of organisational knowledge, learning, and flexibility to competitive success, within uncertain, globalised contexts.
- To identify key activities and potential problems involved in managing change, for example in transnational organisations.
- To identify the connection between organisational structures, technology, operational activities and competitiveness of multi-business, internationalised organisations.

Outline Of Syllabus

- The Nature of Strategy
- Strategy as Voluntarist and Planned Choice
- Strategy as Weak Voluntarism: Flexibility, Learning and Knowledge Creation
- The Management of Change
- Strategy as Determinism
- Seeking ‘the competitive edge’: Variety Vs. Simplicity
- Strategising for beyond the shores
- Learning from Strategic Experiences

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

The lectures provide a framework for student-centred learning. Seminars provide opportunities for collaborative learning with peers. During the seminars, students will work in groups on exercises or presentations in which they will have to analyse innovations, its promoters, opponents, users and uses, and risks. In doing so students will need to use their initiative in searching for promising cases for analysis and literature with which to inform analyses made. Lectures and seminars will be complemented by students' private study.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The assessment fits the aims and cited learning outcomes of the module, enabling students to demonstrate and to develop individual initiative, teamworking ability, written and oral communication skills.

Resit: Essay.