Strategic Management in the 21st Century: Central questions in the Global Economy, Ecology and Ethics module (BU41010)

This module will enable you to gain critical understanding of the formulation and implementation of strategy; you will be taught to judge the context, content, and process of strategic decision-making in organisations.

Strategic management decides an organisation's long-term goals and objectives. This is then continued by devising plans and strategies to achieve them.

The study of contemporary strategy involves combining many types of knowledge. You will use your knowledge of the different functional areas of business, but focus on the activities of the organisation as a whole rather than its constituent parts.

We will study and develop a critical understanding of different analytical tools and techniques. These will help you to understand the complexities of strategic decision-making at various levels. You will cover these at business, corporate, and international level of organisations.

You will relate theory to current examples of strategy making. This will let you analyse and review case studies in a global context.

What you will learn

In this module, you will:

• explore the role and nature of strategy
• conduct external analysis
• perform internal analysis, focusing on resources, capabilities, and core competencies
• develop business-level strategy
• understand corporate-level strategy
• examine mergers and acquisitions
• investigate strategic alliances and joint ventures
• study international strategy

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• analyse the strategic environment and its influences on organisational strategy in both private and public sector organisations
• identify capabilities and resources of an organisation
• critically examine propositions about strategic options available to organisations using appropriate models of analysis
• have developed an ability to work both within small groups and independently to produce written/oral communication pitched at a suitable level for a variety of audiences

Assignments / assessment

• case study - 1,500 words (35%)
• report - 2,500 words (65%)

This module does not have a final exam.

Teaching methods / timetable

• seminar -style lectures
• tutorial workshops