IB381-12 Critical Issues in Management

Department: Warwick Business School
Level: Undergraduate Level 3
Module leader: Innan Sasaki
Credit value: 12
Module duration: 10 weeks
Assessment: 100% exam
Study location: University of Warwick main campus, Coventry

Introductory description

N/A.

Module aims

The purpose of the module, the objectives, teaching and learning methods, and the assessment methods have been designed to form a coherent whole. The core themes of the module are critical issues in management and the analytical structuring of unstructured problems. The learning methods are student-centred, requiring students to
proactively conduct research and integrate and synthesise diverse knowledge to solve the case studies. The module material requires consideration of both case studies and of classic texts on problem solving, creativity, and case analysis. The case studies themselves constitute the most significant element of the module. As a literature with its
own conventions for re-writing the world, its narratives provide the literary allusions for modern management. A critical analysis requires problematising the context, identifying issues, imagining alternatives, ranking preferences, resolving dilemmas, and considering recommendations and processes for managing change, all of which are crucial in today’s world of business.

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Managing (in) Organisations
Leadership & Followership
Decision-making
Accountability & Responsibility
Power & Resistance
Ethics
Culture
Motivation

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

Understand key issues in management as multidisciplinary and multifaceted phenomena [Bloom's taxonomy: understand]
Analyse complex, ill-structured management problems with no 'right answer' [Bloom's taxonomy: analyse]
See the big picture, as well as the local detail, of management issues
Engage in research to bring diverse specialist skills together
Independently research, synthesize and critically elaborate on complex, ill-structured problems (both oral and written)

Indicative reading list

Ann Langley, Henry Mintzberg, Patricia Pitcher, Elizabeth Posada and Jan Saint-Macary
(1995) ‘Opening up Decision Making: The View from the Black Stool’, Organization Science.
INFORMS, 6(3).
Barker, A. (2011) How to manage meetings. 2nd ed. London: Kogan Page.
Buchanan, D. A. and Huczynski, A. (2017) Organizational behaviour. Ninth edition. Harlow,
England: Pearson.
Cunliffe, A. L. (2009) A very short, fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book about
management. Los Angeles: SAGE.
Feldman, M. S. and March, J. G. (1981) ‘Information in Organizations as Signal and
Symbol’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 26(2).
Fineman, S. and Gabriel, Y. (1996) Experiencing organizations. London: SAGE.
Fleming, P. and Spicer, A. (2007) Contesting the corporation: struggle, power and
resistance in organizations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Grint, K. (2010a) Leadership: a very short introduction: Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Hoffman, W. M., Frederick, R. and Schwartz, M. S. (eds) (2014) Business ethics: readings
and cases in corporate morality. Fifth edition. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley
Blackwell.
Hunter, D. A. (2014) A practical guide to critical thinking: deciding what to do and believe.
Second edition. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Lukes, S. (2005) Power: a radical view. 2nd ed. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Morgan, G. (2006) Images of organization. Updated ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Mulgan, Richard (2000) ‘“ACCOUNTABILITY”: AN EVER-EXPANDING CONCEPT?’, Public
Administration, 78(3).
Parker, M. (1998) Ethics & organizations. London: SAGE.
Pfeffer, J. (1981) Power in organizations. Marshfield, Mass: Pitman.
Pfeffer, J. (2016) ‘Why the Assholes are Winning: Money Trumps All’, Journal of
Management Studies, 53(4), pp. 663–669.
Punch, M. (1996) Dirty business: exploring corporate misconduct : analysis and cases.
London: Sage.
Sandel, M. (2010) ‘Doing the Right Thing’, in Justice: what’s the right thing to do? London:
Penguin Books, pp. 3–30.
Sandel, M. J. (2010) Justice: what’s the right thing to do? 1st pbk. ed. New York: Farrar,
Straus and Giroux.
SHOTTER, JOHN1TSOUKAS, HARIDIMOS2 (2014) ‘In Search of Phronesis: Leadership and
the Art of Judgment.’, Academy of Management Learning & Education., 13(2), pp. 224–243.
Thompson, P. and McHugh, D. (2002) Work organisations: a critical introduction. 3rd ed.
Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Watson, T. J. (2017) Sociology, work and organisation. Seventh edition. London: Routledge,
Taylor & Francis Group.
Willmott, H. (1993) ‘STRENGTH IS IGNORANCE; SLAVERY IS FREEDOM: MANAGING
CULTURE IN MODERN ORGANIZATIONS*’, Journal of Management Studies, 30(4), pp.
515–552

Subject specific skills

See the big picture, as well as the local detail, of management issues [attitudinal learning outcome].
Engage in research to bring diverse specialist skills together.
Independently research, synthesize and critically elaborate on complex, ill-structured problems (both oral and written) [skill learning outcome].

Transferable skills

Engage in research to bring diverse specialist skills together.

Study time

Type	Required
Lectures	10 sessions of 1 hour (8%)
Seminars	5 sessions of 2 hours (8%)
Private study	40 hours (33%)
Assessment	60 hours (50%)
Total	120 hours

Private study description

Private Study.

Costs

No further costs have been identified for this module.

You must pass all assessment components to pass the module.

Assessment group B

	Weighting	Study time
Online Examination	100%	60 hours
Online examination: No Answerbook required

Feedback on assessment

Feedback provided via my.wbs.

Past exam papers for IB381

Courses

This module is Core for:

UIBA-N203 BSc in International Management
- Year 4 of N203 International Management
- Year 4 of N203 International Management
- Year 4 of N238 International Management with Finance
- Year 4 of N256 International Management with Marketing
UIBA-N201 BSc in Management
- Year 3 of N201 Management
- Year 3 of N20B Management
- Year 3 of N230 Management with Finance
- Year 3 of N232 Management with Finance
- Year 3 of N250 Management with Marketing
UIBA-N202 BSc in Management (with Intercalated Year/UPP)
- Year 4 of N210 Management (Undergraduate Partnership Programme)
- Year 4 of N202 Management (with Intercalated Year)
- Year 4 of N20C Management (with Placement Year)
- Year 4 of N231 Management with Finance (with Intercalated Year)
- Year 4 of N251 Management with Marketing (with Intercalated Year)
Year 3 of UIBA-NN35 Undergraduate Accounting and Finance
UIBA-N4N7 Undergraduate Accounting and Finance (with Foundation Year and Intercalated Year/Undergraduate Partnership Programme)
- Year 5 of N4N7 Accounting and Finance (Foundation Year and Intercalated)
- Year 5 of N4N8 Accounting and Finance (Foundation Year and UPP)
Year 4 of UIBA-N4N4 Undergraduate Accounting and Finance (with Foundation Year)
UIBA-NN36 Undergraduate Accounting and Finance (with Intercalated Year/Undergraduate Partnership Programme)
- Year 4 of NN36 Accounting and Finance (Intercalated)
- Year 4 of NN37 Accounting and Finance (Undergraduate Partnership Programme)
Year 4 of UIBA-N1R1 Undergraduate International Business with French
Year 4 of UIBA-N1R2 Undergraduate International Business with German
Year 4 of UIBA-N1R3 Undergraduate International Business with Italian
Year 4 of UIBA-N1R4 Undergraduate International Business with Spanish
UIBA-N20A Undergraduate Management (with Foundation Year)
- Year 4 of N20A Management (with Foundation Year)
- Year 4 of N23A Management with Finance (with Foundation Year)
- Year 4 of N25A Management with Marketing (with Foundation Year)