MSc Business Analysis and Strategic Management / Course details

Strategic management is about effecting change, and satisfying the dominant stakeholders. Much business analysis goes into justifying why one should want to pursue some particular set of future changes, but often very little into the feasibility of the implementation, and hence neglecting the complexity of the organisational contexts. To avoid this threat, it would require the understanding of the dynamic processes that create capabilities and how these capabilities are utilised. The unit focuses on the theoretical underpinnings of capabilities, and the ways in which these could be communicated either to an external or an internal client.

BMAN73642 Programme Req: BMAN73642 is only available as an elective to students on MSc Business Analysis & Strategic Management and MSc International Business & Management

The central aim of the unit is to increase students’ awareness of the interdependencies among design, processes, interests, and external influences, and by this the co-ordination and control function in strategic management to build competitive competencies.

More specifically:

• developing students’ understanding organisation theory and practice,

• diagnose different needs in a business organisation in the contexts of business problems, and understand their relationships to organisational capabilities

• enhancing students’ skills in applying theoretical constructs in assessing cases and developing recommendations.

Students will be able to:

• understand the different ways in which interests and processes are co-ordinated and controlled in a business organisation through formal (such as organisational structures and reporting lines) and informal (individual and group processes, authority relations) means;

• apply analytical frameworks to evaluate organisational capabilities in the contexts of organisational complexity, strategy, and external environment;

• outline strategies for more effective ways of utilising organisational capabilities, in the contexts of interdependencies, now and in the future;

• develop means to communicate these strategies to the key stakeholders.

Individual assignment (60%)

Group assignment (40%)

Verbal feedback during sessions, written feedback to assessed assignments.

Informal advice and discussion during lectures, seminars,

Responses to student emails and one to one meetings.

Written comments on assessed coursework.

Informal contact methods

Peer-assisted study sessions

Drop-in surgeries (extra help sessions for students on material they may be struggling with)