BEng Mechanical Engineering with Management

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This course will introduce you to key concepts and ideas in business strategy, taking you on a journey through economic approaches to strategy to social, political, technological and behavioural approaches. The course focuses on understanding the nature of strategy and how it is enacted in practice, evaluating how different theories and approaches emphasize different courses of action for firms. In so doing, the course helps students develop a critical understanding of the challenges associated with the strategic management of business organizations. The course emphasises the importance of understanding strategy process (i.e. how individuals, groups and firms formulate and implement strategy) as well as strategy content (i.e. choices among options). Teaching uses case examples taken from contemporary business organizations to illustrate the complexities of strategic problem solving, from Tesco to Nokia and Google.

Lecture notes and supplementary materials (e.g. videos, weekly online quizzes) will be placed on Blackboard.
 

The aim of this course is to examine what business strategy is and provide a critical overview of the dominant schools of thought concerning the theory and practice of the strategic management of business organizations.

On completion of this course, students will be able to:
•    Contrast critically the dominant schools of thought concerning the theory and practice of business strategy
•    Evaluate the varying implications of the above perspectives for the effective management of contemporary business organizations
•    Select and apply appropriate theoretical frameworks to analyse strategic issues and diagnose strategic problems
 

Teaching and learning methods
Methods of delivery - Lecture

Lecture hours - 20 (2 hours per week over 10 weeks)

Private study - 80 (As directed)

Total study hours – 100 

Informal Contact Methods
TBA

- Individual essay (50%)
- Group report (50%)
 

• Informal advice and discussion during a lecture, seminar, workshop or lab.

• Online exercises and quizzes delivered through the Blackboard course space.

• Responses to student emails and questions from a member of staff including feedback provided to a group via an online discussion forum.

• Written and/or verbal comments on assessed or non-assessed coursework.

• Generic feedback posted on Blackboard regarding overall examination performance.

Mintzberg, H., Ahlstrand, B., & Lampel, J. 2009. Strategy Safari. London: Prentice Hall. The key touchstone for this course - describes the ten schools of thought dominating strategy research and practice.
Whittington, R. 2000. What is strategy and does it matter? 2nd Edition. London: Cengage Learning EMA. More critical than Mintzberg’s book and gives more attention to systemic and social perspectives on strategy.
Additional readings will be provided during the lectures, focussing on each of the substantive topics covered.

Pre-requisites - None
Co-requisites - N/A
Dependent Course Units - N/A
This is a Business and Management for all Programmes (BMap) course offered by Manchester Business School. It is a university-wide course for non-specialists that is available as a free choice option to students who have received prior agreement from their registering School. It is also available to visiting and exchange students admitted through the University of Manchester International Programmes Office.
Not available to BSc in Management/Management (Specialism), IMABS or IM.