BSc Management (Accounting and Finance) / Course details

Year of entry: 2024

Course unit details:
Case Studies in Professional Management

Course unit fact file
Unit code BMAN10862
Credit rating 10
Unit level Level 1
Teaching period(s) Semester 2
Available as a free choice unit? No

Overview

Being a professional manager means doing the 'right' things in the 'right' way. In other words, to effectively enact managerial practices, and to do so ethically, responsibly, and sustainably. In this course we discuss case studies to translate management frameworks into professional management practice.

Cases discussed in the course combine frameworks for performing a variety of managerial practices (e.g. leading, organizing, marketing, strategizing) with practices for doing so ethically, responsibly, and sustainably (e.g. stakeholder management, life-cycle assessment, triple-bottom line management).

Lectures will consist of brief presentations of management frameworks, and a more extensive discussion of their application in short cases. In seminars, you will form and work in small groups with some of your classmates. Seminars will consist of the analysis of a longer case in your group and preparing your group presentation (assessed).

 

Pre/co-requisites

Core for BSc Mgt/Mgt(Specialism); IM; IMABS.

Core for BSc Mgt/Mgt(Specialism); IM.

 

Aims

Students will learn about real-world professional management practices through cases that will prepare them for performing management practices responsibly.

 

Learning outcomes

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

1. Apply management tools and techniques to analyse cases 
2. Collect and interpret empirical material about innovative and responsible management practices 
3. Communicate findings orally in a group workshop presentation and in the written form of a brief case. 
 

 

Teaching and learning methods

There are two types of formal scheduled learning activities:
 

Lectures. There are five foundation lectures conveying basic frameworks, exemplifying case analysis, as well as expectations and requirements of the course unit. Lectures prepare the ground for the seminars and provide key content to assist the production of coursework to be assessed.


Seminars. The course includes three mandatory seminars (2 formative and 1 assessed) in which students analyse management cases and prepare coursework in small teams. In the third seminar, students will deliver a presentation that will build on an essay to be uploaded to Backboard in advance.

 

 
Methods of delivery 

Lecture hours: 10 hours

Seminar hours: 3 seminars of 3, 4 and 3 hours (10hours total)

Private study: Independent preparation for seminar group activities (80 hours total).

Total study hours: 100 hours split between lectures, seminar, self-study and preparation for classes, and coursework.

 

Transferable skills and personal qualities

  • Professionalism: This course will help to develop a solid foundation for for understanding what it means to conduct management practices with professionalism and responsibility. 
  • Teamwork: In this course, you will learn how to work collaboratively with others to achieve a goal. As an individual team member, you will learn how to take on a role within your team, take responsibility for the team's progress, contributing your ideas, and communicate effectively. 
  • Critical reflection and reflexivity This course will cultivate your ability to critically question the adequateness of common management practices through cases, and to reflect on your role as a manager in enacting these practices. 
  • Innovation: In this course, you will explore new management practices that better address the challenges managers face. It will also provide you with opportunities to consider what new management practice you would consider advancing to serve a better world. 
     

 

Employability skills

Group/team working
In this course, you will learn how to work collaboratively with others in order to achieve a goal, contributing your ideas, and communicating effectively.
Innovation/creativity
In this course, you will learn about innovation strategies and practices in management innovation that respond to pressing challenges faced by managers.
Problem solving
In this course, you will develop your ability to evaluate professional management practices and identify solutions for improving their performance in terms of their impacts on stakeholders and the environment.

Assessment methods

This course unit is assessed (100%) based on two team-based assignments (an essay and a presentation based on the essay), which are given equal weight.

 

 

Feedback methods

Seminar leaders will provide oral feedback at the formative stage and criteria-based feedback at the summative stage. Students will be expected to respond to the oral feedback given after each presentation, through discussing with the seminar leader what was strong and what was weak. Overall class feedback will be provided on Blackboard for the summative group presentations. The coursework will have feedback focusing on how to improve, relating to the criteria for assessment (marking scheme). Use will be made of BB Discussion Forums to ensure consistency across and between groups when dealing with generic questions.

Recommended reading

Laasch, O. (2020). Principles of Professional Management: Practicing Ethics, Responsibility, Sustainability. London: SAGE.

 



 

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
Lectures 10
Practical classes & workshops 10
Independent study hours
Independent study 80

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
Sally Gee Unit coordinator

Additional notes

Other staff involved: Workshop facilitators 

Pre-requisites: N/A

Co-requisites: N/A

Dependent courses: N/A

Programme Restrictions: core for Management, IM and IMABS

For Academic Year 2024/25

Updated: March 2024

Approved by: March UG Committee

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