Prerequisites: Completion of 150cp
It is your responsibility as a student to ensure that you have the prerequisites or co- requisites for a particular unit. You may not enrol in this unit if you have previously passed, or are currently enrolled in, any unit identified as incompatible with this unit. If you do not meet these requirements, then you must see your Course Coordinator
Description:
This unit is the capstone unit designed to enable students to integrate concepts from their studies in the core and professional strand units. It will introduce students to the study of Strategic Management within the organisational context. It will extend and integrate the basic concepts of Management, Marketing, Operations, Information Systems, Statistics and Financial Strategic Planning.
The unit will help participants to become acquainted with elements of organisational strategy, exploring the context of strategy, strategy formulation and issues relating to the implementation of strategy and its evaluation. The unit will also include how the various functional strategies integrate and interact to form the organisational strategy. It will provide participants with understanding necessary implementation and managing the strategy process that aims to develop competencies to ensure the long-term viability and success of an organisation or enterprise.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:
1. critically analyse and evaluate the alignment of various levels and types of strategy within an organisation and how they contribute to organisational objectives (GA 2, 4, 6, 8, 9)
2. critically analyse and evaluate appropriate strategic initiatives at the corporate, business and functional levels of an organisation; (GA 2,4, 6, 8, 9)
3. critically assess and make recommendations with respect to the ethical implications and social and environmental impact of local and international strategic management plans operations; (GA 2,4, 6, 8, 9)
4. critically evaluate the commercial, social and ethical merits and impact of strategic ‘not-for-profit' initiatives (GA 2, 4, 6, 8,)
CONTENT
Topics will include:
- The concept of strategy
- The nature of strategic management;
- Environmental scanning and assessment;
- Internal scanning and analysis;
- Strategic management and globalisation;
- Types of organisational and functional strategies;
- Organisational strategy analysis and choice;
- Strategy implementation;
- Strategy review and evaluation;
- Strategic leadership and social responsibility - the not-for-profit sector
- Strategic management of technology and innovation.
- Organisational structure and controls: governance issues in strategic management
Assignment 1
Group Simulation Presentation: Evaluate and present company's performance and key decisions
Purpose: Demonstrate an ability to formulate and implement a strategy for a firm, competing in a dynamic business environment
Group Presentation:
In your first tutorial you will be divided into groups of 4 or 5 (depending on the number of students). Each group will represent a company, competing in the Globus Strategic Simulation game. Your task will be to develop and implement a winning strategy for your company to successfully compete in the imaginary digital camera industry, using the knowledge acquired in this subject. You will make weekly decisions about the running of this company, encompassing a wide range of activities, such as production levels and funding decisions, number of models, features of each model, pricing and choice of segment, etc. as explained in detail in the simulation documents. The group members need to spend a minimum of 2 hours weekly on each decision before the tutorial. After the decisions of all groups (i.e. companies) are lodged in the simulation web-site, they will be processed and results in key performance indicators (e.g. market share, ROI, etc.) will be reported to the students. The success in this game depends on your effort in crafting a vision for the business, competent analysis of the industry environment, deciding on a strategy that will maximize shareholder returns and consistency in implementing the strategy step-by-step, year- by-ear, while taking into consideration the constantly evolving industry competition. In line with ACU mission statement and the values of this University and School, you will be expected to pay special attention to good corporate citizenship by attaining high CSR scores in the simulation.
At the end of the five simulation rounds, each of which represents a year of competition in the context of the simulation, the simulation centre will rank the companies in order of excellence in design and execution of the strategy, and in terms of achieving high CSR standing.
Apart from utilising the simulation over 5 weeks, and endeavoring to achieve top scores from your decisions, your group will be required to present 10 min summary of the case and reflect on your decisions during tutorial Weeks 10, 11, 12. Please, see the Rubric for assessment of the Group Presentation, which outlines exactly what is required and how it will be assessed. A summary of the weekly strategic management decisions, copies of weekly work sheets and plans, along with a 500-word summary of the presentation has to be submitted to Turnitin as one document the same week of presentation, on Friday 5 pm.
Assignment 2
Students will demonstrate their ability to reflect on the decisions and outcomes of the business simulation game, based around the critical evaluation of the alignment of various levels and types of strategies they have used in the simulation.
Individual Reports:
This assessment task is also related to the simulation. Each student is required to write a reflective report on the strategy chosen by the company and how this fitted with the industry environment. Attention should be placed on the chosen vision and strategy, and the alignments of the three levels of strategy, functional, business and corporate level, used in the simulation. You need to ensure that your report has strong theoretical backing, which will be reflected by the appropriate use of references to good quality theoretical sources (e.g. the textbook, other recently published textbooks and articles in peer-reviewed academic journals). Students will need to demonstrate their ability to reflect on the decisions taken by the group and the lessons that they have learnt by actively participating in the Simulation. Please, see the Appendix A for assessment criteria.
Assignment 3
You can choose any of the case studies from the text, advised by your lecturer on LEO by week 2. After you choose by Week 4, you cannot change your mind.
You need to cover theory and practical understanding of the strategic issues of the case and ensure that you consider all aspects of ethical decision making. If appropriate include specific impact on not-for - profit organisations. Research will reflect Harvard referencing of a minimum of 10 sources, with at least 5 academic sources and 5 business sources.