A 3,000-word individual assignment with two parts.

Part A: A report of 2500 words where the student is required to undertake a strategic analysis of an organisation and make recommendations about a leadership and strategic management problem using the tools learnt in the classroom.

Part B: This will be a reflection section which links learning lessons from the module to the student’s efforts to critically develop and apply organisational agility competencies for leadership in a strategic management context. This part of the submission should be circa 500 words.

Learning
Conceptual thinking and evaluation of the subject area:
What is strategy and why is it important?
Exploring and developing Leadership
Challenging assumptions
Is there only one company strategy?
Can leadership styles be different?

Practice
Identifying and developing individual strategic and organisational agility competency in management & leadership roles
Company resource-base and Dynamic capabilities
Generic competitive strategies and Strategic Actions
Competitive Positioning Analysis
Porter’s Diamond of National Advantage
Foreign entry choices; transfer of resources & capabilities
Corporate and Diversification Strategies
Executing Strategy
Corporate Culture and Leadership

Practicals
Case Studies to understand actual strategy and leadership practices

1. Demonstrate a conceptual understanding and critical awareness of core beliefs embedded in theories and practices concerned with the role of leadership in strategic management in different types of organisations.
Knowledge & Understanding

2. Critically analyse the nature and scope of challenges leaders may face when managing strategic processes and practices across different geographical boundaries from consideration of relevant problem practice based case examples.
Analysis

3. Critically evaluate implications of emerging factors impacting adoption of strategic growth options to enable organisations to anticipate the future.
Enquiry

4. Reflect on and demonstrate development of associated underpinning strategic agility and customer focus competencies supporting potential for leadership in a strategic management context.
Reflection

• VLE learning support material to be provided for independent / self-directed learning,
• Access to Library facilities and to a variety of digital resources supporting different learning styles,
• Module handbooks,
• Selected contemporary case studies,
• Directed texts,
• Problem/practice based case examples.

Clegg, S. R., Carter, Schweitzer, J., Whittle, A, & Pitelis, C (2016). Strategy: Theory and Practice, 2nd edition, Sage
Jackson, B. and Parry, K. (2011). A very short, fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book about studying leadership, 2nd edition, London:SAGE

The learning strategy for this module is based around students committing a total of 150 hours of activities towards achieving the learning outcomes. These will be split between 39 hours of direct contact with a tutor and 111 hours of directed, guided and self-study, together with preparation for and completion of the assessment tasks. Learning support material will be provided for the module.
The module will draw upon a mixture of activities including lectures, web-based activities, case study analysis, relevant videos and in-class discussions, individual and group problem solving and self-directed learning.

Focused on Strategic Management from a Leadership perspective, this module involves understanding leadership as a process and the implementation of strategic decisions and its organisational and individual implications.