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

A combination of lecture & tutorial F2F sessions. Example case and interactive discussion based on student contemporary experience.

The learning strategy for the module requires students to commit a total of 150 learning hours (including assessment). There will be 36 hours of class support (12 seminar hours and 24 tutorial hours) and 114 hours of independent and self- directed study. Learning support material will be provided for independent /self-directed learning. There will be participation in peer group discussion activities and directed reading of relevant texts and case studies where students will undertake their own (contemporary) research of relevant & related module topics.

This module can also be undertaken as part of the Blended Learning (BL) delivery pattern. BL is defined as the thoughtful integration of each of the following in order to maximise student flexibility:
- Independent study (student reading/research and assessment preparation);
- Guided independent study (homework, group tasks and e-support in Blackboard);
- Online scheduled contact time (at least 10% of total contact time is online lessons where the tutor is ‘present’) and
- Classroom contact time.
Learning activities may include (this list is not exclusive):
- Presentation activities;
- Structured discussion activities;
- Group work activities;
- Reflection activities;
- Formative and summative assessment activities;
- Problem-based learning activities.

• 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

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.