BUU11580 Fundamentals of Management and Organisation
(5 ECTS)
Lecturer: Dr. Ulrich Leicht-Deobald
Email: leichtdu@tcd.ie
Office hours: By appointment via email
Module Description:
The module introduces you to business and organisations by exploring the history and future of organising, tools, and techniques for management of organisations, and their role in social and individual life.
You will come away with a deeper theoretical understanding of business as well as a foundation for practical application. You will begin to develop business literacy by regularly engaging with business podcasts, news, and films. You will have the chance to dive deeper into your interests and passions, to see how they work in this context, e.g., sports management, event management, arts management, technology, food, fashion management, tourism management, and political management.
In addition to knowledge, you will develop key skills: essay writing, presentation and rhetoric, critical reading, and analytical and design thinking.
Learning and teaching Approach:
In the module, we will introduce you to the pleasure of learning and studying through independent inquiry and group synergies. In this model, you are in the driving seat, and will decide your level of commitment and engagement: the lecturer and Tutorial leaders are facilitators of learning, rather than ‘teachers’ who force you to ‘work’. This responsibility is a shift from second-level education to higher education, and it depends on you taking ownership of your learning.
Lectures and Tutorials: Attendance and Engagement
- Read the required material. This will usually take half a day per week.
- Watch the movie/documentary etc. related to the Lecture. This will get you interested in the aspect of organisation through a different lens.
- Listen to the business podcast you subscribe to.
- Come to the Lecture.
- Prepare for and attend the Tutorials. This is where your main learning and interaction takes place. Indeed 60% of the course grade will be allocated for your attendance and participation in the Tutorial. At the start of Semester 1, you are allocated to a with approximately 14 fellow students. This constitutes your Tutorial group for the entire year. You will meet your Tutorial Leader and they will brief you on what is expected of you.
Attendance at all twelve Tutorials is compulsory: each Tutorial is worth 10%. You cannot get marks if you do not attend, even if you have submitted work in advance.
Please note that you do not get a chance to make up lost marks for a missed tutorial.
Some Tutorials require a submission before or after a Tutorial. Non-attendance at a Tutorial even if you complete your submission will result in a 0% for that Tutorial.
Module-Level Learning Outcomes:
Having completed this module, you should be able to:
- Identify and critically evaluate certain existing theories, models, and practices in management, and integrate transformational theories, models, and practices into the field
- Describe the key aspects of strategy, organisational form, leadership, and team formation, and apply these to the analysis of industries
- Assess the impact of (i) the natural environment, (ii) technology, and (iii) growth on management.
In addition, you will have developed the following skills:
- Critical thinking skills
- Teamwork and collaboration skills
- Journal reading skills
- Presentation skills
Relation to Degree:
Fundamentals of Management and Organisation is designed as a foundation for students intending to take business as part of their degree and as a survey course for those who do not. The course assumes no prior study of business or its related fields.
The module is taken by students in Global Business, BESS, Business Studies and a Language, Management Science and Information Systems, Law & Business, and Computer Science & Business degrees.
Workload:
| Content | Indicative Number of Hours |
|---|---|
| Going to Lectures and Tutorials | 18 |
| Reading list and preparing for Tutorials | 50 |
| Individual assignment work | 10 |
|
Viewing materials and listening to podcasts |
15 |
|
Revision work for MCQ tests |
20 |
| Total | 113 |
Textbooks and Required Resources:
Journal articles:
This module outline contains the names of journal articles you will read before each lecture. They are also on your online module space in pdf format. A journal article is a specialised type of writing that undertakes a piece of research in an academic field and contributes to knowledge by developing theory as a result of the findings.
There are thousands of journals in organisation and management, most of which are published on a monthly basis. The readings contained here are a potted history of organisation and management, from some ‘classics’, to contemporary examples on a theme.
Books:
There are MANY books in organisation and management. You will quickly see that these subjects are divided into many sub-disciplines, and sub-sub-disciplines! You will see many types of book, from the textbook to the non-specialist-booklet, to the ‘get rich quick’ stories. No books are prescribed on this module, but there will be a list of recommended readings at the end of each lecture.
Movies:
There is sometimes a film or documentary allocated to each Lecture. Humans have been communicating through stories for about 20,000 years. Movies take their cues from the real world and give us good material to debate our working lives, the ethics of business actions, the power of management, different types of leaders and groups.
Podcasts:
It is essential that you develop a sophisticated business literacy, a commanding analytical competence in areas of management. This is not something that comes from a single module but will incrementally build up over the four years of your degree. As well as beginning to amass a deep theoretical knowledge of organisation and management through reading journal articles and textbooks, you will be asked to explore business-related podcasts in any aspect of business you have interest in: business and politics, entrepreneurship, money, environment, history, finance, and so on.
Course Communication
Please note that all course related email communication must be sent from your official TCD email address. Emails sent from other addresses will not be attended to.
- Blackboard: All materials (lecture slides, readings, assignments, etc.) will be on Blackboard and students will be required to submit their module assignment as well as any in-class assignments through Blackboard.
- Email: please use your @tcd.ie address only. College does not respond to personal email addresses. Please put a signature on your TCD email, with your programme and student number.
- Tutorial leader: Only in cases where your tutor does not respond within a reasonable timeframe, should these be sent to the tutorial coordinator, Declan Cahill at cahilld1@tcd.ie.
Email etiquette: for questions on the module (including those related to assignments) please ask during the Tutorial. Please do not ask questions that are answered in this booklet. Please ask your colleague in the class before emailing the Tutorial Leader.
Assessment:
Tutorial attendance and participation (60%)
45% of the annual grade will be reserved for the Tutorial leader to assess your evolution as a student over the academic year. If you miss more than 2 Tutorials over the two semesters without a medical certificate you may not be permitted to sit the end of year exam.
There will be many, diverse tasks you will undertake during the Tutorials. You will also have read the material in the schedule below in advance of going to the Tutorial, as it will form the basis of the tasks. You will see that Tutorials are different from second-level classroom situations. You are adults, interacting with other adults, and you will be given that respect and autonomy.
MCQ examination (40%)
A 45-minute, 45 question MCQ examination will demonstrate your understanding of the readings and lecture material covered in the module.
Supplemental Assessment:
If you fail the module and are permitted to submit a supplemental assessment by the Court of Examiners, you will have to take another 45-minute, 45 question MCQ examination (August).
Biographical Note
Ulrich Leicht-Deobald, PhD, is an Associate Professor in Responsible Leadership at Trinity Business School. His research focuses on new ways of working, particularly with regards to collaboration within and between teams. His work has been published in high-impact academic journals, such as Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies, Academy of Management Discoveries, and Journal of Business Ethics.
Declan Cahill (Tutorial Coordinator) is a Teaching Fellow and PhD student at the Trinity Business School researching management in religious organisations. He has an MBS in Business Practice from the IMI and 35 years of business experience in entrepreneurship, operations, finance, and strategy. He is an effective communicator and motivator, and he was honoured with a Trinity Teaching Award for Postgraduate Students in 2019. Declan believes that there is no failure, only feedback, and “It’s never too late to learn” (Malcolm Forbes).