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MGT2002 Perspectives of Organisation

Semester 3, 2020 Online
Short Description: Perspectives of Organisation
Units : 1
Faculty or Section : Faculty of Business, Education, Law and Arts
School or Department : School of Management and Enterprise
Student contribution band : Band 3
ASCED code : 080307 - Organisation Management
Grading basis : Graded

Staffing

Examiner:

Other requisites

Students are required to have access to a personal computer, e-mail capabilities and Internet access to UConnect. Current details of computer requirements can be found at .

Rationale

‘For whom does an organisation exist to serve?’

This is a fundamental question that this course seeks, in part, to answer. Without an understanding of the different ways of perceiving organisations, we may accept without critical thought, the various manifestations of organisation we encounter. Contested perspectives such as unitarism and pluralism, exist in a ‘dynamic tension’ played out between stakeholders and shaped by the use of power and influence in relationships.

The challenges and opportunities that managers face, whether they are in for-profit, public or non-profit organisations, have never been greater. As the world seems to be changing ever faster, with technological, economic and political forces reverberating around the world every day. Managers function in contested environments and learn how to balance a variety of stakeholder needs and if necessary shareholder demands.

This course gives students a perspective of what contemporary organisations are and what managers do when the context of what constitutes an ‘organisation’ and what constitutes a ‘manager’ is no longer confined just to the needs of traditional, 20th century organisational designs and management.

Synopsis

The content of the course provides the opportunity to apply critical thinking to alternative perspectives of organisation extending beyond the profit-seeking capitalist paradigm which seeks, as a central quest, to maximise shareholder return on investment.

Students are introduced to a more advanced range of contextual information surrounding management and organisations, including topics such as philosophical views on the motivation behind organisations, a typology of organisations in which management activities occur, and the historical origins of current management theory. Students will examine how contemporary managers need to draw from a toolkit of skills, actions and behaviours, so that they can operate within organisational environments that typically consist of paradoxes and tensions arising from competing imperatives to compete, collaborate, control and create.

Objectives

On successful completion of this course students should be able to:

  1. critically examine disciplinary theory and debates related to underlying paradigms of organisation and management practice within organisations;
  2. identify and resolve an organisational challenge by selecting and applying appropriate managerial skills, actions and/or behaviours from a ‘managerial toolkit’;
  3. provide written advice to an organisational stakeholder that showcases the effective application of managerial theory and/or practice;
  4. work independently to research, examine and evaluate ideas from a number of texts for the purpose of creating a scholarly script to fulfil the requirements of a written assignment.

Topics

Description Weighting(%)
1. Ways of ‘perceiving’ organisations 25.00
2. The imperative to compete versus the imperative to collaborate 30.00
3. The imperative to control versus the imperative to create 30.00
4. Integration and mastery of managerial competence 15.00

Text and materials required to be purchased or accessed

ALL textbooks and materials available to be purchased can be sourced from (unless otherwise stated). (https://omnia.usq.edu.au/textbooks/?year=2020&sem=03&subject1=MGT2002)

Please for alternative purchase options from USQ Bookshop. (https://omnia.usq.edu.au/info/contact/)

Quinn, RE, Bright, D, Faerman, SR, Thompson, MP & McGrath, MR 2015, Becoming a master manager: a competing values approach, 6th edn, Wiley, Hoboken, New Jersey.

Reference materials

Reference materials are materials that, if accessed by students, may improve their knowledge and understanding of the material in the course and enrich their learning experience.
Clegg, S, Kornberger, M & Pitsis, T 2016, Managing and organizations: an introduction to theory and practice, 4th edn, Sage Publications, Los Angeles.
Jones, G.R, George, J.M, Barrett, M & Honig, B 2017, Contemporary management, 4th edn, McGraw-Hill Education (Australia), North Ryde, New South Wales.
Morgan, G 2006, Images of organization, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, California.
(updated edition.)
Robbins, SP, Bergman, R, & Coulter, M 2018, Management, 8th edn, Pearson Education, Frenchs Forest, New South Wales.
Samson, D, Donnet, T & Daft, RL 2018, Management, 6th edn, Cengage Learning Australia, South Melbourne, Victoria.
(Online resource.)

Student workload expectations

Activity Hours
Assessments 50.00
Directed ¾«¶«´«Ã½app 60.00
Online Participation 26.00
Private ¾«¶«´«Ã½app 29.00

Assessment details

Description Marks out of Wtg (%) Due Date Notes
ASSIGNMENT 1 100 10 09 Dec 2020
ASSIGNMENT 2 100 50 13 Jan 2021
TAKE HOME EXAMINATION 40 40 End S3 (see note 1)

Notes
  1. This will be a take home exam. Students will be provided further instruction regarding the exam by their examiner via ¾«¶«´«Ã½appDesk. The examination date will be available via UConnect when the Alternate Assessment Schedule has been released.

Important assessment information

  1. Attendance requirements:
    Online: There are no attendance requirements for this course. However, it is the students' responsibility to study all material provided to them or required to be accessed by them to maximise their chance of meeting the objectives of the course and to be informed of course-related activities and administration.

    On-campus: It is the students' responsibility to attend and participate appropriately in all activities (such as lectures, tutorials, laboratories and practical work) scheduled for them, and to study all material provided to them or required to be accessed by them to maximise their chance of meeting the objectives of the course and to be informed of course-related activities and administration.

  2. Requirements for students to complete each assessment item satisfactorily:
    Due to COVID-19 the requirements for S3 2020 are:
    To satisfactorily complete an individual assessment item a student must achieve at least 50% of the marks for that item.

    Requirements after S3, 2020:
    o satisfactorily complete an individual assessment item a student must achieve at least 50% of the marks. (Depending upon the requirements in Statement 4 below, students may not have to satisfactorily complete each assessment item to receive a passing grade in this course.)

  3. Penalties for late submission of required work:
    Students should refer to the Assessment Procedure (point 4.2.4)

  4. Requirements for student to be awarded a passing grade in the course:
    Due to COVID-19 the requirements for S3 2020 are:
    To be assured of receiving a passing grade a student must achieve at least 50% of the total weighted marks available for the course.

    Requirements after S3, 2020:
    To be assured of receiving a passing grade a student must achieve at least 50% of the total weighted marks available for the course.

  5. Method used to combine assessment results to attain final grade:
    The final grades for students will be assigned on the basis of the aggregate of the weighted marks obtained for each of the summative assessment items in the course.

  6. Examination information:
    Due to COVID-19 the requirements for S3 2020 are:
    An Open Examination is one in which candidates may have access to any printed or written material and a calculator during the examination.

    Requirements after S3, 2020:
    This is a closed examination. Candidates are allowed to bring only writing and drawing instruments into the examination room.

  7. Examination period when Deferred/Supplementary examinations will be held:
    Due to COVID-19 the requirements for S3 2020 are:
    The details regarding deferred/supplementary examinations will be communicated at a later date.

    Requirements after S3, 2020:
    Any Deferred or Supplementary examinations for this course will be held during the next examination period.

  8. ¾«¶«´«Ã½app Student Policies:
    Students should read the USQ policies: Definitions, Assessment and Student Academic Misconduct to avoid actions which might contravene ¾«¶«´«Ã½app policies and practices. These policies can be found at .

Assessment notes

  1. Referencing in assignments:
    Harvard (AGPS) is the referencing system required in this course. Students should use Harvard (AGPS) style in their assignments to format details of the information sources they have cited in their work. The Harvard (AGPS) style to be used is defined by the USQ Library's referencing guide at .

Date printed 12 February 2021