AØKA08100U Advanced Strategic Management

Volume 2019/2020
Education

MSc programme in Economics – elective course

Content

The idea of the course is to provide students with an understanding of how managers make decision and how strategy evolves in different types of companies and contexts as for instance in firms located in a dynamic and complex environment facing genuine uncertainty.

 

A further idea is to make students aware of not only the economic but also the political, social, and psychological aspect of managing a corporation and how these aspects affect the development of strategies in both private and public organizations. Overall the course apply to student who see themselves in job positions as a management consultant, a secretary for the board of directors, and as future managers who works with strategic management in private or public organizations.

 

We start with exploring different perspectives on strategy, management and organization, including the different elements of an organization and its context (environment).

 

Hereafter we move into a detailed discussion on five different types of corporations: The entrepreneurial firm; the large production/service company; the expert firm, the innovative organization; and the divisional corporation. For each of these archetypes we go in depth on how the corporation is structured, how it is managed, how we work with and develop strategies within it, and what specific problems and opportunities each archetypes contains. Finally, for each archetype we investigate the business model (business logic) it builds upon. This part of the course concludes with an overview of how the organizational archetypes evolve over time from one archetype to another as organizations grows and matures.

 

In the third part of the course, we look at a number of forces which determine and influence the development of strategies in corporations. Here we look at how companies can handle the uncertainty associated with the development of new technologies, the emergence of new values ​​/ norms and globalization and the management of strategic alliances, etc. In addition, we also look at how intended and emergent strategies develop over time and how we can organize and manage strategic change processes.

Learning Outcome

After completing the course the student is expected to be able to:

 

Knowledge:

  • Discuss and reflect on strategy, organisation and management and how they are influenced by different organizational contexts
  • Account for different organisational archetypes and how they function
  • Identify  and discuss the different forces including technology, globalization, collaboration and values that affect organizations
  • Account for the different ways of organize strategy development processes

 

Skills:

  • Identify the archetype or archetypes of an organization
  • Analyze the managerial challenges of an organization
  • Assess the strategic challenges of an organization
  • Analyse the circumstances under which business strategies are developed and implemented.
  • Assess what could be the strategic future development direction for an organization given its present context.
  • Identify, evaluate and discuss strategic, organizational and managerial issues within organizations by applying diagnosing tools, terms and models.

 

Competences:

  • Develop and carry through a specific implementation plan for how to work with and organize strategic management and other managerial topics in different organizational contexts
  • Organize and implement strategy development processes and decision-making in different types of organizations and environment.

H. Mintzberg, J. Lampel, J.B.Quinn & S. Ghoshal: “The Strategy Process – Concepts, Contexts, Cases” Fifth Edition, Pearson Education 2014. ISBN 978-0-273-71628-0

It is an advantages if students have already attended a basic course in Strategic Management. However this is not a requirement.
The teaching is a combination of dialog lectures, small group work during classis including both discussions and presentations, and student presentations. It is expected that student have read the texts and cases before each class and that they are willing to present texts and cases to the class.
Schedule:
3 hours lectures a week from week 6 to 19 or 20 (except holidays).

The overall schema for the Master can be seen at KUnet:
MSc in Economics => "courses and teaching" => "Planning and overview" => "Your timetable"
KA i Økonomi => "Kurser og undervisning" => "Planlægning og overblik" => "Dit skema"

Timetable and venue:
To see the time and location of lectures please press the link under "Se skema" (See schedule) at the right side of this page (F means Spring).

You can find the similar information in English at
https:/​/​skema.ku.dk/​ku1920/​uk/​module.htm
-Select Department: “2200-Økonomisk Institut” (and wait for respond)
-Select Module:: “2200-F20; [Name of course]”
-Select Report Type: “List – Weekdays”
-Select Period: “Forår/Spring – Week 5-30”
Press: “ View Timetable”
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Exam
  • 0,3
  • Guidance
  • 1
  • Lectures
  • 42
  • Preparation
  • 102,7
  • Project work
  • 60
  • Total
  • 206,0
Oral
Individual
Collective

 

Students will receive collective oral feedback on cases presented in groups during the class and they will also receive individual oral feedback on their presented ideas for the exam paper in the end of the course.

Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Oral examination, 20 min. under invigilation
Written assignment
The exam is an individually oral examination without preparationtime, defending a written paper of 3-4 pages where some given questions must be answered and handed in.
The students are allowed to talk together about the given problem-set but must work on, write and upload the assignment answer individually. The plagiarism rules must be complied.

The final mark for the course is a holistic evaluation of both the paper and the oral exam.
The exam must be answered in English (both paper and oral exam).
____
Exam registration requirements

In order to participate in the exam students during the course must present a case for the rest of the class. The presentation of cases typically take place as a group presentation.

____

Aid
Only certain aids allowed
  • For the paper all aids are allowed.
  • At the oral examination the paper and some slides of the case is allowed as aid.

____

Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
____
Exam period

The exam is:

A written paper to be uploaded no later than May 11, 2020 at 10 AM to the Digital Exam portal.

 

And an oral exam: Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday in week 21, 2020. Not all days will be used and the student cannot choose a specific day.

 

Exact date, time and place of the oral exam will be available in Digital Exam after the written paper has been handed in.

 

Exam information:

For enrolled students more information about examination, rules etc is available at  Master (UK) and Master (DK).

____

Re-exam

The reexam:

The non-passed written paper must be handed in with corrections no later than August 21, 2020 at 10 AM to Digital Exam.

 

The oral reexam wil be in week 35 and/or 36 without preparationtime.

The exact date, time and place of the oral exam will be available in the Digital Exam after the written paper has been handed in. 

 

Reexam information:

More information is available at  Master students (UK) and Master students (DK).  

Criteria for exam assesment

Students are assessed on the extent to which they master the learning outcome for the course.

 

To receive the top grade, the student must with no or only a few minor weaknesses be able to demonstrate an excellent performance displaying a high level of command of all aspects of the relevant material and can make use of the knowledge, skills and competencies listed in the learning outcomes.