Strategy Processes and Practices

(1) ACCT102; and (2) 45 points at 200-level or above in MGMT, MKTG or MSCI RP: MGMT344

MGMT 320

MGMT344

Course Coordinator / Lecturer

David Stiles

Professor Charles Snow

Assessment

Learn Quizzes
Learn quizzes are weekly online tests designed to help test your own individual engagement with and understanding of each of the main topics of the course as you go along. They are based on your Essential Reading (the core text chapter) and the relevant lecture each week – so reading the textbook and regularly attending lectures is essential to successfully completing quizzes. I will provide a variety of theoretical and applied questions that will make you think about each topic in more depth. All quizzes open immediately after the lecture dealing with the relevant topic, starting in Week 2 with a Strategy Processes & Practices quiz. Quizzes are normally open for 7 days after each class (i.e. will close at the end of the following week’s lecture), so be careful not to miss the deadlines. However, to allow extra time for enrolments, book buying etc., the deadline for the first 2 quizzes is the end of lecture 3 on Tuesday 6th March. Check the Learn website for each deadline.

You may make unlimited attempts at each quiz, but there is a 30 minute delay between quiz attempts to get you to think before each go rather than adopting a random guessing mode. To make it fair to all, there is no option for late submission of a quiz or to complete the quiz other than via the facility on Learn. Marks will be available for each quiz after the quiz closes (i.e. the final deadline for the whole class – not when you complete your own quiz. Otherwise you would know the answers and have a chance to resubmit until you get 100% every time and/or pass the answers on to others.

To gain full credit for this item of assessment, you will need to complete all questions for 8 out of 10 quizzes. There is no quiz after the last lecture. Since the main aim is to get you to learn from all lecture topics, it’s a good idea to attempt all quizzes; but only your best marks from 8 quizzes will count in case you have one or two disasters, are hopelessly late in enrolling, or are absent due to illness. One word of warning about the Learn system on quizzes: I've noticed from past experience that some people do not 'close' their quiz responses properly on Learn, but leave answers open past the deadline. Learn will automatically submit quizzes that are still open, so isn’t much of a problem if you make one submission. However, it is a danger when you make multiple attempts at a quiz, and forget to press the button on your final attempt to officially submit the response. It’s also an issue if you try to look at questions again before the quiz closes without answering them. Unfortunately the very act of reopening the quiz on Learn to look at the quiz questions means it counts as an attempt on the system. Learn counts the last submission made, not the highest scoring one. That would be far too easy in inviting unlimited random guesses: you could simply attempt it as many times as you like, putting different answers up each time and the system would accept the correct ones, even if you don’t know these! I am unable to override any of your responses on Learn since there is not facility for doing this and I can only examine responses afterwards to determine whether I should take any remedial action. However, the difficulty for me here is to decide which if any one of a series of multiple attempts to accept. By rights, none are officially valid except your last answer. So, make sure you close all quizzes you look at each time.

Obviously don’t consult your classmates on questions or answers, since this will be detrimental to your own learning and will not be a valid indication of whether you understand the course material. In any case, the questions are in a different order each time you open the quiz. This item of assessment is not available for aegrotat consideration.

Group Applied Case Analysis Presentations & Reports
In the group project, you will undertake the analysis and presentation of solutions to strategy cases in a small group, honing further your appreciation of strategy knowledge and skills. You will be allocated to a group and it is up to you to be able to function effectively as a team to deliver this assignment. Of the 30% of overall course marks achievable for this assessment, half of marks (or 15% of your overall course mark) will come from the presentation and the remaining half of marks (or 15% of overall course marks) from the case analysis report. This gives the group some time to respond to issues raised in the presentation; but not enough time to rewrite things entirely. This means the group should ensure the presentation is as complete, thoughtful and well designed as possible. You must submit your presentation slides electronically via Learn by the start of the session in which you present. The report must be submitted electronically through the specific link in the course Learn website within 48 hours of the end of the lecture/session. There is also a separate Individual Contribution Form each group member must submit within 48 hours, to assess the relative contributions of individual participants. All group members are expected to contribute equally to this assignment and those not contributing satisfactorily may have marks deducted - but for all those engaging fully in the project it should be an enjoyable and interesting learning exercise. More details are given in a separate document about this assignment posted on Learn.

Please only submit one case analysis report per group. A group cover sheet MUST be used for this assignment.

Final Examination
The final examination will be a closed book, invigilated, short essay-style, applied 2-hour exam based on material from the lectures and the textbook. The paper tests you on your broad knowledge of strategy issues, concepts and tools from across the course rather than on a single topic. You will need to answer 4 questions from a choice of 6, each from a different topic area. Good answers will use organisational examples to illustrate answers drawn from short and longer case studies in the textbook and class – particularly the case presentations. This means to get higher marks it is a good idea to read/ engage with and understand all cases covered, paying particular attention to the in-class case presentations and reports. Answering the questions after each textbook case isn't compulsory, but might help you to understand and remember the material so it's easier to prepare for class presentations and revise for the exam. As well as the textbook/presentation cases, I also give company examples in the lectures. So, attending classes and taking notes of each session (including the presentations) is doubly important, More detailed advice on the final exam will be given in the last lecture. This course was new in 2016, so exam papers before this do not exist. I will give you extra help in the final session to guide your revision.

Grading
The marks for assessments may be scaled before a final grade is determined.  You should not regard 50% as a pass mark.

Textbooks / Resources

Recommended Reading

Johnson, Gerry , Whittington, Richard, Scholes, Kevan; Exploring strategy ; Eleventh edition; Pearson, 2017.

Collinson, Simon, Narula, Rajneesh & Rugman, Alan M.; International business; 7th ed; Pearson, 2017.
Please buy this or consult a copy in the library, since this is Essential Reading for this course. Do not use previous editions, since much of the material will be out-of-date.

Other material will be posted on the course Learn website.

Course links

LEARN
Coversheets - Group and Individual

Notes

Class Representative
A class representative may be asked to volunteer in the first few weeks of class. Any problems with the course can be raised with the class rep. Their email can be found at UCSA. The class representative will take up any issues raised by class members with the lecturer concerned as they occur.

Departmental Academic Policies
The Department assumes that you have read this document.

You should also read the General Course and Examination Regulations

Dishonest Practice
The University of Canterbury considers cheating and plagiarism to be serious acts of dishonesty.  All assessed work must be your own individual work unless specifically stated otherwise in the assessment guidelines. Material quoted from any other source must be clearly acknowledged. You must not copy the work of another person (student or published work) in any assessment including examinations, tests and assignments. Any person, who is found to have copied someone else's work, or to have allowed their work to be copied, will receive a fail grade for that piece of assessment and may face disciplinary action which may lead to a fine, community service or exclusion from the university.

IMPORTANT: Where there are concerns regarding the authorship of written course work, a student can be required to provide a formal, oral explanation of the content of their work.

Indicative Fees

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.