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‘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.

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.

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.