Strathclyde Business School, Glasgow, Scotland

MDP 2 - Timetable - Teaching Team

The class outline for the 2nd Year 2009-10 Management Development Programme class is given below.

Class Code: 49210

Course Aims

The Management Development Programme runs in each of the first three years of the BA degree. The MDP aims to encourage integration of the knowledge and experience gained in Principal Subjects with students and staff with complementary expertise. Each year of the MDP focuses on different aspects of business. In first year the objectives are to develop and enhance skills in communication, team working, numeracy, inter-personal skills and in the use of information and communications technologies.

The second year of the MDP focuses on:

• decision-making
• leadership
• negotiation
• entrepreneurship

The third year class considers strategic management, business environments, ethics and research methodology. During the three years, students will be given the opportunity to continuously enhance their skills and develop a holistic overview of business, preparing them for the management development programmes they may experience on graduate training schemes.

Class Description

Management Development Programme 1 does not involve traditional lectures. Instead, the emphasis is on a number of interactive plenary sessions and small group work classes. These will be supplemented by computer laboratory exercises. Students are required to actively participate in all elements of the class. The class is driven by real business problems and is delivered by a team of interdisciplinary lecturers from different departments who will be supported by invited practitioners. ICT is used extensively in this class with students and staff using laptops in a dedicated teaching room with additional support facilities.

The class website StrathMDP.com and MERCURY provide all the information relevant to this class. As the class develops throughout the session the web pages are enhanced to include additional material, computer laboratory sheets, data sets etc. The web is the primary source of information for students and staff. Staff update attendance and assignment records, and students are e-mailed their marks and any other communication (e.g. warning letters for absences).

Each student is allocated to a Group Session, and within that to a team of approximately 6 individuals with whom they work throughout the year. Teams are constructed so that as far as possible students with different Principal Subjects are mixed. Usually each group consists of 6-9 teams.

Resources

The Plenary session takes place in K325. A team of lecturers and graduate tutors from across Strathclyde Business School and other faculties are supported by the MDP Manager, the Administrator, three year academic co-ordinators (one for each year) and the web systems developer.

Management Development Programme Manager

Aileen Watson
Human Resource Management
Email a.c.watson@strath.ac.uk, tel x3553

MDP 2 Academic Class Coordinator

Viktor Dorfler
Management Science
Email viktor.dorfler@strath.ac.uk, tel x4540

Class Administrator

Adele McPherson
Business School
Email admin2@mansci.strath.ac.uk, tel x4024
Room 3.27 Sir William Duncan Building, 130 Rottenrow, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, G4 0GE

Web Developer and MERCURY Systems Administrator

Derek Crowe
Management Science
Email d.crowe@strath.ac.uk

Learning Objectives

• To appreciate the importance of entrepreneurship behaviour in business organisations
• To get familiarised with the basic principles and elements involved in entrepreneurship behaviour, in particular in the areas of leadership, decision making and negotiation
• To write reports and give presentations describing the analysis of business problems
• To work in teams
• To assume personal responsibility for contributions to team and individual work
• To reflect on personal skills development and learning

Teaching and Learning Methods

The class is based on action learning with an emphasis on small group activities. Therefore group sessions (2 hours per every two weeks) are very important as they allow students to work independently in their teams or for group discussions to take place. There will be only one plenary session at the beginning of the course in which the introductory as well as administrative issues will be presented to students. The course material related to each subject is on the web. These are self study material and students are expected to study each section before going to the group session related to that section.

Structure of Class

Semester 1

• Creativity (1 Group Session)
• Entrepreneurial Behaviour in Business – Introduction (2 Group Sessions)
• Leadership Skills (2 group sessions)

Semester 2

• Decision Making Skills (2 group sessions)
• Negotiation Skills (2 Group Sessions)
• Practical Negotiation Test (1 Group Session)

Reading List

Currently due to the diversity of the subjects, there are no text books for the class. The teaching team is considering the possibility of making a customised book or choosing an appropriate text book. Relevant notes and additional reading material are posted on MERCURY

Assessment

This class will be continuously assessed. At the end of the class you will be given a grade based on your performance over the year.

Students should pass all the assignments to be able to pass the course. Students who do not submit a piece of assignment during the course are not qualified to take a Resit exam. Attendance at the group sessions is mandatory. Students are assessed using the Faculty Marking Scheme and must attempt all assignments.

NOTE: If you fail to pass the required number of assignments, a mark of 0% will be returned at the June Exam Board (i.e. regardless of your mark shown on MERCURY)! This indicates that you have failed the class. Your final grade will be confirmed by Registry after the Exam Boards have met.

Late Submission Penalties: The Business School has the following penalty scheme for the late submission of assessed work:

• 1 day late - deduct 5% of mark allocated
• 2 days late - deduct 10% of mark allocated
• 3 days late - deduct 20% of mark allocated
• 4 days late - deduct 40% of mark allocated
• 5 days late - deduct 80% of mark allocated
• After 5 days - deduct 100% of mark allocated

This applies only to weekdays where students submit in hard copy but includes Saturdays and Sundays where students submit electronically.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is concerned with the appropriation of the ideas and works of others without due acknowledgement of the sources. It can manifest itself as copying from sources without proper acknowledgement. Normally plagiarism is interpreted as deliberate attempts to deceive the reader as to the originality of the work submitted.

Plagiarism occurs where acknowledgements are omitted or quotations and other material from original sources are not clearly identified. This concerns not simply text but figures, diagrams, statistics and illustrations. It would include any source whether printed or electronic. The most obvious forms of this are copying directly from the work of others or slightly changing words copied from another source. Always acknowledge your sources at the point of use in the text and cite these in the bibliography and references. This includes electronic sources. Plagiarism applies to all assessed work and similar penalties and procedures will apply in such cases. This is treated very seriously by the Strathclyde Business School. Penalties can range from discounting the particular piece of work to referring the matter to the University's disciplinary procedures which could ultimately involve dismissal from the University. Any penalty would be applied only after an investigation allowing individuals the opportunity to present an explanation.

Under University regulations dealing with academic dishonesty you are required to sign a declaration for each piece of work to say that the work is your own, that you have referenced all documents (paper and electronic) used according to University rules, and that you have not copied the work of another person, whether student or published author, in any way. If you are in any doubt about what is acceptable and what is not you should ask your tutor.

Year Decisions and Attendance Rules

• To pass the class, students need to pass all of the elements of the assessment and to attend at least four group sessions in every semester.
• Students who fail one or more elements of assessment will need to attend a resit exam for that/those element/s.
• Not submitting a piece of assessment work (or not attending the practical negotiation test) will result in NQ status. NQ means that the student is NOT qualified to pass the class in the current year and is not qualified to take resit. Students who receive NQ need to repeat the class in the following year.
• All the exceptional circumstances like health, accidents etc. that might affect attendance or assessments need to be reported to the MDP administrator Adele McPherson immediately .