COMMGMT 2502NA - Organisational Dynamics II

Ngee Ann Academy - Trimester 2 - 2016

The course information on this page is being finalised for 2016. Please check again before classes commence.

Organisational Dynamics teaches an integrated way of thinking about the short term dynamics and complexities faced by contemporary organisations. The emphasis is on the organisational system as a coordinated social entity and as such the course is concerned with how the organisation integrates its social capital, competencies and resources, strategic capabilities and operational assets in a way that minimises disruption and challenges and maximises opportunities that may arise. This course will enable students to understand the organisation's contingencies and dynamics and how structure and design can moderate these as well as how they can leverage knowledge, technology and innovation to maximize effectiveness.

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Course Details

Course Code	COMMGMT 2502NA
Course	Organisational Dynamics II
Coordinating Unit	Adelaide Business School
Term	Trimester 2
Level	Undergraduate
Location/s	Ngee Ann Academy
Units	3
Available for Study Abroad and Exchange	Y
Prerequisites	COMMGMT 1001 or COMMGMT 2501
Incompatible	COMMGMT 3503
Assessment	Exam/assignments/tests/tutorial work as prescribed at first lecture

Course Staff

Course Coordinator: Dr Lisa Daniel

Dr Lisa Daniel
Room 10-34, 10 Pulteney Street
Telephone: +61 8 8313 3105
Email: lisa.daniel@adelaide.edu.au

Course Timetable

The full timetable of all activities for this course can be accessed from Course Planner.

Learning Outcomes
Course Learning Outcomes
- To introduce students to the principles of organisational theory as they contribute to the interpretation and analysis of organisational dynamics.
- To facilitate understanding of an organisation’s dynamic influences in relation to other areas of management study such as organisational behaviour, human resource management and strategic management.
- To present theories of organisational dynamics from the approach of holistic enterprise analysis.
- To enable students to have an informed perspective on the influences and implications of dynamic change in organisational sustainability and survival.
University Graduate Attributes

No information currently available.
Learning Resources

Required Resources

Organisational Theory, Design and Change, 2010 (Global edition) Gareth Jones, 7th Edition, Pearson Education Limited, England. ISBN: 978-0-273-76560-8

Online Learning

MyUni will be used extensively in this course for announcements and assessment INCLUDING assignment submission.

Your quizzes are 20% of your assessment and a HURDLE REQUIREMENT which require you access and use Myuni. Please ensure you have accessbefore the start of semester. This is your responsibility.

Learning & Teaching Modes

This course delivers all critical material in the 2 hour lecture and 1.5 hr tutorial session each day of the intensive. Tutorial sessions provide enhanced understanding of course through discussions of that material.

Workload

The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.

At least 3 hours of study time is required over and above the 3.5 contact hours provided for each lecture-tutorial session.

Learning Activities Summary

Lecture	Date	Topic	Chapter
Intensive 1
1	27/5/15	Organisations and Effectiveness	Ch 1
2	28/5/15	Stakeholders, Managers and Ethics	Ch 2
3	29/5/15	The Changing Environment	Ch 3
4	30/5/15	Organisational Design	Ch 4
5	2/6/15	Authority and Control	Ch 5
Quizzes for the FIRST intensive must be COMPLETED by midnight Sunday 21 June Organisational System Project due midnight via MyUni Turn It In, Sunday 28 June
Intensive 2
6	15/7/15	Coordination and Specialisation	Ch 6
7	16/7/15	Technology	Ch 9
8	18/7/15	Learning and Knowledge Management	Ch 12
9	20/7/15	Innovation, Intrapreneurship and Creativity	Ch 13
10	21/7/15	Conflict, Power and Politics	Ch 14
Quizzes for the SECOND intensive must be COMPLETED by midnight Sunday 9 August Challenge and Contingencies due midnight via MyUni Turn It In, Sunday 16 August

The University's policy on Assessment for Coursework Programs is based on the following four principles:

Assessment must encourage and reinforce learning.
Assessment must enable robust and fair judgements about student performance.
Assessment practices must be fair and equitable to students and give them the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned.
Assessment must maintain academic standards.

Assessment Summary

To ensure students passing this course have a reasonable understanding of the material, this course has been structured to provide the maximum learning opportunities through assessment tasks.

• Quizzes – 10 x 2% (20%) assess your ability to recognise correct information and demonstrate understanding of course material. This assessment is a hurdle requirement. You must achieve at least 50% of the total 20% possible for these quizzes in order to be eligible to sit the exam and therefore pass the course.

• Organisational Systems Project (20%) requires you to choose a local small business and consider the interactions and activities undertaken in order to create value. You will explain and illustrate the business from a systems perspective.

• Challenge and Contingencies GROUP Project (30%) assignment seeks to have you, as a group, consider how your organisation (as presented in the Org’ Design Project) will cope with an organisational challenge. You are required to discuss a) how the challenge will impact effectiveness, b) what action could be taken to mitigate the problem and c) what opportunities may emerge. 10 peer-reviewed academic journal references are required.

• Final short-answer EXAM (30%) will have 6 questions. The answers will require an insightful comprehension of the course material.

Assessment Related Requirements

Marks will be deducted for failing to follow formatting requirements (5% of the final grade of the assessment piece)

All assignments MUST be in WORD format (NOT pdf), 12pt Arial, 1.5 spacing, 2 cm margins
All assignments must be submitted by midnight on the due date via MyUni TurnItIn.
The page limit for the assignment content excludes cover page, table of contents, executive summary, references and appendices where applicable.
Any content over the page limit will not be assessed.
No extensions after the due date will be given without a doctor’s certificate.

Assessment Detail

1. Quizzes (20%) There is a quiz corresponding to each lecture (10 in total). Each quiz is worth 2%. The quizzes are based on material in the text book. The quizzes for each intensive are due the week BEFORE the assignments. This assessment is a hurdle requirement. You must achieve at least 50% of the total 20% possible for these quizzes in order to be eligible to sit the exam and therefore pass the course. Quizzes can be saved and returned to before you finally submit them however once you submit them they are final.

2. Organisational System Design (20%) Due midnight Sunday June 28 (3 pages in total).
This assignment requires you to choose a small local business and consider the interactions and activities undertaken in order to create value. You need to explain (in no more than 2 pages) and illustrate (one A4 page only) the business from a systems perspective.

o Your organisation must be an SME (with no more than 250 employees) and you must provide a logical, understandable explanation of the system relative to the activities your organisation undertakes.

o Consider the value and goals it seeks to achieve through its business activities and relationships with its many and various stakeholders. Remember value is created through more than outputs.

o Explain the key direct and indirect value creating activities, business operations and stakeholder relationships required for effective operations. Remember to justify your explanation.

o Your goal is to explain and justify, illustrate and indicate why the design of the business system is effective or not, relative to its goals.

3. Challenges and Contingencies (30%) (to be completed in groups of 3) Due midnight Sunday August 16. (5 pages in total) In this assignment you are required to explain how the organisation from your first assignment will manage one of the following challenges;

Challenge alternatives – choose ONE;

1. Lead staff quit taking key knowledge resources with them.

2. A major technology failure has brought your company to a standstill.

3. Poor workplace practices have been revealed as a dangerous threat to employee safety.

4. A dominant group of employees is working contrary to accepted rules and routines.

Consider the actions which you think would need to be undertaken to rebuild effectiveness and stability following the crisis. You are required to explain and justify as if you were the top management team.

o How this challenge would impact the organisations operations, interactions and relationships in terms of its effectiveness, uncertainty and activities. Consider the system and design you described in the previous assignment.

• Present your response in terms of course concepts (e.g. complexity, formalisation, centralisation, specialisation/differentiation, internal & external environment, authority/control, integration/coordination, value, efficiency, stakeholders, uncertainty, dynamics etc.). You must use these terms in your explanations.
• Consider these to be the fallout as the repercussions/ramifications are felt throughout the organisation. Justify your views with detailed and insightful explanations.

What actions could be taken to mitigate the problems? Detail the mitigating actions that could be undertaken/or could have been put in place to minimize destructive or dysfunctional outcomes and maintain a level of organisational effectiveness
Discuss what opportunities could emerge from the challenge and how could these be maximized? Could potential opportunities improve current competencies, enhance future effectiveness or leverage the organisation’s positioning.
10 peer-reviewed academic journal references are required.

4. Final Exam – 6 short answer questions (30%)
Short answer questions will require answers which draw on a number of areas of course content. You are required to demonstrate an integrated understanding of the course material in your answers. One page for each answer should be sufficient to demonstrate your understanding of the course material. All questions will be compulsory.

Submission

Assignments are to be submitted through TurnIt In in MyUni.
• Referencing must follow the author-date (Harvard) system consistent with management literature.

• In-text citations and bibliographic references must be consistent.

• Any late assignments will accrue late marks at the rate of 10% of the final grade per day they are late, including any students whose assignments are late because they have failed to submit via the correct avenue i.e. TurnItIn in MyUni.

Late Assignment Submission - If you require an extension then ask the course coordinator before the due date.
IF YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE - SEEK HELP EARLY. No extensions will be given after the due date without a doctor’s certificate.

• NB: Assessment requirements are known from the start of the semester so you have plenty of time to plan and prepare assignments.

Course Grading

Grades for your performance in this course will be awarded in accordance with the following scheme:

M10 (Coursework Mark Scheme)
Grade	Mark	Description
FNS		Fail No Submission
F	1-49	Fail
P	50-64	Pass
C	65-74	Credit
D	75-84	Distinction
HD	85-100	High Distinction
CN		Continuing
NFE		No Formal Examination
RP		Result Pending

Further details of the grades/results can be obtained from Examinations.

Grade Descriptors are available which provide a general guide to the standard of work that is expected at each grade level. More information at Assessment for Coursework Programs.

Final results for this course will be made available through Access Adelaide.

Student Feedback

The University places a high priority on approaches to learning and teaching that enhance the student experience. Feedback is sought from students in a variety of ways including on-going engagement with staff, the use of online discussion boards and the use of Student Experience of Learning and Teaching (SELT) surveys as well as GOS surveys and Program reviews.

SELTs are an important source of information to inform individual teaching practice, decisions about teaching duties, and course and program curriculum design. They enable the University to assess how effectively its learning environments and teaching practices facilitate student engagement and learning outcomes. Under the current SELT Policy (http://www.adelaide.edu.au/policies/101/) course SELTs are mandated and must be conducted at the conclusion of each term/semester/trimester for every course offering. Feedback on issues raised through course SELT surveys is made available to enrolled students through various resources (e.g. MyUni). In addition aggregated course SELT data is available.
Student Support
Policies & Guidelines
This section contains links to relevant assessment-related policies and guidelines - all university policies.
Fraud Awareness

Students are reminded that in order to maintain the academic integrity of all programs and courses, the university has a zero-tolerance approach to students offering money or significant value goods or services to any staff member who is involved in their teaching or assessment. Students offering lecturers or tutors or professional staff anything more than a small token of appreciation is totally unacceptable, in any circumstances. Staff members are obliged to report all such incidents to their supervisor/manager, who will refer them for action under the university's student’s disciplinary procedures.

The University of Adelaide is committed to regular reviews of the courses and programs it offers to students. The University of Adelaide therefore reserves the right to discontinue or vary programs and courses without notice. Please read the important information contained in the disclaimer.

Authorised by:	Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Academic)
Maintained by:	Course Outlines Administrator