Newcastle University Business School

BUS2019/2021 UNDERSTANDING WORK & ORGANISATIONS 2011/12 Module Details

Module leader: Tony Boland (anthony.boland@ncl.ac.uk) Seminar leaders: Gyuzel Gadelshina (gyuzel.gadelshina@ncl.ac.uk) Susan Addison (s.addison@ncl.ac.uk) Lectures & Seminars Lecture Times Semester 1: weekly on a Friday, 13.30-14.30 and (almost) fortnightly on a Tuesday, 16.30-17.30, both in NUBS 1.03 (St James, 1st floor lecture theatre). Semester 2: weekly on a Thursday, 16.30-17.30 and fortnightly on a Friday, 13.30-14.30, both in NUBS 1.03 (St James, 1st floor lecture theatre). Pllease reffer tto tthe modulle programme whiich giives exactt dettaiills off tthe ttiimiing off llecttures & P ease re er o he modu e programme wh ch g ves exac de a s o he m ng o ec ures & semiinars,, and a briieff summary.. Thiis iis avaiillablle on Bllackboard.. sem nars and a br e summary Th s s ava ab e on B ackboard Seminars You will attend a one-hour seminar approximately every two weeks, a total of ten seminars over the academic year. Although a register of attendance will not be formally taken, one part of your assessment entails an essay drawing from the material covered in the seminars, so you are STRONGLY ADVISED to make every effort to attend seminars. Seminars will begin week commencing 10th October, and you will have been allocated a seminar group to attend in your timetable. Please do not change groups. If you are having difficulty attending the group to which you have been assigned, please contact the seminar leaders. The information and reading for each seminar will be posted on Blackboard at least a week in advance and you will need to read the material for the seminar and consider the issues raised BEFORE the seminar. Blackboard e-learning system: Copies of each weeks lecture notes seminar materials and other supporting materials (such as this documents and Reading Lists) will be placed on the Blackboard e-learning environment (http://bb.ncl.ac.uk/ ). Please get into the habit of checking it regularly

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Aims of the Module 1. To build upon students basic understanding of issues in the analysis of work and organisations, by providing a broader perspective upon the social, political and economic context of work and organisation. 2. To enable students to evaluate research and scholarship on work and organisations. Learning Outcomes At the end of this module you will be able to:1. Describe and compare several approaches to the analysis of work and organisations. 2. Differentiate between the analysis of the relatively stable aspects of organisations, and the relatively unpredictable aspects of everyday work, organising, and managing. 3. Discuss the relationships between aspects internal to organisations, and the broader social, political and economic context of work and organisation. 4. Discuss the significance of changes and continuities in the character of work, nationally and internationally. 5. Critically appraise research on work and organisations. 6. Demonstrate a critical appreciation of approaches to work and Organisation, in written assignments and in seminar discussions. 7. Reflect upon your own experience of work and organisational life and use your reflections to illustrate the understandings gained on the module.

ASSESSMENT Assessment is split between coursework (50% of the marks) and a two-hour exam (50%) Coursework: (a) One short essay, 2000 words, due on Friday 16th December 2011. This will be marked and returned at the start of Semester 2 (25% of the total mark); (b) One Seminar Analysis essay, 2,000 words, due in by Friday 20th April 2012. This will be marked and returned before the exams start (25% of the total mark). Exam: The exam will be two hours, and will take place at the end of Semester II (May June 2012). The exam will consist of two equal parts: (c) Answering one Seen essay question from a choice of four questions to be distributed one month prior to the exam; (25% of total mark); (d) Answering a series of unseen Multiple Choice Questions (25% of total mark)

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CORE TEXT (you must ensure regular access to this book)

Grey C (2009), A very short, fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book about Studying Organizations,2nd Edition, Sage.

You MUST read thiis textt iin iits entiiretty,, butt allso support your readiing through tthe You MUST read th s tex n ts ent re y bu a so support your read ng through he addiittiionall sources mentiioned iin the Lecture & Refferences document.. The ffiirst add ona sources ment oned n the Lecture & Re erences document The rst ediittiion iis OK,, butt miisses some iimporttant aspects iinclluded iin the second so you are ed on s OK bu m sses some mpor ant aspects nc uded n the second so you are recommended to BUY the second ediitiion.. recommended to BUY the second ed t on
Other Important Texts Morgan, Gareth (1986, updated 1997 and 2006)) Images of Organisation, Sage. NOTE: Although this book is now fairly old it achieves a very good balance between covering many aspects of orthodox approaches to Organisational Behaviour, whilst situating them within a distinctly non-orthodox framework. The editions are more or less the same but without the more up-to-date bibliographies, and it is still widely available 2nd hand. A lot of the module material is drawn from this text so you should make sure that you have access to a copy. Knights D & Willmott H (2006), Introducing Organizational Behaviour & Management (Thomson) NOTE: This is a very good text which creates a linkage between the material covered in BUS1001 and this module and one which will be referred to several times. It presents both the Orthodox view and the Critical perspective of many aspects of organisational behaviour and management. Individual chapters can be purchased from http://www.bized.co.uk/estore/titles/knightswillmott.htm and the first chapter is free. Definitely worth getting.

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