Future Students - Courses

Enterprising eBusiness Manager

Unit Code: LEB707

Duration	Contact Hours	Campus	Prerequisite	Corequisite
12 weeks or equivalent	Minimum of 2 hours per week or equivalent for online students using discussion forum	Lilydale, Off-Campus	Nil

Credit Points: 12.5 Credit Points

Related Course/s:

This unit is for continuing students only and has no new intakes.

A unit in Master of Business (eBusiness and Communication)

Aims & Objectives:

In today’s fast paced rapid change business environment, a Manager’s conceptual frameworks and paradigms require constant refinement and replacement in the face of increased global competition and new innovative ways of doing business. Survival and sustainability depend on an ability to gather enough information to sense-make and adapt or redefine the frameworks that guide management action. Research is an integral component of the manager’s tool kit, involving problem identification, research design as a means of data collection analysis of findings, reporting on findings (including recommendations) and the implementation of recommendations and is very much akin to the traditional managerial and consulting problem solving approach.

Research skills are required by the Manager to create innovative and opportunity-focused responses to the challenges at a local, regional or global level. The Manager requires an understanding of research as an aid to corporate venturing and business growth, to organisational learning and cultural adaptation, to involvement and communication with stakeholders, and to enhance influencing skills in order to progress findings and recommendations.

The Manager’s research roles may include research initiator, research services buyer or evaluator, evidence based decision maker, organisational consultant etc. These roles require the use of both effective technical skills together with communication of problems, findings and recommendations. Involvement of people in the research process and managing the implementation of recommendations requires people leadership through influencing, persuasion and negotiation concerning the change agenda. Individuals, teams and groups who possess these skills can make useful contributions to organisation sustainability agendas.

Participants are encouraged to reflect on personality, learning style and team behaviours in order to identify their preferred roles and perceived difficulties both in the research process and in related managerial functions. Self diagnostic tools such as MBTI, the Brain Map ®, and Belbin Team roles will help managers identify preferred styles and behaviours and reflect on their impact in different organisational contexts. These results will be used to reflect on specific research related managerial tasks including strategy making, culture building, market research, customer needs analysis, training needs analysis, business development, etc. Students will be encouraged to reflect on these research based roles in the broader context of their personality and learning styles. Gap analysis in this area will increase student awareness of their impact on others in varied situations and the managerial consequences of such actions. Particular attention will be given to the consultancy role. Students will consider the role, the objectives, the tools and personal efficiencies through reflection on the influence of personality and learning style. Critical attributes for the consultant will be explored.
Overall, the program aims to assist the student reflect on personal attributes and traits in the research tasks supporting managerial and consulting roles.

By the end of this unit participants will be able to:

Apply creative, analytical and professional business skills to problem solving and decision-making
Apply strategic thinking skills for innovation to meet future market and business demands in local, regional or global business
Understand and apply conceptual approaches and project management skills as manager as researcher, within different cultural and organisational contexts
Profile a Manager as Researcher and recognise generic frameworks in relation to modelling profiles
Identify your own attributes and skills, as well as the attributes and skills of others, noticing the similarities and differences
Manage teams through effective executive leadership including application of coaching and mentoring techniques
Apply a holistic approach to local, regional or global sustainable business

Teaching Methods:

Online delivery is supported by a unit outline with CDROM, a unit website with a variety of resources which may include lessons, learning objects (documents and presentations), virtual lectures, threaded discussions and interactive chat rooms. Face-to-face workshops may be conducted in a variety of configurations (weekly or 2 day blocks) subject to demand. International students will attend weekly workshops taking a work-related approach

Assessment:

Preliminary Manager as Researcher profile map 15%, Reflective Journal Summaries 15%, Reflective Learning Summary 20%, Enhanced Manager as Researcher profile 50%

Generic Skills Outcomes:

Swinburne University of Technology works to produce higher education graduates who are capable in their chosen profession. Learners bring to Swinburne University of Technology a diverse wealth of experiences and graduate with individual understandings, abilities and attributes.

Within this context it is the intent of Swinburne that upon successful completion of this unit students will:

Be entrepreneurial by demonstrating a respect for multiple points of view
Be entrepreneurial by having the ability to identify opportunities for responsible innovation and/or developments with/across the technical, socio-cultural, biological and economic environments, and the ability to enable such developments to realise their potential
Be entrepreneurial by dealing effectively with success and failure through informed critique and self-reflection
Be capable in their chosen profession by demonstrating that they are informed and knowledgeable in applying research skills to roles as employees, managers and consultants
Operate effectively in work and community situations by having the ability to operate locally and internationally as researcher managers / consultants
Be adaptable and manage change by being effective self-driven learners
Have a broad understanding of technical, socio-cultural, sustainable and economic environments and their interconnectedness

Content:

Focusing inward on yourself, knowing self leads to knowing others
Organisational culture in rapid, constant and complex change
Communication, learning and thinking styles in the learning organisation
Mental models and soft systems methodology assisting gap analysis identification
Knowledge mapping, creation and management
Understanding personality diagnostics for effective executive leadership
Time management, managing self and project management skills
Creative and analytical skills in problem solving and decision making
Identification of agencies of change in internal and external environments
Executive leadership, motivation, coaching and mentoring

Reading Materials:

Adler, NJ (2002) International Dimensions of Organisational Behaviour, 4th edn, South-Western, Thomson Learning, Cincinnati Ohio USA .

Cooper, DR & Schindler, PS (2001) Business Research Methods, 7th edn, Mc-Graw Hill, New York, USA

McShane, SL & Travaglione, T (2005) Organisational Behaviour on the Pacific Rim, enhanced edn, McGraw-Hill, Sydney Australia.

Sekaran, U (2003) Research Methods for Business, A Skill Building Approach, 4th edn, John Wiley and Sons, Australia.