THEORY AND PRACTICE OF

MANAGEMENT
Stephen Taylor
Senior Lecturer in HRM
stephen.taylor@exeter.ac.uk

Module Aims
i) To introduce you to major currents in

management thinking and to key contemporary

developments in the world of business and
management.

ii) To help you to develop many of the skills which

you are going to need in order to

succeed
both as a manager and in your studies at Exeter.

iii) To enhance your confidence and your capacity to

excel.

Team-working
Module handbook

Assessment

1 x exam (50%)

1 x group report and presentation (30%)

1 x group-based peer review of another

group's presentations (10%)

1 x group-based self-assessment of
learning (10%)

EXAM

Relates to the lectures, but also draws on the

seminar case studies

May

2 hours

4 from a choice of 10

1 question derived from each lecture topic

GROUP-BASED
ASSIGNMENTS

Seminar activities group based

Presentations

Report

Peer review

Self-assessment

Friday 20th March

MARKING CRITERIA

Full
Direct
Original
Well-informed
Appropriately referenced
Professionally presented

WHAT IS A BUSINESS?

Businesses
Organisations
Management

MOOC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP
YPaDYywME&feature=youtu.be

WHAT IS A BUSINESS?

Financial constraints

Value creation

Kaufmans 12 methods of value

creation

Business Models

Products

Services

Shared resources

Subscriptions

Sale re-sale

Business Models

Leasing

Agencies

Audience aggregation

Loans

Options

Business Models

Insurance

Capital

Franchise

Multiple revenue streams

WHAT IS MANAGEMENT?

Planning

Organising

Leading

Controlling

Mintzbergs Model
Interpersonal roles: Figurehead

Leader

Liaison
Informational roles: Monitor Disseminator
Spokesperson
Decisional roles:
Entrepreneur
Disturbance handler
Resource allocator
Negotiator

Key management attributes

social confidence
problem solving
intelligence
time management
passion IT skills
punctuality
numeracy
reliability customer awareness
preparedness to work hard creativity
flexibility initiative
team-worker enterprising
cool headedness
comfort with uncertainty
honesty likes challenges
articulate communication innovative

Management attributes

Knowledge

Understanding

Wisdom

Imagination

Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002)

Pierre Bourdieu

Human capital accumulation

Economic capital
Cultural capital
Symbolic capital
Social capital

THE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK

2008 2013: longest period of low or

negative economic growth since the 1930s
The long boom
UK: 6% contraction in 18 months, followed
by a slow and hesitant recovery
Reliance on the financial services sector
Recklessness / under-regulation in financial
services
High personal debt
High sovereign debt

THE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK

2013-14 faster growth

GDP has now recovered to its 2008
level
GDP per head remains lower
International variations
World economic prospects

THE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK

Reasons for optimism

BUT:

Personal debt is 1.5 trillion

Public debt is over 1 trillion
Growth in the Euro zone remains
sluggish

Government responses

Usual responses to a recession:

Reduce interest rates

Increase public borrowing and spending
Reduce taxation
Devalue the currency

Additional response:

Quantatitive easing

Government responses

Euro zone governments with recessions:

Can not reduce interest rates

Can not use quantatitive easing
Can not manipulate exchange rates
Very limited room to cut taxes and increase spending
Borrowing is too expensive
Reliant on other euro zone governments

Lack of confidence

HOW TO DO WELL ON
YOUR DEGREE PROGRAMME

Systematic understanding
Analysis and enquiry
Conceptual understanding
Develop and sustain arguments
Critical evaluation
Communication
Employability
Big emphasis on knowledge,
understanding and the ability to explain

Comprehensive understanding
Originality in the application of knowledge
Critical evaluation of advanced scholarship
Self-direction
Creativity
Sound judgements
Independent learning
Big emphasis on critical evaluation

Comprehensive understanding

Beyond basic
In depth
Not partial or superficial

Evaluative

Not descriptive
Critique
Subject ideas to critical scrutiny

Originality

Well-argued
Well-structured
Taking a position and justifying it

Higher Level Skills

Independent learning
Communication to different audiences
Maturity of thought

Building on your reading

Avoid anecdotal approaches

Peer reviewed academic research

Journalistic sources

Textbooks

Not the same thing as criticise

Thinking critically

Critiquing published research

Easier than you think debates already exist

The perspective of your research question

How clear is the argument being made by the

author?

Do the arguments being advanced in support of a

point of view have a good degree of internal
consistency?

Do the arguments have a logical consistency?

Is the conclusion justified by the arguments that are

put forward to support it?

Is the argument advanced based on reasonable

assumptions?

Stella Cottrells Questions

(2)
Are any false premises used to support an argument?

Is irrelevant evidence used to support an argument?

Are important points that might contradict an argument missed

out of the analysis or trivialised?

Is the evidence that is presented current (ie: recent enough to be

valid in today's environment)?

Does the author over-generalise their conclusions (eg: assume

that what applies in one workplace or one profession can be said
to apply much more widely)?
Are opinions substituted for facts?

Published research

An authority in the field

Personal experience

Logical argument

Ethical / political positions

Mature expression

Demonstrating that you have studied the

subject

Arguments that build on existing research

Avoiding the appearance of plagiarism

Harvard referencing

Substance

Study

Originality

Justification

Structure

Analysis

Presentation

Off-target

Collage

Late take-off

Rushed job

THEORY AND PRACTICE OF

MANAGEMENT
Stephen Taylor
Senior Lecturer in HRM
stephen.taylor@exeter.ac.uk