THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2019/2020

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Business School : Common Courses (Management School)

Postgraduate Course: Organising for Social Change: Strategy, Governance & Innovation (20 Credit) (CMSE11391)

Course Outline
SchoolBusiness School CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThere is growing interest in understanding how hybrid organisations (social enterprises, low-profit corporations, co-operatives, community interest corporations, benefit corporations and other forms) can make a difference through innovations to address social and environmental problems. Effectively taking on these social and environmental issues however, requires a deeper understanding of the underlying causes of these problems and how designing and implementing solutions can pose specific challenges in terms of organisational design, management and oversight. This course seeks to provide students with greater insight into those challenges through a critical look at how these hybrid organisations can better cope with these operational, strategic and governance challenges. [n.b. This is a 20 credit variant of CMSE11346 that will run alongside this course and as been developed for students on non-Business School programmes].
Course description Aims, Nature, Context
Hybrid organisations (social enterprises, co-operatives, charities, trusts, etc.) are increasingly relied upon as an effective means of addressing difficult social and environmental issues. The aim of this course is to develop student knowledge and understanding about the strategic and governance related challenges faced by these hybrid sector organisations that do the work of social innovation. In this course, students will gain a broader and deeper theoretical and contextual understanding of current and future opportunities and challenges faced by these organisations who exist in a climate of complex stakeholder demands and intense competition for resources. The focus of the course is the development of transferable skills directly applicable to hybrid organisational contexts through a range of multimedia resources and a hands-on consulting project with a 3rd sector hybrid organisation.

Syllabus
This course will be structured around the following content:
1. Why hybrid organisations? The history and context of the role of hybrid organisations in building and reinforcing civil society and democratic norms. What are the current and future trends in the 3rd sector?
2. Assessing social value. What are the means by which we can measure ideas such as social capital and social impact? What are the implications of how we measure and how we frame these issues for communicating with crucial organisational stakeholders.
3. Spatial inequality. How are poverty and social deprivation related to the shape of our built environment? Are there ways of creating urban spaces that are more equitable and safer for all?
4. Stakeholders, governance and culture. Hybrid organisations can drift from their original missions. What is the role of organisational culture and structure in preventing or enabling this?
5. Social entrepreneurship. What is the difference between entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurs? What is the journey of a social entrepreneur in terms of formative influences, funding and later stage development?
6. Technology and inequality. Technology can bring us together as well as divide us. What is the role of algorithms for example in creating and reinforcing a ¿digital divide¿ between those who are privileged and those who are not?

Student Learning Experience
This course will consist of several major components:
i) Lectures: To provide students with a theoretical and practical understanding of challenges faced by hybrid organisations, this will be a blend of lectures to ¿connect the dots¿ between theoretical multi-disciplinary concepts and guest lectures with managers and consultants who are practically engaged in these social and environmental issues.
ii) Hybrid learning: Course content is primarily delivered online via Learn, in the form of readings and videos, and short online quizzes to reinforce comprehension in advance of lectures.
iii) Groupwork: Each student will work in groups to do an analysis of a hybrid sector organisation. The main deliverable is to understand how the host organisation delivers value and to evaluate the efficacy of their governance structures and processes for ensuring adherence to mission.
iv) Reflective learning: Each student will also make several entries into a reflective log that allows for a consideration of their growing comprehension of social issues and the practical challenges faced by these hybrid organisations in engaging with those issues. The main objective of this reflective learning exercise is to chart their their personal journey in understanding how individuals can make a difference.
v) Essay. The purpose of this assignment is to allow the student to expand on a topic of interest within the course through a researched 2,500 word report.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2019/20, Not available to visiting students (SS1) Quota:  1
Course Start Semester 2
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Lecture Hours 20, Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10, Fieldwork Hours 17, External Visit Hours 10, Online Activities 20, Formative Assessment Hours 30, Summative Assessment Hours 40, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 49 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) «br /»
Reflective Learning Blog - 50%«br /»
Group Report - 50% (Includes a Peer assessment (WebPA) as a percentage of this element - Up to 25% adjustment)«br /»
Feedback Reflective blog entries will be given feedback (week 4-7)
Online quizzes (6-8 quizzes) as a form of continuous assessment throughout the course.
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Demonstrate an understanding of opportunities and challenges facing 3rd sector organisations.
  2. Demonstrate a capacity to work in groups and resolve difficulties
  3. Display an ability to reflect upon one's experience and its significance to learning.
  4. Be able to critically analyse the stakeholder environment of an organization engaged in social enterprise.
  5. Demonstrate the ability to gather, synthesise and analyse information to develop a compelling argument
Reading List
Barsamian, D. (2011). Amartya Sen. The Progressive.
Colombo, A. (2008). The 'Lombardy Model' : Subsidiarity, Informed Regional Governance. Social Policy & Administration, 42(2), 177-196.
Doane, D. (2005). The myth of CSR: The problem with assuming that companies can do well while also doing good is that markets don't really work that way. Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall, 23-29.
Kickul, J., & Lyons, T. S. (2016). Understanding social entrepreneurship: The relentless pursuit of mission in an ever changing world: Routledge.
Foley, M. W., & Edwards, B. (1996). The paradox of civil society. Journal of Democracy, 7(3), 38-52.
Fukuyama, F. (2001). Social capital, civil society and development. Third World Quarterly, 22(1), 7-20.
Gibbon, J., & Dey, C. (2011). Developments in social impact measurement in the third sector: scaling up or dumbing down? Social and Environmental Accountability Journal, 31(1), 63-72.
Jacobs, J. (1958). Downtown is for People The exploding metropolis (Vol. 168, pp. 124-131).
Mair, J., Mayer, J., & Lutz, E. (2015). Navigating institutional plurality: Organizational governance in hybrid organizations. Organization Studies, 36(6), 713-739.
Ostrom, E. (2010). Beyond markets and states: polycentric governance of complex economic systems. The American Economic Review, 641-672.
Putnam, R. D. (1995). Bowling alone: America's declining social capital. Journal of Democracy, 6(1), 65-78.
Taleb, N. N. (2012). Antifragile: Things that gain from disorder: Random House.
Taleb, N. N., & Sandis, C. (2013). The skin in the game heuristic for protection against tail events.
Voss, K. (2010). Enduring legacy? Charles Tilly and Durable Inequality. American Sociology Journal, 41, 368-374.
Smith, W. K., Gonin, M., & Besharov, M. L. (2013). Managing social-business tensions: A review and research agenda for social enterprise. Business Ethics Quarterly, 23(3), 407-442.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Research & Enquiry:
An enhanced ability to conduct independent research in a 3rd sector social innovation organisation.

Personal & Intellectual Autonomy:
Students will gain some understanding of how to reflect and analyse their experiences in a host organisation and also to synthesise these understandings.

Personal Effectiveness
Students will gain some understanding of techniques for personal effectiveness through engagement with readings in order to complete quizzes, and the need to manage people and process in order to develop the group project.

Communication skills
An ability to communicate through the medium of video, written blogs and between group members through a virtual environment.
KeywordsOFSC 20
Contacts
Course organiserDr Winston Kwon
Tel: (0131 6)51 5980
Email: Winston.Kwon@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMs Emily Davis
Tel: (0131 6)51 7112
Email: Emily.Davis@ed.ac.uk
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