Postgraduate Course: Sustainable Business Consultancy Projects (CMSE11573)
Course Outline
| School | Business School |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course provides a hands-on opportunity for students to engage with real business clients and help them improve their sustainability. The course is designed for students to learn consultancy skills through helping business clients deal with the challenges/opportunities faced by them in various dimensions of sustainability, including social issues such as diversity and inclusion, environmental issues related to reduction of carbon emissions or packaging, ensuring ethical conduct of suppliers, etc.
During the ten-week period, students work in groups to carry out the research, i.e. collecting and analysing data, communicating with key stakeholders, identifying challenges, opportunities and regulatory conditions, and formulating and presenting recommendations.
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| Course description |
Students are asked to focus on experiential learning in this course. An abductive approach and learning through critical reflection are the key while conducting one particular business project, dealing with one client and working in a pre-assigned team. The challenge is to learn useful skills that will help companies search, in cooperation with key stakeholders, for solutions to sustainability problems.
Content Outline:
The most important content of the course is the hands-on experience of working in teams with the companies and their stakeholders. In addition to this, course instructors and guest speakers will deliver content on various aspects of carrying out sustainability-related consulting projects, including:
- Design thinking and systems thinking
- Informational transparency
- Stakeholder dialogue
- Environmental and legal due diligence
Student Learning Experience:
Organised teaching consist of three components:
- lectures in which concepts and frameworks related to topics of particular relevance are discussed,
- interactive seminars in which the students discuss tools for conducting sustainability-related consultancy projects with the instructor and guest speakers, and
- tutorials in which the students work in their project teams with course instructors on problems arising in various stages of the consultancy projects.
But the majority of the learning experience will consist of meetings with other team members with the client companies, relevant stakeholders and experts, and independent research.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2022/23, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 5,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 18,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
173 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
86 %,
Practical Exam
14 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
30% Coursework (individual)
14% Presentation (group)
56% Coursework (group) |
| Feedback |
Formative: TBC
Summative: Feedback will be provided on all course assessment.
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| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate experience from doing projects and learning the challenges faced by companies in evaluating and improving the sustainability of their operations; provide valuable research findings to business clients in written and oral formats.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the practical applications of tools for analysing various aspects of business sustainability.
- Enhance interactive skills with business clients, and analyse their strengths and weaknesses or knowledge gaps to help them to improve the sustainability of their operations.
- Use skills and toolkits for conducting a project, e.g. organising meetings, managing time and data, taking notes of learning experiences and keeping a positive relationship with team members who may come from different cultural backgrounds and educational and work experiences
- Practice integrated (deductive, inductive and/or abductive) learning and learn how to learn for conducting consultancy projects.
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Learning Resources
Iskander, N. (2018). Design thinking is fundamentally conservative and preserves the status quo. Harvard Business Review
Senge, P. & Sterman, J.D. (1992). Systems thinking and organizational learning: Acting locally and thinking globally in the organization of the future. European Journal of Operational Research 59(1), 137-150.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Knowledge and Understanding
After completing this course, students should be able to:
- Demonstrate a thorough knowledge and understanding of contemporary organisational disciplines; comprehend the role of business within the contemporary world; and critically evaluate and synthesise primary and secondary research and sources of evidence in order to make, and present, well informed and transparent organisation-related decisions, which have a positive global impact.
- Identify, define and analyse theoretical and applied business and management problems, and develop approaches, informed by an understanding of appropriate quantitative and/or qualitative techniques, to explore and solve them responsibly.
Practice: Applied Knowledge, Skills and Understanding
After completing this course, students should be able to:
- Apply creative, innovative, entrepreneurial, sustainable and responsible business solutions to address social, economic and environmental global challenges.
- Work with a variety of organisations, their stakeholders, and the communities they serve -learning from them, and aiding them to achieve responsible, sustainable and enterprising solutions to complex problems.
Cognitive Skills
After completing this course, students should be able to:
- Be self-motivated; curious; show initiative; set, achieve and surpass goals; as well as demonstrating adaptability, capable of handling complexity and ambiguity, with a willingness to learn; as well as being able to demonstrate the use digital and other tools to carry out tasks effectively, productively, and with attention to quality.
Communication, ICT, and Numeracy Skills
After completing this course, students should be able to:
- Convey meaning and message through a wide range of communication tools, including digital technology and social media; to understand how to use these tools to communicate in ways that sustain positive and responsible relationships.
- Critically evaluate and present digital and other sources, research methods, data and information; discern their limitations, accuracy, validity, reliability and suitability; and apply responsibly in a wide variety of organisational contexts.
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| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Richard Woodward
Tel: (0131 6)50 8345
Email: rick.woodward@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Mary Anne Boeff
Tel: (0131 6)50 8072
Email: MaryAnne.Boeff@ed.ac.uk |
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