Undergraduate Course: Thinking about Business (BUST08045)
Course Outline
| School | Business School |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 8 (Year 1 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The course will address contemporary issues facing business, through the lenses of different disciplines (ways of thinking). The menu of disciplines may include popular culture, literature, evolutionary biology, psychology, anthropology, politics, history, religion and statistics. Students will leave the course with an understanding of how to think creatively about business and how to think critically about propositions within it. |
| Course description |
This course brings different ways of thinking to bear on contemporary business questions. Success in the workplace will increasingly depend on the capacity to consider challenges from multiple perspectives by drawing on many lenses and ways of thinking. Each week, a discipline will explore business challenges from its particular perspective, drawing on specific knowledge and tools to how business issues are identified and conceptualised. The tutorials are student-centred, and provide them with guidance and support while they solve business challenges with their peers. Tutorials address the applicability and validity of these perspectives to solve contemporary business problems chosen by students.
Outline content:
The course will draw upon a range of disciplines (or lenses) and these may vary according to student demand and academic expert supply.
The course will draw upon a range of disciplines (or lenses) and these may vary according to student demand and academic expert supply.
Typically, each discipline would be explored for 2 lectures, and the course would seek to understand how we can apply the discipline to different aspects of business using illustrative examples - either a work or a body of work, or a business case study viewed through the lens in question. Lenses are likely to include:
Cultural Studies - business as understood and represented in popular culture
Geopolitics - how political ideas shape business and the business environment
Humanism and Religion - how religious belief shapes business practice and business ethics
Philosophy - how philosophical concepts help us understand business practices today
Sociology and Psychology - sociological and psychological interpretations and explanations of business online practices
Student learning experience:
This course is designed to allow you to question business behaviour from many perspectives. A key requirement is to debate and interrogate the artefacts presented within the disciplines and evaluate their validity in contemporary business problem solving. You need to be confident in wishing to identify different sources of material from within the disciplines and to engage in group discussions on a weekly basis. You will be expected to undertake prescribed reading and both digital and live lecture materials, and engage in weekly tutorials.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | THIS COURSE IS RESTRICTED TO YEAR 1 STUDENTS |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 300 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 2,
Formative Assessment Hours 2,
Revision Session Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
160 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
70 %,
Practical Exam
30 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
70% Essay (Individual) - 2,000 words - Assesses course Learning Outcomes 3,4
30% Vlog / Video Presentation (Group) 8 Minutes - Assesses course Learning outcomes 1,2 |
| Feedback |
Formative: Feedback will be provided throughout the course.
Summative: Feedback will be provided on assessments within agreed deadlines. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding that there are many ways to think about business behaviour through various alternative disciplines.
- Identify and compare different ways of thinking about business issues and analyse them by taking into account different stakeholders and contextual factors.
- Apply different constructs to business challenges and theorise about the potential contributions different disciplines can do to contemporary business practice.
- Reflect on how collaborative and interdisciplinary work can contribute to business.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Knowledge and Understanding
After completing this course, students should be able to:
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:
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.
Communication, ICT, and Numeracy Skills
After completing this course, students should be able to:
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.
Autonomy, Accountability and Working with Others
After completing this course, students should be able to:
Act with integrity, honesty and trust in all business stakeholder relationships, and apply ethical reasoning to effective decision making, problem solving and change management.
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| Keywords | interdisciplinary; creativity; problem-solving; decision-making; cross-cultural; decolonisation |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Piera Morlacchi
Tel:
Email: piera.morlacchi@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Emma Allison
Tel:
Email: ealliso2@ed.ac.uk |
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