Course Description

This course is designed to enhance managerial and leadership skills by providing students with a solid foundation of theoretical frameworks concerning behaviour in organisations, and by drawing out practical implications for organisational effectiveness. The course will examine the nature, origins and consequences of behaviour at individual, intra-group, inter-group, and organisational levels of analysis, using participants’ own observations and experiences as case materials.

This course introduces the concepts and principles of ethics, social responsibility, moral development, and stakeholder analysis, and applies them to a wide variety of ethical problems at individual, firm, and societal levels. Topics include whistle blowing, bribery, cartels, environmental protection, internet security, intellectual property, corporate governance, product liability, consumer safety, truth and advertising, employee rights, and quality of working life. Students will be encouraged to question their assumptions and arrive at their own judgments about what should be done by individuals, firms and legislatures to improve standards of business ethics.

This course introduces students to concepts, theories, and issues relevant to understanding and influencing the behaviour of people and groups at work. Teams for Learning draws upon the disciplines of psychology, management, and sociology. It explores important topics including teamwork, leadership, cooperation and competition, decision-making, and other key components of what it takes to be an effective team leader and team member and the conditions under which people develop their management capabilities. Considerable research has shown that developing quality, open-minded relationships with employees is key for effective leadership in many situations. Educational research has also identified that these relationships very much promote learning, especially learning complex ideas and skills such as those needed to be a leader and an effective team member. Students will be asked to engage in cooperative learning where they are committed to helping each other strengthen their abilities. Students will actively promote their own learning and help each other develop the ideas and skills needed to lead. Participants will learn to lead and work in a team by developing a team that promotes their management development. The team method of the course reinforces its message.

This course examines a range of contemporary human resource management (HRM) issues. To meet the challenges of today’s complex and dynamic business environment, HRM offers a range of strategies, techniques and practices for managing people and organisations. The course provides students with an understanding of how HRM can be an integrating force, linking various strands of business activity to help the organisation meet its objectives through effective people management. The course covers the key functional areas of HRM such as recruitment and selection, training and development, and managing global HRM. It also explores a number of cutting-edge themes of increasing importance to HR practitioners and academics such as talent management and the knowledge-driven organisation.

Successful companies such as Southwest Airlines, Johnson & Johnson, McKinsey and
Toyota are high in both employee commitment and performance (Beer, 2009). The aim of
this course is to inspire students to appreciate the importance of effective performance
management systems in companies like these. Students will be familiarised with the
design and implementation of effective Performance Management systems in both
for-profit and not-for-profit organisations. The course also encourages students to explore
and challenge modern Performance Management practice. Students will develop insight
into their judgmental biases and improve their skill in making accurate and ethical
appraisals of job performance. The implications of Performance Management for personal
development plans and reward systems will be covered.

This course provides opportunities for students to learn through execution, generate new
insights and draw conclusions on their learning by continuous involvement in learning
reflection process. Students will explore and critically examine real life practices and
problems related to people management of selected organisations, and recommend
possible solutions with action plans. To strengthen students’ whole person development
in concepts and action learning skills, they are required to participate actively in seminars
and conferences, workshops on research and communication skills, company visits and
field trips, etc. Students will also develop their competence in leadership, team building
and problem solving through organising learning activities.

This course is designed to introduce the role, importance, and methods of managing
conflict in organisations. Students will be asked to consider the different forms of conflict
in organisations and work-home interface. They will review and discuss research on
conflict in work and cross-discipline teams, top management teams, leadership, between
departments, and between organisations. Studies also indicate that well-manage conflict
can promote quality decision-making, stronger relationships, innovation, organisational
commitment, and employees’ well-being. Students will review and discuss research
identifying major dynamics and conditions under which conflict can be constructive.
Techniques in stress management and crisis management will also be introduced. The
emphasis will be on giving students both an understanding and skills that they can use to
manage conflict productively.

Leadership effectiveness is determined by what leaders do. Leaders demonstrate their
competence by setting worthwhile and challenging goals with followers, by showing
confidence in followers and supporting their efforts to perform well and improve
themselves, by recognising followers when they do a job well, and by behaving in a fair
and ethical way. The purpose of this course is to introduce to students current knowledge
on what effective leaders do so that students can perform important leadership behaviours
such as those described earlier. When students can successfully carry out these behaviours,
they can produce favourable results for their groups and organisations, and turned into
effective leaders.

This course prepares students with an understanding of the challenges of managing in a
global world. It not only aims at providing students with the potential value differences
between people from diverse societies, but also tries to help students to understand the
implications of various approaches for cross-cultural management issues. Through the
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course, students are expected to improve their understanding of the impact of Chinese
thoughts and values on management practices, both within Chinese culture and in
cross-cultural contexts, and thus will be equipped with relevant competence and
understanding to handle such cultural issues in their future careers.

The course emphasises the value and process of strategic management. In addition to
familiarising students with new subject matter, students are expected to integrate and
apply their prior learning to strategic decision-making in organisations. The Strategic
Management course is designed to explore an organisation’s vision mission, examine
principles, techniques and models of organisational and environmental analysis. discuss
the theory and practice of strategy formulation and implementation such as corporate
governance and business ethics for the development of effective strategic leadership.

The course introduces to students the importance of people in managing business for
quality. It also provides students with the concepts and practices of quality management
and explores the need for managing business with a quality-oriented approach. The course
will make use of a lot of current examples from organisations in both Hong Kong and
overseas in expounding the importance of people in managing business for quality.

This course provides students with systematic methods for diagnosing structural, cultural
and political problems within the internal organisational environment, and will provide a
thorough understanding of the issues involved in designing, implementing and evaluating
organisational change. The course also examines the role of strategic and ethical
leadership in organisational change, and in moving towards the ideals of the 'learning
organisation'.