Critical Management Studies explores the complexities between management and its relationship with society. The considerable influence organisations, led by managers, have on stakeholders, the community, the environment and wider society can no longer be ignored. This module encourages critical reflexivity whereby students examine power-relations around which social and organisational lives are intertwined. Understanding management as a political, cultural and ideological phenomenon, critical management addresses managers as people and is concerned with social groups and stakeholders whose lives are in/directly affected by the activities and ideologies of mainstream management theories and practice.
This module is designed to provide final year undergraduate students with an opportunity to consider how they will perform as managers and how they can engage as organisational and societal participants. This module seeks to raise the critical and social consciousness of students by encouraging them to think critically and engage with the social and political phenomena that shape individuals and organisations in our globalised, rapidly changing environment.
Economic, social and political analysis
Introduction to critical thinking
Understanding neoliberalism & its developments
Decolonising knowledge and understanding the impact of modernity/coloniality
The impact of social movements on individuals and organisations
Exploring how social and protest movements shape society
Engaging with employee activism
Understanding differences and otherness
Critical theory analysis
Applying critical theories to management
Examining critical race theory, decolonial and postcolonial theories, queer theory, and feminist theories and intersectionality in management
Sustainable and responsible management
Understanding the Sustainable Development Goals
Becoming a responsible manager
Democratising work
Understanding corporate political activism and political corporate social responsibility
The module is highly interactive and class participation and self-directed learning are critical requirements. The module is delivered through student-centred active-learning class discussions and debates. Each class will provide a respectful space for discussion and exploration, where critical thinking is encouraged. As such, students are expected to provide valuable insights into, or perspectives on, the module material, listen to and build on the comments of their classmates, encourage discussions within the class, contribute to class discussions, and, ultimately, contribute to the learning experience of the module.
| Module Content & Assessment | |
|---|---|
| Assessment Breakdown | % |
| Other Assessment(s) | 100 |