REVISED AMENDMENT TO EXISTING SYLLABUS FOR Introduction to Strategic Management, Organization, and Entrepreneurship (SMO 310) B3/J3
Date Revision Shared with Students: March 27, 2020
In response to the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic, all courses at the University of
Alberta moved to remote delivery, effective March 17, 2020. Subsequently, a decision was made to adjust the grading scheme for all University of Alberta courses for the Winter 2020 term to award one of the following grades: CR (credit) or NC (no credit) as indicated in the University Calendar.
The changes were put in place to ensure equity among students, preserve academic integrity in extraordinary circumstances, and to manage the issues presented by an uncertain future, including the impact on our students and human resources.
To ensure clarity for students, all Winter 2020 course outlines for both undergraduate and graduate courses are to be updated using this template to outline changes to exams, assessments and grading and shared with students.
Course Code: SMO 310 B3/J3
Course Title: Introduction to Strategic Management, Organization, and Entrepreneurship Instructor Name: Leanne Hedberg
Instructor Contact Information: [email protected] Revised course assessment plan:
M1 Exam 20%
M2 Exam 20%
M3 Exam (essay) 20%
Group Presentation 20%
In-Class Participation 13%
Self-Evaluations 2%
Reflection Paper 5%
IMPORTANT NOTES:
● If students require alterations in their approved accommodations, please contact [email protected].
● The changes with respect to the mode of delivery of instruction and assessment and the changes to grading regulations do not constitute grounds for an appeal under academic appeal policies (i.e. grade or academic standing appeals may not be advanced on the
ALBERTA SCHOOL OF BUSINESS STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND ORGANANIZATION
grounds of these changes).
● When Incomplete (IN) status is assigned instructors are required to communicate with students about the mechanisms and requirements that will be implemented to
determine the student final grade of CR or NC. For more information, including the time to complete the remaining course work see the University Calendar.
NOTE: This syllabus has been modified to accommodate classes being shifted to an online which affects only Module 3. The changes to Module 3 include:
• Lectures are posted in eClass as recorded PowerPoints
• The instructor is available during regularly scheduled class times for students who have questions or who would like to discuss the lecture.
• The groups that are presenting for Module 3 will submit their presentations as narrated slides.
• The Module 3 assessment will be in essay form rather than multiple choice.
• Students have the option of submitting a reflection on the Harvard Business School Change Management Simulation in place of the Business Plan Reflection Paper.
Course Overview
Objectives
Welcome to SMO 310! SMO 310 introduces students to the fundamentals of human resource management, strategy and organizational theory, and entrepreneurship/innovation. Topics include: motivating employees, designing jobs, staffing, ethics and decision making, leadership and managing teams; developing and implementing an organization’s strategy, structure, control systems, and change initiatives; and, identifying and evaluating opportunities, launching and growing a business, establishing networks and legitimacy.
In addition to introducing you to the majors/minors within SMO, this course will support you in developing skills that are core to the Alberta School of Business BComm program, such as critical thinking, teamwork, ethical awareness, oral communication, and written communication. This will include practicing sharing your ideas in small and large group settings and creating written deliverables that suit business environments, as you will be expected to do upon graduation.
By the end of the semester, you should have developed the following course-specific knowledge and skills:
• a basic understanding of the major topics taught in the three majors/minors within SMO: human resources management; strategic management and organization;
and, entrepreneurship and innovation.
• a broad understanding of the ways in which organizations attract, develop, engage, and manage their workforce
• a theoretical awareness of entrepreneurship and an understanding of practices that foster innovation
• a high-level understanding of the strategic decisions that organizational leaders must make, and the forces that impact an organization’s ability to deliver on its purpose and goals
Structure
Module 1 – OB/HR: Right People, Right Place, Right Time
In this module we will explore some key challenges that managers navigate: making decisions, motivating others, designing jobs, hiring and rewarding employees, creating and managing teams, and negotiations and conflict. Many of you will have, provide service to, or become managers within the first few years of your career, and these foundational skills will serve you in working within the organizational context.
Module 2 –
ENT/INNO: Sensing and Seizing New Opportunities
In this module, we will explore the challenges associated with identifying and seizing new opportunities, whether by starting your own business or by innovating within an existing organization. This will include identifying and evaluating opportunities, launching and growing a business, and establishing networks and legitimacy.
These skills will support you whether you become an employee, manager, founder, client or funder.
Module 3 – OMT/STR:
Surviving, Thriving, and Adapting
In this module we will explore the bigger-picture challenges that you will be party to throughout your career, and some of you will one day be in decision-making positions as members of an executive
management team, next-generation leaders of your family’s business, entrepreneurs or professional advisors to other firms.
These include how to develop and implement an organization’s strategy, structure, control systems, and change initiatives.
In-Class Expectations
We will be taking an active, “learning by doing” approach in this class. This means that as instructor, I see my primary role as not only introducing you to new knowledge and ideas, but also providing you ample opportunities to practice the behavioral skills they reflect. So, please come with a mindset open to participation in a variety of experiential teaching approaches. In addition to mini-lectures, these may include small and large group discussions (I do reserve the right to cold call!), Q&A periods with guest speakers, video analyses, mini-experiments and role- plays. These activities are designed to help strengthen your ability to apply the course concepts to realistic managerial scenarios.
Readings: Completing the readings in advance of each class will enrich your ability to make sense of the material and contribute.
Class Notes: Given that the exams will be based primarily on the material covered in class, I strongly encourage you to be in attendance for as many sessions as possible. Because the sessions are experiential in nature, PowerPoint slides will be posted to eClass just prior to each class to facilitate download in advance and note taking during the session.
Electronics, food and drink: I respectfully ask that you put your electronics away in class unless we are conducting an activity that requires them, or if you feel that you require them for notetaking. This policy is in place for two reasons. First, your retention of the course material will be much easier if you are not distracted by your technology while in class. This is well-validated by empirical research, and numerous studies suggest that students’ performance is negatively affected by taking notes electronically rather than with pen and paper1. Second, studies have
1 Mueller & Oppenheimer, 2014.
also shown that use of electronic devices in a classroom can also negatively affect the learning of other students2. To facilitate pen and paper notetaking, I will post the lecture components of my Power Point slides ahead of class, so that you may print them and use them for note taking purposes, if you wish. If you feel you have special circumstances that require you to use technology or you require other accommodations in the classroom, please notify me and I will strive to make accommodations.
Although I would like you to put your electronics away while in our SMO 310 classroom, you are more than welcome to bring something to eat or drink.
Required Textbook
There is no required textbook for this course. Selected readings are noted and linked in the Course Overview and Schedule section below. Additionally there is a coursepack with five mandatory items (two simulations and three cases). The cost for this course pack is $37.75 US (approx. $50 CAN).
The link: https://hbsp.harvard.edu/import/692707
Course Schedule
Module 1 – OB/HR: Right People, Right Place, Right Time
Date Topic Readings Assessment or
Assignment 1) Mon.
Jan 6 Welcome/review syllabus Intro to Module 1
Individual Differences:
What Makes Us Unique
Google Case (read in class)
2) Wed.
Jan 8 Employee Engagement and Motivation
Hire Like Google article/The Dark Side of EI article (pre-read one of these for Day 2 class discussion) Make pay public (read in class and debate)
Groups Assigned (Randomly)
3) Mon.
Jan 13 Teams and Decision Making
Decision Making exercise
Are we in control of our decisions?
Video (pre-view)
Bazerman Ch 1 (optional pre-read) Outsmart your own biases article (optional pre-read)
4) Wed.
Jan 15 Leadership, Power, and Ethics
Somebody Stop the Radio Star: Jian Ghomeshi at the CBC (pre-read, case pack)
Bazerman Ch 8 (optional pre-read) 5) Mon.
Jan 20 Negotiations and Conflict Negotiations exercise 6) Wed.
Jan 22 Workforce Planning (Job and Organizational Design, HR Planning)
We Googled You case (pre-read)
2 Sana, Weston, & Capeda, 2013.
7) Mon.
Jan 27 Hiring and Rewarding Employees
On the Folly article (pre-read) Your Approach to Hiring is all Wrong article (optional pre-read)
Enterprise case (read in class) 8) Wed.
Jan 29
• Presentations from Groups 1-6 on Module 1
• Self-Evaluation 1
Module 2 – ENT/INNO: Sensing and Seizing New Opportunities
Date Topic Readings Assessment or
Assignment 1) Mon.
Feb 3 Intro to Module 2 on ENT/INN Module 1 Exam
2) Wed.
Feb 5
Identifying Opportunities
What makes entrepreneurs entrepreneurial? Article (pre- read)
Cold Opportunity (read in class, case pack) 3) Mon.
Feb 10 Launching a Venture Food truck simulation (case pack)
Design thinking article (pre- read)
4) Wed.
Feb 12 Designing for Action Design thinking activity Scaling your Business
Design for action article (pre- read)
**Mon. Feb
17 Reading Week
**Wed. Feb 19
5) Mon.
Feb 24 Evaluating Opportunities and Resourcing
Pitching activity
Strategies for evaluating opportunities (pre-read) 6) Wed.
Feb 26 Entrepreneuring in Large
Organizations Ford Soy Foam case (pre-
read, case pack) 7) Mon.
Mar 2 Building your Network and
Leveraging your Ecosystem How to build your network article (pre-read)
8) Wed.
Mar 4 • Presentations
from Groups 7-12 on Module 2
• Self-Evaluation 2
Module 3 – OMT/STR: Surviving, Thriving, and Adapting
Date Topic Readings Assessment or
Assignment 1) Mon.
Mar 9 Module 2 Exam 2) Wed.
Mar 11 Strategy Overview What is Strategy? (pre-read) 3) Mon.
Mar 16 Corporate, Industry and Firm Strategy
4) Wed.
Mar 18 Org Structure and Design Five forces video (pre-watch) 5) Mon.
Mar 23 Organizational Culture and
Identity The Daily Show’s Secret to
Creativity (pre-listen) 6) Wed.
Mar 25 Managing Change Change Management
Simulation 7) Mon.
Mar 30 Institutional Theory, Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability
Shared value video (pre- watch)
Friedman Social
Responsibility (pre-read) Stout (optional)
8) Wed.
Apr 1 Presentations from Groups 13-19
on Module 3 Self-Evaluation 3
9) Mon. Apr
6 Personal Business
Plan Reflection Paper Finals
Week Module 3 Assessment due April 10 Module 3 Exam
Individual Contributions
In-Class Participation
Once you start your career in the business world, you will most likely find yourself attending a lot of meetings and being part of teams in which you will be expected to actively participate. So, in- class participation is an expectation in this course as well.
Given the large class size and respecting a combination of levels of comfort with public speaking, I will be assessing participation within about 12 classes throughout the term. To do so, I will use the following methods:
• Active participation during guest speaker talks: This can take one of two forms: you can ask a thoughtful question while the guest speaker is with us (I hope everyone will feel a
responsibility to make sure that Q&A sessions are lively!) If we run out of time and you don’t get your question answered, you can instead email me with a comment about the guest speaker presentation that I can share back with the speaker as a way of thanking them for their time and effort. Meaningful comments include a statement that is both specific and substantive, such as “Your story about your first job was very helpful. I empathized with what you went through as I had a similar experience when I started my first job at XX.” A statement such as “Thanks! Great presentation!” will not receive a mark. The maximum total participation point per student is 1 per guest speaker (i.e., you can’t get 2 points for both asking a question and sending me a comment)
• Participation in the simulations - I know who participated from the back-end of the system, and I will provide a participation point for each person who participated.
• Active participation during case discussions
• Submission of response to practice exam questions via e-poll (each will be worth ½ a point)
• Other possible opportunities at my discretion
Given that I won’t be divulging the assessment dates in advance, I recommend regular attendance and participation.
Self-Evaluations
Three times throughout the semester, you will be asked to reflect on what you are learning.
Ideally these will help you identify key learnings that you will incorporate into your final Personal Business Plan Reflection Paper. They will also help me to know what topics, exercises, cases, activities, and simulations are resonating with you, and what I should consider replacing with something different. Self-Evaluation surveys will be made available on eClass on the date they are assigned (in the Course Overview and Schedule) for one week. You must fully complete each survey within the week of it being assigned to receive a mark.
Personal Business Plan Reflection Paper3
Often, a focus on immediate problems and next steps can distract people from longer-term planning: both in organizations, and in everyday life. The purpose of this assignment is to give you an opportunity to step back and reflect on your personal goals, objectives, and next steps – making use of the tools and concepts that you have learned in this course.
Start by thinking of yourself as a company. The entrepreneurial process is at its core concerned with "the pursuit of opportunity with little regard to the resources already under control." This process is as applicable to your career as it is to starting a company. The goal here is to identify where you want to be and how you will get there. Do not worry about your current resources.
Think about this with an entrepreneurial mindset. Your personal business plan should include a long-term vision statement, the "external" opportunities that exist, your "internal" (personal) strengths, and a strategy for yourself and your life over the next three to five years.
3 This assignment is based largely on a similar assignment taught at Stanford in an undergraduate entrepreneurship course. The assignment was made available on the Teaching Entrepreneurship website, courtesy of Tom Kosnik and Rebeca Hwang.
Please use 12-point font with 1.5 line spacing, no longer than 4 pages. You must cover vision and opportunity; after that, however, simply cover as many of the areas below as possible and relevant. You probably can’t do justice to them all.
• Vision and Opportunity (this is required)
o What are your goals (career and/or educational) after you graduate? Think big!
o What is your purpose, your values and your mission? List 2 or 3 key questions that will guide your life choices. These should be essential questions that serve as touchstones to direct your life and work. For instance, how can I have impact? How am I creating value for my family, school, company, community, the natural
environment? What do I love? What do I fear? What do I enjoy doing? How do I want to be remembered? What are my core values? The answers to these questions may well change over time, but when the questions themselves are fundamental they tend to last a lifetime.
o What arenas and external opportunities might help you achieve your goals? Don't restrict yourself to matters of career or work; think more broadly about your opportunities to make a difference.
o Please share at least one "failure" from your past and what you learned from it that informs your planning.
• Implementation and Marketing Strategy
o How will you go about implementing your mission and vision? Part of this is planning, but part is to decide ‘what’s your storyline’ in terms of how you present yourself to others? Write a personal positioning statement. You are the product. Relative to your target customers, what differentiates you from the competition (other BCom
students? How about from the broader populace?) This may be directed at a hypothetical employer, industry, organization, or the world at large.
o As you think about this, think about what compelling value you can offer to your employers and society? What are you especially good at? (A few examples include:
negotiating, writing, presenting, listening, coaching, etc.) o How will you reach, connect with or influence your customers?
o What skills will you most need to develop to get where you want to go?
• Risks and Mitigation
o What are the key milestones and checkpoints in your plan?
o How will you determine if you have successfully attained these milestones?
o What risks could upset your plans? How can you prevent these risks from happening? What are your contingency plans if they happen?
• Personal "Board of Directors"
o If you could assemble any 3 people to advise and mentor you who would they be?
They may be alive or dead, family or world leaders, friends or strangers. Why would you choose each? Is it their wisdom, their accomplishments, their words, their creativity, their character, their heroic deeds………?
Your personal business plan is due, in paper form, in class on April 7th. It is worth 10% of your final grade. It will be graded as follows: 3 points for plans that show a really sustained effort to reflect and plan ahead, that leverage at least 3 topics from the course, and that is well-written and polished; 2 points for complete but less developed plans that less fully engage with course topics, and are less polished; and 1 point for plans that are incomplete and do not leverage course materials nor engage with the suggested topics above, and have major structural or
stylistic deficiencies. Most of all, remember that this assignment is intended to be a real chance to step back and reflect on what you want to do, and who you want to be – something we all too often forget to do, or are too busy to manage.
If English is not your first language, I strongly encourage you to book an appointment for copy- editing assistance through the university’s Centre for Writers (http://c4w.ualberta.ca/)
well in advance of the due date for each assignment. Please note that you are welcome to use the copy-editing services provided by this centre for any of the written assignments in this course, even if English is your first language.
Module Exams
There will be three closed-book, 40-minute, multiple-choice exams. The exams cover materials from their respective modules only; the exam questions are not cumulative (ie. Module 3’s exam will cover only Module 3, not Module 1 or 2 content). The exams will cover material from the class and readings.
Group Project
Group Formation
Groups will be randomly assigned. The rationale for this approach is that random assignment ensures that teams are diverse in terms of skills and abilities. Ample research suggests diversity is a key ingredient for high functioning teams, and an ability to work well in diverse teams is a core skill of the Alberta BComm program.
Each group will be assigned a number, and a corresponding module. Groups 1-6 will be assigned Module 1; groups 7-12 will be assigned Module 2; groups 13-19 will be assigned Module 3. Module assignment will also be done randomly. This is done for reasons of fairness, as there may be benefits to going earlier in the term (so that this assignment does not coincide with final exam prep) as well as benefits to going later in the term (so that your group has more time to prepare).
Assignment Overview
Your team’s task will be to critique how a manager or leader deals with an organizational
scenario and to offer suggestions for improvement. Ideally, I would send you out into the field to shadow and video-record a real manager, but this won’t be feasible. Instead, I would like you to find a publicly accessible video clip and to pretend that it features a manager that your team has been following as they go about their day within their organization.
It is important that your selected video clip features a manager dealing with an organizational scenario relevant to the module assigned to your group. The video clip can be from a movie, television show, or the Internet—and can be fictional or real and recent or older—but please choose a clip that is less than 3 minutes in length so that it can be shown during your presentation.
To avoid duplication with other groups or videos I may play in class, please check with me in advance to authorize your choice. Here are the approval criteria:
• the clip should be in good taste, with little offensive language and no ethnic/racial slurs
• the clip must not already have been proposed by any other team – first come, first serve
After I have authorized your choice, your task is to analyze the video clip by applying principles from two to three topics covered within the module assigned to your group. Your analysis should reflect your evaluation of how well the manager in your video clip handled the scenario as well as your suggestions for improvement.
More specifically, your analysis should include:
• background information on the situation that the manager is facing and a discussion of how that situation relates to a more general issue or challenge that managers often have to deal with in the workplace (e.g., a case of conflict between two employees)
• an assessment of how well the manager dealt with the situation according to the theoretical principles relevant to your two to three topics
• recommendations for how the manager could have better handled the situation
Please note that that the group assignment is deliberately somewhat open-ended to both model the somewhat ambiguous nature of most assignments in actual organizational settings and to create an opportunity for you to demonstrate your creativity.
Oral Presentation
Each group will deliver a 12-minute oral presentation of its video clip analysis to the rest of the class on the date indicated in the schedule in this syllabus. Please send me your group’s slide deck before midnight the night before your presentation (i.e., if your presentation is Monday, send me the slide deck on Sunday night) via eclass. It will be evaluated according to the following rubric:
Presentation
Skills • Was the material well presented?
• Were the slides readable?
• Did the presenters speak clearly and audibly?
Please note: the ability to make convincing, clear arguments is an important skill in business and elsewhere. Please do not read from a script. Making a presentation and reading a script are not the same thing. You will need to practice your presentation both alone and with your group to ensure that you are hitting the key points (without reading) and that there is cohesion among your teammates.
30 points
Application • Did the presentation leave us with a clear understanding of the clip?
• Did the presenters explain why the situation and clip were important (i.e., broadly relevant to managers outside of the specific situation in the clip)?
30 points
• Did the presenters explain why the selected course concepts were relevant?
• Did the presenters accurately and thoughtfully apply these concepts to the clip, in a way that enhanced our understanding of the situation?
• Was there a well-expressed summary, or a clear takeaway from this part of the presentation?
Insights • Did the presentation help us better understand the concepts that were being applied?
• Did the presenters go beyond articulating the concepts and their application, and clearly explain some lessons we could take away from their presentation?
• Were these lessons justified, and was this justification made explicit during the presentation?
• Bear in mind, audiences can usually only assimilate a small number of key points during a presentation – perhaps three or four. Were there three or four key points, clearly put?
30 points
Timing • Clips should run a maximum of 3 minutes.
• Grading of your presentation ends after 12:00 minutes.
• At 15:00 minutes the timing grade will be zero out of 10.
10 points
Hopefully you will benefit tremendously from working as part of a diverse team for the group project. Should you experience any difficulties along the way, please will contact me as soon as possible so that we can work together to resolve any issues before they become too problematic.
Grading and Disciplinary Policies
Assignments: Assignments will be submitted via eClass. The group assignment (powerpoint slide deck) is to be submitted by just one group member.
Late Assignments: As within the business world, deadlines are established to enable all parties to plan ahead and keep work moving at a suitable pace, and you are expected to deliver your work within the defined deadlines. I typically deduct 10% for assignments submitted within 48 hours of the due date and 20% for those submitted within one week of the due date. I will not accept assignments beyond one week of the due date unless official documentation is provided to support a claim of extenuating circumstances.
Exam Day Attendance: If for some reason you are unable to attend an exam day, please let me know well in advance and I will do my best to make reasonable accommodations. If you do not provide me with advanced notice (i.e., emailing me the day before or the day of the exam), I will provide you with a make-up date at the end of the semester, during finals week.
University Policy on Recording: Recordings shall be at the discretion of the instructor. Any use beyond personal study must have the explicit approval of the instructor. Instructors shall grant permission to record to assist students with disabilities. (See Guidance on Recording Lectures Enhancing Individual Study & SSDS) Lectures, demonstrations etc. are the intellectual property of the instructor. Any recording of these events is to be used for private study (fair
dealing). Copyright for classroom recordings remains with the lecturer and that only the lecturer may record lectures unless express permission is given to others
University Policy on Class Disruption: The University of Alberta Code of Student Behaviour (online at http://www.ualberta.ca/~unisecr/policy/sec30.html) specifies in Section 30.3.4
Inappropriate Behaviour towards Members of the University Community, subsection 30.3.4(1) Disruption, paragraph 30.3.4(1)a that "No student shall disrupt a class in such a way that interferes with the normal process of the session or the learning of other students." Under Section 30.4.3 Levels of Sanction, subsection 30.4.3(1) Minor Sanctions, paragraph 30.4.3(1)a
"Instructors have the authority to dismiss a student from class for no more than 3 hours of class time for disturbing, disrupting, or otherwise interfering with a class."
Academic Dishonesty: The University of Alberta is committed to the highest standards of academic integrity and honesty. Students are expected to be familiar with these standards regarding academic honesty and to uphold the policies of the University in this respect.
Students are particularly urged to familiarize themselves with the provisions of the Code of Student Behaviour (online at www.governance.ualberta.ca) and avoid any behaviour which could potentially result in suspicions of cheating, plagiarism, misrepresentation of facts and/or participation in an offence. Academic dishonesty is a serious offence and can result in
suspension or expulsion from the University.
In cases where you are directly using someone’s own words, you must quote them exactly and cite the source of material. In cases where you have benefited generally from reading
something or talking to someone, this should be acknowledged through a footnote or citation in the text. You should also provide a full reference for these citations, either in the form of a footnote or at the very end of your document, as is done below.
Policy about course outlines can be found in Section 23.4(2) of the University Calendar.
References & Acknowledgements
The design and syllabus for this course was developed collaboratively by the Alberta School of Business Strategic Management and Organizations (SMO) Department, notably by Professors Ian Gellatly, Angelique Slade Shantz, and Joel Gehman. Maxine Clarke piloted an initial version of the course and Joseph Owusu assisted with the development of course slides and the
collation of course readings. Many current and former members of the SMO Department gave valuable inputs on the content and design of the course and generously offer their course materials for use in the course, including Tony Briggs, David Deephouse, Vern Glaser, Matthew Grimes, Tim Hannigan, Jennifer Jennings, Mike Lounsbury, Jean-François Soubliere, Chris Steele, and Marvin Washington.
