Organizational Learning free essay sample

All correspondence please via Shabi. Lecturers Coordinator and lecturer Dr. Marius Rietdijk, assistant professor Strategisch management and behavioral change, management consultant, co-author Slag om de toekomst; director. Martien van Winden MBA, management consultant, director Hoofbosch Investment Fund, former head investment Robeco Germany, France and USA, co-author Slag om de toekomst; Drs. Renate Kenter, De Ruijter Management, Consultancy firm Scenarioplanning; Prof. ir. Kees van der Heijden, pioneer Scenarioplanning at Royal Dutch Shell, professor Strategic management Oxford University, author of Scenarios, the art of strategic conversation, boardroom consultant for large companies around the globe. Introduction This course provides the state of the art in the scientific field of Strategic management and the professional application in Scenario planning. Scenario planning provides tools for helping organizations to develop a deeper understanding of the longer-term business environment and its impact on their business model. The course builds upon the course Strategy and Environment in block 1 year 2. After extensively studying theories, this time you will have the opportunity to apply your knowledge and skills on a real life organization. In the books and lectures you will get acquainted with different strategy schools and the scientific background of Scenario planning. Simultaneously you will be trained in applying this approach in coaching a board of directors in strategy formulation and implementation. As you are a third year student, the expectations are high. The knowledge of strategy and management will be deepened, and you will demonstrate your strategic management skills in real life. Learning objectives This course has two objectives. The first objective is to observe and analyze the strategic behavior of firms from a scientific perspective. To this end, you will be exposed to scientific research into the strategic management phenomena. We will especially focus on the Organizational Learning approach. After this course, you will be able to: †¢ Describe the main approaches within current research on strategic management; †¢ Discuss the theoretical value of scenario planning †¢ Discuss the value of knowledge and capabilities for the strategy of firms; †¢ Explain whether strategic management should best be viewed as a learning or a planning exercise; The second learning objective is to apply professionally the scenario planning method as described by (the book of) Van der Heijden. After following this course, you will be able to: †¢ Analyze the business model (succes formula) of a certain organization of your own choosing; †¢ Describe the contextual and transactional environment of that organization; †¢ Generate options for scenario dimensions, make an informed choice of two of these dimensions, and describe four even probable scenarios; †¢ Test the current business idea of the firm in relation to four possible futures (‘windtunneling’); †¢ Formulate a managerial advice regarding the adaptation of the business idea based on the scenario planning exercise. Number of participants Because of the large number of participants in this course, it is not possible to give much feedback for the group reports. We hope you have consideration for this. As long as you follow the rules as described in this course manual, a satisfactory mark is within reach. Course Content Theory and Practice of the Scenario Planning method Credits Strategic Management and the Strategy Process: 6 ECT (=160 hours) Program Make sure you are present at all the classes. At minimum one of the six questions at the exam will be from the classes. The art of strategic conversation. Chichester: Wiley (obligatory for all students); †¢ Rietdijk, M. M. Van Winden (2003). Slag om de toekomst. Bedrijfsstrategieen voor goede en slechte tijden. Amsterdam: Balans (recommended for dutch students, if still available). Structure Guest) lectures + Group Project Group formation process During the break of first lecture, you will form a group of totally three or four members (not more). Please send the names of the members together with an invented group name as soon as possible to s. [emailprotected] vu. nl. Within two weeks every group has to send a project proposal to the same email address (see project proposal under section Dates and deadlines below). Therefore you must soon start finding a suitable organization. Fortunately, this was never a problem in former years. During the breaks of the lectures, there is a ‘market’ for forming a group. Group projects You will form a group with at maximum 4 members. You will demonstrate your scenario planning skill by formulating a strategic plan for an organization. The organization preferably belongs to one of the business service sectors (consultancy industry; finance, banking and insurance; e-business and ICT-consultancy; transport, distribution and logistics), but this is not a requirement. Next to these for-profit corporations (parts of) the VU may be chosen as a ‘corporation’. Groups that manage to act as strategic consultants for a real life organization will be considered as excellent. Groups that are not able to find an organization are allowed to do a â€Å"paper case† (from internet). It is not necessary to find a board of directors or top management team. A division or department or small company is also allowed. We will work the options out in the following: Best option: Organizing sessions with a management team If you succeed with your group in motivating a management team of a small or medium sized organization for a few sessions with you, your mark will be avorably affected. In this case your team approaches an organization and asks if they are interested in a free strategic advice from experts. In order to achieve this, the following recommendations will be made: (Representatives of) your group will ask some questions to (representatives of) the management team. Follow at least some of the steps of chapter 9 of the book of Van der Heijde n. The research will result in a report that consists of the following parts (to be derived from the books): 1. Management summary 2. Theoretical framework . SWOT analysis with explanation 4. Describing your interpretation of the business idea of the organization 5. Description of the contextual and transactional environment 6. Generating options for scenario dimensions 7. Selecting two scenario dimensions out of the contextual environment 8. Description of four even probable scenario’s of the contextual environment with a minimum of one page each (you have to use your imagination, but consistently) 9. ‘Windtunneling’ the four scenario’s with the current business idea 10. Conclusions and recommendations for adapting the business idea towards the scenario’s and/or for entering new markets with the current business idea Number of pages: 30-40 Second best option: Designing a strategy for the Vrije Universiteit The second best option is to formulate a strategy for the VU. The result is a report of 30-40 pages for the board of directors of the VU in which the following points will be reflected: 1. Management summary 2. Theoretical framework 3. SWOT analysis with explanation 4. Describing your interpretation of the business idea of the VU 5. Describing its contextual and transactional environment 6. Generating options for scenario dimensions 7. Selecting two scenario dimensions out of the contextual environment. 8. Description of four even probable scenario’s for the VU (at least one page each) 9. ‘Windtunneling’ the four scenario’s with the current business idea 10. Conclusions and recommendations for adapting the business idea towards the scenario’s and/or for entering new markets We will ask a member of the board of the VU to answer questions of students during the lectures. The reports will be offered to the board of directors of the VU. Third best option: Designing a strategy for a real life organization without being a consultant For this option your group formulates a strategy for a corporation researchable from the media and its own publications (including website). The report has the same structure as the other two options, although there will, inevitably, be a lot more guesswork in it. Students will have to compensate for their ‘guesswork’ by a thorough analysis of the environment of the company of their choice. Methods of Assessment †¢ Group paper (Scenario report) (50% of grade); Formal written examination (50%): Consists of multiple choice questions about the book of Van der Heijden and the (guest) lectures as well. About 15% of the questions will be about the guest lectures;