Effective Learning and Teaching in Business and Management

Bruce Macfarlane, Roger Ottewill

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781135381011
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Business

Written to meet the needs of teachers, lecturers and tutors working at different levels and in many situations, this is the guide to surveying and understanding the key issues, best practices and new developments in business and management studies.

Teaching in this field is a multi-faceted experience. The authors use an international perspective and support a wide range of situations by concentrating on five key areas:

* the teaching and supporting of learning
* the design and planning of learning activities
* assessment and giving feedback to students
* developing effective learning environments and student learning support systems
* reflective practice and professional development.

Practical and clear, this book will prove an invaluable guide for all those with an interest in developing business and management education and is essential reading for all those looking for professional accreditation for recognition of their teaching. It is also indispensable for the less experienced teacher seeking material for reflection and advice.

Part C

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Applying the principles

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Having outlined the principles it is now necessary to put them into practice. As has been indicated, this is the main function of the chapters that comprise Part C of the book. They provide specific guidance, in respect of each of the aspects of curriculum design, development, delivery and appraisal outlined in the preceding chapters, for a selection of the core subject areas within business and management. The areas are listed in Table C.1, together with an indication of their scope in terms of curriculum content.

Table C.1 Selected core subject areas in the business and management curriculum

Subject Area	Chapter	Scope
Business Environment	8	economic, political, legal, socio-cultural, demographic and technological aspects
Business Organisation	9	organisational types, structures, cultures, groups, organisational theory and behaviour
Business Ethics	10	values, ethical theory, stakeholders, corporate responsibility
International Business	11	globalization, knowledge-based economy, cross-cultural capability, multicultural teamwork
Strategic Management	12	business policy, corporate strategy, competitiveness, managerial decision-making, business environment
Marketing	13	marketing decision-making, quantitative techniques, marketing research, strategic marketing, consumer buyer behaviour, retail marketing
Innovation and Entrepreneurship	14	new business ‘start-ups’, industry analysis, new business opportunities, business plans

Although often writing from very different educational perspectives, the chapter authors identify a number of themes of common concern. These include the domination of the curriculum by US texts (Chapters 10, 13) and case study material invariably based on large, private sector organisations (Chapters 9, 10, 12, 13); the importance of fostering a teamwork ethos and cross-cultural understanding (Chapters 11, 13, 14); tackling the misinformed preconceptions of learners (Chapters 10, 13); the need to promote interdisciplinary understanding (Chapters 8, 9, 13, 14); and developing learning, teaching and assessment activities that reflect ‘real world’ practices by linking theory and practice (Chapters 13, 14).

The chapters also serve to illustrate the varied approaches to pedagogy within business and management education. These include problem-based learning (Chapter 8), cross-cultural learning (Chapter 11) and resource-based learning (Chapter 12). In addition, specific techniques are recommended, such as role plays and learning logs (Chapter 10), case studies (Chapters 9, 10, 12), simulations and field trips (Chapter 13) and business projects (Chapter 14).

The guidance contained in these chapters is intended for anyone and everyone who contributes to the learning experience of students in the area concerned. Whatever the scale and nature of the contribution it is important to be aware of the broader picture to ensure that as far as possible the ‘joins do not show’. Ideally, as far as the learners are concerned, what they experience should be a ‘seamless web’.

However, readers are encouraged to compare the more general picture with the situations that they encounter in supporting the learning of others. Which ever of the core subject areas outlined above one regards as being an area of specialism, there is much to be gained from analysing one's own experiences in the light of the comments and observations of others. This should serve both to stimulate new ideas and to challenge the legitimacy of existing educational practice. Arguably the greatest danger in teaching is losing the ‘cutting edge’ that emanates from a deep desire to innovate and experiment with the intention of enriching the learning experience of others. This is not a call for change for the sake of change but simply a recognition that good practice in learning, teaching and assessment demands an openness and a willingness to do things differently should circumstances require it.

8

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Business environment

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Ranald Macdonald

Introduction

The business environment can be particularly demanding for many learners and educators since it is not a neat subject area or discipline in the way that its component parts may be viewed. It comprises all those elements forming the external context in which organisations find themselves undertaking their activities and, in a sense, this environment is unique to every organisation. As a result of the location in which an organisation operates, the types of activities it undertakes, the level of competition it faces, the different products or services that it offers and other factors, it will have to analyse, understand and respond to the environment in a way that it considers appropriate when managing and planning for the future.

The business environment therefore encompasses a wide range of issues, including political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, legal and ecological. Further, these need to be examined for their effects upon the strategy, behaviour and management of organisations at local, regional, national and international levels (Quality Assurance Agency, 2000).

Educational challenges

The emergence of the business environment as a subject area in its own right has largely come about as a result of the development of more generic business and management programmes within business schools. In these the emphasis is less on learners grappling with the intricacies of econometrics or the finer points of law, and more with the ability to see the ‘big picture’ of the world in which organisations operate before getting down to greater detail through the more functional studies, such as marketing, finance and operations. While these developments have predominated at undergraduate level, they are also mirrored at postgraduate level, not least with the widespread growth of MBA programmes and the consequent debate about ‘breadth versus depth’.

An analysis of the business environment enables learners to place the activities and fortunes of individual organisations, which they may hear or read about, or for which they may work, within a wider context. As will be shown later, a most valuable source of stimulus material in this area is the mass media and, in particular, specialist papers such as the Financial Times or Wall Street Journal, and television programmes that deal with the world of business and finance. The ability of learners to understand what drives the price of coffee from Colombia or oil from Saudi Arabia, or to recognize the legal and social, as well as economic, issues in controlling the potential monopoly power of large enterprises, such as Microsoft, will also help them to see that the local baker's shop and neighbourhood supermarket have a wide range of external forces acting upon them.

As a result, the business environment provides an initial opportunity for learners to see a more integrated picture of the world in which organisations carry out their activities. It provides a setting for the study of the more specialist functional areas as well as preparing learners for further integrated approaches in capstone courses such as strategic management (see Chapters 6 and 12 and the section, ‘Integration’, in this chapter). Business environment can also draw on contemporary issues such as e-commerce, knowledge management, globalization and business ethics as they unfold. This makes it essential that both learners and educators move beyond textbooks as their main source of information to a wider range of resources such as newspapers and journals, television and radio, the Internet, business organisations and official sources of data of the kind highlighted in Chapter 5. Thus, in preparing and delivering business environment courses, educators face a variety of specific challenges.

Demonstrating environmental complexity

The educational background of many learners may not have prepared them for the more integrated approach of the business environment. They may well have studied some of the constituent elements of the subject — economics, law, politics or sociology — and therefore see them as discrete, stand-alone disciplines. Further, the subjects may have been studied in a fairly theoretical and ‘academic’ way, which may be far removed from the ‘real’ world in which learners have their own experience of working in, or relating to, organisations. The challenge for those responsible for business environment courses is to introduce learners to examples drawn from their everyday experience to show that, while it is possible to understand the economic or legal aspects alone, in reality they interact in a complex and often contestable way. A brief introduction to the privatization of previously state-owned public utilities, such as water or telecommunications in the UK, and the subsequent actions to ensure that a monopoly situation is not exploited, should help learners to see that the interaction of economics, politics, law and technology, at the very least, presents a very different picture of a highly complex world. However, this presupposes that educators have the necessary cross-disciplinary capability and enabling skills to help learners achieve such a goal.

Overcoming disciplinary constraints

Many of those responsible for business environment course development and learner support come from single-discipline, specialist backgrounds. Since the emphasis in a large proportion of HE institutions is to research, publish and teach in increasingly narrow fields, it is sometimes the case that business environment courses are given to new, less experienced staff or those who have not been able to succeed in a specialist area. Alternatively, such a course may have been given to someone to make up his or her required teaching hours. Whatever the circumstances, however, this subject area provides the opportunity for educators to draw together their knowledge and experience of the business world in a way that enthuses learners to find out more about its intricacies and construct their learning and understanding for themselves. The lack of a specialist background in all the component disciplines presents a stimulating challenge for educators and enables them to adopt a ‘partnership in learning’ approach with their students. Rather than being seen as the ‘expert’, they structure the learning environment and activities in a way that draws on their expertise as a ‘teacher’, in the truest sense, rather than as an economist, lawyer or sociologist.

There may also be the worry for some learners and institutions that courses such as business environment encourage breadth rather than depth. Here it is strongly contended that it is equally valid for learners to have developed the ability to make connections between different elements of their learning and thereby obtain a broad overview as it is for them to study single disciplines in great depth. The world of business is, by its very nature, integrated and broad, and learners need to be able to see the ‘big picture’ as well as the fine detail.

Navigating the wealth of material

As previously indicated, since business environment draws on so many discrete disciplines, learners have at their disposal a vast amount of material. Initially, this may well overwhelm them and it is important that they be helped to acquire ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• About the editors and specialist contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Forewords
• Preface
• Part A: Business and management education in context
• Part B: Preparing the agenda – the learning environment
• 5. Learning, teaching and assessment activities
• Part C: Applying the principles
• Part D:The way forward – maintaining the momentum
• Index