Trends In Global Business And Management

Trends In Global Business And Management

MODULE OUTLINE (2021) BMAN 73150
Trends in Global Business & Management

Assignment

Assessment for this course is by assignment only. The assignment should be a written essay of not more than 3000 words (not including bibliography) based on ONE question from a selection of six questions. The topics correspond to specific lectures or combinations of them but you will need knowledge from various points of the module to engage with them so attendance across the module is essential. An electronic copy should be submitted to Blackboard August 27th, 2021 by 2 pm UK Time.

The Penalties for Late Submissions and Word Limits are available from the PGT OFFICE.

1) Restructuring organisations and work can have a negative effect on the workforce and the organisation itself. Explain the reasons for such negative outcomes from organisational restructuring highlighting and explaining the most important reasons. Furthermore, what role does the obsession with restructuring play in generating such negative effects?

2) What are the reasons for moving away from centralised and bureaucratic systems of management and what are the main challenges and risks? Why do such challenges and risks emerge?

3) How has the growing business obsession with the role of smaller employers and self-employment emerged recently? Why are there so many challenges facing both smaller employers and those that are classified as self-employed?

4) How has the pandemic impacted on the extent and nature of teleworking and homeworking? Discuss the negative issues emerging because of such forms of work. Explain which of these negative issues you see as being the most important and why.

5) How and why has the fascination with de-regulation developed in recent decades? What have been the main consequences of greater de-regulation on the way individuals work and why have so many problems emerged?

6) We talk a lot about the age of corporate social responsibility and wellbeing within organisations. Why is this the case? To what extent could these be viewed as mainly rhetorical concepts and developments that are not systematically introduced within organisations?

Question 3

Look primarily as aspects of Lectures 1,2 and 3 but do check others

Some initial readings

Kirk, Eleanor. “Contesting ‘bogus self-employment’via legal mobilisation: The case of foster care workers.” Capital & Class 44.4 (2020): 531-539.

Meager, N. (2016). Foreword: JMO special issue on self-employment/freelancing. Journal of Management & Organization, 22(6), 756-763. (useful special issue)

Kinnie, N., Purcell, J., Hutchinson, S., Terry, M., Collinson, M., & Scarbrough, H. (1999). Employment relations in SMEs: Market‐driven or customer‐shaped?. Employee relations. 21(3)

Mallett, O., & Wapshott, R. (2017). Small business revivalism: employment relations in small and medium-sized enterprises. Work, employment and society, 31(4), 721-728. (This is the introduction to a special issue with many pieces on SMEs and challenges)