Postgraduate Programme and Module Handbook 2023-2024

Module BUSI45J15: Consulting

Department: Management and Marketing

BUSI45J15: Consulting

Type	Tied	Level	4	Credits	15	Availability	Available in 2023/24	Module Cap

Tied to	N2P109
Tied to	N2P209
Tied to	N2P309
Tied to	N2P609
Tied to	N2PA09
Tied to	N5K609

Prerequisites

None.

Corequisites

None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

None.

Aims

To develop students' abilities to apply their knowledge and skills to explore problematic situations, and identify and gain agreement to actions to enable improvement.

Content

The nature of consultancy
Consultant Role and Responsibilities
The Consultancy Cycle
Organisational Change
Consultancy Capabilities
Ethical Consultancy and Professionalism
Careers in Consultancy

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge:

By the end of the module students should:
Have a critical understanding of the different roles and responsibilities of the consultant;
Have a critical understanding of a consultancy cycle as a way to structure a consulting assignment;
Have a critical understanding of the ethical and professional elements of consultancy.

Subject-specific Skills:

By the end of the module students should:
Have the ability to apply the consultancy cycle to scope, plan and manage a consulting assignment;
Have the ability to apply knowledge to explore an organisational issue and identify opportunities for improvements.

Key Skills:

The ability to critically identify and evaluate key issues within an organisation;
Planning, organisational and time management skills;
Problem solving and analytical skills;
Skills of effective self-management including motivation, self-starting, individual initiative and enterprise;
Ability to think creatively about organisational issues and interventions to address them;
Skills to present findings and recommendations to key stakeholders in an organisation.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

The lectures and seminars will introduce a consultancy framework and key elements of the consulting toolkit. They will also consider managing key stakeholder relationships including those with clients.
The focus in the seminars is based upon "learning by doing", so that participants can work in groups on activities and issues that are representative of those undertaken by consultants.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Activity	Number	Frequency	Duration	Total/Hours
Lectures	10	1 per week	2 hours	20
Seminars	4	1 per fortnight	1 hour	4	■
Preparation, Reading, Data Collection and Independent Study				126
Total				150

Summative Assessment

Component: Group Assignment		Component Weighting: 100%
Element	Length / duration	Element Weighting	Resit Opportunity
Students conduct a live consultancy assignment and prepare a video which addresses key questions which are set as part of the assignment. The aim of this assignment is that students apply the knowledge and skills covered during the module	15 minutes	100%	Same

Formative Assessment:

The formative assignment will involve students working in the groups they will work in on their summative assignment. The aim of the formative will be to identify how they will work on their summative and to produce a plan for the consultancy assignment which they will conduct.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University