This is an archived handbook for a previous year. The current undergraduate and postgraduate handbooks can be viewed using the links above.
Postgraduate Handbook 2025-2026 (archived)
Module BUSI45J15: Consulting
Department: Management and Marketing
BUSI45J15: Consulting
| Type | Level | Credits | Availability | Module Cap | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tied | 4 | 15 | Available in 2025/2026 | Durham |
Tied To
- N2P109: Management
- N2P309: Management (Entrepreneurship)
- N2PA09: Human Resource Management
- N2PC09: Management and Finance
- N2PE09: Management (Management Consulting)
- N2R201: Management (with Integrated Studies)
- N5K609: Marketing
- N5R201: Marketing (with Integrated Studies)
Pre-requisites
- None.
Corequisites
- None.
Excluded Combinations
- 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 | Attendance Monitored |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lectures | 10 | Weekly | 2 hours | 20 | |
| Seminars | 4 | Fortnightly | 1 hour | 4 | Yes |
| Preparation and Reading | 126 | ||||
| Total | 150 | ||||
Summative Assessment
| Component | Component Weighting | Element | Length/Duration | Element Weighting | Resit Opportunity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Live Consultancy Video Presentation | 100% | Presentation | 15 minutes | 100% |
Formative Assessment
The formative assessment will consist of a 15-minute group presentation consisting of 3-5 slides.
Students who do not attend monitored activities shown under Teaching Methods
and Learning Hours, or who fail to complete the summative or formative
assessment(s) specified above, may be subject to the Academic Progress
procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be
required to leave the University.