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Faculty of

Department of Management Studies and Commerce Business Administration University of Sri Jayewardenepura BUS1320 Introduction to Management

C

Course Description

This is an introductory course, which is designed to provide an understanding on basic concepts and

theoretical foundations of Management. Developing this foundation knowledge will be beneficial for

subsequent study of courses in different Degree programmes in Management. Main objectives of this

course are as follows.

To provide a comprehensive introduction to the key elements of the organisations, its

environment and main functional areas of management.

To build a foundation of knowledge on the different theoretical approaches to management

and decision making.

To develop analytical skills to identify links between the functional areas in management,

organisations, management practices and the business environment.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this course, students should be able to:

Understand the nature of organisations and management, different approaches, concepts and

frameworks to management, centrality of decision making, managerial roles and functions

Explore the impact of key environmental factors on management in an organisation

Discuss and understand the main functions of management with the related concepts,

components, issues and new trends

Develop knowledge, skills and competencies required to be a good manager

Analyze the management practices in real world organisations

Evaluate the contemporary and future trends in management

Course Outline Year I - Semester I

Lecture Coordinator: Dr. M.D. Pushpakumari

Lecturer Location: 3rd Floor, Room No-07

Contact: Email: disnamdpk@yahoo.com

Contact Hours: Tuesdays, 1.00pm — 3.00 pm

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The Structure of this Course

The course consists of three parts, which are interrelated.

Part I : Organisations, Management and Organisational Environment

This part focuses on key concepts related to an organisation, the field of management, the business

environment, the diverse and dynamic nature of the organisational context and the evolution of

management thought and finally will lead to a discussion on decision making and problem solving.

Part II: Management Process

Part II examines the process of management viz planning, organising, leading, motivating,

communication and control processes. In addition, this section will focus on managing organisational

work with special emphasis on office management.

Part III: Contemporary issues/trends in management

It has been identified that several issues have emerged with the dynamic nature of the organisational

context. Therefore, this section focuses on new trends and issues relating to the field of

management.

Course Guide

A course guide is developed for this course. Each lesson of this Course Guide begins with an

overview of the lesson. This is followed by learning outcomes, so that students would know the

knowledge they should have after successfully completing a specific lesson. Key concepts, sub-areas

and diagrams related to the lesson and key terms that are involved with the specific lesson are

included thereafter.

This course guide offers active learning projects, classroom activities, discussion questions and case

studies in order to reflect the lesson content and widen the knowledge and skills of the students.

Thus, it is strongly recommended that students complete these activities as they continue with this

course.

Student’s Role

In order to complete this course successfully, a student has to play an active role throughout this

course period. It is essential that students should read the relevant lesson of the Course Guide before

attending the related lecture session. However, students must remember that this Course Guide is

only a road map to follow this course. Thus the students should focus on improving their knowledge

through various other sources, including lectures and tutorial sessions.

Reading is one of the foremost keys to progress in this course. Therefore, students are required to

read the recommended as well as additional reading materials in regular basis.

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Recommended Reading

Daft, L.R. (2012) New Era of Management, 10th Edition, Cengage Learning.

Griffin, R.W. (2012) Management Principles and Applications, 10th Edition, Cengage Learning. Mullins, L.J. (2005) Management and Organizational Behaviour,7th Edition,London, Pitman.

Robbins, S.P. and Coulter, M. (2010) Management, 10th Edition, Prentice Hall.

Stoner, J.A.F., Freeman, R.E. and Gilbert, D.R. (2009) Management, 6th edition, Pearson Prentice Hall.

Additional Reading

Apart from the recommended reading, students should also refer the following additional reading.

Anand, N. and Daft, L.R. (2007) ‘What is the Right Organization Design?’, Organizational Dynamics,

Vol. 36, No. 4, pp. 329–344.

Bueno,S.J.M. and Gonzalez,S.I. (2010) ‘Towards new organizational forms’, International Journal of

Organizational Analysis, Vol. 18,No.3, pp. 340 – 357.

Certo, S.C. and Certo, S.T. (2010) Modern Management: Concepts and Skills, 11th Edition, PHI

Learning Private Limited, New Delhi.

Drucker, P. (2010) The Practice of Management, Butterworth-Heinemann.

Jones, G., George, M.J. and Hill, L.W.C. (2000) Contemporary Management, 2nd Edition, McGraw Hill

Higher Education.

And to examine contemporary issues relating to the field, students are required to read the major

journals, magazines and the newspapers. More specifically it is recommended that students should

familiarize with following Journals.

Journal of Management Studies

Harvard Business Review

Tutorial Sessions

A tutorial series has also been designed in corresponding to the lecture series of this course with the

intention to provide the students a deep understanding and enhance their knowledge and skills about

the discipline.

Tutorial teaching is a unique feature in the university life where the students meet the tutorial lecturer

in small groups. At the tutorial sessions, students get the opportunity to discuss their written work with

the tutorial lecturer, get clarified about the area of study, improve their oral communication skills and

to receive feedback from their tutors. Moreover, the activities designed for tutorials will help students

to get the understanding on the implication of their knowledge to a given situation. Activities of tutorial

sessions will be treated as the mode of continuous assessment and the students’ participation for the

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tutorial sessions is compulsory and the attendance is closely monitored by the coordinator to the

tutorial programme.

Learning Management System (LMS)

In addition to the Course Guide and the recommended reading for this course, students should have

an active interaction with the Learning Management System (LMS) of Faculty of Management

Studies and Commerce. Learning materials, including case studies relating to each lesson, other

reading materials and important notices relating to the course will be uploaded to the LMS by the

lecture panel. Thus, the students are required to visit the system in regular basis. You can access the

LMS via http://lms.sjp.ac.lk/mgmt. The user name and password to log in to the system could be

obtained through the respective Course Lecturer.

Assessment

Continuous Assessment 40%

Tutorial Activities 40%

Final Examination 60%

Total 100%

A student should meet the requirement of 80% attendance for the entire Course sessions to sit for the

Final Examination.

Binding Policy

The participants are required to avoid using polythene and plastic for binding as a practice for

environment friendliness. As an alternative the participants can use perfect binding with hard board

back cover. And the binding should be simple and neat.

Plagiarism Policy

Simply put, Plagiarism is an act if appropriating someone else’s idea and /or work by a student as

his/her own and/or work. In the academic world it is treated as a serious academic misconduct.

Therefore, many preventive and corrective actions have been introduced to eradicate plagiarism and

related academic misconduct among the students. Adhering to these preventive and corrective

actions and the Plagiarism Policy of the Department you are instructed to avoid plagiarism and any

act of related academic misconduct when developing your assignments in this course. If the course

Lecture/s, the course Coordinator and/or the Examiner/s detect any act of plagiarism and the related

academic misconduct committed by you vis-à-vis any assignment developed by you, individual or

collectively, in this course you may either lose marks allocated for the assignment (up to 80 per cent)

or you may be asked to resubmit the assignment. Any resubmission may earn marks up to 40 per

cent of the total marks originally allocated for the assignment.