Unit Outline: MPCE360 Technology and Management.
Semester 1, 2007. Version 23 February.
Convenor: Lee Flax
Prerequisites: 40 cp and GPA of 2.00
Students should read this unit outline carefully at the start of semester. It contains important information about the unit. If anything in it is unclear, please consult one of the teaching staff in the unit.
About This Unit
The objective of this course is to provide you with an understanding of the principles and practices of management and, in particular, critical issues involved in the exploitation of new technology and the management of technology. Key aspects to be covered include:
- 1) Planning;
- 2) Issues involved in exploiting new technologies: including intellectual property rights, raising venture capital and negotiating the rights to new technologies;
- 3) The development of business plans;
- 4) The development of organisation structures, quantitative analysis methods and control systems to support organisational objectives; and
- 5) The issues of power and ethics in organisations.
Finally, you should not underestimate the potential value of this course, as many prospective employers will be liable to place as much (if not more) value on your views of the role of technology within the wider organisation as on your technical knowledge itself.
Teaching Staff
| Role | Name | Room | Office hours | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Convenor, Lecturer | Lee Flax | flax@ics.mq.edu.au | E6A373 | By arrangement |
| Lecturer | Peter Busch | busch@ics.mq.edu.au | E6A320 | Monday 2-4, Fri 4-6 |
All emails related to MPCE360 should be sent to mpce360-admin@ics.mq.edu.au and must include your full name and your student id number.
Classes
Each week you should attend two hours of lectures, a one hour tutorial and a two hour practical. For details of days, times and rooms consult the timetables webpage.
Note that Practicals commence in week 2, and Tutorials commence in week 2 .
You should have selected a tutorial at enrolment. There is only one practical session: from 4 to 6pm on Tuesdays. The practical session is compulsory. You should attend the tutorial you are enrolled in. If you do not have a tutorial class, or if you wish to change one, you should see the enrolment operators in the E7B courtyard during the first two weeks of the semester. Thereafter you should go to the Student Centre.
If you miss (or are late for, or leave early from) scheduled group practical sessions in weeks 3 to 13, you will be penalised on combined marks for assignments 2, 3 and the group presentation as follows:
| Number of Sessions | Percent lost |
|---|---|
| 1 | 20 |
| 2 | 40 |
| 3 | 60 |
| 4 or more | 100 |
Please note that aside from being penalised as above, a poor record at practical sessions may result in you failing the unit or being excluded from the exam.
Required and Recommended Texts
The textbook used this semester is:
- S. Robbins, R. Bergman, I. Stagg, M. Coulter, Management, 4th edition, Prentice-Hall Pearson Education, Australia, 2006, ISBN 17410 3454 X.
This textbook is available from the University Co-op Bookshop.
Additional reading that you may find useful for this unit:
- Pfeffer, J. (1981) Power in Organizations Harper Business U.S.A. [Call No. HM131.P42]
- Render, B., Stair, R., (2002) Quantitative Analysis for Management 8th. ed. Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River New Jersey U.S.A. [T56.R544/1991] [Note that chapter contents vary between editions]
- Levy, N. S. (1998) Managing High Technology and Innovation Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River New Jersey U.S.A. [HD 62.37.L48/1998]
Unit Web Page
The web page for this unit can be found at http://online.mq.edu.au/pub/MPCE360, where the unit materials are made available.
Learning Outcomes
A student completing the unit should have:
- An understanding of the basics of management (planning, organising, leading and controlling).
- An appreciation of the elements of negotiation.
- An understanding of quantitative management techniques such as decision theory and forecasting.
- An appreciation of the complexities associated with working in a team.
- An understanding of how to construct a business proposal and request for funding.
- Attend lectures, take notes, ask questions.
- Attend your tutorial, seek feedback from your tutor on your work.
- Attend the practical session and seek input and feedback from the practical demonstrator on your group work.
- Read appropriate sections of the text, add to your notes and prepare questions for your lecturer or tutor.
- Work on any assignments that have been released.
- You must perform satisfactorily in the examination in order to pass this unit.
- The group must submit a reasonable attempt in assignments 1, 2 and the group presentation to pass this unit. (Note: all group members must be present at the group presentation, but not all need to actually participate in the presentation.)
- Each student must submit a reasonable attempt at assignment 3 to pass this unit.
Teaching and Learning Strategy
MPCE360 is taught via lectures, tutorials and practical sessions. Lectures are used to introduce new material, give examples of methods and techniques and put them in a wider context. While lectures are largely one to many presentations, you are encouraged to ask questions of the lecturer to clarify anything you might not be sure of. Tutorials are smaller classes which give you the opportunity to interact with your peers and with a tutor who has a sound knowledge of the subject. You will be given background material and problems to solve during the tutorial. Practical classes give you an opportunity to work in your groups on the scheduled practical activities. You also have the opportunity to interact with your tutors during practical sessions to ask questions and get perspective on your group tasks. This will help you prepare for your assignments.
Each week you should:
Lecture notes will be made available each week but these notes are intended as an outline of the lecture only and are not a substitute for your own notes or the textbook.
Topic List
| Week | Lecture (2 hrs) | Tutorial (1 hr) |
Practical (2 hrs) |
Text |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (27/2) | What is management? The management environment. Intoduction to activities/project. (LF) | ROBBINS 1 | ||
| 2 (6/3) | Introduction to negotiation. Planning and resources. Market positioning (LF) | Understanding groups and teams. ROBBINS 14. (LF) | Activity 0: Moon exercise. | ROBBINS 8 |
| 3 (13/3) | Organisational structure (LF) | Video: Porter on strategic planning (LF) | Activity 1: Negotiation exercise (See website for activities 1 to 6.) | ROBBINS 10 |
| 4 (20/3) | Product development lifecycle. Risk, decision theory. (LF) | Cash flow (LF) | Activity 2: Identifying a market opportunity. | ROBBINS 6, Pp 217-222 |
| 5 (27/3) | Project management #1 (PB) | Forecasting (LF) | Activity 3: Developing an initial proposal. | |
| 6 (3/4) | Project management #2 (PB) | Forecasting exercise (LF) | Activity 4: Building the organisation; develop organisation structure - long and short term. Recruit MD. Assignment 1 due: Preliminary business plan (0%) |
|
Mid Semester Break: 6th to 22nd April |
||||
| 7 (24/4) | Commercialisation (Warren Bailey, Mark Ainsworth) | Revision of first half semester (LF) | Activity 5: Refine your estimates | |
| 8 (1/5) | Ethics, power and politics. Change management (PB) | Project management (PB) | Activity 6: Project planning and management (budgets, markets etc) | Robbins 5, 12 |
| 9 (8/5) | Motivation; Leadership (PB) | Ethics (PB) | Assignment 2 due: Final business plan (25%) | Robbins 15, 16 |
| 10 (15/5) | APESMA (Alycia Williams) | |||
| 11 (22/5) | Phil Manidis (Manidis Roberts) | Presentation session 1 | ||
| 12 (29/5) | Communication, Operations and Value chain management (PB) | Motivation and leadership (PB) | Presentation session 2. Assignment 3 due: Group dynamics individual essay (5%) |
Robbins 17, 19 |
| 13 (5/6) | Summing up and exam revision (LF, PB) | Communication (PB) | Presentation session 3. | |
Assessment
| Task | Planned Date | Total Marks |
|---|---|---|
| Assignment 1: Draft proposal | 4pm Tue 3 Apr (week 6) | 0% |
| Assignment 2: Detailed proposal | 4pm Tue 8 May (week 9) | 25% |
| Assignment 3: Individual report | 4pm Tue 29 May (week 12) | 5% |
| Group presentations | 4-6pm Tue 22, 29 May, 5 June (weeks 11, 12, 13) | 10% |
| Final Examination | June | 60% |
Your final grade will depend on your performance in each part separately. In particular:
All work submitted should be readable and well presented.
Late work will be accepted with the following penalties: assignment 1 penalised 3 marks per day late; assignment 2 penalised 5 marks per day late; assignment 3 penalised 1 mark per day late; group presentation penalised 10 marks if not presented as scheduled. If you cannot submit on time because of illness or other circumstances, please contact the lecturer before the due date.
Examinations
The university examination period in First Half year 2007 is from 13-29 June.
You are expected to present yourself fo examination at the time and place designated in the University Examination Timetable. The timetable will be available in Draft form approximately eight weeks before the commencement of the examinations and in Final form approximately four weeks before the commencement of examinations.
You are advised that it is Macquarie University policy not to set early examinations for individuals or groups of students. All students are expected to ensure that they are available until the end of the teaching semester, that is the final day of the official examination period.
The only exception to not sitting an examination at the designated time is because of documented illness or unavoidable disruption. In these circumstances you may wish to consider applying for Special Consideration. Information about unavoidable disruption and the special consideration process is available on the web (PDF).
If a Supplementary Examination is granted as a result of the Special Consideration process the examination will be scheduled after the conclusion of the official examination period. For details of the Special Consideration policy specific to the Department of Computing, see the Department's policy page.
Plagiarism
Please refer to the Department of Computing Plagiarism Policy for the definition of plagiarism, advice on avoiding it and the penalties in place if you are found to have submitted plagiarised work.
University Policy on Grading
Academic Senate has a set of guidelines on the distribution of grades across the range from fail to high distinction. Your final result will include one of these grades plus a standardised numerical grade (SNG).
On occasion your raw mark for a unit (i.e., the total of your marks for each assessment item) may not be the same as the SNG which you receive. Under the Senate guidelines, results may be scaled to ensure that there is a degree of comparability across the university, so that units with the same past performances of their students should achieve similar results.
It is important that you realise that the policy does not require that a minimum number of students are to be failed in any unit. In fact it does something like the opposite, in requiring examiners to explain their actions if more than 20% of students fail in a unit.
Student Support Services
Macquarie University provides a range of Academic Student Support Services. Details of these services can accessed at http://www.student.mq.edu.au.