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2011/2012  BA-HASOC3PF  Integrated examination on organisations and their societal and economic contexts

English Title
Integrated examination on organisations and their societal and economic contexts

Course Information

Language English
Point 15 ECTS (450 SAT)
Type Mandatory
Level Bachelor
Duration One Semester
Course Period Autumn
Time Table Please see course schedule at e-Campus
Study Board
Study Board for BSc in Business Administration and Sociology
Course Coordinator
  • 3BPS. BUSINESS, POLITICS AND SOCIETY
    Benedikte Brincker - Department for Business and Politics
  • 3ME. MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS II
    Brooke Harrington - Department for Business and Politics
Brooke Harrington is 3rd semester portfolio exam coordinator.
Main Category of the Course
  • Globalization, International Business, markets and studies
  • Political leadership, public management and international politics
Last updated on 29 maj 2012
Learning Objectives
At the oral examination, the student should, on the basis of the papers in the 3rd semester exam portfolio, demonstrate ability to relate to each other the courses ‘Managerial Economics II’ and ‘Business, Politics and Society’ and their learning objectives.

Specifically, the student should demonstrate that (s)he:
  • has achieved the learning objectives for the courses ‘Managerial Economics II’ and ‘Business, Politics and Society’ (see below),
  • is able to think across the courses and reflect about similarities and differences between the academic disciplines that the courses build upon, and
  • is reflective about his/her learning process in the two courses, as mirrored in the exam portfolio.
Integrated examination on organisations and their societal and economic contexts:
Assessment Oral with Written Assignment
Marking Scale 7-step scale
Censorship No censorship
Exam Period December/January
Aids Without preparation
Duration Please, see the detailed regulations below
The two courses ‘Managerial Economics II’ and ‘Business, Politics and Society’ are assessed at the 3rd semester integrated and interdisciplinary oral portfolio examination.
  • The oral examination is based on the 3rd semester exam portfolio, which consists of three papers: the two papers in the 3rd semester work portfolio plus an individual interdisciplinary exam paper of max. 5 standard pages.
  • The work portfolio consists of one individual assignment of max. 5 standard pages from each of the two courses; these two assignments are compulsory and must be approved, cf. section 5(1).
  • The oral examination is an individual examination of 25 minutes, including the examiners’ discussion and awarding of the grade. The student will be awarded one grade according to the 7-point grading scale, reflecting an overall assessment of the assignments in the exam portfolio and the performance at the oral examination.
  • The examination is internal, and assessment is carried out by two internal examiners; one from each of the two courses.

Make-up examination and re-examination
Both the make-up examination and the re-examination takes places according to the same regulations as the regular examination. However, the following supplementary rules apply:

  • The make-up examination for a student who has submitted a complete exam portfolio but not participated in the oral examination – due to illness – will be based on the exam portfolio already submitted.
  • A student who fails the regular examination due to the quality of the exam portfolio should submit a revised exam portfolio.
Course Content

The primary purpose of the 3rd semester exam, which is an oral exam based on a portfolio, is to make the student adopt an interdisciplinary approach to the two courses ‘Managerial Economics II’ and ‘Business, Politics and Society’, instead of only perceiving the individual courses from their own point of view. Consequently, the main focus at the oral exam is the integration of several academic disciplines and sets of learning objectives.

The secondary purpose of the exam is to make the student reflect about his/her own learning process, the result of the knowledge and skills acquired from participating in class and working on assignments throughout the 3rd semester.

3ME. MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS II
The objective of this course is to provide the student with an understanding of how the organising of activities in the private and in the public sector is approached within economics, based on the assumptions of bounded rationality within asymmetric and incomplete information.

On successful completion of the course, the student should be able to:

  • account for different types of internal structures and processes in organisations from a managerial economics perspective,
  • account for and explain how different assumptions about organisational economics both depend on and produce different types of human behaviour,
  • account for and explain the implications of different strategic questions within the organisation as well as in relation to its surroundings,
  • apply the (methods, theories and models) approaches of managerial economics to understand the operations of organisations, sectors and networks, and
  • carry out basic analyses rooted in managerial economics and organisational theory.

3BPS. BUSINESS, POLITICS AND SOCIETY
The objective of this course is to provide the student with theoretical and empirical knowledge about the interaction between business, politics and society in different societal contexts, including various sectors of society as well as different national and regional contexts.

On successful completion of the course, the student should be able to:

  • account for the central assumptions and analyses represented in the syllabus,
  • within the framework of the syllabus, identify and argue for the most essential differences and similarities in the interaction between organisations/companies, politics and society in different parts of the world,
  • identify strengths and weaknesses in the approached presented in the course literature for understanding the interactions between societal conditions and corporate activities in different contexts, and
  • on the basis of texts in the syllabus, present and analyse a research problem, which focuses on the interaction between business, politics and society.
Teaching Methods
The exam integrates the two courses, and the teaching in both courses consists of a mixture of lectures and students discussions.
Student Workload
Teaching 50 hours
Preparation for class 200 hours
Home assignments 190 hours
Examination 10 hours
Further Information

For more details about the 3rd semester portfolio exam, see guidelines on e-campus.

Literature

Indicative course literature

PLEASE CHECK THE UPDATED VERSION OF THE COURSE GUIDES ON CBSLEARN BEFORE BUYING ANY BOOKS

3ME. MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS II
The following books are required reading for this course, along with a compendium of articles; all are available through the campus bookstore.
• Ostrom, Elinor (1991), Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press
• Perrow, Charles (1986), Complex Organizations: A Critical Essay, 3rd Edition, New York: McGraw-Hill
• Useem, Michael (1984), The Inner Circle, New York: Oxford University Press

3BPS. BUSINESS, POLITICS AND SOCIETY
A Short History of Financial Euphoria, by John Kenneth Galbraith (Penguin Books). In addition to the book(s) listed above, the course literature consists of extracts from significant books as well as journal articles. These texts are collected in a compendium that can be purchased at the campus bookstore.

Central books/texts are:
• Mann, Michael. 1993. The Sources of Social Power. Vol. II, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• Campell, Hall and Pedersen (eds.) 2006 National Identity and Varieties of Capitalism. Montreal: McGill University Press
• Cerny, Philip. 1997. Paradoxes of the Competition State. The Dynamics of Political Globalisation. In Government and Opposition. 32:2, pp. 251-274.