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2024/2025  KAN-CPBAO1004U  People and Business Development Project

English Title
People and Business Development Project

Course information
Language English
Course ECTS 15 ECTS
Type Mandatory
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Semester
Start time of the course Spring
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Study board
Study Board for cand.merc. and PBD
Course coordinator
  • Frans Bevort - Department of Organization (IOA)
Main academic disciplines
  • Human resource management
  • Management
  • Cultural studies
Teaching methods
  • Face-to-face teaching
Last updated on 14-05-2024

Relevant links
Learning objectives
The People and Business Development Project have the following learning objectives:
  • Ability to undertake a research-based analysis of key aspects of a real-world business transformation case, including an analysis of the context and business challenge, a business case, and an analysis of the needed transition
  • Ability to identify and customize evidence-based solution(s), mitigating the identified business challenge
  • Ability to choose relevant role(s), interactions and tools, working as change agents in a complex organizational context
  • Ability to perform data and theory-based reflections of the result of project interaction
Course prerequisites
The first three courses at the PBD M.Sc. need to be completed.
Prerequisites for registering for the exam (activities during the teaching period)
Number of compulsory activities which must be approved (see section 13 of the Programme Regulations): 1
Examination
People and Business Development Project:
Exam ECTS 15
Examination form Home assignment - written product
Individual or group exam Group exam
Please note the rules in the Programme Regulations about identification of individual contributions.
Number of people in the group 3-4
Size of written product Max. 60 pages
Assignment type Project
Release of assignment Subject chosen by students themselves, see guidelines if any
Duration Written product to be submitted on specified date and time.
Grading scale 7-point grading scale
Examiner(s) One internal examiner
Exam period Summer and Summer
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
Description of the exam procedure

The project report will be graded by the assigned PBD-project supervisor.
Course content, structure and pedagogical approach

The three preceding modules build a capability in applying conceptual and analytical insight into HRM and Business development to practical organizational cases. The business development project is an opportunity to exercise this capability in full scale and range, while still receiving the structured feedback, reflection and supplementary theoretical input needed to hone this capability to be ready for the final test: The concluding thesis.

The “people and business development project” is a project carried out in close collaboration with a host organization about a HRM and business development and transformation problem which the organization is undertaking or contemplating. The work of the students will be based on part fieldwork-based research and part academically founded consultation. The field-work will include doing research on-site at least half of the time of the project, e.g. attached to a relevant unit/staff in the host –organization. The resulting work are required to be analytical and evidence-based drawing on the learning and capabilities built in the preceding three courses’ focus on context, value and change both in terms of theory and analytical competence.

Furthermore, the result will be tested in an examination assessing academic quality as well as the practical value as assessed by the host organization.
Description of the teaching methods
The students work in groups of 3-4 on each project (advisory teams), so that the students can play different roles during the process, keeping the academic research focus, while also staying close to the processes in the organization.
The concentration administration select the cases from a group who have reacted on a tender sent out in the beginning of first semester (we will take advantage of the alumni-database and networks). The groups are established by the beginning of second semester and the research/advisory phase of the project runs in fourth quarter.

The teaching team will host three 1 day-seminars (matching the three feedback stages) which will include short thematic input targeted at broadly relevant questions of people and business development in actual organizational settings (based on the three modules and on the knowledge we have of the projects). A second activity will be peer-feedback sessions where the teams present and gives feedback on each other’s projects (e.g. 4 teams of 2).
Besides this the groups will receive individual feedback/facilitation by the a member of the faculty in the PBD-teacher group for a maximum of three sessions (45 mins).
The teams negotiate the project together with the host-organization following a precise set of demands defined by the concentration concerning the content of the project, the respective roles and responsibilities of the parties, the sequence of the process.

The work with the final project report are expected to reflect applications of concepts, methods and techniques from the preceding three course as they are integrated in the analysis and proposals to inform and qualify the people and business development project agreed upon with the host-organization, but are not limited to this.
Feedback during the teaching period
A three-stage feedback structure beginning with 1. an early pre-qualification of the research question and 2. the detailed description of the PBD-project is evaluated before the actual fieldwork begins and 3. the draft of the analysis and report to the host-organization.
Student workload
Udarbejdelse af rapport 75 hours
Data collection 275 hours
Preparation of presentation to host 25 hours
Seminar aktiviteter 37 hours
Expected literature

Anderson, Fontinha and Robson (2020), Research Methods in Human Resource Management. Investigating a Business Issue, KoganPage.
Last updated on 14-05-2024