Enterprise Project 1
Unit code: HBR480
| Credit points | 12.5 Credit Points |
| Duration | One teaching period |
| Contact hours | 36 hours |
| Campus | Hawthorn |
| Prerequisites | Nil |
| Corequisites | Nil. Students undertaking a consulting or change management project will be encouraged to plan to take electives that cover these practices in Stage 4. |
Related course(s)
A core unit in the pre-2012 Master of Business Administration program. It's content is deemed equivalent to, and will be delivered under unit code and title of Management Analysis and Problem-solving (HBR482). Please follow the link for more information on the unit.Aims and objectives
This unit is the first part of a core pair with Enterprise Project 2 and involves preparation for undertaking a project in the latter.
The two elective unit sequence provides a unique opportunity to utilise the knowledge gained from previous and concurrently studied units to demonstrate, the application theory and knowledge to a real situation, task or challenge, as well as derive theory from such work. The ‘hands-on’ approach aims to provide students with the skills and experiences to become either a more successful and effective manager and innovator within an organisation or a researcher.
Two project modes envisaged are: (1) an individual applied research project, and (2) a collaborative action-reflection project designed to create or add value in a business, community or public sector setting. (Mode 1 will be available also to students tracking towards doctoral study with the addition of the two program electives in Level 4 to meet the 25% load pre-requisite)
The objectives are
The two elective unit sequence provides a unique opportunity to utilise the knowledge gained from previous and concurrently studied units to demonstrate, the application theory and knowledge to a real situation, task or challenge, as well as derive theory from such work. The ‘hands-on’ approach aims to provide students with the skills and experiences to become either a more successful and effective manager and innovator within an organisation or a researcher.
Two project modes envisaged are: (1) an individual applied research project, and (2) a collaborative action-reflection project designed to create or add value in a business, community or public sector setting. (Mode 1 will be available also to students tracking towards doctoral study with the addition of the two program electives in Level 4 to meet the 25% load pre-requisite)
The objectives are
- to acquire skills in inquiry, analysis and reporting
- to be able confidently to apply action-reflection approaches learned earlier in the program
- to be able to confidently collaborate with peers and clients
- to be able to demonstrate significant innovation in proposing answers to questions and solution options in problem contexts
- to be able to set professional development targets and act to meet them
Teaching methods
Lectures; workshops; individual exercises; and open and informal discussion with collaborative exchange among participants.Assessment
Class engagement and contribution 10%, Presentation and report to client 40%-50%, Workplace issue report 40%- 50%.Generic skills outcomes
Enterprise Project 1 & 2 is designed to allow students to further have and develop capabilities from across the spectrum. Students determine their specific capabilities when they review their professional development needs.Leadership: Students successfully completing this subject will have acquired interpersonal skills that facilitate bringing thoughts, feelings and imagination to the service of a task; and feeling at ease with self and be able to relate to a wide range of others. The will be confident when working in teams and large groups/organisations. It is hoped that engaging with complexity and increasing their sphere of influence and responsibility within an organisation, industry or community will be skilfully accomplished.
Strategy; Entrepreneurship and Innovation: The research inquiries or practical interventions will develop specific cognitive abilities that relate to practice of the tools of imaginative analysis as well as synthesising from differing events and paradigms. They are able to adopt holistic thinking: discerning and connecting emerging patterns that lead to imagining, shaping and orchestrating a series of future positions.
Global Focus: In addition, the practical interventions will hone their skills and use of tools and techniques relating to monitoring external change – demographics, new knowledge, changes in perception, mood and meaning; operating across national, religious, ethnic differences; systemic thinking: finding the interconnectedness of apparently discrete issues and events.
Financial Competence: From an economic perspective, the following abilities are developed: ability to quantify alternative opportunities for resource utilisation; and communicating financial information in a useable form.
Ethical and Social Responsibility, Individual and Organisational: In developing research topics or other interventions, students are expected to display an ability to engage effectively with ethical dilemmas which do not have simple or happy endings, and ensure application of the triple bottom line, thus reflecting sustainability as a criterion in decision-making.
Lifelong Learning: In sourcing and evaluating information and conceptual frameworks, students exhibit an overarching capacity for life-long learning.
Content
Mode 1: Literature reviews, development of conceptual frameworks, alternative research paradigms, ethical considerations and procedure for approval, selection of methodologies, sample definition, analytical approaches, interpretation of data, thesis and report writing.Mode 2: Negotiating entry into an organisation; critical action-reflection learning; literature searching and reviewing; organisational diagnosis skills to identify systemic needs/problems/issues; data gathering and recording; review of fundamental techniques and frameworks offered in Level 1 and 2; ethical considerations and procedure for approval; review of personal development needs and preparation of a personal development plan; development of a plan for the intervention.
