B100 Day School One

Block 1 and 2

Your Tutor: Andrew Howard

Housekeeping

• Health / Safety

• Register

• Fire Exits

• Loos

• Eating/Beverages

• Timekeeping

• flexible, although we shall end on time

• Mobile Phones

• please turn off (or at least to silent)

• Questions / Interruptions – at any time, please!

Overview of Day School 1

• Welcome

• Getting to know each other

• How we will work together

• Elements of B100

• Working with case studies

• Where to find information on

business and management?

• Zero-hour contracts

• Final questions and conclusion

Introductions

• Name

• Town where you live

• New to OU or existing student

• One thing most looking forward to

• One thing most feared

• One interesting fact about you (true or false)

Elements of B100

• What you study independently: readings, online activities

• Face to face or online alternative tuition: make contact

with other students, deepen subject learning, apply

concepts to case studies and your own experience, ask

questions

• Cluster online events: ask questions, prepare for

assignments (what is a cluster?)

• Tutor group forum: ask questions, get important

information for your tutor group, participate in discussion

activity forums related to the subject (compulsory)

Tutors are clustered according to region. The London tutors will run a series of regional support

sessions for each TMA. Info to come!

B100 On-line components

• Module Web Site

• Study planner

• Tutor Group Forum (TGF)

• Online tutorials & Cluster events

• Resources

• B100 module-wide Student Cafe

• Direct links to Library

B100 Website

• Volunteer student to log on.

Tutorials – what do I need to sign up

for?

• Day School 1 (4 hours) or online alternative

tutorials 1 & 2 (2x2 hours) – cover Blocks 1 & 2

• Day School 2 (6 hours) or online alternative

tutorials 3,4 ,5 (3x2 hours) – cover Blocks 3, 4 & 5

• Day School 3 (4 hours) or online alternative

tutorials 6 & 7 (2x2 hours) – cover Blocks 6 & 7

Additional online sessions for TMA preparation and

putting B100 into practice

• 5 cluster events in your cluster online room.

• These are specifically for preparation of the

TMAs, last one hour and will be recorded

• Called TMA prep session on the booking system

• Just one session per TMA.

More information from your own tutor.

Overview of B100 assessment

• Read the Assignment booklet

• Each based on one or two of the blocks

• TMA01 : Case study or Report (block 1)

• TMA02 : Case Study or Report (block 2)

• TMA03 : Case study or Report (block 3)

• TMA04 : Case study or Report (blocks 4 & 5)

• TMA05 : Case study or Report (blocks 6 and 7)

Deadlines – TMAs

B100 Assessment

Tutor Marked Assessments ...

• If you think you might miss the deadline

contact your tutor

• Under certain circumstances an extension

can be agreed

• You need a valid reason!

• Any extension must be agreed before the

due date

B100 Assessment Continuous Assessment Marks

TMA01 10%

TMA02 15%

TMA03 15%

TMA04 30%

TMA05 30%

Threshold of 30 marks

(i.e. this final TMA has to be submitted even if you

already have 40+ weighted marks from the

previous four TMAs)

Total 100%

Using TMA online submission

• Try the “Dummy TMA” submission process

• Include at least one line of text (eg your name)

• Your tutor will add comments and feedback

• Practice collecting marked assignment TMA00

• Look for comments on your script and The

Assessment Summary (html)

• Try this NEXT week, so that you feel relaxed

about using the system

Contacting The University

SST Support & Computing helpdesk

• There will be a number to call and email address

in studenthome

HAVE YOUR PI NUMBER HANDY!

Making contact

• Contact guide – Email and TGF is first method.

• Importance of keeping in touch when there are

problems or need an extension.

• Contacting each other – the use of TGF &

other students as source of support.

• TGF, tutorial and personal information from all

students is confidential.

Our TGF Ground Rules

• Agreed ground rules can be summarised here!

– Basically express yourself in a natural and polite manner

– Respond to other students’ contributions constructively

Working with case studies

• What is a case study?

– For the purposes of B100 it is a short ‘story’ about an

organisation or a management situation

• What are case studies used for?

– Illustrate business and management concepts in the

context of real (or realistic) contexts

– Deepen understanding of concepts and about the real-

life context in which business and management happen

– Provide realistic business and management problems

for students to solve with the use of module concepts

Working with case studies 2

• How to approach case study analysis

– Start by reading the case carefully

– Note down any concepts that can help explain what is

going on in the case

– Answer any case study questions that are set

– Propose solutions to any problems that are set

– No need to research any further information about the

case study in question unless specifically asked to do

so

Definition: a stakeholder is any individual or group of individuals that

has a legitimate interest in an organisation because they are affected

by the organisation’s actions.

Organisation

Employees

Owners

Customers Suppliers

Community

Banks

Some typical

stakeholders

Stakeholders

Case study questions

• What are the main stakeholders of Original Travel?

• How are they affected by the organisation’s actions?

• What contribution do they make to Original Travel?

Stakeholder Analysis

Recognise this?

“We’re going to

need a bigger

boat!”

Who or what are ‘stakeholders’?

So it’s not just about financial investment…

Financiers

Government Shareholders

Suppliers

Customers

Competitors

Trade Unions

Directors

Managers

Employees

Banks

Enterprise

What is their importance?

“It depends”…but on what?

Financiers

Government Shareholders

Suppliers

Customers

Competitors

Trade Unions

Directors

Managers

Employees

Banks

Enterprise

How should we handle them?

Why bother?

Financiers

Government Shareholders

Suppliers

Customers

Competitors

Trade Unions

Directors

Managers

Employees

Banks

Organisation

• Simply ignore them?

• Just keep them informed?

• Just aim to keep them ‘satisfied’?

• Involve them in key decisions?

Why bother indeed…

We need some help!

Analysing stakeholders

A two-dimensional approach:

1. Level of interest in ‘what’s going on’

2. Level of power over ‘what’s going on’

And next…

The ‘Stakeholder Map’

Interest P

ow

er

Low High

Low

High

Category A

Minimal effort

Category C

Keep satisfied

Category D

Key player

Category B

Keep informed

Johnson, G. & Scholes, K. (1999) Exploring Corporate Strategy, 5th edition

Positioning…and repositioning!

Interest P

ow

er

Low High

Low

High

Category A

Minimal effort

Category C

Keep satisfied

Category D

Key player

Category B

Keep informed

Johnson, G. & Scholes, K. (1999) Exploring Corporate Strategy, 5th edition

Shareholders Employees

Government

Questions

Finding business and

management related information • An important skill for B100 students

• Useful in future modules

• Group activity – identify sources of information

Reliability and validity of information

• Reliability – the extent to which

you can rely on the source of the

data and thus the data itself.

Reliable data is dependable,

trustworthy, authentic & reputable.

Consistency is the main measure

of reliability (e.g. across different

data sources).

• Validity – relevance &

appropriateness i.e. its fitness to

serve its purpose in a given

context.

Zero-hour contracts

• Part of an attempt to find more flexible working patterns

• A work contract that does not specify the number of

hours worked – employees are on call and get paid

according to the hours worked

• Flexibility can be good for employers – they have

workers available but do not need to pay them at times

when there is not work for them

• Flexibility can be good for employees if it allows them to

combine work with other duties / activities, e.g. family

commitments

• Flexibility can be bad for workers if it increases insecurity

of employment or income

Zero-hour contracts a good idea

Pros and cons of zero-hour

contracts

What is an argument?

In academic terms an argument is a statement that has a number of

specific features. These features are that it will:

• state a position, i.e. it will make clear what you think on a particular

question

• give reasons for that position, i.e. it will make it clear why you think

what you think on this particular question

• be supported by evidence, i.e. explain how you support your

positions and the reasons for it with facts, well-known and respected

arguments by other people, your own experience and/or that of other

people, etc.

• be properly referenced, i.e. when you use the arguments made by

other people or fact reported elsewhere you will give references so

that readers can find these arguments or facts in the original.

What are the main arguments?

• Separate groups to discuss ONE of articles

Recognising different viewpoints

and bias

Questions