MG441E      Half Unit
Foundations of Management, Strategy and Financial Control

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

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This course equips students with a broad understanding of management theory and practice, and of their relationship to financial control.  Students are provided with an overview of the development of management, drawing on the disciplines of economics, psychology, sociology and business history.  In the early part of the course topics covered include: the origins of management; theory of the firm; motivation, incentives and performance. The course then covers debates regarding the relationship between standards of governance and organizational design.  After introducing the accounting statements, the course covers the measurement approaches, such as historical cost and fair value, that inform the values that are recoded in the accounting statements.  The course then covers the rise and decline of organized labour; organization structures; and the origins of modern strategy.  The historical perspective adopted by the course included the rise of value based management and the recent emergence of environmental and social impact as objectives that complement the financial objectives of firms.  Sessions combine interactive lectures and case study discussions to provide students with an opportunity to apply concepts relating to these topics to real world cases. 

Essay

The purpose of the formative essay is to enable students participating in the course to practice writing assignments for this course. 

Barney, J. B. 1991. Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of management Vol. 17 No. 1:99-120.

Barney, J. B. 2018. Why resource‐based theory’s model of profit appropriation must incorporate a stakeholder perspective. Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 39: No. 8: 3305 3325.

Chandler, A. 1963 Strategy & Structure

Freeman, R. E. 1984 Strategic management: A stakeholder approach

Kaplan, R. & Atkinson, A. 2014. Advanced Management Accounting 3rd edition.

Lingane, A. & Olsen, S. 2004. Guidelines for Social Return on Investment. California Management Review Vol. 46, No. 3:116-135

Miller, P. & Power M. 2013. “Accounting, Organizing, and Economizing: Connecting Accounting Research and Organization Theory.” The Academy of Management Annals, Vol. 7 No. 1, 557-605

Porter, M. E. 2008. The five competitive forces that shape strategy. Harvard business review Vol. 86 No. 1: 78-93

Scott, W. & O’Brien, P. 2020. Financial Accounting Theory 8th ed.

Willman, P., 2014. Understanding Management: The Social Science Foundations.

Course participation (10%)

Essay (60%)

Powerpoint slides (30%)

The individual summative essay provides students with an opportunity to explore selected topics in greater detail, linking theory and evidence to practice.  This will also provide students with an opportunity to develop their writing skills relating to the content covered in this course.