THE MANAGEMENT OF INTERNATIONAL
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE (BMAN62082)
General Information
Academic Year: 2024/25
Semester: Semester II
Credit rating: 15
Year: PGT course unit
Programme restrictions: BMAN62082 is only available as an elective to students on
MSc Business Analysis & Strategic Management and MSc
International HRM & Comparative IR.
Pre-requisites: None.
Co-requisites: None.
Dependent course units: None.
Teaching Staff
Course coordinator: Pei SUN, Professor of International Business,
Room 5.063 AMBS
Email: pei.sun@manchester.ac.uk
Office hours by arrangement via email.
Other teaching staff involved: None.
Aims
Specific objectives include:
• Enabling students to assess contemporary practices surrounding change
management in an international context.
• Enhancing students’ awareness of the conceptual underpinnings of these
change-management practices as well as their strengths and weaknesses.
• Helping participants to identify their own strengths and weaknesses as potential
change managers, and the requirements of individuals acting in that role.
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Learning Outcomes
At the end of this course participants will have gained an understanding of the issues
involved in management change in contemporary organizations. It is also expected that
course participants will be able to:
• Identify appropriate strategies for change in relation to the nature of the change
required and the business environment in which it will occur.
• Understand how to identify the need, or otherwise, for change and mobilize
relevant factors in support of a change effort that can support the change effort.
• Analyze the multiplicity of factors affecting the success of international change
efforts, and be sensitive to the impact of change on individuals.
• Assess the requirements of those acting in a change agent role as manager,
functional specialist or consultant.
Employability
The module will help students to develop their ability to:
• Present their analyses of organizations coherently and convincingly
• Use concepts and ideas to present recommendations to solve organizations’
problems relating to change management
• Give well-structured presentations and answer exam questions in a coherent and
well-focused manner
• Prioritize their activities appropriately and manage their time effectively.
Social Responsibility
This course increases the student’s knowledge and understanding of organizational
change issues in an international context. Students are expected to identify and respond
to real-world business problems, tackle global grand challenges from working within
their future organizations, and demonstrate potentials for becoming future socially
responsible leaders.
Methods of Delivery
The course will be delivered through a series of lectures and seminars:
Activity
Lectures
Seminars
Independent study
Total study hours
Hours
20
10
120
150
Please note that attendance at all classes is compulsory and will be monitored.
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Teaching Schedule
Time
(Friday)
Week 1: 31 January
Week 2: 7 February
Week 3: 14 February
Week 4: 21 February
Week 5: 28 February
Topic
Course introduction,
motivation, and the concept of
organizational change
Theories of business
organizations and their
implications for change
management
Organizational structure and
change
Cases
N.A.
Tony Hsieh at Zappos: Structure,
Culture and Radical Change
Haier: Incubating Entrepreneurs in a
Chinese Giant
Ron Johnson: A Career in Retail
Henkel: Building a Winning Culture
Week 9: 28 March
Organizational changes in the
face of disruptive
innovations/technologies
Nissan’s U-Turn: 1999-2001
Jean-Claude Biver (A): The
Reemergence of the Swiss Watch
Industry; Jean-Claude Biver (B):
Leading Change at Hublot
Nokia: The Inside Story of the Rise
and Fall of a Technology Giant
Kodak and the Digital Revolution
Week 10: 4 April
Summary and revision
Fujifilm: A Second Foundation
Week 6: 7 March
Week 7: 14 March
Week 8: 21 March
Leadership,
power, politics, and
organizational change
Reading list
Senior, S., Swailes, S., and Carnall, C. 2020. Organizational Change, 6th Edition,
Harlow: Pearson
(Senior, B. and Swailes, S. 2016. Organizational Change, 5th edition, Pearson, is
available as an e-book at the University e-library)
Brickley, J., Smith, C., and Zimmerman, J. 2016, Managerial Economics &
Organizational Architecture, 6th Edition, McGraw-Hill
A more detailed list of relevant reading materials will be provided with each session.
Wherever possible, materials which are available directly on the web will be
recommended.
Assessment
Students are to be assessed solely by one 2.5-hour exam at the end of the course. Further
information about the exam will be given in the final session of the course. The exam
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will take place at the end of the spring semester sometime between 12 May and 4 June
2025.
Plagiarism
Students should read carefully the section on plagiarism in their handbook and be aware
of the severe penalties that will follow proven cases of plagiarism.
You may use AI tools like any other resource to help you generate ideas, key themes,
and plan your assessment, and you may also cite or quote content generated by AI
systems. However, passing off work generated by AI as your own is plagiarism, and
will be treated as seriously as plagiarism of another person.
Resits
If a re-sit is required, it will be by examination only.
Marking Process
The School follows a fair, rigorous and transparent marking process for all summative
work.
Feedback
Students have a responsibility to consider feedback given on their work, to seek to
understand it, and to act on it.
Formative feedback will be provided to students during lectures, seminars and office
hours, responses to student emails and questions, and further via online discussion
forum, which will be monitored by course coordinators.
Formative assessment: Lecture information and seminar sessions are designed to
equip students with relevant knowledge that can be used in preparing for the final
examination.
During the course, students will be given the opportunity to receive formative feedback
on factual recall of information, comprehension, and deductive reasoning skill.
Feedback will be provided during lectures, seminars and scheduled office hours.
During seminars, students can obtain group/individual feedback on case studies
exercises. Moreover, students will be given opportunities to discuss their group work
and receive feedback from their course coordinator during scheduled office hours.
Important Note: Formative feedback is meant to guide students in the right direction
(strategic guidance on how to improve the work, including the structure, flow,
argumentation, etc…). Formative feedback is not meant to indicate the correct answer.
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Feedback on summative assessment: You should not expect to find detailed written
comments on an exam script. Any comments on the exam script are predominantly part
of the marking process and are not extensive in the way that individual feedback is
given for coursework. Commentary on exam performance is in the generic feedback
published to students on the course via Blackboard.
Feedback from students: The course coordinator is available to discuss any issues
with students throughout the course. These may be questions in relation to the content
of a particular lecture or concerns about the course more widely. When students have
not understood a reading, they are encouraged to raise this matter in the seminar.
Students will also be given opportunity to submit their feedback the course unit survey,
which will take place at the end of the module.
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