Back to Find Units Page

Unit of Study SOC10245 - Working in Organisations (2014)

Show me unit information for year

Unit Snapshot

  • Enrolment information

    N/A

Unit description

Examines the characteristics and complexities of modern work-based organisations and the tensions, conflicts and contradictions that are embedded in them. Considers organisational processes and work arrangements, with special emphasis on the concept of power and its application within organisations to resolve the challenges that are endemic to working in organisations. Students are introduced to recent theory-building with regard to organisations as complex adaptive systems that are inherently dynamic and not susceptible to top-down control.

Unit content

Topic 1: The individual and work organisations 
Topic 2: Difference and diversity 
Topic 3: Motivation and employment 
Topic 4: Power and influence in organisations 
Topic 5: Management control strategies 
Topic 6: Employee responses to control 
Topic 7: The informal organisation and its politics 
Topic 8: Management style and organisational culture 
Topic 9: The organisation as complex adaptive system 
Topic 10: Management of meaning - the postmodern organisation

Availabilities

Not currently available in 2014

Learning outcomes and graduate attributes

Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

GA1: Intellectual rigour, GA2: Creativity, GA3: Ethical practice, GA4: Knowledge of a discipline, GA5: Lifelong learning, GA6: Communication and social skills, GA7: Cultural competence
Learning outcome count Learning outcome description GA1 GA2 GA3 GA4 GA5 GA6 GA7
1 Discuss the different kinds of work organisations that exist, and explain the design principles on which they are based.
2 Identify the ways in which the structures, processes and activities of organisations reflect the nature and distribution of power within them.
3 Critically analyse the concept of organisational culture and its implications for organisational performance and management of change.
4 Critically analyse the psychological, social and cultural foundations of individual behaviour at work, and of how the resultant interests of individuals need to be accommodated within organisational settings.
5 Critically analyse the types of problems that can arise in regard to the performance of work within organisations, and the range of responses available to organisational members to solve those problems.
6 Demonstrate an understanding of the conception of an organisation as a complex adaptive system by explaining how it differs from the hierarchical model of organisation.

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

  1. Discuss the different kinds of work organisations that exist, and explain the design principles on which they are based.
    • GA4:
  2. Identify the ways in which the structures, processes and activities of organisations reflect the nature and distribution of power within them.
    • GA4:
    • GA5:
  3. Critically analyse the concept of organisational culture and its implications for organisational performance and management of change.
    • GA1:
    • GA4:
    • GA5:
  4. Critically analyse the psychological, social and cultural foundations of individual behaviour at work, and of how the resultant interests of individuals need to be accommodated within organisational settings.
    • GA1:
    • GA4:
    • GA5:
  5. Critically analyse the types of problems that can arise in regard to the performance of work within organisations, and the range of responses available to organisational members to solve those problems.
    • GA1:
    • GA4:
    • GA5:
  6. Demonstrate an understanding of the conception of an organisation as a complex adaptive system by explaining how it differs from the hierarchical model of organisation.
    • GA4:
    • GA5: