Administration (ADMN) 404

Strategic Management (Revision 12)

ADMN 404

Revision 12 is closed for registrations, replaced by current version

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Delivery Mode: Individualized study online or grouped study** (check locations) - both options with eTextbook

Credits: 3

Area of Study: Reading course - Applied Studies
(Business and Administrative Studies)

Prerequisite: Professor approval and completion of required courses in the
respective program.

When registering in this course, provide the following information in the comments section of the Course Approval form:

  • the institution and program you are currently enrolled in.
  • the number of courses you have left to complete your program.
  • confirmation that you have completed at least one course in each of Accounting/Finance, Marketing, Economics, and Administration/ Management.

Centre: Faculty of Business

ADMN 404 is not available for challenge.

check availability

**Note: Students registering in grouped study mode are advised that there may be some differences in the evaluation and course materials information indicated below. To obtain the most up-to-date information, contact the Faculty of Business Student Support Centre at 1-800-468-6531.

Overview

ADMN 404 is a three-credit required course in all business degree programs offered at Athabasca University. It is equivalent to a one-semester course at a conventional university. This capstone course in your management education is intended to build on everything else you have learned about management to date. That's why you are encouraged to take this course as late as possible in your program.

What sets this course apart from all others is the fact that its focus is on organizations in their entirety and, more specifically, their success or failure. So whereas your marketing courses helped you to understand the marketing function and your accounting courses helped you to make sense of an organization's accounts, this course is meant to draw upon your knowledge from all your other courses for the purposes of determining how and whether an organization can be successful.

In ADMN 404, you are asked to play the role of owner/CEO. If you someday become an owner/CEO, this course can help you in that role. But even if you never become an owner/CEO, you can still benefit tremendously from this course. For example, it will benefit you as a manager/employee when you are inevitably asked to contribute to your organization's strategic planning efforts. It can also benefit you as an investor as you try to pick which companies are most likely to succeed. Simply put, this course will help you to better understand what makes organizations successful.

Outline

  • Lesson 1: Strategic Leadership
  • Lesson 2: Governance
  • Lesson 3: External Analysis
  • Lesson 4: Internal Analysis
  • Lesson 5: Functional-Level Strategies
  • Lesson 6: Business-Level Strategies
  • Lesson 7: The Influence of Industry Characteristics
  • Lesson 8: Strategies in High-Technology Industries
  • Lesson 9: Global Strategies
  • Lesson 10: Integration and Outsourcing
  • Lesson 11: Diversification Strategies
  • Lesson 12: Implementing Business-Level Strategies
  • Lesson 13: Implementing Corporate-Level Strategies

Evaluation

To receive credit for ADMN 404, you must complete all assignments, achieve a grade of “D” (50 percent) or better on Assignment 3, and achieve an overall course grade of “D” (50%) or better.

There are 13 online quizzes (one for each lesson) and 3 assignments in this course. Their weighting toward your final grade is as follows:

Quizzes Assignment 1 Assignment 2 Assignment 3 Total
13% 14% 23% 50% 100%

Note: Students planning to transfer this course to a Chartered Professional Accountant designation are advised that they will be required to achieve a grade higher than the minimum passing grade. See CPA Requirements for details.

To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University's online Calendar.

Course Materials

Textbook

Registration in this course includes an electronic textbook. For more information on electronic textbooks, please refer to our eText Initiative site.

Hill, C. W., & Jones, G. R. (2013). Strategic management: An integrated approach (10th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN: 9781111825843

A print version of the eText may be available for purchase from the publisher through a direct-to-student link provided on the course website; you can also acquire the textbook on your own if you wish.

Other Resources

All other learning resources will be available online.

Current Grouped Study Locations

Athabasca University reserves the right to amend course outlines occasionally and without notice. Courses offered by other delivery methods may vary from their individualized-study counterparts.

Opened in Revision 12, September 13, 2013.

View previous syllabus