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Reviews organization strategy and organization design to provide a business-wide perspective on decision making and a framework for integrating the specialized knowledge that follows in the curriculum.

All other Tier I courses prior to this course or concurrent with it.

Upon completion of this course, students should:

The ability to identify and evaluate corporate strategies, using frameworks for competitive and organization analysis

The ability to identify an organization’s capacity to support its strategy, using prescriptive models for matching sets of organization designs with particular strategies

An understanding of important differences between the organization contexts, such as: service vs. manufacturing firms; profit vs. not-for-profit corporations; domestic vs. multinational corporations

An understanding of how to design organization control systems to shape individual and collective behavior in the pursuit of strategic objectives

An understanding of how leadership styles and cultures affect strategy and design choices

An understanding of the strategic importance of innovation and entrepreneurship, as means to maintain a firm’s vitality and distinctive competence over time.

The strategic decision-making process

Environmental analysis

Internal organization analysis

Distinctive competencies

Functional Strategy

Corporate Strategy

Global Strategy

Organization structure

Organization control systems

The role of power & politics in strategy implementation

Implementing strategic change

Strategic Management: Competitiveness and Globalization, 3^rd edition, by

Hitt, Ireland, and Hoskisson

Publisher: South-Western College Publishing

This is an intensive five-week course. It is crucial that you read all the assigned material before each class, and that you are fully prepared to contribute to in-class case analyses and discussions. Much of the learning that will take place will be the result of interactions with your colleagues as each of you adds your own insight, perspective and experience to the discussions. This process will not work if you do not.

In addition, you will prepare a written case (assigned to the entire class), and participate in a team analysis of a case. Each team will present an analysis of their case during the final class of the term. There will be several short quizzes or brief projects to test your understanding of the material in the text.

Class contribution* 25%

Individual written case analysis 25%

Team case analysis and presentation 40%

Quiz/short projects 10%

*Your contribution to each case analysis or discussion. Contribution is the value that you add to a discussion at the time that you speak.

Office Hours (tentative): 2:00-5:15 Mon; 11:00-12:00 Tues; 10:00-12:00 Wed

Please feel free to contact me at other times if you have any questions or issues. Since this is a Saturday course, the best way to reach me is probably by email at gsollars@virginia.edu. My office phone number is 201.692.7331; my home phone number is 973.283.8066.

Getting Started

The "Alaskan Gold Mine"

Quiz

Lecture

Class discussion of Case 13 (Compaq)

Team formations and team case selections

Required reading: Chapters 1,2, and 9; Case 13

Recommended Reading: "Preparing an Effective Case Analysis" (pp. C-1 through C-15)

Class discussion of Case 15 (Dayton Hudson)

Lecture

Class discussion

Teams work on cases

Required reading: Chapters 3, 4, and 7; Case 15

Class discussion of Case 31 (Starbucks)

Lecture

Class discussion

Teams work on cases

Required reading: Chapter 5,6,8,10; Case 31

Class discussion of Case 18 (Harold’s)

Lecture

Class discussion

Teams work on cases

Required reading: Chapter 11,12,13; Case 18

Each team presents an analysis of their case. Your presentations must be designed so that each team member has a role.

Individual written case analyses are due