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BUSI45J15: Consulting

It is possible that changes to modules or programmes might need to be made during the academic year, in response to the impact of Covid-19 and/or any further changes in public health advice.

Type Tied
Level 4
Credits 15
Availability Available in 2024/2025
Module Cap
Location Durham
Department Management and Marketing

Prerequisites

  • None.

Corequisites

  • None.

Excluded Combinations of Modules

  • None.

Aims

  • To develop students' abilities to apply their knowledge and skills to explore problematic situations, and identify and gain agreement to actions to enable improvement.

Content

  • The nature of consultancy
  • Consultant Role and Responsibilities
  • The Consultancy Cycle
  • Organisational Change
  • Consultancy Capabilities
  • Ethical Consultancy and Professionalism
  • Careers in Consultancy

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge:

  • By the end of the module students should:
  • Have a critical understanding of the different roles and responsibilities of the consultant;
  • Have a critical understanding of a consultancy cycle as a way to structure a consulting assignment;
  • Have a critical understanding of the ethical and professional elements of consultancy.

Subject-specific Skills:

  • By the end of the module students should:
  • Have the ability to apply the consultancy cycle to scope, plan and manage a consulting assignment;
  • Have the ability to apply knowledge to explore an organisational issue and identify opportunities for improvements.

Key Skills:

  • The ability to critically identify and evaluate key issues within an organisation;
  • Planning, organisational and time management skills;
  • Problem solving and analytical skills;
  • Skills of effective self-management including motivation, self-starting, individual initiative and enterprise;
  • Ability to think creatively about organisational issues and interventions to address them;
  • Skills to present findings and recommendations to key stakeholders in an organisation.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

  • The lectures and seminars will introduce a consultancy framework and key elements of the consulting toolkit. They will also consider managing key stakeholder relationships including those with clients.
  • The focus in the seminars is based upon "learning by doing", so that participants can work in groups on activities and issues that are representative of those undertaken by consultants.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

ActivityNumberFrequencyDurationTotalMonitored
Lectures101 per week2 hours20 
Seminars41 per fortnight1 hour4Yes
Preparation, Reading, Data Collection and Independent Study126 
Total150 

Summative Assessment

Component: Group AssignmentComponent Weighting: 100%
ElementLength / DurationElement WeightingResit Opportunity
Students conduct a live consultancy assignment and prepare a video which addresses key questions which are set as part of the assignment. The aim of this assignment is that students apply the knowledge and skills covered during the module15 minutes100Same

Formative Assessment

The formative assessment will consist of a 15-minute group presentation consisting of 3-5 slides.

More information

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