BUU11580 Fundamentals of Management and Organisation 2025/26
(5 ECTS)
Lecturer: Dr. Ulrich Leicht-Deobald
Email: leichtdu@tcd.ie
Office hours: By appointment via email
“Tutorials” are our Seminars!
Module Description:
The module introduces you to business and organisations by exploring the history and future of organising, tools, and techniques for management of organisations, and their role in social and individual life.
You will gain a deeper theoretical understanding of business as well as a foundation for practical application. You will begin to develop business literacy by regularly engaging with business podcasts, news, and films. You will have the opportunity to delve deeper into your interests and passions, exploring how they apply in various contexts, such as sports management, event management, arts management, technology, food, fashion management, tourism management, and political management.
In addition to knowledge, you will develop key skills: presentation and rhetoric, critical reading, and analytical thinking.
Learning and teaching Approach:
In the module, we will invite you to learn and study through independent inquiry and group work. In this model, you are in the driving seat, and will decide your level of commitment and engagement: the lecturer and tutorial leaders are facilitators of learning, rather than ‘teachers’ who force you to ‘work’. This responsibility is a shift from second-level education to higher education, and it depends on you taking ownership of your learning.
Lectures and Tutorials: Attendance and Engagement
- Read the required materia This will usually take half a day per week.
- Watch the movie/documentary etc. related to the Lecture. This will pique your interest in the aspect of organisation through a different lens.
- Listen to the business podcast you subscribe to.
- Come to the Lecture.
- Prepare for and attend the Tutorials. This is where your main learning and interaction take place. Indeed, 60% of the course grade will be allocated for your attendance and participation in the tutorial. At the start of Semester 1, you are allocated to a group with approximately 14 fellow students. This constitutes your tutorial group for the entire year. You will meet your tutorial Leader, and they will brief you on what is expected of you.
Attendance at all six tutorials is compulsory: each tutorial is worth 10%. You cannot get marks if you do not attend, even if you have submitted work in advance or a required reflection after the seminar.
Please note that you do not have the opportunity to make up for lost marks due to a missed tutorial (seminar).
Some Tutorials require a submission before or after a tutorial. Non-attendance at a tutorial, even if you complete your submission, will result in a 0% for that tutorial.
Exceptions:
- If you have a medical certificate, please submit it to your tutorial leader.
Module-Level Learning Outcomes:
Having completed this module, you should be able to:
- Identify and critically evaluate certain existing theories, models, and practices in management;
- describe the key aspects of leadership, and team formation, strategy, organisational design, and apply these to the analysis of organisations and industries, and
- assess the impact of (i) technology, (ii) growth on management, (iii) the natural environment.
In addition, you will have developed the following skills:
- critical thinking skills
- teamwork and collaboration skills
- journal reading skills
- presentation skills
Relation to Degree:
Fundamentals of Management and Organisation is designed as a foundation for students intending to take business as part of their degree and as a survey course for those who do not. The course assumes no prior study of business or its related fields.
The module is taken by students in Global Business, BESS, Business Studies and a Language, Management Science and Information Systems, Law & Business, and Computer Science & Business degrees.
Workload:
| Content | Indicative Number of Hours |
|---|---|
| Going to Lectures and Tutorials | 18 |
| Reading list and preparing for Tutorials | 50 |
| Individual assignment work | 10 |
|
Viewing materials and listening to podcasts |
15 |
|
Revision work for MCQ tests |
20 |
| Total | 113 |
Textbooks and Required Resources:
Journal articles:
This module outline contains the names of journal articles you will read before each lecture. They are also on your online module space in pdf format. A journal article is a specialised type of writing that undertakes a piece of research in an academic field and contributes to knowledge by developing theory as a result of the findings.
There are thousands of journals in organisation and management, most of which are published on a monthly basis. The readings contained here are a potted history of organisation and management, from some ‘classics’, to contemporary examples on a theme.
Books:
There are MANY books in organisation and management. You will quickly see that these subjects are divided into many sub-disciplines, and sub-sub-disciplines! You will see many types of books, from the textbook to the non-specialist booklet, to the ‘get rich quick’ stories. No books are prescribed for this module, but a list of recommended readings will be provided at the end of each lecture.
Movies:
There is sometimes a film or documentary allocated to each Lecture. Humans have been communicating through stories for about 20,000 years. Movies often draw inspiration from the real world, providing us with valuable material to debate our working lives, the ethics of business actions, the power of management, and various types of leaders and groups.
Podcasts:
It is essential that you develop sophisticated business literacy and commanding analytical competence in management. This does not come from a single module but will incrementally build up over the four years of your degree. As well as beginning to amass a deep theoretical knowledge of organisation and management through reading journal articles and textbooks, you will be asked to explore business-related podcasts in any aspect of business you have an interest in: business and politics, entrepreneurship, money, environment, history, finance, and so on.
Podcasts
(Podcasts marked * have run their season, but have an extensive back catalogue that will keep you busy!)
General
Inside Business with Ciarán Hancock https://www.irishtimes.com/business/business-podcast
The Irish Times Inside Business podcast is a weekly programme dedicated to Irish business and economics. Everything from pandemic economics in Dublin to interviews with all the business movers and shakers in Ireland.
Marketplace https://www.npr.org/podcasts/381444600/marketplace?t=1597761988374
Providing context on the economic news of the day. Using stories, conversations and news developments, its goal is to help listeners understand the economic world around them: “Marketplace makes sense of the economy for everyone, no econ degree or finance background required”.
Financial Time: (FT) https://www.ft.com/podcasts
The daily News Briefing on the financial times is only 10 mins long to start your day!
You can access the FT for free and can get the app on your phones, courtesy of Trinity College library: https://www-ft-com.elib.tcd.ie/
Economics/Finance-focus
Money Talks (Economist) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id420929545
Out every Tuesday, a podcast that discusses all things business, from the business model of TikTok to the economics of racial injustice.
Planet Money (NPR) https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510289/planet-money/
“The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, "Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy." Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.”
Behind the Money (FT) https://www.ft.com/behind-the-money
20-30 minute interviews on all things related to money for the uninitiated. Want to know what quantitative easing is? What investment banks do? What liquidity means? This concepts are brought to live and made interesting and accessible and relevant.
The Tim Ferriss Show https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tim-ferriss-show/id863897795
Best known for the 4-hour working week, Tim Ferriss is the modern business ‘guru’. This is a very popular podcast, with everything from Jamie Foxx on life-hacking to investing in Bitcoin
Freakanomics Radio https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519
Journalist Stephen J. Dubner and economist Steven D. Levitt became sensations when their book "Freakonomics" was published in 2005. If you are interested in behavioural, or even magic economics, this one is for you.
Entrepreneurship
StartUp https://gimletmedia.com/shows/startup
Exploring the ‘real life’ of entrepreneurs, this is a wide-ranging podcast which was recently adapted to a sitcom called Alex, Inc.
How I Built This: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this
This podcast focuses on the founders of successful companies, covering their highs and lows. Learn how some of the most famous entrepreneurs built their business empires and innovative startups from Dell Computer to Warby Parker.
The Pitch https://gimletmedia.com/shows/the-pitch/episodes#show-tab-picker
Entrpreneurs pitching to investors live
Technology/future focus
TWIT (This Week in Tech): https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech
TWIT is a flagship show that lasts for approximately two hours on a Sunday evening. top tech pundits in a roundtable discussion of the latest trends in high tech.
The Secret History of the Future (Economist/Slate magazine) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-secret-history-of-the-future/id1422830638?mt=2
Fun journeys into the past to find that cyberattacks, virtual reality and AI have been around a long while. Understanding of the deep past of technology can shed light on the ‘novelty’ of our ‘modern’ world.
Ecology and Management within Planetary Boundaries
* Flying Less https://podcasts.apple.com/nl/podcast/the-oxford-flying-less-podcast/id1608229591
A podcast series on the climate impact of aviation, why aviation has become so enmeshed in economy and society, why solutions are not straightforward and new ideas on living without flying.
*Climate Rising https://www.hbs.edu/environment/podcast/Pages/default.aspx
A Harvard Business School podcast on how business can confront climate change: lively and important discussions on risk management strategy, developing wind energy, sustainable supply chains and so on.
*5 Degrees of Change https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/five-degrees-of-change/id1489722930
A Sunday Business Post podcast on business and the environment, featuring interesting interviews with the main personalities of climate change in Ireland.
Costing the Earth: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006r4wn “Fresh ideas from the sharpest minds working toward a cleaner, greener planet” This podcast is a must for people who want to gain climate literacy and become first movers in a new ecological business paradigm.
Climate Cast: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/414685982/climate-cast
Lots of bite-sized themes on climate change, from Covid-19’s impact on the climate to energy security.
Course Communication
Please note that all course related email communication must be sent from your official TCD email address. Emails sent from other addresses will not be attended to.
- Blackboard: All materials (lecture slides, readings, assignments, etc.) will be on Blackboard and students will be required to submit their module assignment as well as any in-class assignments through Blackboard.
- Email: please use your @tcd.ie address only. College does not respond to personal email addresses. Please put a signature on your TCD email, with your programme and student number.
- Tutorial leader: Only in cases where your tutor does not respond within a reasonable timeframe, should these be sent to the tutorial coordinator, Declan Cahill at cahilld1@tcd.ie.
Email etiquette: for questions on the module (including those related to assignments) please ask during the Tutorial. Please refrain from asking questions that are already answered in this booklet. Please ask your classmate before emailing the tutorial leader.
Assessment:
- Tutorial attendance and participation (60%)
Sixty per cent of the annual grade will be reserved for the Tutorial leader to assess your evolution as a student over the semester. If you miss more than 2 Seminars over the semester without a medical certificate, you may not be permitted to sit the end-of-year exam.
There will be many, diverse tasks you will undertake during the Tutorials. You will also have read the material in the schedule below in advance of going to the Tutorial, as it will form the basis of the tasks. You will see that Tutorials are different from second-level classroom situations. You are adults, interacting with other adults, and you will be given that respect and autonomy. - MCQ examination (40%)
A 45-minute, 45 question MCQ examination will demonstrate your understanding of the readings and lecture material covered in the module.
Supplemental Assessment:
If you fail the module and are permitted to submit a supplemental assessment by the Court of Examiners, you will have to take another 45-minute, 45 question MCQ examination (August).
Biographical Note
Ulrich Leicht-Deobald, PhD, is an Associate Professor in Responsible Leadership at Trinity Business School. His research focuses on new ways of working, particularly with regards to collaboration within and between teams. His work has been published in high-impact academic journals, such as Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies, Academy of Management Discoveries, and Journal of Business Ethics.
Declan Cahill (Tutorial Coordinator) is a Teaching Fellow and PhD student at the Trinity Business School researching management in religious organisations. He has an MBS in Business Practice from the IMI and 35 years of business experience in entrepreneurship, operations, finance, and strategy. He is an effective communicator and motivator, and he was honoured with a Trinity Teaching Award for Postgraduate Students in 2019. Declan believes that there is no failure, only feedback, and “It’s never too late to learn” (Malcolm Forbes).