Handbook

The organisations we work in are rich and complex organisms in which many interactions, relationships and processes are played out daily. The complexity of these interactions often makes them difficult to understand and manage.

This course focuses on generalist managers who manage people - some you manage formally, such as your subordinates and others informally, such as your peers and bosses. At the core of the course is characterisation and discussion of everyday functions and roles managers take part in, such as sense-making, sense-giving, decision-making, leading, motivating, planning, organising, mentoring, monitoring and influencing. Each Unit in this course covers a topic that contributes to your better undertaking of these managerial roles so that you can become a better manager of yourself, others, teams and organisations.

In this course, we will ask you to test your understanding of the concepts we introduce by examining your working life. This could involve analysing your actions, the actions of others, processes that occur within your organisation and key organisational events. You can use these activities to evaluate the concepts; that is, you should ask yourself:

• how useful is this idea for me?
• how can I modify this idea in light of my own experiences?
• how can I apply this idea in my organisation?

This course is designed to introduce you to some of the key ideas, issues and debates about management and managing others within an organisation. In each Unit, you are introduced to a new issue/area of focus, but remember, each of the topics we will encounter in the course could be the focus for a whole course in itself. So, we aim to give you a flavour or introduction to each topic. Hopefully, the course will be a starting point for your understanding of management and managing others, rather than the end of your journey.