Masaryk University, Faculty of Economics and Administration
Lipová 507/41a, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic
T: +420 549 49 1710, E: info@econ.muni.cz, www.econ.muni.cz
Bank account: KB Brno, Ref. No.: 85636621/0100, ID: 00216224, Tax ID: CZ00216224
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Management and Business Economics
(fall 2020)
on-line edition
Student Guide
Lecturer:
Ing. Petr Smutný, Ph.D.
E-mail: Petr.Smutny@econ.muni.cz
Department of Corporate Economy, 5th floor, door No. 538
Office hours: see https://is.muni.cz/auth/osoba/20527?lang=en;setlang=en#vyuka
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Dear Students,
Thank you for your interest and enrolment into the course. I will do my best so that you learn new
valuable things. Hopefully, you will still regard your decision to take this course to be a good one at
the end of semester.
At Masaryk University, we are committed to ensuring an excellent working and learning environment.
Achieving this is a continuous process which includes continuous improvement process. You can help
us. Part of this process includes receiving feedback from students, analysing the feedback, and using it
to make improvements where necessary. For this reason, please take the time to make your views
known. Your opinion is very important, thank you for your input.
Good luck,
PS
_____________________________
COVID DISCLAIMER
Dear Students,
As we are in the midst of a situation that is far from ordinary, the course will be delivered on-line
this semester. I have made a few adjustments to the regular course outline to make it more feasible
and so that you are a bit more comfortable.
There are a few things the do not change: the goals and scope of the course remain the same. So
does our ambition to provide you with the best possible study experience. I will take every effort to
make this course a worthwhile endeavour while your cooperation and feedback will be as important
as ever.
Good Luck,
PS
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Course objectives
This is a (standard) elementary course of business management. The course is focused on
management in business organizations as well as in non-business organizations. At the end of this
course, you should be able to:
 explain the nature of an organization and the impact of organizational strategy and organizational
culture on the organizational structure;
 describe basic types of organizational structures;
 apply the principles of organization on the creation of organizational structures;
 explain the nature of planning and decision-making;
 apply methods of decision analysis to solving decision-making problems explain the nature of
influencing;
 describe the principles of selected motivational theories and explain their relationship to the
incentive instruments and motivational system;
 explain the essence of leadership, motivation and communication;
 describe the trends of management in the context of economic, social and political conditions of
the twentieth century and further development on the threshold of twenty-first century.
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Course schedule
Important deadlines:
01/11/2020 Uploading your Course Project Brief into the homework vault in the IS.
20/12/2020 Uploading your presentation slides into the homework vault in the IS.
Uploading your Course Project Plan into the homework vault in the IS.
Please note that uploading the above-mentioned documents is mandatory. All vaults close at 23:59
on the respective dates. Late deliveries are not accepted. Documents can be handed in through the
vaults ONLY. No other means of delivery are accepted.
Week Dates WEDNESDAY (lectures) THURSDAY (seminars)
Introduction to Management
The Evolution of Management Thought
Organizational Culture
External Environment
3 21. - 22. 10. Decision Making (lecture) Managing Projects (case study)
4 28. - 29. 10. CANCELLED CANCELLED
5 4. - 5. 11. Planning Decision Making (exercises)
6 11. - 12. 11. Organizing Decision Making (exercises)
Human Resource Management
Understanding Individual Behavior
8 25. - 26. 11. Managing Groups and Teamwork Seminar Projects (mid-term report and consultations)
9 2. - 3. 12. Leading How to build a presentation
10 9. - 10. 12. Motivation Social Responsibility + Ethics
11 16. - 17. 12. Controlling Q + A
12 6. - 7. 1. EXAM Course Feedback and Round Table
7 18. - 19. 11. Seminar Projects (mid-term report and consultations)
Seminar project assignments, topics and goals discussion1 7. - 8. 10.
2 14. - 15. 10. Managing Projects (lecture)
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Course grading
Your final grade will consist of several partial results you will get throughout semester from graded
activities.
Some of these graded exercises will be individual, some of them will be teamwork. That means that
your final grade will be influenced by your individual effort as well as by your ability to cooperate
within a team. Just like in the real life.
Graded activities in this course are as follows:
Graded exercise Form Type Weight
Project Brief written team 10%
Presentation of the
Project Plan
uploaded
slides
team 10%
Project Plan written team 35%
Exam written individual 45%
Overall grade 100%
Important!
Please note that your eligibility for a re-sit of graded activities is governed by Study and Examination
Regulations of Masaryk University.
You are only eligible to re-sit attempts that you had missed for a good reason (typically health issues,
illnesses, etc.) which provide for granting an excuse. Please note that for example pre-scheduled travel
DOES NOT constitute such a good reason. You will not be allowed to re-sit missed attempt which had
not been excused prior or immediately after the scheduled date (for scheduled weeks see course
schedule table above).
Please note that Masaryk University is very serious about enforcement of ethical standards in teaching
and examination. Any copying, keeping a record of tests or carrying the tests out, using forbidden aids
including any communication devices or any other breach of objectivity of the exam is regarded as a
failure to meet the obligations of the subject and as a serious breach of study regulations.
Consequently, the teacher grades the student with "F" and the dean is allowed to initiate a disciplinary
action, which might lead to the termination of the studies.
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Course project
Management is best defined as “reaching goals with and through other people.” Therefore your
competencies related to cooperation within teams will be of utmost importance when you will be
looking for the job.
As the situation this year is a bit extraordinary (to say the least), your teams will really be mini-teams
of 2 students so that the coordination and cooperation is a bit easier for you.
Still, your course project within this course aims to facilitate both:
- improving your knowledge base as you will focus to some particular area of management (e.g.
human resources, planning, decision making);
- improving your cooperation competencies as you will be working on the paper with one of
your fellow students.
Course project assignment
The goal of your course project will be to provide a plan for a fictitious or real-life project of your
choice in such a way that meets basic quality criteria of project planning. A project plan provides a
statement of how and when objectives of the project are to be achieved, by showing major products,
activities and resources required for the scope of the plan.
The course project will have the final form of a written project plan. Word/pdf documents are to be
uploaded in the vault through IS.
You will develop the plan for your project in two steps:
- Project brief
- Project Plan
A. Project Brief
Project Brief is used to provide full and firm foundation for the initiation of the project and is
created during starting up a project.
Project Brief includes the following:
- Project definition – explains what the project needs to achieve. It covers the background,
definition of project objectives, desired outcomes, project scope and exclusions, constraints
and assumptions, and project tolerances.
- Outline business case – covering the reasons why the project is needed and the (business)
options selected.
- Project product description – explaining quality expectations and acceptance criteria.
- Project management team structure – describing the role of those in the project management
team.
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The Project Brief is to be delivered via a homework vault no later than the deadline set in the
course schedule. It has the form of a written paper with following formal arrangements:
- Cover page including paper title, authors’ names and UCOs, word count without reference list,
total word count.
- Minimum length: 5 pages (excluding cover and list of references and annexes), Arial 12,
margins 2 cm, line spacing 1. Pictures and charts larger than 1/3 of a page will be included in
annexes and referenced in the text (annexes do not count into total number of pages).
B. Project Plan
The Project Plan provides a statement of how and when objectives are to be achieved, by
providing the major products, activities and resources required for the scope of the plan. It
identifies the management stages and other major control points. A plan should cover not just
the activities to create products but also the activities to manage product creation.
Project Plan includes the following:
- planning assumptions – assumptions upon which the plan is based;
- products description – description of the products to be delivered within the scope of the
project, inc. quality tolerances for each product;
- tolerances – time, cost and scope tolerances;
- budgets – time and cost budgets, including provisions for risk and changes;
- schedule – incl. a Gannt chart and product breakdown structure;
- monitoring and control – details how the plan will be monitored and controlled.
The Project Plan is to be delivered via a homework vault no later than the deadline set in the
course schedule. It has the form of a written paper with following formal arrangements:
- Cover page including paper title, authors’ names and UCOs, word count without reference list,
total word count.
- Minimum length: 10 pages (excluding cover and list of references and annexes), Arial 12,
margins 2 cm, line spacing 1. Pictures and charts larger than 1/3 of a page will be included in
annexes and referenced in the text (annexes do not count into total number of pages).
Course project evaluation
Both parts of your course project (Project brief and Project plan) will be evaluated against the
following criteria (covering both quality of content and formal aspects):
- documents include all expected information (see above);
- the content quality and rigour of presented material;
- cover page is according to assignment;
- formal quality of the document (language, typos, formatting);
- the paper meets the criterion of minimum length. PLEASE NOTE that papers which will not
meet the minimum required length will be deducted ¼ of the points gained;
- the paper was handed in due time. PLEASE NOTE that papers which will not be handed in
within due deadline will be deducted ¼ of the points gained.
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Course project presentations
Presentation skills are important for every manager. That is why oral presentation of your paper is
normally included in the course schedule. The goal is to facilitate presentations skills development. All
that in English, which for most of us, is only our second language.
As we are in an extraordinary situation, oral presentations will not take place this year. But you will
still be required to prepare presentation slides for a fictitious presentation the coal of which would be
to present your project plan to the project board (represented by the lecturer) with the goal to goal
approval for your project.
Your presentation is to be delivered via a homework vault no later than the deadline set in the course
schedule. It has the form of presentation slides in MS PowerPoint or PDF document.
Presentation evaluation
As the oral presentations will not take place, only our slides will be evaluated. The presentation will be
evaluated against the following criteria:
- visual presentation guidelines (slides);
o slides help audience to understand;
o slides are clear and easy to read;
o graphical tools are used where helpful.
- presentation structure
o goal / aim is presented and is clear;
o structure of the presentation is clear;
o structure is relevant to the goal/type of the presentation;
o audience do not get lost.
- the document was handed in due time. PLEASE NOTE that papers which will not be handed in
within due deadline will be deducted ¼ of the points gained.
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Course materials
Main textbook
Robbins, Stephen P. - Coulter, Mary K. Management. 10th ed. Upper Saddle River : Pearson Prentice
Hall, 2009. xiv, 565 s. ISBN 9780132090711.
Alternatively, you can use any of the later editions of the textbook as well, as the changes are not that
big.
Supplementary literature:
Hersey, Paul - Blanchard, Kenneth H. - Johnson, Dewey E. Management of organizational behavior
:utilizing human resources. 7. ed. New Jersey : Prentice-Hall, 1996. xxv, 627 s. ISBN 0-13-244112-8.
Study materials from lectures:
Available on-line at:
https://is.muni.cz/auth/el/1456/podzim2020/BPH_AMBE/?lang=en