Module: BMA5000-20 Creativity for Business

Level: 5

Credit Value: 20

Module Tutor: Polly Crockett-Robertson

Module Tutor Contact Details: p.crockett@bathspa.ac.uk

1. Brief description and aims of module:

Today’s managers are increasingly expected to generate creative and effective solutions to organisational problems as a key part of their role. This module has two aims:

1. To provide students with the skills and knowledge needed for them to be able to generate ideas in order to solve problems and create new products and services

2. To provide students with the understanding required to manage others’ idea generation and facilitate creativity in the workplace

The module introduces a range of business tools and techniques which might be used to effect successful change within organisations. There is also a positive emphasis on evaluating and improving personal employability through skills development and self-reflection.

This module will provide the graduate with attributes such as:

• Creative thinkers, doers and makers

• Ethically aware, prepared for citizenship in a local, national and global context

• Able to understand and manage complexity, diversity and change

2.Outline syllabus

You will learn what creativity in the workplace is and how it can be defined, and you will employ a range of strategies and techniques that underpin creativity, enabling you to analyse and understand how organisations work in relation to generating and evaluating new ideas.

You will work on real-life problems and generate potential solutions in a small team, as well as considering the relationship between a variety of factors (e.g. age, gender, and personality) and their influence on creativity in the workplace.

You will also spend some time exploring a number of areas relating to your employability in the context of the work marketplace. The module seeks to prepare you for applying for summer and year-long placement opportunities, and for applying for management-level employment after graduation.

3.Teaching and learning activities

Contact time: 1x 2 hour lecture and 1x 2 hour seminar each week.

Seminars form a series and will be highly practical, and students should spend significant proportions of their independent study time refining their knowledge and skills in the different strategies and techniques between workshops, in preparation for the next in the series, which may build on the earlier session(s). Students will be able to book tutorials with staff members to meet their individual needs through the course.

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: Coursework

• Description: Group presentation

• % Weighting: 40%

Assessment Item 2:

• Assessment Type: Coursework

• Description: Individual report - 3000 words

• % Weighting: 60%