21440 Management Skills
Warning: The information on this page is indicative. The subject outline for a
particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source
of all information about the subject for that offering. Required texts, recommended texts and references in particular are likely to change. Students will be provided with a subject outline once they enrol in the subject.
Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 6 cp
Subject level:
Undergraduate
Result type: Grade and marksThere are course requisites for this subject. See access conditions.
Description
This subject aims to equip students with the theoretical underpinnings and practical tools necessary to increase proficiency in a number of areas of self-development relevant to the world of work. Drawing on knowledge from theories of developmental and self-psychology, philosophy, positive psychology, positive organisational scholarship and neuroscience, the subject has been designed around three critical pillars of self-learning and growth. These are: (i) foundations of self-knowledge and understanding, (ii) managing the self at work, and (iii) facilitating self-growth and change for organisational success. The subject is based on the premise that we ourselves are responsible for the outcomes in our lives and that non-judgemental self-awareness, reflection and self-acceptance is fundamental to personal development. Students interact with the subject through a variety of engaging learning techniques, which emphasise active participation, collaborative and personal reflection, experimentation and practice. It is anticipated that students complete this subject equipped with an enhanced understanding and awareness of the role of the self in the creation of a fulfilling, engaged and successful working life.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
| 1. | Demonstrate a critical understanding of how classic theories of the self, along with current research on the self at work, can improve one’s understanding of how to build fulfilling and successful working lives |
|---|---|
| 2. | Display evidence of personal growth and increased self-awareness in a nominated specialty area of self-development |
| 3. | Demonstrate knowledge of scholarly research, specifically in relation to identifying high quality, context-relevant academic sources of reference |
| 4. | Explain the role of individual and group reflection in understanding the interaction between the self and others |
| 5. | Apply practices and principles of theories of the self, and self at work, in an interactive setting |
Contribution to the development of graduate attributes
This subject is aligned with the graduate attributes of intellectual rigour and innovative problem solving, communication and collaboration, and professional and technical competence.
Specifically, this subject aims to develop within students an applied understanding of the role of the self in facilitating successful, engaged and rewarding working lives. Students will become familiar with the workplace application of a number of significant theoretical frameworks, models and concepts in areas such as self-development, self-awareness, emotions and emotional intelligence, character strengths and virtues, stress and wellbeing, mental health, mindfulness, positive psychology and authentic leadership. Tutorial group work emphasising collaborative and team approaches to the analysis of key readings, videos and applied case studies will provide students with opportunities to enhance their communication and teamwork skills. Students will also be encouraged to improve self-confidence and oral communication skills via short informal presentations of group work findings to their tutorial peers.
This subject also contributes specifically to the introduction of the following Program Learning Objectives for the Bachelor of Management:
- Apply critical thinking skills to analyse contemporary managerial challenges, enabling the development of creative solutions relevant to professional practice (1.1)
- Develop effective communication skills to enable cogent knowledge transfer with colleagues to achieve productive project outcomes relevant to professional practice (2.1)
- Execute managerial capabilities and technical skills that are critical to professional practice in a specialised industry sector (4.1)
This subject also contributes specifically to develop the following Program Learning Objective for the Bachelor of Business Human Resource Management major:
- Apply technical and professional skills to operate effectively in business (4.1)
This subject also contributes specifically to develop the following Program Learning Objectives for the Bachelor of Business Management major:
- Demonstrate ability to work independently and with others as a member of a team to achieve an agreed goal (2.2)
- Make judgements and business decisions consistent with the principles of social responsibility, inclusion and knowledge of Indigenous peoples (3.1)
Teaching and learning strategies
This subject adopts a strong focus on experiential and applied learning and on focused and thoughtful individual and team reflection. The approach to learning is designed around three fundamental building blocks, or ‘pillars’ as follows:-
- Foundations of Self-Knowledge and Understanding
- Managing the Self at Work
- Facilitating Self-Growth and Change for Organisational Success
Lectures and Tutorials
Lectures will introduce you to the key theoretical frameworks and concepts underpinning the nominated topic area. Lectures will also provide opportunities to explore recent advances in the field, current workplace applications of topic areas and applied real-life cases and examples. Lectures will make use of multimedia resources including video cases, interactive online demonstrations, TED talks, and shared communication via the online platform, Socrative.com.
Secondly, tutorials have been designed to engage you with resources to further apply your theoretical knowledge as well as practice and reflect upon applied skills in the various topic areas. All tutorials will engage you in teamwork with your peers, and opportunities for brief, informal presentations will build your self-confidence and oral presentation skills. Examples of the kinds of activities you will experience in tutorials include personality self-assessments, online learning modules, mindfulness meditation, applied case studies and analysis of scholarly journals.
Assessment
The assessment structure for this subject has been designed around the subject learning objectives and incorporates opportunities for early feedback and online Q&A sessions with the subject coordinator.
Students will be provided, via the UTS Learning Management System, with rubric criteria used to assess their performance, as well as sample assignments from previous semesters, and useful links to online resources, library study modules and UTS HELPS centre.
UTS Learning Management System
The learning management system provides students in this subject with a rich variety of resources and communication tools to assist them to navigate their way through the subject. Here, you will find week-by-week lecture notes, tutorial preparation work and instructions, assessment information and sample assignments, links to useful resources online, interactive discussion boards and more.
An aim of this subject is to help you develop academic and professional language and communication skills in order to succeed at university and in the workplace. To determine your current academic language proficiency, you are required to complete an online language screening task, OPELA (information available at https://www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/learning-and-teaching/enhancing/language-and-learning/about-opela-students) [or a written diagnostic task]. If you receive a Basic grade for OPELA [or the written diagnostic task], you must attend additional Language Development Tutorials (each week from week [3/4] to week [11/12] in order to pass the subject. These tutorials are designed to support you to develop your language and communication skills. Students who do not complete the OPELA and/or do not attend 80% of the Language Development Tutorials will receive a Fail X grade.
Content (topics)
- Foundations of Self-Knowledge and Understanding
- Self-Awareness: origins and theories of the self, introspection and reflection
- Personality theories, including workplace and leadership correlates
- Basic brain anatomy, neural mechanisms of learning, habit-formation, perception, emotions; leadership and neuroscience research
- Managing the Self at Work
- Emotions, emotional and social intelligence, positive emotions
- Stress: the stress response, workplace stressors, resilience and coping
- Mindfulness: wellness and workplace correlates, performance benefits and leadership research
- Facilitating Self-growth and change for Organisational Success
- Character development: strengths, virtues, values, humility, compassion
- Mindset: fixed vs growth mindsets, mindsets and change
- Motivation: intrinsic vs extrinsic, engagement, flow
- Authentic leadership
- Positive workplaces: happiness, meaning and purpose, positive relationships
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Self Development Project (Individual)
| Objective(s): | This addresses subject learning objective(s): 1, 2, 3 and 4 |
|---|---|
| Weight: | 40% |
| Length: | Part A - detailed reflective activities will be completed in structured tables. Part B: 750 words (+/- 10%) (this does NOT include references) Must be submitted as a single document in Word. No other file types will be accepted. Plagiarism Generative AI (GenAI) such as ChatGPT or DALL-E is NOT PERMITTED in this assessment. This is because the purpose of this assessment is to develop your self-awareness, involving your own reflections and critical reasoning. Use of AI will result in zero marks for Assessment 1. ? |
Assessment task 2: Class Participation (Group)*
| Objective(s): | This addresses subject learning objective(s): 1, 4 and 5 |
|---|---|
| Weight: | 20% |
| Criteria: | *Note: Late submission of the assessment task will not be marked and awarded a mark of zero. |
Assessment task 3: Online journal (Individual)
| Objective(s): | This addresses subject learning objective(s): 1, 3 and 4 |
|---|---|
| Weight: | 40% |
| Length: | Details in Canvas. Once you have submitted a journal entry, you will need to keep a copy in your own records so that you can submit the full journal (which includes all journal entries) to turnitin in Canvas as a single Word document at the end of the semester. |
Minimum requirements
Students must achieve at least 50% of the subject's total marks. Students must also attend 80% of tutorial workshops.
It is a requirement of this subject that all students complete OPELA [or a written diagnostic task]. Students who received a Basic grade in the OPELA [or the written diagnostic task] are required to attend 80% of the Language Development Tutorials in order to pass the subject. Students who do not complete the OPELA and/or do not attend 80% of the Language Development Tutorials will receive a Fail X grade.
Required texts
There is no prescribed textbook for this subject but the recommended texts in this subject will help your learning. Students will be provided with reading materials for each content area via the UTS Canvas site. The UTS Guide to Writing Assignments should be of use for assignment writing.
It is a requirement of this subject that all students complete OPELA [or a written diagnostic task]. Students who received a Basic grade in the OPELA [or the written diagnostic task] are required to attend 80% of the Language Development Tutorials in order to pass the subject. Students who do not complete the OPELA and/or do not attend 80% of the Language Development Tutorials will receive a Fail X grade.
References
Please find a current list of subject references on Canvas in the Get Started module
Boniwell I.(2019). Positive Psychology:Theory, Research and Applications. Second edition. (Tunariu AD, ed.). Open University Press.
Brown, K. W. and Ryan, R. M. (2003). The Benefits of Being Present: Mindfulness and Its Role in Psychological Well-Being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84 (4), 822- 848.
Cameron K.S, Spreitzer G.M., eds. (2013). The Oxford Handbook of Positive Organizational Scholarship. 1st ed. Oxford University Press.
e Cunha, M.P., Rego, A., Simpson, A. and Clegg, S., (2019). Positive Organizational Behaviour. London: Routledge.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (2003). Mindfulness-Based Interventions in Context: Past, Present, and Future. Clinical Psychology, 10 (2), 144-156.
Lopez, S.J., Edwards, L.M., and Marques, S.C. (2020) (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology, Oxford University Press
Whetten, D. and Cameron, K. (2016). Developing Management Skills: Global Edition. New York: Pearson Higher Ed.
Worline M, Dutton JE, Sisodia R. (2017).Awakening Compassion at Work: The Quiet Power That Elevates People and Organizations. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc; 2017.
Other resources
UTS CANVAS
This subject will use UTS Canvas as its principal online tool. When you log in to UTS Canvas, you will find a number of subject resources on topics covered in the subject.
TUTORIALS
Each week there will be set work for you to complete in your tutorial. This might be a journal article, a case study or activity. In most cases, it will be required that you read and prepare prior to your attendance at the tutorial. All materials that require advance preparation will be provided online. Your tutor may also provide other materials and handouts from time to time. Please note that some of these additional compulsory materials are potentially examinable whether or not they are discussed in class, and you may be required to produce evidence of having completed this tasks.