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Industrial & Corporate Change - MAN00045H

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  • Department: The York Management School
  • Module co-ordinator: Dr. Kevin Tennent
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: H
  • Academic year of delivery: 2022-23

Module summary

This module aims to develop students’ understanding of the broad trends inherent in the development of companies and industries over time, from the industrial revolution to the present day, with a focus on the UK context, which will be contrasted with continental European and Asian experience.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Autumn Term 2022-23

Module aims

This module aims to develop students’ understanding of the broad trends inherent in the development of companies and industries over time, from the industrial revolution to the present day, with a comparative focus on the US and UK contexts, which will be contrasted with continental European and Asian experience. Understanding change as an organisational and sectoral process is essential for the development of sustainable and ethical business and management.

This module will explore different ways of understanding temporal change drawing on historical, ecological-demographic and industrial-archaeological perspectives. This long term perspective will give students the opportunity to explore the links between corporate governance and managerial strategy. Students will have the opportunity to consider not just the evolution of corporate governance and government industry policy over time, but also the fleeting nature of competitive advantage. A further purpose of the module is to introduce students to archival research thus building and consolidating qualitative data skills gained on earlier modules.

Module learning outcomes

Students will develop a broad understanding of the development of the modern business after about 1830 and how it has affected the development of modern society. This facilitates the following outcomes:

  1. Critically evaluate historical and temporal change as it applies to the business and management context (PLO1)
  2. Analyse the effect of changing social and economic contexts on organizations and industries and actively contrast competing explanations and interpretations of a phenomenon (PLO1, PLO2).
  3. Be able to evaluate complex business situations and their consequences using corporate archives, understanding what sources are relevant and which sources are less relevant, identifying gaps and inadequacies (PLO3).
  4. Ability to critically reflect on how change has reflected governance styles and managerial practice in the past, and therefore the skill to better reflect on this in the present (PLO8).

Teaching will focus on a series of set readings, which will give students an appreciation of the broad trends in the development of modern corporations. They will demonstrate their evaluative development through an archival investigation using primary source documents provided by the module team. Students will be taught the basics of archival interpretation, studying a set of documents in a practical session each week, building up to the independent interpretation of archival sources in the module assessment. By providing a historical context for present day practice, the skills built up to support PLOs 1, 2,3 and 8 are further consolidated and refined.

Module content

Specific themes include:

  • Understanding historical research
  • Governance and strategy in first and second industrial revolution industries
  • The development of corporate governance
  • The emergence of the mass food industry and its relationship to changes in retail and distribution
  • Business and the state – regulation, industrial policy and nationalization
  • Gentlemanly capitalism? Governance, strategy and British international business
  • The archival method

Assessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Short essay		 N/A 100

Special assessment rules

None

Reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Short essay		 N/A 100

Module feedback

Module assessment reports to students are written by the module leader for all assessments (open and closed) and placed on the VLE after the Board of Examiners has received the module marks.

Additionally, for open assignments students are given individual written feedback via The York Management School assignment feedback form. The feedback form provides guidance on key areas for focusing upon improvements for future assessments, and ties module specific learning outcomes to marking criteria. This form is normally provided after the relevant Part A and Part B Board of Examiners meeting. However, if a module has more than one assessment element feedback on earlier submissions is released as soon as possible after marking of the assignment element.

Indicative reading

No single set text but a different relevant text every week. Some examples include:

Blackford, Mansel G. The Rise of Modern Business: Great Britain, the United States, Germany, Japan, and China. Chapel Hill: UNC Press Books, 2008.

Turton, A., The International Business Archives Handbook: Understanding and Managing the Historical Records of Business, New York: Routledge, 2017

Wilson, J., Toms, S. de Jong, A., and Buchnea, E. (eds) The Routledge Companion to Business History, New York: Routledge, 2017

Wilson, John F., and Andrew Thomson. The making of modern management: British management in historical perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University is constantly exploring ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary by the University. Where appropriate, the University will notify and consult with affected students in advance about any changes that are required in line with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.