MAN-30071 - Module Specification
Keele Business School
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Programme/Approved Electives for 2024/25

Available as a Free Standing Elective

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

HRM-30030

Description for 2024/25

The concept and practice of managing diversity is highly significant for contemporary businesses - both large and small - and is gaining considerable momentum. The management of diversity is often regarded as a vital aspect of quality assurance and accreditation, for example. However, it is a concept which invites considerable debate among managers as well as academics.
While criticisms of the movement are many, other commentators see it as a necessary economic and social strategy set against a background of entrenched economic decline, globalisation of markets and successive waves of deregulation. For example, whilst many organisations see managing diversity as a means of tapping into broader global and consumer markets, governments promote the management of diversity as a means of ensuring that employers implement anti-discriminatory legislation. The taught component of the module considers these (and others) as stakeholders in managing diversity and explores competing perspectives.

To enable students to undertake research which addresses an aspect of diversity in management and organisations. The taught component of the module emphasises a critical approach to the subject and supports students' active development of independent research skills in questioning and reflexivity and enables them to develop a meaningful discussion of theoretical developments in the area of diversity and difference. Students will identify and reflect upon their experiences of organisations by means of group discussions to support their choice of a specific and manageable dissertation topic.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Interpret and critically evaluate the significance of current developments in the management of workplace diversity: 1,2
Critically engage with the latest academic research and theoretical frameworks of work and organisation and their relationship to diversity issues: 1,2
Locate and critically interpret management strategies that promote workplace diversity in areas including gender, age, disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and caring responsibilities: 1,2
Engage in a piece of independent study of a topic on equality, diversity and inclusion: 1,2

Study hours

24 hours workshops
4 hours of consultation with the module leader or supervisor
122 hours private study
100 hours independent research
50 hours preparing final dissertation

School Rules

None

Description of Module Assessment