Study Skills Seminar in management

Teacher(s)

Coster Stéphanie; Léonard Evelyne;

Language

French

Main themes

At the start of the Seminar, students will identify current issues or situations of management in ‘real-life’ companies. Using these questions or issues, students will develop their own research project. The first step consists in building a literature review, process through which students will learn to select reliable scientific sources, to read them, and to elaborate a bibliography. Then they will have to formulate research questions, hypotheses and sub-questions, before going into exploratory fieldwork to collect and interpret empirical data.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

This Seminar aims at introducing the students to scientific work, by the means of concrete issues in their discipline. Students will have to demonstrate their capacity to apply basic scientific know-how: use of bibliographical sources, production of critical syntheses, correct use of referencing rules, writing skills. The Seminar will also make students aware of concrete research issues in their own disciplinary field. In an open-minded perspective, students will be invited to perceive how theoretical and empirical tools in their own discipline differ, or not, from those used in other disciplines taught in the Faculty.

Content

General objective

Welcome to the fascinating world of management, and welcome to the equally fascinating world of scientific work!
You are now at the very beginning of your studies in business engineering. In your upcoming studies, and later in your future job, you will meet many new subjects, new problems, unsolved questions. For a manager, any managerial question or situation requires a process of information research, verification, analysis and interpretation, before being able to formulate proposals. In two words, an academic approach.
The Seminar aims at developing your capacity to carry out this type of approach of management issues.

Specific objectives

At the end of the Seminar, you will be able to:

1. Identify practical and precise management issues, from information in the news, and relate them to their respective domains of management.
2. Formulate a clear, realistic and relevant research question on one of these issues and, afterwards, use adequate scientific sources to answer this question.
3. Collect and analyse exploratory qualitative empirical data.
4. Bring scientifically sound answers to a research question in management.

Each step in the seminar pursues these objectives, in a cumulative way.
In addition, you will work in team, which will develop your capacity to work collectively: organise your work, plan and coordinate tasks, write together, etc.

Teaching methods

The Seminar uses project-based learning. The project consists in conducting a limited-scope research process on management issues, from real-life situations chosen from reliable medias. Students will have to select a management issue and, from a specific case, elaborate a research question and build up their own research process.

Evaluation methods

The Seminar is based on continuous evaluation, consisting in a series of assignments. The first one is individual, the following ones must be achieved in team.

Online resources

The Moodle page of the Seminar provides a wealth of information and resources. However, it is necessary to participate in class and practical sessions to be able to achieve the objectives of the Seminar.

Faculty or entity

ESPO