Program Overview

Overview

This unit aims to evaluate the main assumptions that underlie how technology is understood and employed by leaders and managers. Topics covered in this unit are current technological developments, such as artificial intelligence, big data, consumerisation of technology, the role of data and knowledge in management, the future of work, and digital disruption and transformation. This unit provides students with an opportunity to critically examine contemporary technology trends and their implications, with a view to unearth the lasting patterns by which technological innovation evolves and impacts the role of the manager, the worker, organisation and society more broadly.

Unit Details and Rules

• Academic unit: Management Education
• Credit points: 6
• Prerequisites: None
• Corequisites: None
• Prohibitions: None
• Assumed knowledge: None
• Available to study abroad and exchange students: No

Teaching Staff

• Coordinator: Daniel Schlagwein
• Lecturer(s): Uri Gal, Daniel Schlagwein

Assessment

The census date for this unit availability is 8 August 2025

• Type: Portfolio or journal
  • Description: Individual assignment (continuous week-by-week) Oral journal
  • Weight: 30%
  • Due: Multiple weeks
  • Length: 2 minutes
  • Use of AI: AI allowed
  • Outcomes assessed: LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4
• Type: Written work
  • Description: Individual essay
  • Weight: 40%
  • Due: Week 03, Due date: 24 Aug 2025 at 23:59, Closing date: 03 Sep 2025
  • Length: 2200 words
  • Use of AI: AI allowed
  • Outcomes assessed: LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4
• Type: Presentation
  • Description: In-class group activities and presentations
  • Weight: 30%
  • Due: Weekly
  • Length: 10 minutes
  • Use of AI: AI allowed
  • Outcomes assessed: LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4

Assessment Summary

• Individual assignment (continuous week-by-week): You will keep an individual, oral learning journal which will assist you in keeping up to date with required work, as well as providing you and the unit coordinator with timely feedback on your learning progress. In the journal, you will reflect on each session utilising a set of brief instructions provided via Canvas for each of the submissions. You must submit the learning journal in the form of short videos, submitted via Canvas after daily sessions.
• In-class group activities and presentations: In groups, you will be required to analyse and critically evaluate case study materials, identify underlying assumptions and draw out the inherent tensions in the presented cases. You will be asked to approach your analysis from divergent viewpoints, synthesise your ideas and effectively communicate the results in a short team presentation. The group activity might also involve participating in a mock debate around a controversial statement.
• Individual essay: In this task, you must demonstrate the understanding you gained in this unit of study regarding the role of technology in managing knowledge and people in organisations. You will be asked to reflect critically on a business scenario involving technology. You will approach your evaluation from divergent perspectives, elucidate the tensions created by these perspectives, and productively resolve and synthesise the insights revealed by those tensions.

Learning Support

Simple Extensions

If you encounter a problem submitting your work on time, you may be able to apply for an extension of five calendar days through a simple extension. The application process will be different depending on the type of assessment and extensions cannot be granted for some assessment types like exams.

Special Consideration

If exceptional circumstances mean you can’t complete an assessment, you need consideration for a longer period of time, or if you have essential commitments which impact your performance in an assessment, you may be eligible for special consideration or special arrangements.

Weekly Schedule

WK | Topic | Learning activity | Learning outcomes ---|---|---|--- Week 01 | Introduction to Leading in Digital World | Lecture and tutorial (4 hr) | Foundations 1: Organisation, Management and Technology | Lecture and tutorial (4 hr) | Week 02 | New Forms of Working and Organising | Lecture and tutorial (4 hr) | Platforms and Social Media | Lecture and tutorial (4 hr) | Week 03 | Blockchain and Digital Assets | Lecture and tutorial (4 hr) | Foundations 2: Knowledge and Cognition | Lecture and tutorial (4 hr) | Week 04 | Algorithmic Management and People Analytics | Lecture and tutorial (4 hr) | AI and Automation | Lecture and tutorial (4 hr) | Week 05 | AI Ethics | Lecture and tutorial (4 hr) | Course Wrap-Up | Lecture and tutorial (4 hr) |

Learning Outcomes

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

• LO1. examine in a critical manner contemporary digital technology trends and their implications for organisations and people
• LO2. demonstrate a refined understanding of the complex inter-relationships among knowledge, technology and people in organisations
• LO3. analyse and demonstrate implications for managing people of novel workplace technologies
• LO4. effectively analyse business cases of IT in organisations and communicate your insights in collaborative team settings.

Graduate Qualities

The graduate qualities are the qualities and skills that all University of Sydney graduates must demonstrate on successful completion of an award course. As a future Sydney graduate, the set of qualities have been designed to equip you for the contemporary world.

GQ1 | Depth of disciplinary expertise Deep disciplinary expertise is the ability to integrate and rigorously apply knowledge, understanding and skills of a recognised discipline defined by scholarly activity, as well as familiarity with evolving practice of the discipline. ---|--- GQ2 | Critical thinking and problem solving Critical thinking and problem solving are the questioning of ideas, evidence and assumptions in order to propose and evaluate hypotheses or alternative arguments before formulating a conclusion or a solution to an identified problem. GQ3 | Oral and written communication Effective communication, in both oral and written form, is the clear exchange of meaning in a manner that is appropriate to audience and context. GQ4 | Information and digital literacy Information and digital literacy is the ability to locate, interpret, evaluate, manage, adapt, integrate, create and convey information using appropriate resources, tools and strategies. GQ5 | Inventiveness Generating novel ideas and solutions. GQ6 | Cultural competence Cultural Competence is the ability to actively, ethically, respectfully, and successfully engage across and between cultures. In the Australian context, this includes and celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, knowledge systems, and a mature understanding of contemporary issues. GQ7 | Interdisciplinary effectiveness Interdisciplinary effectiveness is the integration and synthesis of multiple viewpoints and practices, working effectively across disciplinary boundaries. GQ8 | Integrated professional, ethical, and personal identity An integrated professional, ethical and personal identity is understanding the interaction between one’s personal and professional selves in an ethical context. GQ9 | Influence Engaging others in a process, idea or vision.

Outcome Map

Learning outcomes | Graduate qualities ---|--- GQ1 | GQ2 | GQ3 | GQ4 | GQ5 | GQ6 | GQ7 | GQ8 | GQ9

Responding to Student Feedback

This section outlines changes made to this unit following staff and student reviews.

Several classes are updated (or new).

Additional Information

Disclaimer

The University reserves the right to amend units of study or no longer offer certain units, including where there are low enrolment numbers.

This unit of study outline was last modified on 06 Aug 2025.