I’m generally not a business or management person, mainly because I don’t like maths besides statistics and I’m bad with money, but for the sake of a random audit I decided to watch a second year strategic management lecture.
The lecture started off with the general admin stuff at the overall course outline. This was of no interest to me, but it was good to see the general direction of a management paper.
The main theme of the paper seemed to be focusing on entrepreneurship and the idea of an entrepreneur. I had no idea what an entrepreneurial equation was but if it involved general maths or calculus I was out. The class was then asked the question of “Are entrepreneurs born or made?” This seemed like a rather philosophical question but one I and hopefully the rest of the class were willing to explore. Many people in the class seemed to believe based on previous lectures and knowledge that entrepreneurs were either made or a combination of born and made. I think the lesson in that is important to everyone, that anyone is capable of entrepreneurship as long as you are actively seeking out the experience and willing to work hard. While the content wouldn’t be my first pick, it was fairly easy to understand having just randomly entered the class this one time.
There were also aspects of discussion that appealed to me as a psychology major. The lecturer mentioned that the discussion of an entrepreneur being born or made was reminiscent of the “nature vs nurture” debate which I can definitely see. There was also a brief mention of psychometrics and personality characteristics that caught my attention. While I’m not overly interested in entrepreneurship and business, I would say that for a psychology student that is interested in studying psychology in workplace context would benefit from this paper.
My main gripe with the lecture was not with the content itself but with external factors that made it difficult to focus. Not to be that person, but it’s really annoying when you’re trying to listen to a lecture and everyone around you is talking. Multiple groups of people in the back half of the lecture theatre were having prolonged conversations that were a fairly audible volume. I mean I get it; I’m a yapper too but when you’re continuously speaking at a volume above a quiet whisper, it’s a bit of a disservice to the people wanting to listen to the lecture. If I was someone who was paying to be there, I definitely would want to be able to hear the content without trying to filter out extra background noise. I may have extra hearing sensitivities, but I think many would agree that in the best interest of other students and the lecturer it pays to keep in mind how loud and how much you are speaking. And if you are someone who needs a lack of distractions when focusing, you may have to reconcile with the fact that the back half of a classroom may not be the best place for you.
Overall, while management personally would be my first pick of a paper, there is definitely value in learning about its characteristics no matter who you are.
If you don’t want to read all of that, and because I want to fill the word count, here is a TLDR summary:
Paper: STGM202
Pros:
Cons:
Who should take it: People interested in business psychology
