(MA) Master of Arts
Management and Organisational Dynamics
Current
University of Essex
University of Essex
Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies
Colchester Campus
Masters
Full-time or part-time
None
None
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MA C8N2MO
10/05/2023
Details
Professional accreditation
None
Admission criteria
A 2:2 degree or equivalent.
With your online application you must submit a personal statement; this should detail the reasons for wanting to study the course, including any relevant experience (work or voluntary) that may support your application.
IELTS (International English Language Testing System) code
IELTS 6.5 overall with a minimum component score of 5.5
If you do not meet our IELTS requirements then you may be able to complete a pre-sessional English pathway that enables you to start your course without retaking IELTS.
Additional Notes
The University uses academic selection criteria to determine an applicant’s ability to successfully complete a course at the University of Essex. Where appropriate, we may ask for specific information relating to previous modules studied or work experience.
Course qualifiers
A course qualifier is a bracketed addition to your course title to denote a specialisation or pathway that you have achieved via the completion of specific modules during your course. The
specific module requirements for each qualifier title are noted below. Eligibility for any selected qualifier will be determined by the department and confirmed by the final year Board of
Examiners. If the required modules are not successfully completed, your course title will remain as described above without any bracketed addition. Selection of a course qualifier is
optional and student can register preferences or opt-out via Online Module Enrolment (eNROL).
None
Rules of assessment
Rules of assessment are the rules, principles and frameworks which the University uses to calculate your course progression and final results.
Additional notes
None
External examiners
Dr Annette Clancy
Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour & Management
UCD College of BusinessDr Parisa Dashtipour
Lecturer in Psychology
Open University
External Examiners provide an independent overview of our courses, offering their expertise and help towards our continual improvement of course content, teaching, learning, and assessment.
External Examiners are normally academics from other higher education institutions, but may be from the industry, business or the profession as appropriate for the course.
They comment on how well courses align with national standards, and on how well the teaching, learning and assessment methods allow students to develop and demonstrate the relevant knowledge and skills needed to achieve their awards.
External Examiners who are responsible for awards are key members of Boards of Examiners. These boards make decisions about student progression within their course and about whether students can receive their final award.
Programme aims
- To provide an understanding of psychoanalytic theory in the British Object Relations Tradition.
- To provide an understanding of management practice in the UK.
- To provide an understanding of the theory and psychology of business management, from the standpoint of management studies, including organizational styles, alternative discuourses of organization, conceptual frameworks for the analysis of management.
- To apply psychoanalytic group theory and methods to understanding and observing the dynamics of social situations and structures, and including institutions, the unconscious domain of institutional life, the common anxieties and the common psychological defences which characterise the culture of the organization.
- To apply a critical understanding of management theory and practice using psychoanalytic thinking and observational practice.
- To critique the psychoanalytic notion of 'unconscious' aspects of culture, especially feelings in working environments, and the role of management practice in that culture.
- To facilitate a dual discourse:
- psychoanalytic group theory and management
- for understanding organizations and as a basis for entering the field of organisational consultancy.
- To encourage the conceptualisation of feedback to organisations and institutions in terms of deeper understanding and useful possibilities for change.
- To facilitate inquiry, including the framing of a topic for research and writing a dissertation that will apply and integrate the learning about both social organisations and applied psychoanalysis.
- To provide an educational element for students who may wish to enter the field of organisational consultancy, and to encourage students to take on such projects if they wish.
Learning outcomes and learning, teaching and assessment methods
On successful completion of the programme a graduate should demonstrate knowledge and skills as follows:
A: Knowledge and understanding
A1: The basic principles of psychoanalytic theory, including the issues involved at points of development of divergent concepts.
A2: The theory of unconscious psychodynamic processes in individuals, and its extension into their working in groups and institutions, and the legitimacy of applying psychoanalytic ideas to understanding the range of human relationships from the earliest between mother and infant, to those in working organizations and other social settings.
A3: The importance and legitimacy of psychoanalytic observation of organisations in the study of the human relations and management of working institutions and society and in practice of consulting to organisations.
A4: The general principles of business management as practiced in the UK, and their psychological aspects, and the critical examination of the main topics in management and organization theory.
A5: An understanding, and ability critically to explore theories, of the relationships between behaviour and experience in organizations.
A6: The comparison and debate of issues relevant to organisations and management from both a psychoanalytic and management angle and a critical analysis of the limits of management and psychoanalytic models and practices in understanding organizations and management.
A7: To frame and pursue an inquiry, including the framing of a topic for a dissertation and carrying out the research and writing of a dissertation of an observational or consultancy kind.
Learning methods
Assessment is by essay and dissertation
Essay guidelines make clear the areas of assessment.
More specifically, A1 is assessed in PA901(Psychoanalytic Theory) A2 is assessed in PA901 and PA927 (Psychoanalysis of Groups and Organizations) A3 is assessed in PA927 A4 is assessed in BE485 (Management in Organisations) A5 is assessed in BE486 (Management Psychology) A6 is assessed in PA910 (Joint Seminar
A7 will be taught through supervision and research leading to a dissertation.
Assessment methods
Assessment is by essay and dissertation.
Essay guidelines make clear the areas of assessment.
More specifically, A1 is assessed in PA901(Psychoanalytic Theory) A2 is assessed in PA901 and PA927 (Psychoanalysis of Groups and Organizations) A3 is assessed in PA927 A4 is assessed in BE 485 (Management in Organisations) A5 is assessed in BE 486 (Management Psychology) A6 is assessed in PA910 (Joint Seminar
A7 is assessed in the Dissertation
A7 is assessed in the Dissertation
B: Intellectual and cognitive skills
B1: The basic principles of psychoanalytic theory, including the issues involved at points of development of divergent concepts.
B2: Understand and critique management practices and their emotional correlations in working organisations.
B3: Translate observations into feedback that explains these observations to members of an organization.
B4: To apply a specifically psychoanalytic method of observing social situations, based on observing transferences (institutional dynamics), demonstrated in the writing of observation reports.
B5: Recognise the subjective aspects of objective observation outside the psychoanalytic setting and understand their relevance to relational and cultural phenomena in working observations.
B6: To compare and debate issues relevant to organisations and management from both a psychoanalytic and management angle; and to explore critically the limits of management and psychoanalytic models and practices in understanding organizations and management
B7: To frame and pursue an inquiry, including the framing of a topic for a dissertation and carrying out the research and writing of a dissertation of an observational or consultancy kind.
Learning methods
Assessment is by essay and dissertation
B1 is assessed in PA901(Psychoanalytic Theory).
B2 is assessed in BE485 and BE486
B3, B4, B5 are assessed in PA927 (Groups and Organizations).
B4 is also assessed in PA927 and in the dissertation.
B6 is assessed in PA910
B7 skills will come from preparing a research proposal, taking part in a research forum and working under supervision on a project.
Assessment methods
Assessment is by essay and dissertation
B1 is assessed in PA901(Psychoanalytic Theory).
B2 is assessed in AC913 and BE485 and BE486
B3, B4, B5 are assessed in PA927 (Groups and Organizations).
B4 is also assessed in PA927 and in the dissertation.
B6 is assessed in PA910 B7 is assessed in the dissertation.
C: Practical skills
C1: Ability to document and provide evidence for arguments, both orally and in writing.
C2: Ability to write structured and focused essays, with proper citations and references.
C3: Learn to set up an observation.
C4: Write process notes for presentation to a discussion seminar and as material for a report/essay/dissertation.
C5: Write notes on observations (or consultancy) in order to a seminar group of other students, and to learn from others' feedbacks in a joint reflective process.
C6: Ability to formulate a research project and implement the research skills necessary to carry it out.
Learning methods
Teaching/learning is done in seminars focused on clearly specified topics, supported by texts.
Although participation is not formally assessed, it is actively sought, and our teaching style emphasizes drawing students out, inviting coherent argument.
Dissertation preparation is supported by individual supervision and by the Research Forum, where students present their proposals and their progress.
C1, C2 skills will be learned in seminars and essay preparation.
C3-C5 skills will be learned in small discussion seminars which discuss and supervise the setting up and conducting of practice observations.
C6 will be learned in the research forum and in supervised preparation of the dissertation.
C6 will be learned in the research forum and in supervised preparation of the dissertation.
Assessment methods
Assessment is by essay and dissertation.
C1 - C2 are assessed in course essays C3 - C5 are assessed in PA927 and BE486 C1, C2, C6 are assessed in the dissertation
D: Key skills
D1: Ability to write clearly, coherently, and concisely.
D2: Knowledge of the range of available research approaches and an understanding of how this knowledge relates to their chosen area of research
D3: Knowledge of the range of available research approaches and an understanding of how this knowledge relates to their chosen area of research
D4: Students set up psychodynamic observations, which involve negotiating with staff at their observation sites. Students formulate essay titles and arguments. Students carry out a piece of research.
D5: Knowledge of the range of available research approaches and an understanding of how this knowledge relates to their chosen area of research
D6: Autonomously work to deadlines and make use of coursework feedback to refine their thinking on a topic.
Learning methods
Teaching/learning is by lecture/seminars, in which students are encouraged to express and debate complex ideas clearly.
They must also prepare and verbally present research proposals to Research Forums.
D4. Support by observation seminars, supervision and research Forum.
D6. Teachers provide substantive feedback on essays; supervisors and the Research Forum support the refinement of research proposals their implementation.
At the end of the first term, students write a commentary on a paper, on which they commented as part of their application to the MA, and receive staff feedback in the same form as on a course essay.
Assessment methods
D1, D4, D6 - assessment by essay.
D6 - assessment by essay and dissertation