Economics of Organisations
Code: 101880 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2502501 Prevention and Integral Safety and Security | FB | 1 |
Contact
- Name:
- Jose Luis Masson Guerra
- Email:
- joseluis.masson@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
No prerequisites. Economics of Organizations, as a transversal topic, aims to be a general complement to the student's training in prevention and security. The content, focused from a company perspective, provides generic tools that are a necessary competence in current job performance. Most of the knowledge acquired in this subject focuses on the decision-making in an analytical way, and it is easily applicable to different areas within the business management or as a professional.
Objectives and Contextualisation
This course contains 4 thematic blocks, or parts, with well-differentiated objectives:
The main objective of the first part, on Organizational Designs, will be to determine the structure and design that a company must adopt and do it in line with the choice of the company's competitive strategy. The organization ceases to be the profit maximizing nuclear entity that contemplated economic theory to become a complex institution, with several members and interests often opposed and with interrelations that can be regulated by a wide range of contractual relationships. This part of the course is designed to try to answer the following questions: How does information flow within organizations? How are the problems of authority, responsibility and incentives existing between the different agents solved?
The second part, which deals with Analysis of Decision Making, contemplates the process by which an option is selected among a set of alternatives. Given that, in general, there is uncertainty about the future, the consequences derived from the different alternatives are only partially evaluable. In this part, general methods will be offered for those who have to face decision problems.
A person who manages comprehensive security must be familiar with the decisions that are made in different areas. One of these decision areas is the financial one. In this third part of the course, corresponding to the Valuation of Investment Projects and Financing, we propose the most usual financial decisions that can be faced. At the end of this block, the manager will have an integrated, although introductory, vision of the decision-making circumscribed to the financial sphere. This complete vision will allow (1) understand the reasoning behind the choice of a security investment project over other proposals and (2) provide an economic tool, complementary to other criteria of a technical and legal nature, and that allows select the best way to finance the project that has finally been chosen.
Finally, the fourth part, corresponding to the Economic and Financial Analysis of the Company, contemplates the general objective of presenting analysis techniques for the economic and financial diagnosis of the company's situation, exploring the conditions that guarantee its future and applying them to the study. of the security sector. In this sense, we will proceed to the understanding of the accounting information (Balance and Results Account), we will study its contents from an economic and financial perspective, to finish with a cost - volume - benefit analysis focused on companies in the security sector.
Competences
- Be able to adapt to unexpected situations.
- Carry out analyses of preventative measures in the area of security.
- Contribute to decisions on investment in prevention and security.
- Formulate commercial strategies in the security sector.
- Make changes to methods and processes in the area of knowledge in order to provide innovative responses to society's needs and demands.
- Respond to problems applying knowledge to practice.
- Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
- Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
- Take account of social, economic and environmental impacts when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
- Use the capacity for analysis and synthesis to solve problems.
- Work and learn autonomously.
Learning Outcomes
- Analyse indicators of sustainability for academic and professional activities in the area including social, economic and environmental considerations.
- Apply the basis of statistics, economics and finance, in the applicable legal framework and the informatics necessary to undertake prevention and security.
- Be able to adapt to unexpected situations.
- Diagnose the situation of integral security in companies and organisations.
- Formulate competitive commercial and financial strategies in companies and organisations.
- Identify the social, economic and environmental implications of the academic and professional activities in the field of self-knowledge.
- Propose new ways to measure success or failure when implementing ground-breaking proposals or ideas.
- Respond to problems applying knowledge to practice.
- Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
- Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
- Use the capacity for analysis and synthesis to solve problems.
- Weigh up the risks and benefits of both your own proposals for improvement and those of others.
- Work and learn autonomously.
Content
Topic 1: Organizational design. General topics about the organization of a firm are briefly analyzed, starting from the internal structure and seeing how the decisions are made or how the information flows within the organization. Demand and production concepts are introduced.
Topic 2: Analysis of decision making. Analytical tools are presented for decision making in different types of situations. Concepts such as risk or uncertainty are introduced and they use statistics and probability tools.
Topic 3: Valuation of investment and financing projects. With financial mathematics tools we introduce concepts such as the interest rate (value of money over time), profitability and project cost, or loan repayment.
Topic 4: Economic and financial analysis of the company. Based on the structure and the data of the company's balance sheet, its structure and performance are analyzed. We learn how to interpret indebtedness, stability or profitability of a company based on its results.
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Case discussions and problem solving | 6 | 0.24 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 |
| Lectures | 38 | 1.52 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Tutorial sessions at the professor's office | 12 | 0.48 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Study the subject, Case preparation, Problem sets and requested questions | 94 | 3.76 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 |
Teaching language: Spanish
The content of the theory program will be taught by the teacher mainly in the form of master classes with audiovisual support. The presentations used in class by the teacher will be previously available in the Virtual Campus of the course. It is recommended that you print this material and take it to class, to use it as a support when taking notes. Although it is not essential to extend the contents of the classes taught by the teacher, unless it is expressly requested, it is advisable to consult regularly the books recommended in the Bibliography section of this teaching guide to consolidate and clarify, if necessary, the contents explained in class. In this sense it is also advisable to use the links indicated in the Virtual Campus, which contain videos and animations related to the processes explained in class.
In addition to attending classes, the follow-up of the subject will also involve an active role in class discussions. Throughout each topic, a series of exercises or activities will be proposed to reinforce the contents. There will be a few hours (tutorials) to provide individualized attention to them and solve any doubts that may arise.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| In-class presentation of Organizational Cases, class debates. | 25% | 0 | 0 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 |
| Midterm exams (2 tests) | 50% | 0 | 0 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 |
| Problem sets delivery, exercise discussion. | 25% | 0 | 0 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 |
Continuos Assessment
1- A partial test will be taken at the end of the first two topics that will be liberating (25%) and compensable from 4. There will be a final exam of the course. The exam part will count for 50% in total.
2- The final exam grade must be 3 or higher so that it can be averaged with other course evaluations. If the final exam grade is less than 3, the maximum course grade will be 3.5.
3- To the previous 50%, 25% of the evaluation of exercises and cases delivered during the course will be added, and 25% of the continuous evaluation through small activities and discussions in class.
4- To pass the subject you must obtain a final average grade of 5 or more.
5- If the average grade for the course is less than 3.5, the subject will be considered as not passed. If the average grade is less than 5 but greater than 3.5, a make-up test may be taken on the scheduled date and time, which will contain the entire subject program. To participate in the recovery, the student must also have been evaluated in a set of activities, the weight of which is equivalent to a minimum of 2/3 of the total grade for the subject.
6-If the recovery test is carried out, the grade that will appear in the student's file will be a maximum of 5-Pass.
7- ["If the student makes any irregularities that may lead to a significant variation in the qualification of an evaluation act, this evaluation act will be classified with a 0, regardless of the disciplinary process that can be instructed. produce different irregularities in the acts of evaluation of the same subject, the final grade of this subject will be 0 ".]
8- If during the correction there are indications that an activity or work has been carried out with answers assisted by artificial intelligence, the teacher may complement the activity with a personal interview to corroborate the authorship of the text.
Single Evaluation
The assessment of students may consist of a single synthesis test. Students pursuing this option must contact with the teachers at the beginning of the course.
To pass the course,the final grade must be 5 or higher.
If the average grade of the course is lower than 3.5, the course will be considered as not passed. If the average grade is lower than 5 but higher than 3.5, the student may participate in a re-evaluation test.
Evaluation of the students in second or more summons
Students who repeat the course will have to take the scheduled tests and exams and hand in the course work on the dates indicated in the Moodle classroom.
Recovery Exam
The student who does not pass the course, according to the criteria established in the two previous sections may take a final exam provided that the student has been evaluated in a set of activities, the weight of which is equivalent to a minimum of two thirds of the total grade of the course. If the student has not been evaluated of these two thirds because he/she has not taken the tests, he/she will obtain a grade of Not Evaluated, without the possibility of taking the final exam.
In this exam the whole of the contents of the subject that have not been passed in the continuous evaluation will be re-evaluated.
In the case of passing the final exam, the course will be approved with a maximum of 5, regardless of the grade obtained in the exam.
Changing the date of a test or exam
Students who need to change an evaluation date must submit the request by filling out the document that can be found in the EPSI Tutoring Moodle space.
Once the document has been filled in, it must be sent to the professor of the subject and to the coordination of the Degree.
Revision
At the time of each evaluation activity, the faculty will inform the students of the grade review mechanisms.
For single evaluation students, the review process will be the same.
Other considerations - Plagiarism
Without prejudice to other disciplinary measures deemed appropriate, and in accordance with current academic regulations, "in the event that the student performs any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade of an act of evaluation, this act of evaluation will be graded with a 0, regardless of the disciplinary process that may be instigated. in the event that several irregularities occur in the acts of evaluation of the same subject, the final grade of this subject will be 0 ".
If there are supervening circumstances that prevent the normal development of the subject, the faculty may modify both the methodology and the evaluation of the subject.
If during the correction there are indications that an activity or work has been done with answers assisted by artificial intelligence, the teacher may complement the activity with a personal interview to corroborate the authorship of the text.
Bibliography
Bibliography PART 1
BESANKO, David; DRANOVE, David; SHANLEY, Mark i Scott SCHAEFER (2013): Economics of Strategy,
6th edition. Wiley.
ROBERTS, John (2006): La Empresa Moderna. Antoni Bosch editor.
SALAS, Vicente (1996): Economía de la empresa. Decisiones y organización. 2ª ed. Ariel.
Bibliography PART 2
ALEGRE, Luis; BERNÉ, Carmen i Carmen GALVE (2000): Fundamentos de economía de la empresa:
perspectiva funcional. 2ª ed. Ariel.
SALAS, Vicente (1996): Economía de la empresa. Decisiones y organización. 2ª ed. Ariel.
Bibliography PART 3
ALEGRE, Luis; BERNÉ, Carmen i Carmen GALVE (2000): Fundamentos de economía de la empresa:
perspectiva funcional. 2ª ed. Ariel.
SUÁREZ SUÁREZ, Andrés (2014): Decisiones óptimas de inversión y financiación.
22a ed. Pirámide.
BREALEY, Robert; Y MYERS, Stewart (2015) Principios de finanzas corporativas. 9ª edición. Ed. McGraw-Hill
Bibliography PART 4
ALEGRE, Luis; BERNÉ, Carmen i Carmen GALVE (2000): Fundamentos de economía de la empresa:
perspectiva funcional. 2ª ed. Ariel.
BERNSTEIN, Leopold (1999): Análisis de estados financieros. Teoría, aplicación e
interpretación. 3ª ed. Irwin.
MALLO, Carlos; y JIMÉNEZ, María Angela (1997): Contabilidad de Costes. Pirámide. 3ª edición.
Software
In this subject the use of specific software is not foreseen.
Language list
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (TE) Theory | 1 | Spanish | second semester | afternoon |
| (TE) Theory | 2 | Spanish | second semester | afternoon |