MQM2DIB: Digital Intelligence for Board

Module code: MQM2DIB

Module provider: Marketing and Reputation; Henley Business School

Credits: 20

Level: 7

When you'll be taught: Full year

Module convenor: Dr Nadeem Khan, email: nadeem.khan@henley.ac.uk

Module co-convenor: Mr Fabio Goncalves De Oliveira, email: f.deoliveira@henley.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: No placement specified

Academic year: 2024/5

Available to visiting students:

Talis reading list:

Last updated: 19 November 2024

Overview

Module aims and purpose

This module aims to:  

• develop awareness of role and responsibilities of board member in handling digitalisation. 
• appraise board effectiveness in decision-making for digital transformation and value creation. 
• recognise key assumptions for board engagement with digitalisation. 
• evaluate skills and abilities of high-performing digitally aware director/board. 

This module introduces the impacts that digital technologies e.g., artificial intelligence; cloud computing; big data; virtual conferencing; databases; social media; are having on the board director, board dynamics and board governance. Digital technologies will be considered as hardware and software; tools and techniques that are influencing on the way that director and board work. Students will consider additional complexities such as how digital technologies may influence on the presented evidences; real-time and predictive information; issues of reliability; quality; data governance privacy and transparency; and trust for director understanding and board engagement. The module seeks to raise an awareness of factors that board-level (Chair; SID; CEO; CFO; NEDs; CO Secs) should consider in relation to digital technologies.  

What skills and awareness should board-member have? What questions should a board pose to management, investors and stakeholders? How do algorithms influence biases and fairness in board decision-making? Board responsibility and accountability will be considered in relation to technological variables; regulation and law; cyber-security; GDPR as emergent issues through real-world examples and cases. What are the associated risks with digital technologies for director and board? How should board steward its competitive position and strategize for sustainable organisation? This module combines academic frameworks and practical real-world learning across 2 days. Students will have opportunity to engage in role play through group case study. How should board engage with CEO; CTO; CMO? The simulated discussions will provide opportunities for assessing and evaluating potential risks (e.g. reputation/legal/financial) and value creation (e.g. innovation) as director/board digital judgements. 

Module learning outcomes

The learning outcomes intend to understand and evaluate how director judgements and board stewardship are impacted by digital technologies in their decision-making. By the end of the module, it is expected that the student will be able to: 

1. Formulate considerations of digital technologies for board members and the board.  
2. Recognise and attribute the implications of current benefits and threats of digital technological applications, potential risks, and value creation on organisation and businesses models. 
3. Demonstrate capacity to strategize at board level considering the potential risks and opportunities of digital technologies. 
4. Critically assess board engagement with digitalisation for competitive advantage, in business frameworks and for sustainable practices. 
5. evaluate their board and organisation's readiness to evaluate, implement, lead, and govern digital transformation. 
6. Synthesise stewardship, monitoring, resource attraction and allocation skills at board level for digitally enabled director and board. 

Module content

This module provides an awareness and understanding of how director and board can engage with and are impacted by digitalisation technologies. Students will benefit from academic frameworks, real-world case studies and and real-world scenarios as part of their learning. Further, students will enhance their understanding of broader regulatory, security, transparency issues related to digitalisation for organisations. These will be considered as potential risks and value creating opportunities. 

• To consider how digital technologies impacts on board dynamics. 
• Evaluating changes promoted by digital technologies on board stewardship.  
• Appreciate application of digital technologies for Board strategic priorities. 
• Explanation of Board level trends of artificial intelligence. 
• Board level awareness of cloud computing and big data e.g. private, public and hybrid cloud; data legacy; data governance security and privacy.     
• Director appreciation of deep learning, neural networks, generative AI, virtual reality. 
• Opportunities for discussion on governance; regulation; risks and opportunities for organisations when engaging with digital technologies and automation. 

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

The module will be taught by practitioner and academic staff, reflective of their specialisms. The lectures/workshop will include: 

• Powerpoint presentations 
• Case-studies and real-world examples 
• Role play simulating board meetings with active engagement from students. 
• Scenarios and/or simulations  
• Appropriate use of learning technologies where relevant 
• Interactive Q&A  
• Individual and group exercises 
• Work based learning opportunities  
• Problem solving opportunities 
•  

T&L approaches and exercises will cater to individual needs by including wide ability range Q&A as part of scaffolding, moving progressively towards more active learning for confident learners. Each student will also have opportunity to contribute to their diary as part of the learning experience.  

Guided Independent Study includes preparation and planning for scheduled sessions, pre-reading, follow-up work, more extensive reading, practice or application to practice, understanding learning tools and techniques (e.g. technologies and software) - relevant to participants own area of interest or context of study. 

The contact hours are shown for one semester in the table below for illustrative purposes only. The actual timing will vary depending on your cohort start date. 

Study hours

At least 20 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

50% pass mark - “Students need to achieve a mark of 50% in each assessment and overall 50% mark to pass this module.”   

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

This module is subject to the Penalties for late submission for Postgraduate Flexible programmes policy, which can be found at:

https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/penaltiesforlatesubmissionpgflexible.pdf

The Module Convenor will apply the following penalties to work submitted late:

• where the piece of work is submitted up to one calendar month after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark; 
• where the piece of work is submitted more than one calendar month after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

Students may be required to work in groups and progressively analyse and develop a case study, producing a flip-chart or power-point presentation. Students may be required to present the findings to the cohort and receive feedback from their peers and from the module convenor, towards the writing up of their group case study analysis report. 

Reassessment

Additional costs