This course will examine business organisations from a variety of perspectives in order to facilitate the development of critical and creative ways of thinking essential for the management of organisations. This course also assists students to develop a critical awareness of the dynamics and difficulties associated with the management, design and structure of organisations in complex, global and uncertain environments. The study of organisations has had its genesis in the writings of management and organisational psychology but it also draws on other disciplines such as sociology, anthropology and economics. While the study of organisations is said to be multi-disciplinary the general approach of the literature draws extensively from the traditional management literature. The traditional literature focuses on the structural aspects of organisations; however, it tends to neglect the role of the informal organisation. Therefore issues such as control, power, politics, diversity and the more subjective concepts such as the perceptions of people who work within organisations may act as barriers to the development and management of effective and sustainable organisations tend to be overlooked.