MMM140: Leading in the Digital Organization

Module code: MMM140

Module provider: Digitalisation, Marketing and Entrepreneurship; Henley Business School

Credits: 20

Level: 7

When you’ll be taught: Semester 1

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

Module co-convenor: Professor Kecheng Liu, email: k.liu@henley.ac.uk

Additional teaching staff 1: Dr Lecky Li, email: q.li6@henley.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

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

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: NA

Academic year: 2026/7

Available to visiting students: No

Talis reading list: Yes

Last updated: 14 August 2026

Overview

Module aims and purpose

The aim of this module is to explore the role of leadership and frontiers in leadership practice in a pervasive digital environment. The module builds awareness of key digital technologies and discusses their impact on managerial practices, processes and strategies.

As digital technology moves from being disruptive to becoming pervasive, the breadth and depth of digital change transforms entire systems of production, management, ethics and governance. 

This poses a dual challenge to leaders who must not only be able to understand how digital technologies continuously reshape their competitive environment and devise strategies to keep their organisation ahead; but also need to be able to continuously rethink organizational processes and their own role within them: What is the role of leadership in an emerging work environment where advances in automation and Artificial Intelligence mean that core functions such as organising information flows, delegating and prioritizing work and even high-level decision-making can now be assumed by systems? How does the ubiquity of connected data affect organizational power structures, leadership legitimacy, ethics and governance? How can leaders build a company culture that embraces continuous individual and organizational development? 

Drawing on leading-edge case studies, theory and industry guest speakers, this module critically explores the role and opportunities for leadership in the context of the emerging Digital Organization paradigm.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to: 

1. Critically discuss the changing role of leadership in a pervasive digital environment and apply digital technologies to innovate.
2. Assess and critically discuss the impact of technology on key aspects of leadership including understanding key concepts of data and predictive data science, and its application in informing and legitimizing leadership decisions; understanding the role of software systems in shaping organizational information and communication flows, enabling new networks and adhocracies, distributed work patterns; understanding how technology influences setting performance goals, selecting candidates in recruitment and building high-performing teams.
3. Evaluate and discuss how techniques used by entrepreneurs can be used in organisational settings to rapidly test new processes in ambidextrous organisations.
4. Critically appraise own behaviour with regards to managing digital productivity, and self-directed learning of digital skills.

Module content

• The changing role of leadership in an hyperconnected world. 
• Leading the digital organization: communication, configuration, control and governance. 
• Understanding data, and data-driven decision making for digital leaders.
• Digital intelligence and ethical leadership: filling the knowing -doing gap with purpose.
• Leading a hybrid workforce: Physical AI, Cobots, Automation and Humans.
• AI-enabled decision-making: the role of data, algorithms and human intuition.
• Leadership lessons from digital startups: rapid business model innovation and experimentation. 
• Navigating changes in disruptive times.
• Managing yourself: Optimizing own digital productivity.

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

The module is delivered in a combination of face-to-face lecturers and online workshops delivered by guest speakers (entrepreneurs, sales directors and CEOs). The content of the lectures presents the latest sales concepts and practical perspectives from the industry. The assessments have a heave practical foundation. Students will engage in role-plays simulating a typical B2C (retail) face-to-face sales during the seminars. Students will interview a senior executive from a company to explore and learn their sales strategies and go-to-market activities. Data from these interviews are used as a baseline for their assessments. As a final challenge, students will pitch their new Route-to-Market to a panel (Dragon’s Den Style).

Study hours

At least 30 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

Students need to achieve an overall module mark of 50% to pass this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each calendar day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of three calendar days;
• where the piece of work is submitted up to three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in you Individual Learning Plan), the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three calendar days of the deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

Where a piece of work is submitted late after a deadline which has been revised owing to an extension granted through the Assessment Adjustments policy and process (self-certified or otherwise), it will be subject to the maximum penalty (i.e., considered to be more than three calendar days late). This will also apply when such an extension is used in conjunction with a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf

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.

Reassessment

Additional costs