Master of Business Administration (MBA)

This module offers the theories and tools required to understand the strategic role of services marketing and operations. It aims to provide leaners with an understanding of the complexities in reconciling services marketing and operations management and how managing marketing and operations contributes to an organisation’s competitive advantage. The module aims to provide a comprehensive insight into the importance of alignment between marketing needs and operational capabilities, a market-driven approach to designing and delivering services offerings to customers and clients. It explores the operating environment of service organisations and the key decisions that managers must make when coordinating and controlling resources when delivering services.

This module aims to explore the nature of strategic thinking and strategic management within a range of organisations and across business networks. Whilst considering the importance of well-established strategic planning concepts in the so called linear-rational process model, the module will also focus on contemporary concepts such as digitization, servitisation, digital ecosystems, platforms, business model innovation and disruption - synonymous with more fast moving and complex environments. The module involves developing a critical understanding of core models of strategy. The learning programme will deploy a range of cases, simulations and thinking tasks to explore strategic decision making in contemporary organizational concepts. Case studies are used to explore the relationship between theory and practice. The intent is to develop your abilities to think strategically and increase awareness of roles in, and relationship to, strategy. Attention is given to the public sector, SMEs, virtual firms and organisations operating in an international rather than just a domestic context.

This module enables you to develop an understanding of the purposes and uses of financial information, together with the ability to use quantitative skills to improve performance management and decision making within an organisation.

This module aims to provide a simple framework for beginning to understand some of the behaviour observed in firms, markets, and industries and offer some suggestions as to appropriate forms of optimising behaviour. A range of models and concepts for the analysis of business activity are introduced.  The discussion will demonstrate that while the assumptions and devices used in economics may sometimes seem simple and abstracted from reality, it can nonetheless often provide a powerful framework for interpreting and framing strategic issues.

The module talks about the critical leadership approach in organisations and strategic impact on the ethical competence of individual and groups. Ethics are systems of power and valuation rooted in culture, tradition, and institutionalisation. Leading businesses and organisations implies the imperative of socially responsible activity with improvement and sustainability rooted in ethical awareness and moral action. You'll explore theoretical foundations of leadership, ethics and power; and will consider your own values and beliefs about what ethical leadership and responsible business mean.

The module aims to provide you with skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary to create and develop opportunities for innovation and new venture creation and the development of an enterprising mindset. Entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship require a combination of curiosity, creativity and sound analytical judgement, and learning through action and reflection. This module will provide opportunities and scenarios for you to demonstrate how the skills developed in complementary modules can be integrated and realised to identify and pursue opportunities for innovation and venture creation.

This module is focused on enabling you to maximise your professional and personal development, and develop the skills necessary to become continuous learners. To that end, knowledge and ability will be developed in the areas of learning styles and preferences, and research methods. The module provides an opportunity to develop insights into professional and personal preferences, and to reflect on professional development, past, present and future. You will be encouraged to undertake personal change to modify existing work behaviours and acquire new skills.

This module follows on from PROPEL 1 and is similarly focused on enabling learners’ to maximise their professional and personal development, and develop the skills necessary to become continuous learners. Within this module, the focus is on developing knowledge and ability in the areas of self-awareness, planning and undertaking personal and professional development, and improving interpersonal relationships.

The Business-research Project provides you with the opportunity to get involved in a project, normally within a business of your choice. The Business-research project aims to provide solutions to a commissioned business problem. You'll have the opportunity to engage in the process of scoping the project, undertake the necessary information gathering, analysing the information and make recommendations. The nature of the task will vary according to the nature of the issue to be investigated; it may be strategic or operational in nature.