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Core and Elective modules

Please note: Not every elective module is available to every programme. Please refer to the programme table (PDF) to see which ones are available to you.

 

Business Ethics 2: Society and Sustainability

This module provides you with critical tools to sharpen your understanding of key issues in Business Ethics, and in so doing, it enables you to develop your ethical thinking regarding the ethical responsibilities of business in the world. By engaging with current and emerging case studies from multinational corporations, global investment banks which focus on economic, environmental, and social sustainability issues you will develop your debate skills, understand how to apply ethical theory to business practice, and respond to sustainability reports in both Western and non-Western contexts (e.g. Chinese and Islamic Business Ethics).

Business Dynamics

Traditional management education has paid little attention to the dynamic complexity common in the real business world. Such systems involve multiple feedback processes, time delays, non-linear relationships and unintended side effects. However, human brain can only deal with a limited number of concepts and our mental model sees just parts of the whole system. Such systems can be more effectively formalized and analysed with tools that represent interdependent relationships over time. This module provides students with a systematic way of understanding, visualising and modelling the major interdependencies in business and other complex systems, aimed at enhancing strategic thinking and learning in teams.

Business Economics and Accounting

Everyone working today needs a solid grounding in the essentials of business economics and financial accounting. This split module enables you to acquire and consolidate an operational knowledge of the fundamentals of both, and to appreciate their relevance for strategic decision-making and planning.

Business Transformation through Information Systems

The module provides a toolkit for understanding the opportunities provided by IS/IT and being able to take a leadership role in this area as a key role for senior business managers. The focus is on realising the potential of IS to improve organisational performance. It provides an action-oriented approach to identifying and delivering benefits from investments in IT-enabled business change.

Buyer Behaviour and Marketing Communications

This module investigates the specialised area of buyer behaviour and the management of customer-centric Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) strategies to develop a critical appreciation of the complex nature of the customer decision-making process, together with the challenges marketers face in seeking to influence that process. You will acquire the specialised skills needed to develop a comprehensive marketing communications strategy that is founded upon a grounded knowledge of how and why customers behave as they do.

Change Management

This module focuses on an in-depth understanding, of the complexities of the theory and practice of change management. It provides the opportunity to develop the ability to critically analyse theoretical and practical approaches to change management. It will enable students to enhance their own personal effectiveness of managing and sustaining change in organisations.

Consulting

Aims to develop a broad understanding of the role of consultancy in modern business. Attention is paid to the role of external consultants and the role of the employed internal consultant, as well as exploring the consultancy process and the key skills of a successful management consultant. Students examine the skills needed and used by consultants and how consultancy interventions take place. This is tackled both theoretically through the lectures and course content, and through a series of practical activities, conducted mainly in groups, which culminate in a consulting project. The group project, which is a form of consultancy, provides a unifying perspective and overall target for the module.

Corporate Finance for Managers

Aims to give you advanced knowledge and critical understanding of the essential components of modern corporate finance including ownership structure and governance; capital structure and dividend decisions, and mergers, acquisitions and restructuring. The emphasis is on the applications of the principles and the relevance of theory to practice.

Corporate Governance

This module investigates corporate governance mechanisms which serve to promote transparency, responsibility and accountability in organisations. The objective is to develop your skills in the analysis of systems of corporate governance, both at the level of individual organisations and economic systems. Particular attention will be paid to the reasons for, and the impact of, differences in systems of corporate governance at international lev el.

Decision Making and Business Modelling

This module introduces students to a range of specialised tools commonly used to assist decision making and promotes a critical awareness of the use and limitation of these tools.

Dissertation with Research Methods

The dissertation gives you the opportunity to tackle a major project which will help you develop a range of skills. The starting point for the dissertation can be a business problem or a specific management topic of interest to you. Lectures and seminars in research methods help you prepare for the dissertation project. During the dissertation you will work with an academic supervisor.

East Asian Business and Management

The module enables students to critically appreciate business and management issues relating to East Asia. It helps students to critically understand the leading business systems within the region. The module also engages students in a comparative analysis of key East Asian organisational and management preferences. The module will also examine the problems and opportunities for developing East/West business relationships.

Employee Relations and Reward

The module develops students' knowledge and understanding of the key issues relating to trends in employee relations and reward management. The module also provides students with the opportunity to critically understand the reasons and explanations behind such trends, as well as critically review debates and practices in employee relations and reward management.

The Entrepreneur’s Environment

This module provides you with a holistic appreciation of the environment within which entrepreneurial activities take place and the nature and importance of interactions between them as well as an understanding of the tools entrepreneurs can use in responding to such environmental factors. Issues covered include drivers and barriers in firm start-up and growth; financial systems and capital access; and managing the external environment.

Entrepreneurship and the Entrepreneurial Process

This module introduces you to the field of entrepreneurship, including the role it plays in modern economies, the different types of activity contained within the definition, and the main theoretical and analytical approaches used to achieve understanding of the concept and related processes. Topics covered include: entrepreneurship and the economy; entrepreneurial business; personality perspectives and the organisational context.

Financial Management

The module aims to develop the financial tools of business management, emphasising issues of long-term financial decision-making. The module provides you with the ability to critically evaluate the information needs of management for control and decision-making purposes. It also provides you with a critical understanding in the use of management accounting information and appreciation of the limitations of such information.

Financial Planning and Control

This module aims to develop your understanding of the financial control processes through the study of cost behaviour, budgeting, resource allocation and capacity planning, activity based costing systems and management, financial measures of performance, the balance scorecard, and incentive measures and performance.

Fundamentals of Finance

Aims to give you a rigorous grounding in the theory of modern finance at an advanced level and a thorough synthesis of the most important current research in finance. The emphasis is on the applications of the principles and the relevance of the theory to the practice of financial management, including capital budgeting and investment decisions under conditions of uncertainty, portfolio choice, financial asset pricing and company valuation.

Global Business

The module provides a critical approach enabling you to explore concepts and practices related to managing in a turbulent, dynamic global environment. The module seeks to challenge conventional strategic thinking by investigating new models of international companies driven by networks, global links and adaptability.

Global Entrepreneurship

Global Entrepreneurship & Governance is a practical, advanced, programme with an international perspective, with a focus on both developed and emerging markets. The module combines key issues in business and law. It is underpinned by current and emerging research and case studies from global investment banks, leading consulting firms, international financial development agencies, stock exchanges, international trade organisations and regulatory agencies. It is an excellent introduction for entrepreneurs and managers from both small and large organisations. The module focuses on the key practical issues of relevance and importance to entrepreneurs and managers looking to establish international businesses as new ventures, or grow existing local businesses worldwide. It will also be very relevant to both non-profit and commercial organisations looking to take advantage of opportunities in global markets.

Global Marketing

This module aims to provide an analytical decision-oriented framework for the development and implementation of global marketing programmes. You will acquire the skills to analyse, select and evaluate the appropriate conceptual frameworks for approaching the five main management decisions connected with the global marketing process. Through the use of case examples, this module is designed to develop your skills in linking theory with practice.

Human Resource Management

The module provides students with an advanced understanding of key issues relating to the nature and practice of human resource management. The module also provides students with the opportunity to critically understand how human resource management impacts on organisational performance.

Innovation and Technology Management

The module provides you with the opportunity to study the principles and practice of managing innovation and technology. It also seeks to develop your understanding of innovation as a key organisational process in modern companies and the impact of innovation and technology management on strategy.

International Perspectives on Management

The aim of the module is to enable participants to explore a contemporary management issue from an international perspective and relate theory to practices in a range of organizations. Topics will vary from year to year and will be linked with the sessions on the International Study Tour, which provides students with opportunities to reflect on critical issues in management across a range of organizations and sectors.

Possible topics include:

  • Sustainable development, CSR and business ethics
  • Management across cultures
  • Learning and performance improvement in the international organisation

  • Innovation

Management Decision Making

The module provides you with an in-depth understanding of the complexities of decision making, and how decisions can be improved by specialist techniques such as decision analysis and scenario thinking. Emphasis is placed on critically evaluating both the quality of management judgement and the assumptions underlying decision-aiding techniques.

Management into Action

The module combines reflecting on the nature and role of management with development of the professional skills of management practice. We take a pragmatic view of management as "the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives" (Birkinshaw, 2010; p10 (Reinventing Management)). We take the view that "we all need to be leaders and managers. We all need to influence others through our ideas words and actions. We also need to get work done (ourselves) and through others on a day-to-day basis." (Birkinshaw p15). In these terms participants in the module are all leaders and managers and through their education are becoming more effective and better prepared to make an impact in the workplace and to continue their journey of lifelong learning.

Mergers and Acquisitions

This module aims to provide students with the opportunity to develop the ability to critically understand current theoretical and empirical research in the field of M&A. The topics will cover valuation of the target firm, choice of medium of exchange in takeovers and issues that link corporate restructurings to the market for corporate control.

Multinational Finance

This module provides you with an up to date and advanced understanding of the issues that confront the financial management of multinational companies. It also analyses the complexities and contradictions of the current academic literature in the field of financial management or multinational corporations.

New Venture Creation

This elective provides students with an understanding of the concept and processes of entrepreneurship, covering the various forms of new venture creation, - from individual or team-based start-ups, to corporate venturing and social enterprise. It deals the various stages of new venture creation, including identifying an opportunity, analysing the business environment and developing a strategy, building an entrepreneurial organisation and managing growth. Students develop skills through practical experience of building a business plan and learning how to approach investors for funding.

Operations and Supply Chain Management

The module provides you with an in-depth understanding of the complexities of managing operations and supply chains. The emphasis of the module is a critical evaluation of the principal processes, which add value. While the principal focus is on the manufacturing sector, the module will also examine these processes in the context of the service sector.

Organisational Behaviour

Understanding how people think and act at work is essential knowledge for any manager. This module examines the behaviour of individuals in organisations. You will develop sophisticated understanding of the role of individual differences, personality and ability; attitudes such as motivation, commitment and trust; leadership, team and group dynamics; and methods for managing successful organisational change. Throughout the module you will apply your learning to real organisational situations, including making suggestions for behavioural interventions.

Organisations: an Ecological Perspective

The module aims to provide a unified theoretical framework to analyse issues from diverse areas of management including issues of strategy, human resource management, marketing, and change management. The theoretical framework stems from Organisational Ecology but includes considerations from Institutional Theory as well as Transaction Cost Economics.

Practising Social Marketing

Marketers are highly skilled at persuading us to purchase cola drinks, designer fashions and the latest technological innovations, but marketing can also be employed to promote public health messages, such as encouraging 'safe sex' or healthier lifestyles, and tackling the problems associated with urban crime. In this module we examine the practice of social marketing in developed and developing countries. We explore ways in which the tools and techniques of applied psychology and commercial marketing can be used to encourage changes in behaviour for the benefit of the individual, organisation or society.

Project Management

Addresses fundamental principles of setting measurable goals, establishing logical plans, and effectively managing tasks, processes and resources in a range of business environments.

Reframing Management

The module provides insight into the different possibilities for reframing, recontextualising and reworking management and organizing in contemporary societies. It develops creative, deeper and more challenging ways of understanding organising, based on contemporary theoretical developments.

Skills Training and Development

The modules gives students and opportunity to develop knowledge and understanding of key issues relating to skills, training and human resource development. Topics explored include: the nature of skill and skills at work; managing culture; knowledge work and knowledgeable workers.

Strategic Marketing Management

This module explores strategic management, marketing planning and professional marketing practice with a view to equipping you with an advanced understanding and critical appreciation of the conceptual models that underpin the strategic marketing planning process, and the complex nature of strategic management decisions and potential barriers to their implementation. You will develop the advanced conceptual and practical skills needed to successfully develop a professional strategic marketing plan.

Strategy

This module introduces you to the nature of strategy and the processes of strategic decision making within organisations. As well as explaining a range of strategic analysis techniques, including numerical methods, the module explores the content of particular strategies and the factors influencing strategy development within organisations.

Strategy and Organisation

The module aims to deepen your understanding of the strategic management of organisations. The module builds on the core Strategy module and adopts the point of view of the executive team and considers the entire firm as a single entity. The module also enables students to review and apply various theoretical principles associated with strategic analysis.

Work and Society

The module focuses upon key issues which relate to current trends in work, organisation and society. It also provides you with a critical understanding of the reasons and explanations behind such trends and how they impact on the organisation of work and the work of organisations.