General Management

Choosing the General Management specialisation as part of their Brunel MBA can help students to become a better manager all-round – from corporate business finance to international strategy, from harnessing IT technology to marketing.  This General Management specialization is the traditional route for an MBA award and focuses on giving students the skills of practical application of knowledge to solving contemporary business issues, identifying your strengths and weaknesses, maximizing your assets and turning them into a more profitable future.

It is designed for students who want to advance in their existing career, move to a new field, start their own business, or simply earn more money.

Students pursuing the general pathway award will follow the prescribed structure:

  • 6 core modules
  • 7 Management Electives: Information Systems in Organisations, Managing for the Future, Global Diversity Management, Healthcare Policy Setting, Managing Change in Healthcare, Airport Management and Operations, Airline Management, Economics and Ethics
  • Business Project

Management Electives

Please click on the links below the reveal the information

Information Systems in Organisations (Elective Module) *

  • Overview of information systems and business strategy
  • Aligning information systems, strategy, and structure
  • The impact of information systems on:
    • Organisations
    • The design of work
    • Business processes
  • Architecture and infrastructure
  • The role of the Internet and electronically-mediated trading in supply chains
  • Data security and business recovery
  • Ethical and legal issues
  • IS management:
    • Structure of the MIS function
    • Planning and funding IT programmes and projects
    • Project management
  • Knowledge management

Managing for the Future (Elective Module) *

It is not the aim of this module that students will be able to predict the future! Instead, the aim is to introduce students to several methods developed specifically for considering, elaborating and interrogating 'futures' more thoroughly, and in a structured or semi-structured way, in order to improve the quality of actions that they will be capable of taking in their own rights as managers and practitioners. These methods include those developed in industry as well as within academia.

The module will provide you with opportunities to:

  • Consider the nature of the World which our actions inhabit and identify the direct practical implications which different understandings of the World have on the practical actions which we take within it
  • Exercise enquiry methods and apply imaginative approaches to identifying 'futures'
  • Identify a range of possible responses, consider possible consequences of inaction and thus evolve well-judged, plausible and steps which might be taken
  • Synthesise incomplete and ambiguous evidence into coherent understandings and defensible courses of action
  • Exercise personal initiative and to work with peers to achieve tangible, constructive and imaginative outcomes
  • Provide evidence of accomplishment through non-graded presentations and graded individual assignments

Global Diversity Management (Elective Module) *

  • Defining Global Diversity Management (GDM) and developing a contextual (historical and geographic) perspective
  • Identifying the service roles for Global Diversity Management for other functional areas of management, including finance, accounting, marketing, human resources, public relations, sales, innovation, and CSR
  • Process theories of GDM: antecedents, correlates and consequences of managing global diversity
  • Contextual theories of GDM: global, supranational, national, regional, sectoral, organisational and individual levels of analyses
  • Towards a theory of GDM and organisational change: Transcending context and process
  • Leadership and GDM
  • GDM from a comparative perspective: does country, sector and size matter?
  • Solving common management problems through GDM: demographic, social, technological, political, environmental change as key challenges
  • Change agency and GDM
  • Future proofing organisations for GDM
  • Leading organisational change through the lens of GDM

Airport Management and Operations (Elective Module) *

This module will enable you to compare and evaluate different models for the successful management of an airport, with an enhanced appreciation of the role that economic, environmental, safety and security factors play, and how airport design can influence the process.

  • Principles of airline company management structures (including Corporate Governance)
  • Economics of national and international airline businesses
  • Employment of professional ethics in the airline industry (including Corporate Social Responsibility)
  • Air transportation safety procedures
  • Airline marketing planning and strategies
  • Customer service management and planning
  • Environmental factors in Aviation Management
  • Managing and planning for change in the airline industry

Airline Management, Economics and Ethics (Elective Module) *

Through an introduction to the underlying principles of airline management, this will give you a deeper understanding of the economics, customer relationship dynamics and marketing strategies involved in running a successful airline business. It also considers the professional ethics demanded of the industry, both within and by society at large.

  • Airport management, organisation and structure
  • Airport strategic planning process
  • Airport development planning
  • Airport economics and business strategy development
  • Airport cost and revenue structure
  • Terminal Management and passenger processing
  • Airport operations and surrounding environment (including Corporate Social Responsibility)

Professor Amir Sharif, the MBA Director, who has himself worked in aerospace, says:
"We have a lot of interest from the Far East, and from regional  aviation bodies, airlines and consultants. There is definitely an appetite for  management development in this industry"

Disclaimer:  Please note that elective modules are subject to minimum enrolments of 10  students.


Healthcare Policy Setting (Elective Module) *

You will gain a sophisticated knowledge of the political setting of health policy, you will also be able to analyse its influence and critically evaluate the role and effectiveness of healthcare professionals and managers in the policy-making process.

  • Introduction to principles, concepts, perspectives and subject-matter of Health Policy Analysis
  • Models, principles and concepts of health policy processes
  • Policy making and administrative structures and processes in England
  • Influences on the health policy process; resource allocation, public expenditure and the determination of social priorities; demographic factors and their impact on social needs and on the demand for and supply of health and social services
  • Review, analysis and evaluation of selected recent and current health policies in England.
  • International dimensions and influences on health policy; World Health Organisation influences and proclamations; European Union institutions, policy-making and influences; the globalisation of health and social policy.

Managing Change in Healthcare (Elective Module) *

This module will help you develop original and innovative initiatives in healthcare management and help you to promote them within your organisation’s strategic plans and culture. You will also review, analyse and evaluate current developments in healthcare policy as they impact on implementing change and

  • Social, health and political context of change
  • Ideology of change in healthcare
  • Approaches to health management theory and practice
  • Approaches to leadership in healthcare
  • Change management – models, theory and practice
  • Organisational culture – theory and practice
  • Strategies for change management
  • Managing resistance to change in healthcare
  • Managing change conflict in healthcare
  • Evaluating management initiatives
  • Managing change through action research

Student Profile

Divya Gupta

Divya Gupta in an international student from Mumbai, India and has completed the MBA in Healthcare Management at Brunel Business School. Before pursuing her MBA course, she was a Rehabilitation Therapist by profession and had a managerial role in India.

Divya now is a part of Cancer Services in NHS as a Project Manager and is managing diverse initiatives such as liaison with General Practioners and potential improvements in the primary care services.

Why an MBA in Healthcare Management specialisation?

"As health had always been my domain, the specialist MBA has helped me with in-depth understanding of the healthcare system and taking actions accordingly to influence the positive outcomes for the industry. Performing as a manager for cancer services I have now realised the magnitude of 'Healthcare Policy' module that has added valuable insights. An MBA with specialisation gives you the necessary abilities to handle real-life business situations as you just don’t learn strategies and concepts on paper only but it helps you relate it to your own sector and therefore gives you a whole new world of better understanding, assists to identify prospects for forward thinking and makes you prudent. This helps to set you apart from those who do not have such expertise and can craft in you a leader for your chosen field.

I truly value the enhanced understanding of accounting/finance and strategy which is vital for budgeting. This MBA has provided me the practical skills needed and has honed me to excel in my career. Currently my role involves planning and unbeaten execution of various projects and MBA in healthcare has helped me getting the job of my choice."

Disclaimer: Please note that elective modules are subject to minimum enrolments of 10 students.

Page last updated: Thursday 17 May 2012