MBA Modules

• Introduction to marketing concepts; the marketing orientation and evolution of marketing Marketing ethics, social responsibility and sustainability
• Internet marketing and database management: the impact of technology
• Product and branding decisions
• Price and place decisions
• Promotion / communication decisions
• Integrating the marketing mix
• Service marketing decisions
• Marketing planning – audit, strategy development, implementation and evaluation
• Organisational and financial implications of marketing activity

• Organisational behaviour and chaos
• Planning and resourcing
• Managing yourself: self-development and awareness
• Learning in organisations
• Motivating and leading
• The skills of interviewing
• Organisational decision-making
• Managing conflicts of interest
• Groups at work
• Diversity and similarity in organisations
• Training, development and culture
• Workplace communications

• Perspectives on the content, processes and context of strategic management
• Environmental assessment: global (macro); market; competitive industry sector and value chain
• Distinctive assets/resources and capabilities (technologies, skills etc.) as sources of advantage
• Strategic position analysis; the generation and evaluation of strategic options
• Alternative growth logics: internally-generated innovation; mergers/acquisitions; alliances and network participation
• Corporate strategy: diversification, portfolio management and parenting concepts
• Governance issues: shareholder value creation; broad stakeholder analysis; the balanced scorecard approach to setting objectives; planning processes and strategic control
• Key concepts in strategy implementation: corporate vision, mission, identity and (ethical) values; leadership and transformational change

• Scope and nature of operations management
• Strategic context for operations management
• Alternative strategic approaches to 'supply' management and 'quality' management
• Service operations and service quality management
• Operations design and business process re-engineering
• Operations and facilities strategy
• From inventory control to lean operations
• From quality management to total quality management to zero defects
• Management of risk

• The drive toward competitive advantage through global operations; the economic, political, technological and cultural dimensions of globalisation; the importance of emerging economies for global operations
• The rise of a global market culture: the role and impact of the IMF, World Bank and WTO
• Ethical issues: moral principles and practices of different cultures; capitalist, entrepreneurial self-interest versus moral constraint
• Assessing, understanding and managing cultural diversity in markets
• Diversity or integration in the multinational organisation; comparative managerial and leadership styles
• Impact of electronic communications and the internet; arbitrage and the exploitation of knowledge
• Corporate governance and regulation in a comparative framework; the power of the multinational and its positive and negative impacts
• Market entry strategies; cross-border alliances and joint ventures
• Distributed operations and supply chain networks
• International Human Resource Management
• Security issues and risk assessment; global capital markets and the globalisation of environmental risk
• Ethics and the natural environment
• Political, legal, economic and cultural developments in the European Union

• 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

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