Master of Business Administration with Placement MBA

You'll work through the main theories and principles of marketing for the marketing manager or business leader, understanding how those theories and principles can be applied in practice to a range of business contexts; from business-to-consumer, business-to-business, charities, arts, to tourism and service-based industries. You'll focus particularly on global business challenges; competition and defining value; a digitally based economy; and societal marketing (corporate social responsibility, sustainability, morals and ethics) whilst also understanding the legal framework that impacts upon marketers and marketing practice such as consumer and data protection laws. This module will challenge you to examine marketing problems that have faced brands and organisations to critically analyse their approach and suggest new alternatives. You'll gain a firm grasp of the scope of marketing in general business management and leadership roles as well as a clear understanding of the specialist areas of study and work as you plan your lifelong career in this very broad industry.

Human Resource (HR) professionals and managers operate within increasingly complex and changing organisational and contextual circumstances in the public, private or third sectors. This is exacerbated by the variety of organisational types and size that contribute to national wealth creation in terms of the services and goods they provide and produce. This module provides you with understanding of market and business contexts in the operational, tactical, and strategic HR function, along with issues of the modern organisation. You'll examine the cultural, political, and social contexts that organisations operate within, both from an internal and external perspective. Further, you'll discover how economic forces affect and influence organisational practices, and their impact upon the HR function and its practices. You'll explore globalisation and how the changing demographics and social environments impact on organisational strategy and the HR function. Plus why ethical and democratic practices are needed to meet the changes of complex business and economic practices or the management of human resources in more dignified ways. Finally, you'll see how HR can contribute to and influence the strategic direction of organisational practice in the pursuit of welfare profit, as well as monetary profit.

Within this module you'll explore the fields of management and strategy, noting how strategic analysis and formulation contribute to an organisations performance. You'll explore practically relevant ideas and frameworks that facilitate strategy design and implementation, dealing with the craft of strategy, identifying and choosing superior competitive position, how to analyse strategic situations and how to create the organisational context to make the chosen strategy work. Practical and problem-oriented, this module places emphasis on the application of concepts and exploration of frameworks to assist you in analysing and gaining insight into competitive situations and strategic dilemmas.

Management decision making is a complex subject involving many variable factors. The primary objective of this module is to provide a conceptual and analytical framework for looking at organisations operating in capital, financial and operational markets. You'll explore the financial element contained in decisions and the techniques that may be used to assist informed management decisions. You start by considering the availability of financial information that may be relevant to decision making and whether this fits with the information you need to make the decision. This is further developed to the type of decision and differing requirements, leading to a more bespoke deliverable information set that meets the context of the decision. You'll gain an appreciation of core themes prevalent throughout financial management. The module also explores the financial techniques developed by financial and management accountants and how they may be used and applied. Finally, consideration is given to the relevance and weighting of the financial element in the decision making process and how qualitative issues may be incorporated in the overall decision. Strategic financial management issues covered include financial statement analysis, budget and performance management, raising finance (both short and long term), efficient allocation and utilisation of financial resources (including investment decisions), and mergers and acquisitions as well as foreign currency and interest rate risk management. Different organisations and sectors are covered to develop your knowledge and skills in finance and business analysis through practical tasks involving developing financial strategies, conducting a financial analysis, managing foreign currency risks and by using professional database such as FAME and Osiris, etc.

In a competitive job market, understanding how the professional work place functions, along with well-developed employability skills, are key to a post graduate securing employment. The work placement gives you the opportunity to put into practice what would have been learned in the post graduate programme and with the insights of their practical experience in the field. During this module you will undertake a work-based learning internship with a company or organisation where they will be supported in developing effective professional practices through guidance in generic and specific employability skills and through developing independent reflective learning practices to enhance your continuing professional development in the context of your own working environment. The module aims to provide you with experience of work in a business environment including familiarisation with a professional work environment. This experience should take place in a business environment relevant to the course you are undertaking. The module will be underpinned by employability skills training, reflective assessment and support from academic tutors. You will expected to demonstrate your achievements within the workplace reflecting how you have enhanced your employability with reference to the university’s graduate employability capitals.

In a competitive job market, understanding how the professional work place functions, along with well-developed employability skills, are key to a post graduate securing employment. The work based major project gives you the opportunity to synthesise what you learned in the post graduate programme with the hands on experience of the professional workplace in an opportunity for authentic assessment. During this module you will undertake a work-based learning placement with a company or organisation where you will be supported in developing effective professional practices through guidance in generic and specific employability skills and through developing independent reflective learning practices to enhance your continuing professional development in the context of your own working environment and have the opportunity to produce a major piece of work based on real world projects. Acceptance on this module is dependent on you acquiring suitable placement. It gives you the opportunity to put into practice what you have learnt in your course by offering real-life practical experience in the field underpinned by engagement with key literature and theoretical insights relevant to the chosen industry sector. You will be supported in developing effective professional practices through guidance in generic and specific employability skills. You will also be supported with critical thinking and research skills development during the lectures and online resources to ensure you develop independent, critical and reflective learning practices to enhance your continuing professional development in the context of your own working environment and career aspirations. The module aims to provide you with experience of work and research in a business environment including familiarisation with a professional work environment. This module will be underpinned by employability skills training, reflective assessments and support from academic tutors and employers. In the assessment you must demonstrate how you have engaged with a relevant research problem in the work setting, and supported this by drawing on relevant literature and applied theory, practical knowledge and learnings within a work-based environment.

You'll investigate and critically evaluate historical and contemporary approaches to leadership theory, focusing especially on leadership at junior to middle management level. Classical theories of leadership will be examined including traits theory, behavioural theories and contingency theories. Some contemporary theories will include issues such as emotional intelligence, psychodynamics and leader-led relations. There will be a strong emphasis on applying the theory to your own personal leadership with a view to enhancing leadership performance in preparation for middle management roles within the organisation. Management of change will be another key emphasis, including organisational politics & power, change theories and the implementation of the change process. Issues for consideration will include the organisational context of change, resistance to change and practical management of the change process.

You'll critically review existing entrepreneurship and innovation models and concepts, including process models, and explore ‘patchwork’ and ‘opportunity’ based approaches to entrepreneurship and innovation. During the module you'll explore how ‘innovation’ comes from a variety of sources, examine the principles of ‘open’ innovation, and recognise the importance of exploiting available networks and of developing an innovative culture. Your ability to analyse and critique ‘entrepreneurial’ business models, both existing and conceptual will be improved through the utilisation of tools such as the Business Model Canvas. You'll think creatively by proposing innovative solutions to creating and capturing value through the medium of consultancy report and applying some of the theoretical underpinnings of the module. Finally, the principles of entrepreneurship and innovation are analysed in the context of entrepreneurs, start-up and family businesses from across the globe, in various commercial, public-sector and not- for-profit sectors, emphasising the importance and challenges of ‘social’ and ‘sustainability -led’ innovation.

You'll end this module with a toolkit of knowledge around how economists define, evaluate, measure and compare firms’ profit max strategies given different market settings, building a foundation of knowledge around the factors affecting both firms and countries performance. You'll also be able to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of alternative explanations of economic growth and development. Firstly you'll look at Microeconomics, examining the way in which decision-making units (individuals and firms) make their decisions. These fundamental concepts and approaches underpin much of modern microeconomics, and consider in detail firms’ input and output decisions based on profit maximisation and cost minimization in different market settings (perfect competition, monopoly, oligopoly, monopolistic competition). Basic economic models are used to introduce you to analytical methods of reasoning with applications and mathematical problems used to help you see clearly the interplay between key concepts. Consumer choice based on utility maximization is considered in detail and then applied to areas such as labour supply. It's then the turn of Macroeconomics, where we master the basic concepts, such as the determination of national income, the workings of the monetary system, causes and consequences of inflation and the reasons behind unemployment. We then introduce the tools of economic theory and develop your understanding of the factors affecting both economic growth and development. You'll examine how a country can increase the size of its national income, and also how increased growth can impact on a society by improving the development indicators. Upon completion you should understand how economists define, evaluate, measure and attempt to boost employment, economic growth and development and reduce inflation and public debt. You'll be encouraged throughout to debate current issues and challenges facing economics, enhancing your policy decision-making capacity by examining a wide range of decisions, alternatives and their implications. Given the scientific papers of leading scientists in the field the module aims to value critical openness to different perspectives, theories and methods, and encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration.

This module provides the foundation for the transition from undergraduate to Masters level study by introducing some themes which underpin the higher level study of the relationship between law and business in the international context, as well as the advanced research skills needed for success at this level. Students will be expected to demonstrate a systematic and critical awareness of the interrelation of law and business in a global context and will also be expected to demonstrate a comprehensive understanding and advanced scholarship in the context of international trade and business. It has several main themes: Firstly, it provides an analytical framework for international trade law that transcends particular jurisdictions and focuses on the context in which international business takes place. It will examine the need for the regulation of international trade and the development of legal frameworks for this, including an understanding of the WTO and regional trade organisations, such as the EU. International business operates within a variety of national legal systems as well as internationally. A critical awareness of comparative legal systems is therefore essential, as is an understanding of some elements of public international law (such as treaty law). The module contributes particularly to problem-solving, research, written analytical and critical thinking skills, which are transferable skills highly valued by employers. This module is especially relevant to all students attracted to business, professional or commercial careers and who wish to demonstrate their advanced knowledge and ability for independent learning at a professional level. This module also covers the skills needed for this course: how to use the Library and electronic databases effectively in order to make the transition to the level of self-directed research appropriate at postgraduate level, as well as the more technical aspects of academic writing, such as referencing using the required conventions. In this context students should be able to demonstrate self-direction and originality in tackling and solving problems and the ability to develop their research skills to a high level. Throughout this module students will be exposed and expected to contribute to a range of skills building activities that underpin their employability. These range from the development of team working activities, communication skills both written and verbal, logical reasoning and the ability to undertake independent research. Criticality is introduced immediately within the module and will be sustained through both formative and summative assessment.