Postgraduate Business Studies 2024-2025

This course provides an opportunity to explore and develop an understanding of your own leadership behaviour. Through workshops, group activities and discussions we investigate how personality, past experience, current situations and culture shape the way each of us behave in a leadership role. Using this information as a starting point we then explore how different leadership theories and approaches can be used as frameworks for developing a deeper understanding of leadership behaviour. You will also have an opportunity to try out a range of practical tools and techniques to assist you in the development of your own approach to leadership.

This course serves as an introduction to the employment relationship.  Students will learn the history of the field and how different employment relationships are established in different institutional, legal and national contexts.  The focus will be on the interactions of workers and employers and the factors that shape that relationship.  

The course is designed to enrich student’s knowledge on how to market a business in international environment. The objective of the course is to inform students ability to analyse international environment and develop relevant marketing plan and strategies for a successful business.

The course will apply theoretical and practical content to explore the key concepts of Marketing in Management to provide students with an understanding of, coordinating and controlling marketing activities. A key theme running throughout the course is the importance of creating customer value. The aim is to provide you with an understanding of the role of marketing and relevant critical strategies in establishing, developing and maintaining customer value.

Rapid changes in world business and advances in technology mean companies are seeking new ways to compete and innovate. Business consultants can offer much needed advice and expertise. This course is intended to introduce you to the work of business consultants and identify the competencies you will require to apply for a career in consultancy. The course will be taught by practicing consultants and will cover both theoretical as well as practical aspects of business consultancy.

Business Strategy covers a broad range of topics that come under the general heading of “Business Strategy” / “Strategic Management”. The course introduces participants to concepts, frameworks and models that are useful in providing explanations of how companies operate with respect to goal setting, understanding their competitive landscape, assessing opportunities,  managing own capabilities, coordinating their activities with other companies, and competing to create value for customers. The course is interactive in nature, applying a learning-by-doing method involving students taking on roles as part of a series of simulation exercises. 

The course aims to provide students with an understanding of Issues in International Management as viewed from a number of diverse perspectives eg Coaching; Oil & Gas; Entrepreneurship; Technology; Accountancy & Finance

The concepts of change and innovation have never been more topical, especially given the commercial context of fierce business competition, shorter product life cycles and more demanding customers. Increasingly, long-term commercial success is based on an ability to manage change, to act creatively and to promote innovation; These processes interconnect and overlap and often present major challenges to modern organizations; We address these issues through providing detailed case illustrations ranging from the workplace to the wider business market. Learning is encouraged through interaction, reading, investigation, video and case analysis, and critical discussion.

Embark on an in-depth exploration of the economic foundations shaping contemporary challenges within the energy sector. Develop a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities inherent in sustainable resource management, sustainable development, and energy consumption. Investigate the energy ‘trilemma’, gaining insights into the roles of public and private entities. Develop the knowledge and analytical skills to meaningfully contribute to shaping the future of the energy sector.

The focus of this course is not people but processes, not outside the organisation but within. Operations transform materials, information and customers to create goods and services using staff and facilities. We study process types and focus particularly on projects. We see how capacity and inventory reconcile demand and output and explore location, supply chains, quality, risk and resilience. About 40% of the course is on projects and project-management techniques. Prepare for both critical discussion of theory and application (operationalisation), including calculation.

Through a combination of lectures, tutorials, workshops, debates and in-course assessment, this course encourages students to critically reflect upon: Social theory and its relevance to marketing communications; Concepts and contemporary thought within the practice of marketing communication; expressive practice.

The course provides both a strategic orientation and tactical orientation:

Strategic:

§  How to align digital strategy with a wider business strategy

§  The value that (internal and external) research and analytics can bring to digital marketing decisions

Tactical:

§  Assess the quality of any website based on a range of important measures

§  Benchmark a website’s performance against online competitors

§  Investigate the potential of a business idea for a given market sector

§  Present digital marketing research and advice to a generalist audience

§  Understand the potential commercial value of social media

§  Interpret onsite analytics in support of business objectives

Innovation is at the forefront of much of the current economic and political debate to improve the competitiveness of economies and firms. This course will focus on the role of new product development in enabling firms to generate competitive advantage, and the types of problems faced by firms in their innovation management. In particular this course blends the perspectives of marketing, design and manufacturing into a single approach to product development. It provides students with an appreciation for the realities of industrial practice and introduces sets of product development methods that can be put into immediate practice on development projects.

Business cannot be conducted without some form of communication between the participants involved. This course examines a wide variety of different types of interpersonal communication in different types of business contexts and, by so doing, provides students with a detailed and practical overview of this vitally important subject area.

This course is designed to support your academic and professional learning journey as you progress with your Accounting and Finance Programme.

Topics will include, enhanced orientation, study skills, health and well-being and employability activities.

Successful completion of this course will be recorded on your Enhanced Transcript as ‘Achieved’.

This course is designed to support your academic and professional learning journey as you progress with your Accounting and Finance Programme.

Topics will include, enhanced orientation, study skills, health and well-being and employability activities.

Successful completion of this course will be recorded on your Enhanced Transcript as ‘Achieved’.

The course will apply theoretical and practical content to explore the key concepts of Marketing in Management to provide students with an understanding of, coordinating and controlling marketing activities. A key theme running throughout the course is the importance of creating customer value. The aim is to provide you with an understanding of the role of marketing and relevant critical strategies in establishing, developing and maintaining customer value.

Human Resource (HR) Essentials course serves as the first course in the program to provide students foundational understanding and knowledge of HR, and functions as a sound basis for other courses in the International Human Resources Management Programme. The course is focused on introducing HR theories and the application of theories and ideas into practice. In this course, students engage in a range of theories taught by lecturers as well as interactive exercises such case studies and evaluation of journal articles, through which they can reflect on and critically evaluate different HR theories. In this way students develop cognitive skills by actively and critically reflecting on practice, and practical transferable skills through assignment and in-class activities and exercises.

An effective marketing plan is critical to a company competing successful in its target markets. Hence, learning the skills and knowledge to develop an effective marketing plan is important for a career in marketing. The course shall explore critical issues in the marketing planning process (identifying target audience and then develop a market strategy to target the identified segment), as well as equip students with a step-by-step guide on how to develop a marketing plan. 

This course will introduce machine learning, artificial intelligence and forecasting with applications in finance and management.

The course will explore recent trends in FINTECH, which are based on data analytics and recent advances in machine learning. The course will provide an introduction to Python, which has become the dominant general-purpose programming language in data analytics and machine learning. To be clear, students are not expected to have any prior knowledge of Python or any other programming language.

Advanced Business Consulting is a continuation of Introduction to Business Consulting. This course will introduce students to the work processes of business consultants and identify the competencies students will require to apply for a career in consultancy. The course involves site visits to consultant/client offices to see first-hand the consultancy practice. The course covers both theoretical as well as practical aspects of business consultancy with a focus on real business consulting exposure.

The course aims to provide participants with a critical understanding of the nature and articulation of the marketing function within modern organisations, and an appreciation of the relative contribution of specific marketing tools to the development of a market orientation.

On completion of the course students will be able to:

1. Critique the key principles and concepts of marketing.

2. Evaluate the role of marketing to modern organisations in private and public sectors.

3. Understand the integration of the marketing function with other organisational functions.

4. Assess the role of identified marketing techniques

The concepts of change and innovation have never been more topical, especially given the commercial context of fierce business competition, shorter product life cycles and more demanding customers. Increasingly, long-term commercial success is based on an ability to manage change, to act creatively and to promote innovation; These processes interconnect and overlap and often present major challenges to modern organizations; We address these issues through providing detailed case illustrations ranging from the workplace to the wider business market. Learning is encouraged through interaction, reading, investigation, video and case analysis, and critical discussion.

Focusing on sustainability and innovation, this course offers a comprehensive understanding of economic aspects shaping the transition to cleaner energy sources. Uncover the essence of market failure within the energy sector, dissect the economic implications of environmental policies and scrutinise strategies for an inclusive transformation of the energy sector. Delve into the economic dynamics of electricity markets, evaluating the impact of energy transition on pricing and market structures.

This theoretically informed and practical course aims to explore the key concepts and theories of consumer behaviour. At the end of the course students will have an understanding of:    

- The activities individuals undertake when obtaining, consuming and disposing of products and services

- The consumer as an individual: Understanding motivations, psychographics, demographics and cognitive processes.

- Social and group aspects of consumer behaviour: The role of friends, family and reference groups.

- This will be achieved through a combination of lectures, seminars and directed private study.

This course comprises of three distinct parts:

1. Research design
2. Qualitative data analyses
3. Quantitative data analyses

These parts are designed to provide in-depth understanding of conducting research in social science and humanities in general, and are linked to the requirements of producing a dissertation in Business Management at PGT level, in particular.

The course provides both a strategic orientation and tactical orientation:

Strategic:

§  How to align digital strategy with a wider business strategy

§  The value that (internal and external) research and analytics can bring to digital marketing decisions

Tactical:

§  Assess the quality of any website based on a range of important measures

§  Benchmark a website’s performance against online competitors

§  Investigate the potential of a business idea for a given market sector

§  Present digital marketing research and advice to a generalist audience

§  Understand the potential commercial value of social media

§  Interpret onsite analytics in support of business objectives

Managing human resources is important for survival and prosperity of organizations and economies, and has implications for individual attitudes and well-being.  Managers are expected to contribute to the delivery of the human resource strategy, supported by expert advice and guidance. This module explores the key concepts underpinning the management of human resources and their practical application in organisations today.  Focus on four important themes:

·        Recruitment and selection

·        Equality and diversity

·        Flexible employment and work-life balance

·        Talent management

You will be encouraged to share your views and experiences through class discussion and debate. 

International Business is a wide-ranging subject that includes economic, political, cultural and technological facets. The aim of this course is to provide an introduction to the complexities of international business management by examining how the global environment and our understanding of these affect management within an international context.

This course introduces students to what is involved in undertaking business research in practice. Within lectures, tutorials and workshops students will develop an understanding of: Information retrieval and critical analysis; Philosophical issues in the construction of knowledge; Accessing and gathering quantitative and qualitative data; Data analysis; Student/Supervisor expectations.

This course provides an opportunity to explore and develop an understanding of your own leadership behaviour. Through workshops, group activities and discussions we investigate how personality, past experience, current situations and culture shape the way each of us behave in a leadership role. Using this information as a starting point we then explore how different leadership theories and approaches can be used as frameworks for developing a deeper understanding of leadership behaviour. You will also have an opportunity to try out a range of practical tools and techniques to assist you in the development of your own approach to leadership.

This course is designed to support your academic and professional learning journey as you progress with your Accounting and Finance Programme.

Topics will include, enhanced orientation, study skills, health and well-being and employability activities.

Successful completion of this course will be recorded on your Enhanced Transcript as ‘Achieved’.

Key elements of professional competence are strategic awareness, a business orientation and a concern with adding value through human resource (HR) practice. Qualified professionals should be able to research relevant topics and write reports that can persuade key stakeholders in the organisation to change or adopt a particular policy and practice. This module provides the opportunity for learners to demonstrate the ability to diagnose and investigate a live, complex business issue from an HR perspective, to locate the work within the body of contemporary knowledge, to collect and analyse data, to derive supportable conclusions and to make practical and actionable recommendations for change,
improvement or enhancement of current practice. The applied nature of the report requires a critical evaluative approach, empirical investigation and analysis and a combination of academic research and business report writing skills. It requires reflection on the implications for professional practice from an ethical, professional and continuous professional development standpoint. 

The MSc dissertation provides students with the opportunity to produce a piece of independent and original research on an approved topic in business and psychology. Advanced level knowledge of a sub-area of the discipline is developed through independent study supervised by a member of academic staff. Students can choose a research problem related to change management and explore it further using theoretical and practical knowledge gained throughput the programme.

The MSc Consulting Challenge requires students to produce a consulting report based upon their experience consulting for a company of their choice or a case study provided by the course convenor.

Advanced level knowledge and practice of a sub-area of the discipline is developed through practical interaction with the chosen business or detailed case study material. The students will be assigned an academic supervisor to oversee their research, data collection and report preparation.

The aim of this course is to equip students with an understanding of key aspects of new venture creation, including business planning, pitching new ideas to investors and managing growth. This is a capstone course, by bringing together a range of different concepts.

This module introduces students to big data, analytics and visualisation linked to business applications. The module also enables students to solve a variety of complex data-driven business problems using computer software tools, examples R and Gephi. The focus of the module thus is twofold: 1) building relative theoretical understandings, 2) and practice analytics for data-driven decision making for business operations and problems.

This course provides an introduction to evidence-based decision making. It is designed based on the premise that executives can make better decisions when they believe in evidence and have the skill to use it. The course helps students to make better personal and professional decisions. In particular, the aim of this course is to enable students to solve real-world business problems or to discover new business opportunities using the available data and evidence.

The Supply Chain Management course aims to provide a broad understanding of supply chain management and how it relates to logistics and different business operations. The course further enables students to solve a variety of complex supply chain problems, ultimately, optimising business performance interlinked with many operational aspects.

Performance Improvement is an established process, used by consultants operating in international businesses. This process combines key elements from performance measuring, change management and project management. In contemporary international business nothing is ever static. This course will help you understand the ways a business evaluates their performance and how a resulting, planned change, designed to increase efficiency and effectiveness, can be managed using project management tools and techniques.

Projects drive changes in organisations. A successfully implemented project can move an organisation from one state to another to achieve a specific objective. Projects are undertaken at all organisational levels and can involve multiple business units from multiple organisations. Therefore, effective project implementation is not straightforward. Executives thus need to ensure that the projects’ deliverables can create intended business values for a variety of stakeholders.