The aims of this module are to develop a deeper awareness of career management and to facilitate your’ professional development by analysing personality types, coaching styles and career behaviours. The module will enable you to explore your motivations, behaviours and leadership development and asks you explore what it means to be a professional through a systematic consideration of your role in particular workplace settings. A series of personal diagnostics will act as reference points for your development, along with personal tutoring, coaching and career development workshops. You will develop an understanding of your authentic leadership, refine your ability to connect with others and acquire a global mind-set enabling you to work in culturally diverse environments.

The module also develops an understanding, application and evaluation of practical tools to support coaching and mentoring processes, applicable to management issues such as managing team performance, supporting staff through change, innovative problem solving, building supportive relationships and mentoring the growth of talent. Through this journey you will create an individualised leadership and personal development plan and the skills required for ongoing self-reflection and appraisal of your capabilities to support your future career aspirations.

Module learning outcomes

On successful completion of the module, you will be able to:

• Critically reflect on your personal strengths and weaknesses and use a range of reference points to support your career development
• Demonstrate self-awareness in terms of personal motivation, supporting and restricting beliefs and attitude in proactively setting goals for your career and professional development
• Understand, apply and critically evaluate the underlying principles and approaches that have contributed to the growth of coaching and mentoring as development tools in the workplace

This module seeks to develop knowledge and understanding of the principal areas of strategic management and leadership practices emanating from business research and development. The module allows you to have a holistic view and understanding of how leaders and managers in an organisation manage the dynamics of strategies and policies formulation, implementation, and evaluation in order to respond to changes in both internal and external environmental dynamics and develop sustainable (competitive) advantage.

The aim of the module is to assist you in becoming an effective manager and leader in the workplace. For businesses to maintain a competitive advantage in the market, business leaders and managers have to manage contemporary challenges such as globalisation, innovation, technology and sustainability. Therefore, this module provides a broad representation of the diverse concepts and theories that reflect current debate among academics and practitioners alike. It explores how today’s leaders and managers utilise and manage competitive intelligence and knowledge in diverse cultural, industrial and organisational contexts in order to develop innovative strategies for sustainable competitive advantage.

The module will challenge you to reflect critically on theory and your own practice, as well as drawing experiences from global strategic leaders and managers. You will be encouraged to develop the skills to deal with the current challenges in organisations. Overall, you will develop a wider global and international perspective and increase your awareness of the different leadership and management approaches for successful strategy development and implementation in a variety of organisational, industrial and cultural contexts.

Module learning outcomes

On successful completion of the module, you will be able to:

• Critically evaluate the contemporary research and debates on the relationship between management and leadership practices and organisational outcomes
• Critically evaluate how the role and nature of the organisation affects the knowledge, skills and behaviour needed by leaders and managers
• Critically analyse the contemporary issues facing the successful formulation and implementation of organisational strategies

The purpose of this module is to introduce the holistic nature of operations, markets and resources. This will be done from a strategic perspective, allowing the long term vision of an organisation to be understood, implemented and realised. This can only be possible through the appreciation of effective business operations, clear understanding of market position and relations with the market, and clarity on resource availability.

The module will lead you through a critical evaluation of the variety of strategies available to an organisation, whether that be local, national or global, incremental or transformational, planned or emergent.

In determining any strategic intention, an organisation must have a clear understanding of the market within which is wishes to compete, so a full market analysis will need to be undertaken, coupled with complete awareness of resource availability. This will allow managers to identify the organisations capabilities, which in turn will act as the driver for implementing strategy.

The recognition and management of both internal and external relationships with the market will consequently move the organisation towards effective operations and performance. It is therefore necessary to understand how to manage the organisation’s impact on, and interplay with, the global marketplace.

Module learning outcomes

On successful completion of this module, you will be able to:

• Critically analyse the importance of effective sustainable business operations and the conditions necessary for effective and efficient work
• Critically evaluate organisational strategy and how this is developed in light of market and resource position
• Critically evaluate how customer value can be maximised through marketing activities to produce sustainable, strategic, competitive advantage
• Reflect on current trends and critical issues that are pertinent to the successful strategic alignment of sustainable value to markets and organisations

The intention of this module is to enable managers and future managers to appreciate, apply and mould the role of finance, operationally, tactically and strategically within an organisation. This module will provide the opportunity for you to critically analyse the financial data that information systems provide and process this data to convert it into information, applicable for strategic planning. The module will also allow you to explore the role of performance measurement systems within an organisation and how the accounting and finance function is used to design approaches which then enable the effective and timely management of performance.

The focus of this module is on the internal accounting and finance function and how this data is deployed to inform organisations in their planning processes and decision making. The module will include, from an external perspective, analysis and interpretation of key financial statements and corporate reports, consideration of shareholder wealth maximisation and value creation, and the measurement of performance within this context. Internally, the module will cover data generation and conversion into information for management use within planning, control, decision-making and performance management.

Module learning outcomes

On successful completion of the module, you will be able to:

• Critically analyse financial data and interpret information, evaluating timeliness, relevance and validity
• Critically evaluate the wider role of fundamental analysis within the context of corporate performance
• Critically evaluate using financial management practices to produce information appropriate for management to aid planning, control and decision-making at strategic, tactical and operational levels

This module aims to equip you with the professional skills you will need as you develop your career and move into more senior leadership roles. Through an experiential approach, you will develop critical skills in business including communication, self-management and self-direction. This module also provides an oversight and appreciation of the challenges of professional working. The module develops your academic study skills, your ability to critically review information and your referencing skills. The development of a portfolio of academic and practical skills will underpin your study at postgraduate level, and support your journey through the programme and within your professional context.

Module learning outcomes

On successful completion of the module, you will be able to:

• Identify, search for and critically review relevant academic and business information following academic conventions
• Acknowledge supporting material and evidence in written work and present in an effective manner for a range of audiences
• Undertake critical self-reflection of business skills and develop strategies for improvement