Business Management BA

This module introduces you to organisational behaviour which involves studying how people can effectively work together to achieve group and organisational aims. During this module you will be introduced to a range of topics associated with organisation studies including leadership, individual difference, conflict, power, control, ethics, communication, and organisational design. By exploring perspectives and theories you will develop understanding about peoples' behaviour at work, and create socially and ecologically responsible plans for improving the effectiveness of individuals, groups and organisations. An emphasis is put on supporting you to reflect on perspectives and theories about processes of organising and forms of organisation by evaluating their underpinning assumptions and applying them to real-world situations.

This module provides you   with a grounding in a range of business economics concepts that have immediate relevance to modern day businesses, society, and the economy. 

It introduces theoretically diverse concepts that include and contend with mainstream business economics thought, so that you are able to openly debate and engage with business economics topics. 

It is designed to challenge understanding of the socioeconomic environment in which businesses are embedded so that you become more cognizant with diverse ways of thinking about and understanding real world business economic issues.

This module provides an introduction to management and specific functions such as marketing, operations management, strategy and social responsibilities. This module introduces the fundamentals of management theory and practice, enabling you to develop your views by critically analysing and evaluating various schools of thought in both historical and contemporary contexts. You will be expected to develop a detailed understanding of different fields of practice within the wider context of management and organisations.    

Building on this foundation, the module will further explain key subfields (or themes) of management, including strategy, marketing, operations management and responsible management. You will have an opportunity to practice your collaborative and presentation skills through the coursework assignments and work during the classes.

The aim of this module is to provide you with an understanding of the basic concepts used in the preparation of financial information and to introduce you to the forms of financial statements that managers need to be familiar with. In addition, the module will introduce you to appropriate forms of finance and the means of raising money to fund new enterprises, the financial planning this entails and forms of feedback and accountability to actual and potential fund providers. The module seeks to achieve all of the above in the context of start-up or growth firms. It is deliberately non-technical in nature, in other words it tries, as far as possible, to avoid unnecessary technical jargon or complexities.

This module is intended to provide a structured and supported process for you to reflect upon your own learning, performance and/or achievement, and to plan for your personal, educational and career development. It is designed to ensure you are fully prepared to gain the most from your academic studies and to be better placed to continue your development throughout and beyond your degree studies.

This unit will enable you to develop competencies in quantitative techniques and tools which are essential for the collection, analysis and interpretation of data in a business context. Focusing on a variety of business problems, the unit will demonstrate how quantitative techniques and spreadsheet tools can be used to support effective business decision making. The unit adopts a flipped learning model, combining independent study with spreadsheet-based workshops in computer labs and interactive in-class workshop sessions.

You will develop competencies in quantitative techniques and tools which are essential for the collection, analysis and interpretation of data in a business context. You will analyse a variety of  business problems, and this module  will demonstrate how data-driven quantitative methods and spreadsheet tools can be used to support effective business decision making. The teaching on this module is aimed at those students who have not taken mathematics beyond GCSE or its equivalent. The learning and teaching  adopts a flipped learning model, combining independent study with spreadsheet-based workshops in computer labs and interactive in-class workshop sessions.

This course will introduce students to business strategy and the strategic management process. It seeks to enhance their understanding of the theories and practice of strategy. Students will be able to learn why, and how, companies make strategic decisions in the context of today's complex and dynamic world of business. Students will be introduced to various strategic analysis frameworks and learn how these can be used to help organisations better understand their strategic position and formulate feasible and suitable growth and competitive strategies. Based on a sound understanding of the theories, students will be required to apply the concepts through the use of innovative strategic planning teaching and learning technologies and case study material.

This module aims to introduce the field of marketing to Level 2 students. The coverage will include the basics of marketing strategy including segmentation, targeting and positioning as well as the practical domains of strategy development like product and brand management, services marketing, pricing methodologies, promotional strategies, distribution and logistics.

Operations Management (OM) deals with the production of goods and services and relates closely to other business functions. Operations Management is concerned with the effective and efficient marshalling of the organisation's resources to meet its objectives. Operations Management is the business function that generates income and is therefore central to all commercial businesses. Operational Research (OR) is introduced on this module to support Operations Management decision-making processes. OR is a systematic and logical approach involving the construction and manipulation of mathematical models. The aim of this module is to take a general view of operations management in all sectors of business.

In this module you will  explore the role of organisations in society and consider the extent to which they can become truly socially responsible in the modern world. You will be introduced to a range of topics through weekly lectures and tutorials which begin by considering the key challenges of organisations (including businesses, nonprofits and alternative organisations such as co-operatives) when it comes to being socially responsible. You will also critically explore different specific themes that cut across multiple areas in management and organisation studies including topics such as organisations and an inclusive culture; changing organisational practices and operations; creating a responsible workplace through responsible HR incorporating EDI practices; corporate citizenship and community engagement; responsible marketing; and strategy and planning. Overall, on this module 'Organisations in Society', you will conduct a critical exploration of the complexities and challenges of responsibility in the workplace and how they respond and relate to these challenges within local, national and global communities.  

Teams are ever present in organisations. An understanding of the factors that contribute to effective team work combined with knowledge of the design and management of successful teams are crucial for managers and leaders. This module links leadership and team work through providing an overview of the most important theories, cutting-edge research and 'hot topics' in both fields. This knowledge along with a basic understanding of leader development is consequently applied to practice in developing students into effective and valuable team players and leaders through practical exercises and self-reflection.

Entrepreneurship was first coined as a term in the eighteenth century but it was not until the second half of the twentieth century that the term achieved widespread usage and became a popular word to describe the enterprising, creative and opportunity-seeking behaviours of special types of individuals, organisations and regions. In this module, we shall consider how and why the 'enterprise culture' has become such a popular phrase for individuals, organisations, communities and governments alike. This is done by examining the various historical, economic, political and social assumptions about the nature of enterprise and entrepreneurship. In addition, because there is always an important human story behind enterprise activity and the creation of a small business, the module will examine many individual and organisational stories (from emerging, growing and mature businesses) in order to assess the factors and challenges involved in starting and running your own business. In this module students will also have the opportunity to evaluate their personal orientations to entrepreneurship and sharpen their appreciation of what it is like being self employed, working in the family business, being an owner-manager, being a corporate entrepreneur or running a franchise business.

This module builds on the content taught in Year 1. Several important techniques for collecting and analysing data are taught. These include a review of the principles of confidence intervals and hypothesis testing, then their extension to other situations: means, variances and proportions for one and two populations, the analysis of categorical data (contingency tables), the Analysis of Variance including interaction models, simple and multiple regression, and non-parametric methods. Central to the learning of these topics is the use of a state-of-the-art statistical package, namely, SPSS.

This module is designed to incorporate critical reflection on the concepts of career and career management suitable for undergraduates in the School of Management for their own personal development and action planning as well as their future use as managers and employers within organisations.

Every modern business has access to large pools of data from various internal and external sources. Internally, businesses hold data about their products and services, workforce, customers and suppliers, to name a few. Externally, social media data, such as customer comments on products/services, is increasingly becoming vital as businesses endeavour to retain their customers and design or redesign new products or services to meet customer expectations. Data is now universally recognised as the most critical resource in managing businesses. However, businesses will struggle to use data for competitive and strategic advantage unless it is transformed into intelligence. Business Intelligence has become one of the essential assets in 21st-century organisations as it turns raw data into actionable insights. In this module, you will learn key elements of Business Intelligence (BI) and its diverse applications across various fields, including human resources, customer retention, and enhancing business competitiveness. You will also gain practical hands-on experience by utilising a robust, user-friendly BI platform commonly used in the industry.

The module explores the strategic motivations for international expansion and evaluates foreign market entry strategies. It also analyses how international businesses operate within diverse institutional and social and sustainable environmental contexts. 

You will develop  understanding of key international business theories and will be able to relate  their relevance to real world internationalisation processes.

 You will investigate how firms respond to global challenges and mitigate operational risks. You will also examine the broader economic impacts of multinational firms on host economies and compare insights across industries and countries.

This unit is concerned with the way organisations manage and organise their human resources at work, and is thus concerned with the processes that surround managing people from a strategic perspective that focuses on operational practice. A wide range of practical tools and techniques are examined, as well as relevant theories in the field. The utility of HR tools and techniques and issues that surround their introduction, monitoring and evaluation are examined in current employment contexts. This module introduces learners to contemporary issues and thinking in HRM, whilst also encouraging a critical perspective.

The module provides a basic introduction to the core aspects of domestic law and relevant EU law. The syllabus covers a study of the domestic legal system, the law of contract, aspects of agency, and the law of negligence incorporating the potential liability of those in the business of delivering advice in professional practice. The module also examines the law relating to companies including the legal regulation of business organisations.

This final-year module offers you a gateway to real-world experience and career readiness. It is designed to enhance your understanding of contemporary real-life issues within companies and organisations, increase awareness of your skills and personal attitudes, and provide you with a concrete avenue to showcase your abilities and creativity. This module also provides you with an important work-related learning experience, demonstrating your abilities to future employers. This is especially important if you have not had a placement yet, as it equips you with a demonstrable project to discuss during future job interviews.

You will be given the freedom to choose the 'challenge pack' and literature that best fit your interests and to build upon your strengths as developed throughout the programme). In practice, you will address a management problem independently. You will meet with the chosen organisation and/or company and report your analysis and recommendations back to them. To do so, you will be invited to reflect on your skills, analyse real-life data provided by the organisations, examine scholarly research independently, critically assess theories and apply them to your management problem. Your work will need to show awareness of social responsibility and/or environmental sustainability. The Module Leader and the teaching staff will support you throughout this entire journey.

The module aims to develop in students both a theoretical critical understanding of, and practical guidance to enhance, creativity and innovation in organisations. Topics will include: different methodologies for studying creativity and innovation; cognitive, biological, personality and affective bases of individual creativity; explaining influences on team and organisational innovation; and social dimensions of innovation. A key practical feature of the module is that it will also train students in how to use the CLEAR IDEAS model to develop innovative solutions to real-life problems.

The aim of this module is to critically analyse dominant ways of understanding work and organisation, and to explore how alternative perspectives can support socially equitable, sustainable and responsible ways of working and organising. To achieve this, the module adopts critical theories to question conventional ideas about work and organisation, focusing on how power and politics shape the problems that organisations seek to address and the 'solutions' they propose.

The application of critical theories will enable students to explore how contemporary realities of work and organisation are produced and what alternative realities may be available. Significantly, the module will critically examine different research approaches and ways of knowing that shape our understanding of organisations and actions at work.

This advanced strategy module will develop students' understanding of strategy practice and the processes through which strategies are accomplished within organisations. Building on students' understanding of the key concepts, frameworks and theories of strategic management, the module focuses on 'strategy work'; developing a deeper understanding of the nature of strategy work in organisations and strategy work and how strategy practitioners carry out this work. By applying key concepts and theories to everyday practical problems and case studies of strategy work in organisations, students will be able to critically examine how strategy practitioners deal with complex real-world problems in organisations and the practices that influence strategy outcomes. In this way, this module will enhance students' understanding of how strategy works in practice. The module will also enable students to recommend appropriate strategies and solutions for strategy practitioners in organisations.

This module is intended to guide students on the applications of marketing theory to the Internet. Teaching will involve building upon existing marketing concepts while questioning the validity of existing theory in light of the differences between the Internet and other media, and differences between digital marketing and other forms of marketing communications. The module covers how organisations (both public and private sector) use digital media to connect, interact, establish and maintain productive dialogue with customers. The module explores the impact of the Internet on marketing and branding activities and the techniques employed to enable the development of meaningful customer relationships.

The module will provide an extensive overview on methodologies for supporting decision making within complex systems, with particular emphasis on industry and business management. A large set of quantitative methods from Decision Sciences will be presented, including fundamentals of Operational Research, Simulation tools and development of tailored Decision Support Systems (DSS) in semi-structured management problems. Real-world success cases arising in manufacturing, healthcare, logistics and service management will be analysed, where the combined use of DSS, Statistical Analyses and Optimisation Methods secured a breakthrough support for strategic and operational management to achieve optimal solutions while satisfying all system constraints.

In this module, you will gain foundational theories and practical skills essential for managing projects effectively across diverse contexts. You will learn to structure and schedule projects, effectively manage resources, and estimate costs, with a strong focus on enhancing adaptability and responsiveness. The module equips you with the fundamentals needed to manage projects across a wide range of industries and covers key aspects of project monitoring and control, ensuring you become proficient in using several project management tools and techniques. You will also benefit from the wide emphasis placed on communication and collaboration skills required for managing projects across a diverse set of contexts and industries.

This module considers the critical challenges faced by contemporary organisations in the context of the global 'polycrisis'—a state of multiple intersecting crises encompassing threats of climate change, entrenched poverty and inequalities, deepening global conflict etc. Managers across different organisations must find ways to navigate these challenges, whilst creating multiple forms of value for their stakeholders. In the business world such crises are increasingly being re-conceived as opportunities, and addressing them positioned centrally as part of the core 'purpose' of firms. New forms of business organising are also emerging that give primacy to the creation of public over private benefit and seek to develop innovative new solutions to global sustainable development challenges. 

This module aims to equip you with the knowledge and skills you will need to manage organisations in an age of polycrisis. To do this, you will gain critical understanding of key concepts, theories and perspectives in the field of responsible management. You will learn about the practical challenges managers in contemporary organisations face in respect of ethics, business and society, and sustainable development, and how these can be navigated. You will examine, critically evaluate, and propose recommendations for organisations applying responsible management principles in their activities. You will learn how the embedding of responsible practice is creating new roles in organisations, with opportunities for your future careers.

This module provides students with an understanding of international marketing. The module will prepare students for the challenge of global marketing and enable students to have sufficient knowledge to be able to take on international related work, if faced by this challenge in industry.

This module will introduce students to strategic organisational crisis management from a process perspective. Contextualising organisations within a framework of formal and informal institutions, this research-led and practice-oriented module will guide students through organisational incubation, response and recovery from crisis. It will draw upon key concepts, such as systems and complexity, to provide lenses through which the manager can gain critical insights into the crisis process and thereby potentially develop socially responsible interventions which can help organisations prepare, respond and learn from major disruptions.

The module provides students with a comprehensive understanding of socially responsible marketing and consumer behaviour, demonstrating how these principles can address societal challenges, such as sustainable development, the impact of overconsumption, public health, and consumer welfare. It explores how socially responsible marketing practices can tackle social issues, support non-profit organisations, aid government policy development, and benefit society. The module equips students with the skills to critically assess marketing strategies and conduct secondary research to evaluate and improve practices. Both theoretical and practical approaches will be used to explore how these principles adapt to the evolving socioeconomic and technological environment, benefiting a variety of sectors, including arts, education, for profit organisations and healthcare.

Operations Management and Supply Chain Management deal with the production of goods and services and relate closely to other business functions. They are concerned with the effective, efficient and economic marshalling of the organisations resources to meet its objectives. Operations Management is a central business function in all commercial businesses. Supply Chain Management expands the role of Operations Management into understanding how purchasing and supply can be managed. This module is intended to develop higher level skills in Operations Management and Supply Chain Management beyond those developed at level 2.

This unit aims to provide you with an introduction to new venture creation from the perspective of the 'one shot' or 'serial' entrepreneur - those individuals who start, manage and grow a single venture or who have only one active venture at any one time, even though through the course of their lives they may create a number of ventures. Emphasis is placed upon entrepreneurial personality, motivation and attitudes; skills of opportunity recognition, creation and evaluation; innovation; and developing entry and exit strategies. This simultaneously draws upon, and develops foundations necessary for, companion studies in strategic management, marketing, finance and organisational behaviour.

In this module, you will explore the contemporary developments that are transforming the international business landscape. As global markets become increasingly interconnected, complex, and unpredictable, international firms face new strategic challenges and opportunities. You will critically examine how emerging trends are reshaping the way businesses operate across borders. The module encourages you to question traditional assumptions, evaluate alternative business models, and consider how firms can adapt to ongoing change. Through the analysis of current cases and real-world examples, you will develop the ability to assess strategic responses to disruption and uncertainty in a global context. Emphasis is placed on developing analytical and reflective skills that are essential for understanding international business in the 21st century. By the end of the module, you will be equipped to engage with complex, future-oriented issues in global business strategy and decision-making.

This module is designed to introduce students to a broad range of topics relevant to good understanding of employee well-being in the workplace of today. Indicative topics that might be covered include: stress/burnout, workplace bullying/violence, absenteeism (and presenteeism), musculoskeletal disorders, job crafting, job redesign etc. In addition, the module will examine potential workplace/organisational interventions designed to limit the risks to employees of these factors, for example, organizational stress policies, bullying policies and reporting systems, HR initiated health and well-being programmes, mindfulness.

This module is concerned with exploring the dimensions of work and employment in the twenty-first century. It will explore as its central motif notions of 'decent work and 'job quality within the contemporary political economy. We will examine the key dimensions of job quality focussing on issues relating to skill formation, employee autonomy and growing work pressures. As well as exploring changes in the quantity and quality of jobs on offer in the economy, the module will also explore the dimensions and dynamics of job quality for key occupational groups such as creative workers, knowledge workers, service workers and manual work. As a result questions such as 'what makes a job have quality 'why are bad jobs growing 'are graduate jobs disappearing and 'is knowledge work on the increase will be considered. The module will draw on a wide body of both empirical research as well as requiring a theoretical engagement with the subject.