Online MBA - MBA

This module emphasises the acquisition of the key personal and professional skills essential for an on-going and effective career in business and organisational management in any sector of economic activity. These will include the skills expected by employers in key areas such as self-awareness and improvement, effective business communication, group work and team building, intercultural awareness, negotiation skills, business networking and working with technology. How we manage our own personal competences and their development will be a key determinant of how effective we will be in managing and leading others in any organisation.

This module will look at organisations, people and culture from a number of perspectives, and will require you to apply theories, models and concepts of managing human resources. There will also be particular interest in the strategic aspect of managing people in organisations. The module creates the space for you to apply a number of concepts in Strategic HRM in contemporary cases of known international organisations.

All managers, but especially those with budget responsibilities, need to understand the key principles of financial accounting, management accounting and finance. They should also be aware as to how these principles are commonly applied to their own functional responsibilities and the acknowledged limitations of their use in analysis and interpretation. Such financial ‘literacy’ in the construction and interpretation of the various balance sheets is a key attribute for successful management across a wide range of activities and sectors as it underpins and guides the investment and financing decisions of managers. An ability to manage financial performance helps all managers become more confident when participating in decision making and in the assessment of projected financial outcomes.

The module reviews the strategic approaches available to all organisations, whatever their size or sector of activity. Strategic intent offer the organisations the long-term direction. By the way of this module, an attempt is made to define, understand and apply three elements of the strategy, namely the ‘long term’, ‘direction’ and ‘organisation’ in both national and international contexts. The ‘long term’ is usually defined in terms of actions spanned across several years and up to even a decade in the future.  ‘Direction’ involves issues such as transfers between sectors of economic activity, e.g. print to electronic media within publishing. ‘Organisation’ can include many types, a small and medium sized enterprise, a multinational, not-for-profit enterprise or a public sector organisation. 

The module is designed to provide you with a thorough grounding on how organisations might deal with various aspects of innovation and how the development of a robust strategy for innovation can lead to sustainable competitive advantage. A key thrust of this programme of study is that achieving a sustainable competitive strategy, particularly in the context of disruptive change, is dependent upon organisations fostering a culture of innovation and creativity. The module is designed to allow aspiring managers to improve innovation capacity in their current and future careers. It will help managers to develop an understanding of how context influences performance and how organisations must change and learn as their context changes. It will identify the role that innovation and creativity plays in organisational learning and development.

The module explores the diverse range of activities that comprise the marketing management role, both nationally and internationally in scope. The success of new products may often depend less on the intrinsic characteristics of the product than on the marketing decisions you or your colleagues make, especially given the increasing importance of reaching new markets beyond national borders The module evaluates a wide range of marketing approaches and techniques to reach global markets, including the use of social media, with extensive case study analysis. The module will help you develop and implement marketing plans and strategies both in domestic and international markets. Whilst widely seen as part of the marketing function, attention will also be paid to the analysis and evaluation of promotion and sales techniques and strategies.

The purpose of the Research Project module is to provide a framework for you to undertake a substantial piece of disciplinary-relevant research. It is founded upon Birmingham City Business School’s teaching and learning philosophy which integrates theory and practice.