Masters (MBA) Business Administration
With additional electives in Leadership, Enterprise or Tourism (part-time only)
The awards also offered through this programme are Postgraduate Certificate in Management (3 modules) and the Postgraduate Diploma in Management (6 modules)
What does the course involve?
The overall aim of this programme is to develop analytical and strategic management skills using concepts derived from a wide range of academic disciplines. This will enable students to respond creatively and effectively to the challenges presented by a global business environment. This programme also provides for those students who wish to focus their studies in the areas of leadership, entrepreneurship or tourism.
The programme provides a coherent and integrated programme of study, which will satisfy the needs of students and companies operating in a competitive business environment. It will develop students’ intellectual ability to analyse, an ever complex and changing environment at a strategic level. It also provides an opportunity for experienced specialists to broaden the range of management responsibilities they can undertake with confidence. All students will have the opportunity to study for a week at Suffolk University in Boston, United States of America, and participate in a consultancy project with a US firm.
The Leadership Elective
This elective is designed to develop highly effective leaders of organisations. Whether students are a Chief Executive or a junior manager, each is a leader. The modules have been designed to suit students from the private, public, voluntary and community sectors. As well as providing students with the tools to foster rational, strategic decision making in a business context, the programme encourages and supports students to explore their ability to work with and through other people.
The Enterprise Elective
This elective will suit students who have a background in small and medium sized enterprises and entrepreneurship as well as those with less experience who wish to learn about these challenging areas. Students will find the modules highly relevant if they are considering setting up their own business or wish to develop a more entrepreneurial culture within their current organisation.
The Tourism Elective
This elective aims to develop analytical and strategic management skills using concepts derived from a wide range of academic disciplines within the context of the travel and tourism sector. This will enable managers to respond creatively and effectively to the challenges of the global business environment. Wherever possible, real organisational issues are used both for development and assessment purposes. Group work ensures that participants receive maximum exposure to current practices within a variety of organisations.
What modules will I study?
Full-time students complete 180 credits in a year (September to September). Part-time students usually take two and a half years to complete the programme.
Full and part-time modules include:
The Operations and Functions of Management
This module addresses four significant and related management topics, which together provide a foundation in both content and learning for subsequent modules. The topics are; managing people in a technological environment, managing technology, managing responsibly and managing operations.
Financial and Risk Management
This module provides an appreciation of a wide range of financial and risk issues as they impact on the business world. The initial focus is on the basic application of financial statements, financial tools and techniques before progressing to a more strategic perspective. It encourages students to see the financial and risk implications of the decision making process.
Contemporary Issues in the Business Environment
Of interest here are the external factors that affect the strategy and operations of businesses such as regulation, political and economic actions as well as social forces. The module enables students to develop a critical awareness of the implications of those factors. Contemporary issues such as employment law, globalisation and its impacts, contract law and environmental regulation are also covered.
Strategic Change Management
This module aims to develop a critical understanding of organisational strategy, and to apply this to different contexts, including commercial and not-for-profit organisations of various sizes. It adopts an interdisciplinary approach to problem solving, drawing on skills developed in other modules. The content will cover contextual analysis, culture and stakeholder analysis, approaches to organisational change management, and methods of implementing and evaluating change interventions.
Strategic Marketing
Marketing is fundamental to profitable business operations, achieved through strategic analysis, strategy formulation, strategic implementation and control. It is largely responsible for delivering core corporate objectives by offering value propositions to targeted customer segments, helping to sustain competitive advantage in the longer term. It is desirable for the contemporary MBA programme to contain a designated marketing module, which demonstrates a customer-facing approach, integrated across and throughout a business organisation. As a set of principles and practices, marketing also has relevance to public sector and other not-for-profit sectors.
International Business Strategy (essential for part-time students, optional for full-time students)
The aim of this module is to provide an understanding of how to plan for the internationalisation of firms, including suitability criteria, methods of overseas market entry, cultural aspects of operating internationally and practical marketing considerations in international markets. The content will cover trends in the global economy, carrying out international market research and planning, international advertising, product policy and pricing issues. The module will be partly taught in the USA, at Suffolk University in Boston, where students will participate in a consultancy exercise with an overseas company.
Research Methods
The aim of this module is to introduce students to the wide variety of approaches and techniques of quantitative and qualitative research and to equip students with the skills required to collect, collate, analyse, present and interpret data. It also aims to provide a firm foundation for the dissertation. The content will cover the context of qualitative research, data collection techniques, qualitative data analysis techniques, statistical analysis or relationships and trends, sampling, and exploratory and descriptive research.
Dissertation
The dissertation provides students with an opportunity to undertake a substantial piece of independent research in an area of particular interest and to allow students to demonstrate their understanding of research methods and their application. It also provides an opportunity for students to relate their learning in taught modules to the analysis of a problem relevant to their Masters programme. On completion of the dissertation students will have designed an appropriate and feasible research plan, developed appropriate research instruments and written a dissertation of 15,000 words.
Full-time only modules include:
Students choose between either Business Seminars or International Business Strategy (see above)
Business Seminars
This innovative module will encourage the application of skills and knowledge to real time business problems or to case studies, through problem based learning. Students will develop their ability to acquire, analyse and evaluate information, and to look for feasible solutions to business problems which they must communicate effectively. Guest lecturers drawn from a range of businesses and other academic institutions in the region will contribute to the seminars.
Part-time only modules include:
The Leadership Elective Modules
The Operations and Functions of Management (as above)
Financial and Risk Management (as above)
Leadership Development
A challenging module that encourages students to develop many of the practical skills and behaviours associated with leading people effectively. By acquiring an informed understanding of their personal strengths and weaknesses as leaders and devising strategies to address areas for development, students will increase their confidence in the work place and be well equipped to encourage the development of others.
Creativity and the Management of Change
This module provides an understanding of how change can be managed more effectively through the exercise of leadership and creative thinking. Concurrently students develop skills of analysis and problem solving. It also enables students to develop a critical awareness of organisational change theory and practice.
The Enterprise Elective Modules
The Operations and Functions of Management (as above)
Enterprise Management
Enterprise management is a complex exercise for managers in both existing businesses and new ventures. The module aims to equip the student with a more in-depth understanding of the entrepreneurial environment and how to maximise their approach to growth and planning. The structure of the module has three elements; developing the manager, understanding the venture environment and exploring how best to exploit the environment. Within this structure the student is encouraged to develop an interdisciplinary, integrative and holistic approach to the resolution of business problems.
Decision Making for Entrepreneurs
Decision making as an entrepreneur consists of taking risks but in a structured and managed way. This module aims to both explore the entrepreneurial decision making environment, as well as providing the student with the techniques and skills required to optimise their choices in this complex venturing environment.
The structure of the module has three elements; understanding VC’s and competitors, understanding decision tools and implementation issue, and linking decision making and planning. Within this structure the student is encouraged to develop an interdisciplinary, integrative and holistic approach to the resolution of business problems.
New Venture Development
Successful new ventures require a viable product or service, energy, a strategic plan, initial funding and a potential for growth. This module aims to explore the processes and challenges of starting a business, assessing opportunities, the development of convincing business plans, raising venture capital and the process of starting a company.
Tourism Elective Modules
The Operations and Functions of Management (as above)
Financial and Risk Management (as above)
Contemporary Issues in the Travel and Tourism Environment
This module examines external factors that affect the strategy and operations of businesses in the travel and tourism sector. It enables students to develop a critical awareness of the implications of these factors and facilitates their development of an academic understanding of the strategic and operational implications to business organisations. It will also provide students with the opportunity to develop skills of analysis and problem solving which they can use in their own organisation.
Strategic Change Management in the Travel and Tourism Industry
The module provides an academic understanding of the strategic issues in business in the context of the Travel and Tourism industry. It is an opportunity to develop skills of analysis and problem solving. It also enables students to develop a critical awareness of tourism policy and planning, thus enabling them to deal with the problems, choices and constraints involved in the development of effective strategies. It encourages students to develop their own intellectual framework of values, attitudes and practice, through exploring issues such as sustainability and development within the travel and tourism industry.