Business Management BSc (Hons)

Global Business Environment and International Strategy

In this module, you’ll be introduced to the factors that affect business from an external perspective. These include elements of globalisation and international business, and the fundamental skills that are needed for managers to navigate the business world. Political, Economic, Social, Legal, Ecological and Technological factors will be examined in the macro business environment. You’ll then learn how these factors interact in a competitive environment with globalisation, technological and social change to create complex strategic options for organisations. The module will also give you the opportunity to embark on a detailed exploration of concepts like sustainability and introductory economics.

Organisational Behaviour

You'll be introduced to a range of organisational behaviour issues that you may encounter in your career and be provided with evidence-informed analyses of ways in which culture, leadership, structure, and motivation all affect workers and workplaces. This foundation will then enable you to analyse the human side of business management and diagnose problems affecting organisations both independently and as part of a group. This module will give you the opportunity to take managerial, critical, symbolic-interactivist, and feminist perspectives to business issues and organisational behaviour related theories, models, and concepts to build your social capital and critical analytical skills. Specifically, we will equip you with the knowledge needed to understand how people and organisations function in individual, group, and organisational levels based on the latest academic evidence on topics such as motivation, leadership, teams, organisational structure, and culture. Finally, we aim to inspire you to value and continuously use the best available academic evidence on effective management of people and organisations throughout your career.

Introduction to Business Contracts and the Law

As an introduction to a broad range of civil legal issues, you'll get an insight and appreciation of the various ways in which the law impacts on the world of commerce and our everyday life. The module will provide you with foundational knowledge across a broad range of fundamental legal principles and concepts of the English Legal System. You’ll then examine the different rights and obligations of legal entities/individuals under the Law of Contract and the Law of Tort.

Digital Business and Principles of Marketing

This module presents a fusion between the philosophies which underlie marketing, with a strong emphasis of integrating digital and traditional concepts, and the real-life application of marketing, across a variety of sectoral contexts. You’ll examine the core marketing concept of customer value, the interplay between marketing and sustainability, and the ethical challenges and critiques of modern marketing. This module will help you to gain a wide range of knowledge across a breadth of sectors and be able to adapt these to whatever career or future research you choose. On completion of the module, you’ll have not only a solid grounding in marketing philosophies and theories but also a critical view of marketing, based around the realisation of the reality of modern digital marketing operations and management in a context of increasing global economic challenges. Your understanding of marketing will incorporate the current cultural context, in which the customer profile is shifting to become increasingly demanding, critical and questioning of the motivations and ethics behind the marketer’s activities.

Introduction to Financial Analysis and Management

Finance and business information is the lifeblood of any organisation’s operations and decisions. In this module, you’ll work with data and case studies from organisations, meet with businesses to understand the practical use this key information is put to, and present your decisions on a going concern or start-up. As you present your analysis of key information and conclusions to other stakeholders, you'll develop your persuasion and negotiation skills.

Understanding the Consumer

This module introduces you to consumer behaviour – both what and how we buy – and gives you a deeper understanding into how marketers tailor their offers to consumer demands and market trends, as well as how consumer behaviour is influenced by new products and services, the marketing mix, and its design and implementation. The psychological and sociological models and theories of emerging consumer psychology research will be illustrated with practical examples of the day-to-day marketing activities of product and service providers. You'll work in teams, following market research techniques, to develop your skills and entrepreneurial awareness. By analysing your research, and identifying a need within a consumer group, you’ll propose a business case for a new market offering. The basis of this assignment will be formed by how you use marketing techniques to convey the proposed offering and the value to the target consumer, as well as how this would affect their decision making and behaviour and motivate them to purchase. On completion you will have gained technical and professional marketing skills to be able to identify opportunities, and the transferable skills to be able to develop appropriate and entrepreneurial business cases creatively and innovatively.

The Entrepreneurial Journey

Entrepreneurs are people who identify and exploit opportunities for new products, marketing, or processes to generate economic and social value. Entrepreneurship is not just about new venture creation; it involves using creative or innovative ideas to recognise and develop solutions. You’ll work as part of a team over three rounds of activity (such as gamification, experiential learning, and simulation) to focus on the identification of an opportunity, the creation of a product or service, and pitching a concept to work as part of the team in order to develop your skills and collaborate with organisations and guest speakers.

Business Innovation

Development and management of new products and services is deeply linked to the results of companies, and innovation plays a key role in their long-term success. In this module, you’ll discover the innovation concept and its strategic role, as well as the process involved in the development of innovative and sustainable new products and services. From the perspective of business and marketing, you’ll relate idea generation and launch with its practical application in industry and commerce. You'll think independently to improve your ability to work outside of the comfort of structure and security, all the while learning the tools you need to develop your critical thinking and creativity. You'll learn innovation theories and new developments in suitability and the circular economy; understand how firms develop new consumer-centric sustainable and innovative products/services; improve your creativity skills; and understand the success factors for new products. In teams, you'll develop your own new product based on a provided brief and will present it in a pitch presentation with accompanying media to a panel for evaluation.

Developing Professional Practice and Using Information in HR

This module will give you a sound understanding of the knowledge, skills, and behaviours required by human resources (HR) professionals, whether in a generalist or specialist role – as described in the CIPD HR Profession Map (HRPM). You’ll embrace the ‘thinking performer’ perspective and cover the competencies needed by HR professionals to collaborate with others and function efficiently and effectively in an organisational context. You'll assess your own strengths and identify a continuing professional development plan. This plan will be based on the capabilities required for ethical, business-focused, and interpersonal professional conduct, exploring and recognising the strategic importance of the effective management of the human resource and people management, and progresses a critical appreciation of the role of HR. You’ll explore and recognise the strategic importance of effective HR management and, using work-based research and good practice, you will critically evaluate the role of HR in formulating strategies to prepare business cases and present viable and realistic improvements which shows an appreciation for issues identified in your research.

Project Management and Implementation

Project management is a key skill for any future professional. This module focuses on providing a sound basis for managing or working on projects. In essence, the concept of managing a project hinges on one quite basic principle, managing the triangle of: quality of the project outcomes, cost, and time. The module covers: Project Management Body of Knowledge; the importance of stakeholder and risk management; scheduling and costing; monitoring and controlling techniques, time management and resource optimisation; improving the success of projects; and the principles of agile project management.

Sustainability and Responsible Business

You'll develop an understanding of the shift towards more environmentally, socially and economically responsible business practice, and in particular focus on the drivers behind this shift. This includes enhancing your understanding of the sustainable development goals and growing business arguments for including a consideration of sustainability in all business and management practice. The module promotes a personal approach to the issues of sustainability and personal and social responsibility. The module includes an authentic assessment where you'll be diagnosing, designing, and evaluating an environmental management plan for your households or organisations, while reflecting on your personal responsibility and ethical behaviour. You'll pay special attention to questioning the different responses of business in relation to social responsibility and sustainable management. If you're studying BA (Hons) Business Management, successful completion of this module provides exemption against the Chartered Management Institute’s (CMI) unit 5022V1 Organisational Corporate Social Responsibility.

Strategic Management

Strategic Management is a fascinating module in our business management degree that studies the long-term purpose and direction of organisations through analysis of how to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. You'll explore core frameworks and analytical techniques that will enable you to assess the resources and capabilities of organisations in relation to the conditions of the industry, macro environment, and stakeholder pressures. Your focus then turns to strategic implementation, specifically in relation to business-level and corporate-level strategies. This is organised around five thematic areas: the evaluation of strategic options in terms of suitability, acceptability, and feasibility; 'intended strategy development' versus 'emergent strategy development'; the role of organisational structures and systems in strategy development; and leadership of strategic change; and finally the practice of strategy (who is involved in strategy development, the types of activities in which strategists are involved, and the types of methodologies that strategists use). With a practical and problem-oriented focus, the emphasis is on application of concepts and frameworks, helping you to gain insight into strategic challenges faced by an organisation. Throughout the learning period, you'll reflect on the global nature of competition, how strategic management can contribute to the creation of shared value and business sustainability.

Marketing Communications

This module is designed to give you an overall understanding of marketing communications and the part that it plays in business success. You'll explore both the role of communications and the integrated nature of modern advertising campaigns, and the tools, techniques, and implementation strategies used in online and offline marketing communications. You'll analyse the advantages and disadvantages of each, illustrating how the tools interact with the other elements of the marketing mix and why this integration is important. The promotional planning process at the strategic, tactical, and operational levels is identified, examined, and applied. You'll gain the knowledge and skills needed to pursue a career in the marketing industry and, in particular, marketing communications in either a company or agency. The assessment requires you to develop your theoretical knowledge, and demonstrate your skills in applying this theory to the creation of marketing communications in the appropriate media formats. Your brief will be to develop your advertising campaign – live where possible – which you will present to a panel of experts (from the company when live). You can then take this feedback to reflect upon and improve your communications plan where necessary for the report submission. Working in a team, you'll develop your skills and marketing knowledge, whilst exploring cultural trends, entrepreneurial opportunities, and reflect on your own pitch and performance to develop a positive, creative experience.

Business Management Undergraduate Major Project

The major project will give you the chance to demonstrate what you have learned on live brief assessments and be part of an interdisciplinary team addressing a current issue in business. You'll be presented with a current business issue and be required to research, analyse, and evaluate the issue effectively as a team. You'll act as the expert in your field of study to bring the perspective of that specialty to a complex business problem. You'll identify the key problems and issues, conduct literature reviews, evaluate information, investigate and adopt suitable development methodologies, determine solutions, process data, critically appraise, and present the findings of your project using a variety of media. You'll create a poster presentation on your project for your team to display and then answer the questions of an audience made up of academics and employers at a poster presentation event. You'll write a group business report on the outcomes of your project, evidencing your recommendations alongside an individual piece of reflective work on how you approached the issue, worked successfully as a team member, conducted robust business research, and developed sound conclusions and recommendations.