Business and Management: Enterprise

Course structure

The Master’s degree is offered in a modular format offering participants the greatest choice in tailoring their final degree content to match their academic interest and future career development.

Participants take a mix of taught modules in the first two trimesters (120 credits) and complete a dissertation/consultancy project (15,000-20,000 words) in the third trimester (60 credits). To achieve the MA you will need to complete 180 credits in total.

For those whose previous undergraduate study has been in an unrelated discipline, the programme will provide you with the skills and knowledge that you will need to gain a broad understanding of the complexities associated within modern day organisations and their effective management. It will prepare you to feel confident and assured in your own capacity to analyse complex issues and situations and to be able to manage yourself and the organisation through them in a positive and effective manner.

If you are preparing yourself for the skills and understanding that you will need to enter self-employment or to create and develop your own business idea, this specialist pathway in Enterprise will provide a framework around which you can make this a practical reality.

Modules

Trimester 1 (60 credits)
By the end of the first trimester you will have developed a core of knowledge about the contemporary business environment and the management skills through the core module (30 credits). In addition you will have begun to gain insight into the key themes that will comprise your final degree, taking one further compulsory half-module (15 credits) dependent upon your pathway choice as Enterprise, together with one additional optional half-module.

Compulsory Module

Management in Practice (30 credits)
This module provides a springboard to management topics which are studied throughout the Masters in Business and Management. Completing this module will develop knowledge of management in a range of business contexts. The module is mindful and covers aspects for students wishing to own their business or develop their career through self-employment.

Managing Innovation, Creativity and Change (15 credits)
This module enables you to develop your capacity in creativity and innovation, and in the manner that you communicate and negotiate with colleagues and key stakeholders. It helps you to become more self-aware, both as a learner and as a manager, in the way you apply these skills to the organisation.

Elective Module

Marketing Management (15 credits)
The purpose of this module is to provide an understanding of the importance of the marketing concept within any organisation. The module outlines both the philosophical underpinning supporting contemporary marketing theory and its application in different organisational contexts.

Business Economics (15 credits)
This module is designed to fulfil your need and interest with an in-depth background analysis to both microeconomics and macroeconomics with an emphasis on their applicability to the analysis of contemporary business problems. It introduces you to the key principles of economics that are relevant to a modern day business, and how economists build and use models to help make sense of the sometimes messy and confusing world around us.

Financial and Management Accounting 1(15 credits)
This module enables you to understand how and why organisations report on their financial performance and position in the way they do. You also develop an understanding of how financial information is used for decision making purposes and how relevant financial information is effectively evaluated and communicated across the organisation.

Trimester 2 (60 credits)
All students take four half-modules. Students within Enterprise pathway take two compulsory half-modules and each half-module forming a key component of the discipline of Enterprise. Students can then choose two further optional half-modules from other disciplines, designed to enable them to tailor their degree whilst demonstrating the broadening of their knowledge and understanding from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Compulsory Module

Entrepreneurship (15 credits)
This module explores the contribution of entrepreneurship and of individual entrepreneurs to future organisational growth and sustainability. It defines the different role of the entrepreneur in different organisational contexts – small, medium and international, and identifies the necessary requirements associated with the creation and management of an entrepreneurial culture.

Strategy and Governance (15 credits)
This module focuses on strategy and its importance to any organisation if it is to be able to grow and sustain itself within the contemporary global competitive environment. The module identifies the key concept of organisational purpose linked to both normative and technique based strategic tools and applies these in a variety of different organisational contexts.

Elective Module

Services and Relationship Marketing (15 credits)
This module is designed to explore the various facets of managing in the service industry. The emphasis of this module is on the consistency in service delivery to benefit the range of stakeholder groups. In addition to explore how businesses can achieve a competitive edge through better understanding of the intangible as well as the tangible part of their engagement with their customers

Marketing Communications (15 credits)
This module explores the key issues and challenges in contemporary marketing communications. It covers strategic issues of brand strategy, planning, and channel integration as well as the tactical considerations needed to execute relevant and appropriate marketing communications campaigns that meet the needs of key identified audiences.

Managing People (15 credits)
Whatever your specialism, managers increasingly need to be managers of people, lead teams and undertake many aspects of human resource management. It is also increasingly being recognised that organisational performance can be enhanced and competitive advantage gained through the strategic management and development of people.

Managing the Organisation (15 credits)
The purpose of this module is to provide an understanding of effective operations and process management to meet identified organisational goals. The importance of quality management processes and procedures and their management application across the organisation are analysed and evaluated as is the manner in which the quality of operations impacts on stakeholder behaviour (staff, customers etc.)

Financial and Management Accounting (2) (15 credits)
The purpose of this module is to develop the understanding of Financial & Management Accounting in both UK and International businesses. The module will focus on the understanding and preparation of Financial Statements under International Accounting Standards. This will also explore the nature of costs and techniques used to analyse and control costs in a competitive environment.

International Financial Management (15 credits)(subject to approval)
The purpose of this module is to expose students to the world of finance and financial management in an increasingly global market context in order to develop their understanding of the structure of business finance and its application to the decision-making processes in organisations. The course takes an international and strategic perspective in addressing this issue and develops managers’ and professionals’ ability to apply their knowledge and understanding to complex management and business problems in order to engage and develop business and management practice and strategy in a global context.

Trimester 3

Dissertation/Consultancy Project (60 credits)
After successfully completing trimester 1 and 2, Master’s students choose to work on a dissertation or a consultancy project (15,000-20,000 words). This is supported by a nominated supervisor. The module and embedded research methods workshops commences with a series of taught interventions designed to promote scholarly endeavour in the research context, which results in the formulation of clearly articulated research proposal outlining your research questions and the framing of the detailed work to be undertaken.

The Dissertation is expected to be a scholarly work (that is, based on sound academic principles) that makes a contribution to a field of knowledge. It enables you to demonstrate your ability to use learning derived from your studies to resolve a problem, answer a question or prove/disprove a hypothesis related to business, markets, or organisations.

The Consultancy Project is expected to be a competently structured and professionally implemented investigation into a real-world issue being faced by a real-life organisation and will combine a sound base of investigative theory with a pragmatic and practical application to the practitioner environment. It enables you to demonstrate your ability to use learning derived from your past studies to confront and resolve a management problem or issue.

Enterprise Pathway students must choose an entrepreneurship, managing innovation and creativity, or freelance management related subject.

Course assessment

A variety of assessment methods are utilised, including:

• Individual report
• Individual presentation
• Group project work
• Group presentation
• Examination

Assignments are designed to integrate theoretical concepts with practical application.