Accounting for Managers is designed as an introductory course to the areas of accounting and reporting. It has four main objectives:

• to discover the accounting cycle - from basic transactions to the preparation of financial statements
• to study the language of accounting and accounting standards
• to understand the importance of financial reporting and the role of financial statements in its process
• to understand and interpret financial statements

The objective of this course is to attempt to develop moral sensibility and practical reasoning in the context of managerial everyday action in organisations. The course will be concerned with morality in action, as it happens, rather than a removed reflection on codes and principles of ethics. The course will aim to show that ethics in action is diffused and difficult. Nevertheless, managers and employees have a responsibility to `work it out' for themselves. It is this `how to work it out' that the course will keep as its focus. The course will use a number of case studies as a basis to develop this moral sensibility so that managers will be able to act in a morally appropriate manner as part of their ongoing organisational action.

The main objective of the module is to understand how to apply and leverage information systems in the way we work. Topics include:

• Corporate computing – architectures, software, networks, and data management.
• Enterprise applications – frameworks for understanding integrated systems in manufacturing and services industries.
• IT as an enabler: changing primary value creating functions (example ebusiness and airlines) and resulting new products and services (examples music business and courier services).
• IT as an enabler: changing strategy and organisation forms (examples knowledge management and eHRM).
• Business Value of IT: methods for determining and optimizing the value of IT investments.
• Managing digitization: aligning business strategy and digitization strategies, challenges and options for companies in different industries

The purpose of this module is to examine entrepreneurship in different economic and cultural contexts. The main questions are how does entrepreneurship develop in different economies and cultures and how can we understand this process.

Topics covered include:

• Trends and drivers of global entrepreneurship
• The alchemy of business growth – high impact firms
• Business plans in action
• Opportunity recognition
• Evaluation of opportunities
• Business planning
• Financing startups and venture valuation

The last module of your degree, the Research Project, is the biggest and most intensive piece of work you will undertake on the MSc Management.

For this module, you undertake independent research over a period of ten weeks, using and building on the knowledge gained from the previous modules. Through the project, you will also develop your organisational and analytical abilities. Supervision is provided by academic members of staff from the various Management School departments.

There are the following project options available to students:

1. A project based on an independent piece of research, choosing from a number of academic areas put forward by academic staff within the Management School.
2. A company project with a local business where you will work in a team of four students on providing a viable solution to a current business issue you will discuss with the company. The team will produce a company report that will be assessed. You will then also have an opportunity to write a reflective paper summarising your experience and consolidating your learning. Throughout the teamwork and individual writing, you will be supported by academic staff within the Management School. Places on the company project are awarded competitively as there are a limited number of projects each year.

The module aims to enhance your understanding of real-world business practices by using economic reasoning. You will learn the definition of key concepts in modern microeconomic theory, how they interact in models and can be applied in practice, including for the analysis and design of firms’ strategies in various market structures.

Topics include:

• Supply, demand, and equilibrium in examples: How do prices and quantities relate on competitive markets?
• Production and costs: Where do (dis)economies of scale come from?
• Monopoly and competition: Can the comparison lead to there a typology of business strategies?
• Interdependence in decision making processes: What do we mean by oligopoly and collusion?
• Mergers, surpluses, and competition policy: Can society benefit from increased industry concentration?
• Integration, separation, and contractual alternatives: How do vertically related firms (should) write contracts?

The main objectives of the course are:

• To develop knowledge and understanding of the key theories, concepts and models in marketing to guide the development and execution of marketing strategies.
• To develop the skills to critically analyse marketing situations facing organisations.
• To develop written and verbal presentational skills.

The aim of this module is to introduce you to the discipline of Operations Management; to a range of approaches that can be used to plan, control and improve operations; and develop understanding of how Operations Management contributes to business competitiveness.

The material covered will include:

• Operations Strategy
• Process Design
• Capacity Planning (and Forecasting)
• Inventory (and Material Requirements Planning)
• Supply Chain and Supplier Relationship Management
• Lean and JIT
• Project Management
• Performance and Quality Management

This module explores the main debates in the field of Human Resource Management and the HR profession. This includes:

• The business environment and strategic HRM
• HRM in a multinational context
• Managing change and HRM
• Ethical stakes and challenges of global business
• Examining HRs role in promoting more ethical and sustainable organisations
• HRM and firm performance

This module introduces a practical approach to the management of projects. It engages students with a range of methods, tools and techniques used in industry to organise, plan and control successful project delivery. Also, it features an activity that provides students with the opportunity to apply these methods, tools and techniques.

Typical syllabus topics relate to Methods, Tools and Techniques: Project Definition; Involving Stakeholders in Projects; Activity Planning: Project Risk, Developing Schedules and Budgets; Management Planning: Quality management.

This module is designed to support your core study of the management discipline. It will assist in building advanced study skills and enhancing your professional development, equipping you with information that will help you make the most of your time on the MSc Management.

Designed as a bridge between the more formal taught parts of the programme, this module will provide you with insights into the philosophical and practical issues involved in conducting research.

The initial lectures and seminars introduce you to the role of philosophy in the design of any research project. The remainder of the first half of the module is then concerned with the wide variety of qualitative methods that are available to those involved in social science research. Finally, through a series of lectures and hands-on tutorials, you are shown the basics of conducting a quantitative study which includes the use of an appropriate software package.

The ultimate goal of the course is to develop your’ skills in analysing strategic situations and formulating strategy. After the module you should be able to analyse the competitive situation facing a firm, identify potential sources of competitive advantage and disadvantage and gain an appreciation of international business environments. In these analyses, you will apply analytical techniques from strategy, finance, accounting, organisational theory, organizational behaviour, marketing, economics and operations management.

You will be able to recognize the problems the organisation faces and develop and evaluate alternative courses of action available to the firm to solve those problems. Further, you will be able to persuasively communicate your analytical conclusions, both verbally and in writing. You will develop the ability to view the corporation as a whole and to appreciate the responsibilities and margins of freedom of top executives.