The underlying aim of this module is to show you that management and business are not merely a collection of techniques from several disciplines, but rather have a coherent cultural core which corresponds to a generalised, globalised system of values that have to be grasped and understood if management and business are to make sense at all. Therefore, we will seek to show how management and business are part of the broader cultural and historical nature of contemporary global society.

We hope you will understand that, as part of society and culture, both management and business carry within them the signs of all the major tensions, problems and crises that face us today in the world economy, in our relationship with the Earth and the natural environment, and in our relationships with each other as humanity. The module is designed to help you recognise management’s central place in this essential ‘system of crises’ and to understand that such crises are problems for managers with possibly far-reaching social and organisational implications, rather than incidental external matters that have no bearing on your future professional lives.

Strategic Management is about making distinctive choices concerning the direction and scope of the organization over the long term, in order to enhance its ability to create value and improve its prospects for organizational survival and growth. In a complex and turbulent environment, with rapid economic, regulatory and technological changes, strategising – the art of processing complex information thoughtfully and creatively and the ability to convince others of your analysis and recommendations – is a critical skill to acquire. The goal of this module is to provide you with an understanding of strategy that will enable you to discuss real-life business activities within a framework of contemporary strategic management thinking. This module is designed to encourage you to develop a personal and distinctive understanding and appreciation of strategising for different industries and in uncertain environments, through lectures, case analyses and class discussions.

It is often argued that "effective leadership" is a key factor in improving organisational performance. Yet, it is also increasingly evident that traditional understandings of what constitutes leadership - especially charismatic and transformational models - have not always lived up to their promise. Against this background, and building on what you have learned about leadership in ‘Introduction to Management and Leadership’, this module seeks to re-think leadership relationships and dynamics by introducing students to several perspectives on leadership and exploring their strengths and weaknesses. In particular, the course addresses leader-centred, follower-centred, cultural, and critical approaches and also explores other important issues and themes.

The course is designed to rethink leadership relationships and dynamics in ways that critically examine the facilitators and challenges to effective leadership that frequently exist in contemporary organisations and societies.

The overall aim of this module is to develop an appreciation and understanding of the fast-moving and multi-faceted world of advertising from both a theoretical and managerial perspective.

We will focus on advertising within the private sector and cover a number of contemporary issues in advertising, including social and ethical issues, international advertising and advertising regulation. On completion of this module, you should be able to demonstrate a clear understanding of advertising theory, strategy and execution.

Innovation is becoming popular in the current economic and political debate to improve the competitiveness of economies and firms. In today’s fast-paced technology and creativity-driven society, innovation is both a desired trait and a necessity for survival. This course will discuss innovation on many levels from a micro level, focusing on the role of innovation in enabling individuals to generate competitive advantage, to the strategy and the types of problems faced by firms in their new product/service and process development. In particular, we will be looking at the links which need to be made between innovation activities in the development of new products, services and business models, and the role of strategy and individual actions may play in supporting or obstructing innovation. The module will give students an opportunity to develop an understanding and critical awareness of current theories and approaches relevant to managing innovation.

Economic, social, cultural and political globalisation have all contributed to the growth of economic activity that cuts across national borders and to the emergence and proliferation of organisations that transcend national boundaries. Increasingly, organisations are engaged in employment contracts in multiple national employment systems. The human resources of organisations are located in multiple countries. Internationalisation thereby becomes a key challenge for practitioners and a dimension that cannot be taken as given or standard for scholars of HRM. In a context of the transformation of a growing number of organisations (and especially the largest ones) into “transnational social spaces”, HRM practices flow across borders. Some strategic scholarship argues that such flows are critical to the success of individual firms, and concentrate their efforts on identifying “best practices” that will yield the greatest leverage to each. Strategic scholarship is keen to understand what will work best to increase the efficiency and financial performance of multinational organisations. It also studies the various “glitches” that might obstruct flows or make the flows of HRM practices everywhere not always desirable.

This module examines the challenges of managing human resources against a backdrop of cross-cultural and institutional work contexts and teams, variation in local socio-political-legal contexts and the necessity for cross-border assignments. The analytical/critical approach to IHRM taken concerns itself with questions of whether employment (and HRM) practices are converging or diverging around the world, how power and politics are implicated in the internal dynamics of multinational corporations, and if the corporate social responsibility pledges for appropriate treatment of workers can possibly suffice to ensure a fair employment relationship in the absence of a transnational regulator, among others.

Organisational change is widely accepted as a defining feature of contemporary life. Most of the topics covered in management courses, for example, structure; technology; people; power; culture; strategy; leadership and learning, to name a few, assume the need for changes of one kind or another. This course of lectures and the associated seminar programme review some key ideas associated with approaches to change. Seminal approaches to the field that can be said to conceptualise change management are introduced and compared, particularly those at the micro - that is the individual and group level.

Material included in the course will help you understand your own and other peoples' reactions to changes. It will help you develop informed opinions about theories of change and will help you to understand how changes might be managed effectively. Expressed more formally, the course will

• introduce you to some key management and social, and behavioural science contributions in the field;

• help you to compare different orientations and to appreciate their relative strengths and weaknesses;

• help you to relate such ideas to actual events in organisations; and,

• help you to understand and evaluate your own approaches to the management of change and to evaluate management practices in this area.

The key theme of this module is to learn how to negotiate and make sustainable business deals. Strategic negotiations are highly relevant in today’s interconnected business landscape. Companies need to negotiate with multiple stakeholders, such as suppliers, customers, agencies, governments and authorities to be able to access the resources that they need. A strategic deal that companies would need is not a fixed entity but rather the outcome of long and time-consuming negotiations that affect further negotiations.

The module will examine:

1. the strategic challenges that companies face in their markets today,
2. the analytical tools that are needed to make sustainable business deals,
3. the biases and errors in deal-making
4. the various ways by which business deals are manifested, and
5. the managerial implications of strategic negotiations.