Corporate Innovation And Entrepreneurship

Managing creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship and change are essential to successful performance in the context of increasing demands and fierce competition faced by organisations in the twenty-first century. This unit provides an opportunity for you to explore how these processes might effectively be promoted across organisations regardless of size and sector from initial business start-up through to large multinational corporations. The unit adopts a critical approach encouraging consideration of alternative philosophical perspectives supported by influential theoretical contributors.

Strategy And The Global Competitive Environment

This unit explores strategy and the implications for marketing. You will consider the broad external environment, current issues and challenges facing directors, senior managers and entrepreneurs in guiding the long-term development of organisations. The objectives of organisations and the means of achieving these objectives through the mobilisation and deployment of assets and resources and the integration of the various functions of the organisation will be the focus of the unit. You will most specifically:

• Understand and develop strategy; think strategically;  
• Research, develop and demonstrate expertise in understanding the global business environment in which the modern organisation operates gaining confidence in handling current affairs and relating these to organisations’ strategies;
• Identify and evaluate political, economic, social and technological developments relevant to organisational strategies;
• Apply a range of skills in developing business and marketing strategies for different environments and opportunities that can harmonise the organisations’ objectives, capabilities and resources    

Project Management

• enables you to consider the importance of Project Management and the role of a project manager in modern businesses;
• develop your systematic understanding of Project Management, informed by contemporary research, and its diverse application in different business contexts;
• enable you to evaluate commonly used tools and methodologies for application in your business area;
• enable you to approach new projects equipped with many of the necessary skills to bring projects to successful conclusions;
• enable you to recognise and promote the importance of effective Project Management to potential users.Relevance

Leading And Managing Organisational Resources

The unit takes an integrated approach to critically assess the relationship between leadership, operations management, finance and information systems which is essential for adding value and achieving competitive advantage in contemporary organisations. The theme is ‘leadership’ with an emphasis on high performance work systems and the international management of innovation and change. Successful completion of the unit will give you a comprehensive and detailed overview of contemporary practice informed by quality scientific research evidence. You will acquire a ‘toolkit’ that provides the potential for inspirational leadership and the effective management of organisational resources.
Operations Management addresses issues such as quality, location process layout, capacity management, and scheduling and inventory management. Global sourcing and relocation are now commonplace, and the competitive environment demands new ways of thinking about how to manage operations in a global context. Business and information systems facilitate decision-making and effective management across all functions. You will develop an understanding of how changes in the business strategy, the business operations and the funding of these operations can impact on the reported financial statements, their cash flows and thus impact on both share price and the reported results of a company.

Advancing Professional Practice

This is a short professional and academic development course that is designed to support all MBA students in the University of Bedfordshire Business School to develop a professional profile through their journey in the Masters. The specific aims are to:

• Enhance students’ professional, personal development and communication skills. 
• To support students to evidence how their experience at masters level has contributed to the development of their professional profile as required after graduation.
• To support students to develop the necessary academic skill required for successful completion of postgraduate research.

Computer Networks And Security

This unit introduces core computer networking and information security concepts to those who need a foundation in the subjects. It is relevant for a wide range of career pathways - from business and risk management, software development, to cyber and data security and sciences.

Learners will be shown the fundamentals of how computer networks operate and the essential principles of cybersecurity. 

Personal Professional Development

This unit aims to help you to gain the full benefit of your extended Master’s programme by supporting you in preparing for employment and career progression. You should develop realistic awareness of the challenges and opportunities that exist within the employment market place and how to successfully present yourself and navigate your future career.

Scheduled coaching and reflection will support you in realising your ambitions. Participants have an equal partnership and control. You set and own the goals and shape your development.

It provides you with key tools of research and learning at the overarching / meta level in terms of skills and behaviours including those of self-knowledge, reflective practice, working collaboratively, enhanced problem solving and building a personal brand.

Through Executive Coaching and Action Learning Sets, Your Professional Future allows you to tailor your own development through whatever routes are appropriate and anchors these achievements in reflective practice.

The unit aims and objectives are captured specifically in the reflective professional development plan the students develop by the end of this unit.

Data Modelling, Management And Governance

Managing data is an area of crucial importance in any field. Its application facilitates the rational decision making process that is the basis for successful operations within any environment. To this extent, the purpose of this unit is to discuss how data should be managed during its lifecycle through a mixture of relevant topics. This includes development tools and basic techniques for data capture, modelling, storing and retrieval to serve as the mechanisms for making effective and efficient use of available data.  The approach will be based on exploring basic applied principles and practices to enable students to develop an information system as a solution to a problem for a particular field of application. These are fully informed from practices employed in small to middle and, middle to large sized companies.

The primary aim of the unit is:

• To advance students by applying a range of both theoretical and practical issues involved in data modelling and management techniques in order to develop appropriate relational database systems for managing data within a chosen field of interest.

Therefore, the objectives involved are as follows:

• To review the underlying theory of databases including data modelling and management techniques
• To critically appreciate and exploit available methods and techniques used for data modelling and management purposes
• To develop the student’s awareness of and ability to select and apply appropriate tools and techniques for building relevant database systems
• To effectively demonstrate good practice in database development by using industry standard software
• Develop problem solving skills in being able to select the best possible e-Governance solution for a given "real-world" context
• To critically review the role of XML (Extensible Markup Language) schemas and ontologies in facilitating data governance
• To enable students to gain an up-to-date knowledge by applying data modelling and management tools in their chosen field of application

Developing Independent Research

In this unit you will learn what goes into a research proposal and application, the rudiments of good research design at masters level and beyond. 

The unit examines the processes of authentication, verification, dissemination of knowledge through scholarly publishing. You will learn about contemporary debates over access and peer review, impact evaluation (citations, H-index, etc), revenue models and research funding.

Completion of this unit will support your ability to critically evaluate research data and to present your conclusions to a professional standard.

Theory Into Practice Project

The unit aims to enable you to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of management and business as well as the skills essential to effective operation in a corporate, business, public sector or not for profit environment. It is a unit specifically designed to help your transition into the professional work environment through the integration of theory and practice supported by contemporary research evidence.

Management Practice

Practice events are integral to the University of Bedfordshire Business School’s vision to take business education, research and practice in exciting new directions. Central to this vision is the aspiration to give you the skills and knowledge to find the career and future success you want. We aim to develop intelligent practitioners who imaginatively integrate theory and practice, supported by contemporary research evidence. You will need to select and apply knowledge and principles you have learnt through the taught MBA units, experiential learning activities and challenges to develop an understanding of current realities in work organisations and be better placed as a future manager.
This unit is specifically designed to help your transition into the professional work environment through combining academic rigour with practice skills: the behaviours, attributes and intent which give you immediate impact in the organisations you join. This produces individuals with the confidence and know-how to fit in and be effective from day one: managers who understand business context, and have the creativity, drive and focus to bring about change. The aim of this unit is to:

• Enhance your transition to the workplace through experiential learning
• Improve your personal, interpersonal and business skills
• Develop your awareness of professional working practice and increase your employability
• Relate the theories learnt in the earlier stages of the MBA to real-word business practice issues