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    

Digital Technology Management

In today’s business world digital technology in all its facets is crucial to facilitate decision-making, create new business models, and achieve competitive advantage. This unit, informed by staff research and other scholarly activities, develops your knowledge and understanding of the use of digital technology for effective management in a variety of business settings, as well as enabling you to manage digital technology. Crucially, you will learn about the role of digital technology in strategy, Internet marketing, and related areas.
The unit takes an integrated approach to critically assess the relationship between information systems and how they can create a competitive advantage. The aim is to enable you to understand and critically assess what information systems are, what key characteristics they have and what they can (and cannot) do for an organisation.
Successful completion of the unit will give you a comprehensive and detailed overview of theory and practice and you will acquire a ‘toolkit’ that provides the basis for understanding the potential – and limitations – of information systems for business success.

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.

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

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

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. 

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.

Managing Modern Healthcare Organisations

This unit will challenge and develop your wider understanding of the context in which healthcare services operate and is built upon latest research in the field of healthcare management. The unit will address challenges facing healthcare delivery in the 21st century, with a focus on local, regional and global policies that healthcare leaders have to understand and develop to meet the needs of increasingly complex and evolving healthcare environments. Your current leadership practices will be addressed by concentrating on strategies that enable healthcare leaders to balance the requirements of an increasingly complex and evolving healthcare environment whilst meeting the challenges of modern societies. The unit also examines issues faced by health care organisations when dealing with the use of information technology in the form of information systems by examining the latest research in the field of healthcare informatics.