This module is designed to support you in setting the foundation for your personal and professional development as an existing or aspiring manager. We will introduce you to the learning approach that will be adopted throughout the programme and the way in which this suite of modules will support your application of learning from all modules into your professional practice in the workplace. Through engaging in the workshop sessions and the associated learning activities, you will develop your self-awareness and self-management, interpersonal skills and your abilities in working with others. The module will also strengthen your capacity as an independent and work-based learner. The broad areas covered by this module include:

• Developing self-awareness and self-management
• Learning approaches and ownership of personal development
• Interpersonal skills
• Team dynamics and team working

Underpinned by theoretical concepts and models and providing opportunities for skills practice, you will develop your management knowledge and skills and demonstrate this through using your workplace practice to evidence your enhanced personal and professional skills. This module will support you in creating a personal and professional development plan or learning contract that will adapt and develop throughout the programme as you develop new skills and knowledge. By engaging in self and social development processes, identifying personal and professional development needs and gathering examples of your practice in the workplace, you will be able to evidence your development journey throughout the programme.

This module is intended to underpin the theories and approaches you will encounter in your future studies at Levels 5 and 6. It will provide you with an introduction to organisational behaviour, and the changing practices of organising and managing. This will support exploration of leadership and management styles; the dynamics and politics of personal interactions, power, and Influence. You will consider individual motivation, job satisfaction, and work engagement. You will gain a broad understanding of the influence of organisational and international cultures. This will include an appreciation of organisational ethics and values, and building rapport and trust.

This module is designed to support you in developing and implementing a work based learning (WBL) plan for your individual continuing professional development (CPD). This will underpin your development as an independent and self-directed work-based learner and provide you with the skills, knowledge and understanding required for you to outline and negotiate a detailed WBL plan to be implemented for, through and at work. The focus of your WBL plan should be on developing your management competence and or knowledge in the context of the specific skills and or knowledge required to operate effectively within your particular sector or organisation. This could include a range of components including for example: work based training, online modules, work projects; secondary data based investigations, best practice and benchmarking reviews, credited CPD programmes, customised modules for your own organisation or programme. The WBL contract will be individually negotiated between yourself and your workplace and academic coaches, and approved by the module tutor.

Through engaging in the workshop sessions and the associated learning activities, you will develop your confidence and self-management as a work based learner, enhancing your personal planning skills and your abilities in transferring learning into improving your professional practice and working with others. The broad areas covered by this module include:

WBL Planning
WBL Objectives
Contracting a WBL Agreement
Approaches to WBL Transfer
WBL Evaluation and Review

Underpinned by theoretical concepts and models and providing opportunities for skills practice, you will develop your management knowledge and competence and demonstrate this through using opportunities within your workplace to develop and evidence your sector specific enhanced professional skills. This module will support you in creating a professional WBL development plan that will extend your sector/organisation knowledge and practice that will provide a foundation for support your future development on the programme.

Entering higher education requires specific skills and attributes to both manage your studies, and to communicate effectively your ideas within the academic community. This module aims to support this development at a level appropriate for where you join your programme of study.

You will explore the underpinning skills, which support academic study and which thereby, support the remainder of your programme. These skills will also benefit you in the workplace and are transferrable in terms of creating effective business reports and delivering verbal and written presentations.

You will develop your academic and intellectual skills, through learning about your own preferred approach to learning, the conventions of academic writing and wider communication skills, how to source appropriate information to support your studies through ethical primary and secondary research, and the development of critical reading and writing.

The outline syllabus will be based on the following themes:

• NU approach to Research Rich Learning and Teaching
• Learning styles and academic literacies – how these influence learning
• Managing study – appropriate management of yourself, and your projects and tasks
• Searching for information to support effective study - conducting primary and secondary research
• Effective reading and note-taking skills
• Academic Writing – how to write effective academic assignments, in a range of different genres
• Professional Writing - in particular the presentation of research and management reports
• Developing criticality – the use of criticality to support the development of an independent voice
• Citation and referencing skills – how to appropriately acknowledge the sources of the information that you use
• Ethics – the importance of ethics in study and research
• Introduction to business research skills and methods
• Digital Portfolio Building - Pebble Plus

This Module addresses the environment in which business organisations operate and introduces the key functions in an organisation. The module will typically draw from the following themes:

Introduction to the Global Business Environment
• Global Business Environment
• Macro-economics
• Commercial context for organisations
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Stakeholders and shareholders

Accounting and Finance
• The purpose of accounting information
• Users of accounting information
• Accounting for business transactions
• Key accounting statements
• Interpretation of Financial Information
• Using financial information to support management decisions
• Sources of finance
• Resource planning through budgeting planning and control systems

Human Resource Management
• The purpose and objectives of human resource management in organisations
• The value of effective human resource management for businesses and employees
• Recruitment and Selection
• Training and Development
• Reward Management
• Performance Appraisal
• Employee Relations
• Health and Safety

Operations Management
• The purpose and objectives of operations management
• Operations as a transformational process
• Design: product/service, process, and location, layout and flow
• Deliver: supply, capacity, planning and inventory
• Develop: quality and improvement
• Procurement and Contracting
• Legal requirements around procurement and contracting

Marketing
• Relationship-based marketing
• The marketing concept and its relevance in the modern organisation
• Developing an effective marketing mix
• Consumer and organisational buyer behaviour
• Marketing research and information systems
• Market segmentation and positioning
• Marketing mix decisions within a variety of organisational and market contexts

This module introduces your learning in a research rich learning environment. It outlines the nature and value of research within organisations, and you will develop the knowledge and skills to apply a variety of qualitative and quantitative analytical methods and tools to support business research and decision-making. The module is delivered using workshops, in which key knowledge will be addressed and you will be provided with the opportunity to develop your skills in conducting research and analysing data.

Within this module, you will cover a range of topics, including:

• Introduction to University learning resources
• The value of a research rich approach as a means of enhancing your learning and informing organisational and personal practice
• Using academic theory, models, principles and frameworks to help understand and inform organisational and personal practice
• Engaging with academic literature and published research outputs
• Academic Writing
• Ethics issues in research
• Qualitative research methods – interviewing and observation, analysing qualitative data
• Quantitative research methods – data collection and statistical analysis, comprising data types, sampling, questionnaire design and coding, survey dissemination, data presentation and summary, correlation and regression analysis, time series forecasting.


You will develop your understanding of research methods as a means of informing how you may conduct research within your organisation. Furthermore, you will be encouraged to consider your role as a researcher and the ethical considerations in the research process. You will develop skills regarding the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data. In doing so, it will expose you to a wide range of techniques for use in modelling, analysis and interpretation of business problems. You will become aware of the role of modelling as an aid to business problem solving. Furthermore, you will gain an understanding of the role of MS Excel as an aid to data analysis and the development of various business problem-solving models. Through addressing these themes, you will also learn the significance of research proposals as well as how to structure them.