Business Management (Advanced Entry) - BA (Hons)

On this module, you will be introduced to the core principles of project management, such as conceptualisation, design and planning, execution, monitoring and control, and closure, where you will discover how to select the most effective approach.

This module not only aims to deepen your theoretical understanding of project management but also enhance your practical capabilities.

You will learn how to evaluate and prioritise project proposals and discover how to assess stakeholder influence, power and interest to ensure strong support and clear direction.

Project boundaries will also be defined through the development of comprehensive scope statements that align with your project objectives.

On this module you will also learn how to implement effective execution strategies by using structured planning tools (including project management software) to organise tasks and manage timelines, ensuring that your project stays on track, even when facing change or uncertainty.

Finally, you will identify and manage project risks through systematic analysis and robust contingency planning, equipping you with the skills to mitigate challenges, secure successful project outcomes, and steer your project through to formal closing.

By linking proposal evaluation, stakeholder analysis, scope definition, execution planning, risk management and the systematic steps required for project closure (including documenting lessons learnt and realising benefits) you will be well-prepared to tackle real-world project challenges and drive success in your professional endeavours.

This module aims to introduce you to the essential methodologies, approaches and tools for strategic business research.

You will explore the philosophical and theoretical perspectives underpinning the different ways you can conduct research, and be given practical examples and guidance on how research should be planned and implemented.

The topic of how research has enabled global organisations to deal and adapt with challenges will be covered, alongside introducing you to the key and current business concepts, their operationalisation and their association through review of the literature.

This module will also provide you with lifelong employability skills such as in planning, searching, reading, gathering and analysing data, writing and referencing. You will also discover how to use technological tools such as AI to conduct your research.

By the end of this module, you will be well equipped to conduct a qualitative proposal and have the knowledge to apply an appropriate qualitative analysis to data and big data.

This module provides you with an understanding of leadership in both theoretical and practical terms. Using multi-media, you will analyse how an understanding of leadership theory can contribute to developing, leading, and managing business organisations.

To develop your knowledge of leadership in practice you will use real world case studies to develop your understanding of leadership dilemmas and how theory can be used to help solve them. You will explore the role of Power, Influence, and Ethics in the role of the leader and how this can be developed to create a more ethical approach to leadership. In addition, you will examine how leaders deal with conflict in the workplace through workplace examples and cases.

You will have the opportunity to identify, reflect on and develop your own leadership skills. You will conduct a self-leadership audit through identifying your leadership style, traits and skills, e.g. negotiation, communication, and then develop a self-reflective piece to evidence your leadership skills development. You will then develop a plan to demonstrate what you have learned and how you might apply your new leadership knowledge in practice in your future career roles.

Selling is an essential function of business. This module provides you with the opportunity to gain and develop essential selling and negotiation knowledge and skills. It will particularly consider the international perspective in selling to prepare you for the importance of considering the richness of our current global context.

The module supports a marketing management perspective. Indeed, it includes understanding the selling function and learning from it to improve the overall marketing management function.

Currently, one of employer’s biggest challenges is to find employees with selling skills. They argue that ‘selling is a life-blood of businesses’ since businesses cannot survive without effective results from this important function. Accordingly, this module should give you the edge over other students without such knowledge when seeking employment opportunities.

Past students of this module have confirmed the importance of undertaking this module in helping them find a job. Additionally, selling has a broader perspective as it enables you to learn how to be more persuasive while remaining ethical in your business transactions.

This module introduces and explores a range of key topics related to organisation studies. A broad range of organisation theories is drawn upon to encourage you to develop a critical approach towards your understanding and analysis of key issues within contemporary organisations.

Why do some companies succeed while others fail? Are some business ideas fundamentally better than others? How can you tell which ideas and/or solutions are worth investing time and money in and which are not?

This module is a key introduction to identifying, critically assessing and developing new business opportunities. The approaches and processes covered on this module can be applied to new commercial ideas, social enterprises or new ventures within an existing business.

The module is particularly relevant to anyone engaged in business or working at setting up their own business, as well as those considering starting their own business, working for an SME or taking on an intrapreneurial role within a large organisation.

Consultancy is big business, and the sector continues to experience strong growth. Management consulting involves engaging with stakeholders to provide objective, specialist advice.

The Practice of Consultancy module develops the practical research and consultancy skills required for a career in Business Analyses and Management Consultancy. Also, it prepares you for the final year Consultancy Project.

Specifically, this module introduces research methods for consultancy and aims to develop a practical understanding of the tools and techniques of problem analysis and issue clarification. Finally, this module aims to develop your communication skills through the preparation of a report to present the outcome of the consultation to your client.

On this module you will be introduced to different perspectives of business organisations and discover the underpinning knowledge of Operations and Supply Chain management.

You will explore operations management principles, processes and discover the environments that supply chain managers operate in. You will also examine management decision-making and a range of tools and techniques that are used to support the Operations and Supply Chain process.

Operations and supply chain management theoretical models, philosophies, and frameworks will also be used as an aid to make an informed analysis.

The knowledge and skills relevant to the integrated management of operations activities, and operations from the perspective of global organisational and customer needs will also be explored.

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• Apply modern operations and supply chain management principles and practice to real global business cases.
• Analyse the process of operations management decision-making.
• Apply and analyse appropriate management frameworks which can be used for the planning and control of materials and services.
• Utilise the range of tools and techniques available to aid efficient and effective operations managerial decision making

This module will introduce you to the interdisciplinary field of Critical Management Studies (CMS), encourage you to challenge conventional assumptions about management, organisations, and work.

Drawing on a range of critical perspectives, including Marxist, Foucauldian, and postcolonial approaches, the module explores how power, identity, discourse, and inequality shape organisational life and wider society.

You will critically evaluate contemporary management practices and their ethical, political, and social implications, while developing the analytical skills needed to engage with complex theoretical ideas and apply them to real-world organisational and societal issues.

This module prepares you to be reflective, critically informed, and socially responsible in the business management field.

Strategy is a crucial subject, concerned with the development, success and failure of all kinds of organisations. Accordingly, strategy constitutes a key element of all professional business and management qualifications. It is aimed at students wishing to fulfil up-to-the-minute strategy roles. You will be using business intelligence, web solutions, and agile methods to develop and deliver the strategy in today’s technology-dependent business environment.

In brief, the module equips aspiring and digitally aware managers and leaders with the knowledge, skills and techniques required to analyse contemporary organisations within changing environments nationally and globally. You will also learn how to formulate, evaluate, and defend realistic and creative proposals for future strategic direction. Finally, you will explore how to plan for the effective implementation of the strategy selected.

In this module, you will experience the practice of management from three differing yet integrated approaches:

• Academic development, where you will study and apply a range of theories to gain a wider and more profound understanding of the socio-cultural issues in corporate business.
• Professional Development, where you will study current corporate governance theory and policy and study the management and performance of selected PLCs in light of their approach to corporate governance.
• Personal development, where you will undertake a range of psycho-metric tests and management exercises. You will study selected texts on personal development and, based on these, produce a Personal Development Plan (PDP) which will guide you in your future post-degree career and studies.

This module aims to enable you to study and apply in practice a range of leadership theories and techniques to critically evaluate:

• and develop your own personal leadership style.
• contemporary innovation practice, and organisations in a range of industries engaged with innovation practice.
• contemporary innovation processes, and organisations in a range of industries that innovate.

The Module will be based on two themes:

• Theme 1: Leadership, where you will study, reflect on, and use leadership theories and techniques to assess and develop your own personal leadership style.
• Theme 2: Innovation, where you will study, analyse, and evaluate the innovation processes of selected organisations and industries and how innovation is achieved and operates within the contemporary economy.

As part of this module, you will gain an understanding of financial management and its role in effective organisational decision-making.

As well as this you will explore the principles and techniques of financial analysis, investment appraisal, risk and return, working capital management, and sources of finance, alongside the importance of financial governance and corporate accountability.

The module will equip you to interpret financial information, evaluate the implications of financial decisions, and apply financial management tools to support strategic and operational objectives.

By combining theoretical concepts with practical business applications, you will learn the analytical and decision-making skills required to contribute confidently to financial planning and management across a range of organisational contexts.

By taking this module, you will gain a comprehensive understanding of branding, brand equity, and strategic brand management in contemporary markets.

You will explore branding from both corporate and consumer perspectives, examining the theories, frameworks, and practices that underpin successful brand development and management.

The module focuses on the role of marketing in creating, measuring, and sustaining brand equity, while developing the skills to design effective brand strategies that support long-term organisational performance.

Through critical analysis and applied research, you will strengthen your decision-making, analytical, and professional communication skills in the context of strategic brand management.

This module requires you to:

• Pick up research threads introduced and developed in previous analytical modules.
• Identify a topic of interest.
• Deepen your knowledge further through research, data collection, analysis, and write up of a dissertation.

Your research will involve the review of a wide range of publications (secondary data sources) around the broad area of investigation. This will lead to the formulation of a research proposal for your dissertation.

You will pursue a robust enquiry into a theme emerging from your investigations in your chosen industry. As the theme emerges, the research methodologies, appropriate methods of data collection, data processing, and analysis are evaluated.