MBA Leadership

Duration: 8 weeks

The module will focus on leading and developing individuals and high-performance teams within an organisational culture. Consideration will also be given to approaches to workforce planning including talent management, learning organisations, workforce design, succession planning, diversity, and inclusion. Leadership theory and practice, communication, and decision-making will be explored, and the impact on strategic workforce planning. There will be an appraisal of own role and capacity in these areas.

Outline Syllabus:

• Managing self and personal development
• Communication and interpersonal processes
• Group dynamics
• Leadership theory and practice
• Organisational psychology (personality and motivation)
• Organisational culture (incl. storytelling)
• Developing people, knowledge and skills
• Decision making

Duration: 8 weeks

The module Marketing and Stakeholder Engagement aims to equip students with a critical appreciation of the marketing subject area and how organisations can create enhanced competitiveness through stakeholder engagement. The module introduces marketing management to students whose previous studies and current occupations may be very diverse and emphasises the need for a critical and analytical perspective. It therefore assumes no previous knowledge of the subject. The module investigates marketing within a global environment, and a consideration of how the impact of environmental trends and customer demands shapes companies marketing strategies. A focus on key stakeholders and their level of engagement will be considered. The module is to be practically based with application to industry. It will establish a sound foundation of knowledge of marketing core concepts that can be integrated with and further built upon in subsequent modules within the course.

Outline Syllabus:

• The marketing management process and the business environment
• Global marketing strategic challenges
• Brand management and reputation
• Marketing research and trend analysis
• New market strategies, changing customer demands and trend analysis
• Stakeholder engagement
• How the strategy of an organisation impacts on the marketing plan

Duration: 8 weeks

This module relies on concepts of strategic decision making to explore how strategy is conceived, by integrating theory, practice, and experience. Key questions the module will explore are related to how strategy affects the organisation and how the organisation can be designed to realise its strategy efficiently and effectively, given the understanding of the internal structures, processes and culture, and the external conditions. The module will bring students to know how mission, vision and values are shaped in an organisation. It will cover topics related to organisational structures, business models and how the external environment (political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal) impacts current and new strategies. This module is designed to build students’ skills and strategic decision making, in terms of assessment of situation, information and resources, conceptualisation of strategies, implementation, and monitoring of the results. Within this module, reasonable people, with different experiences, specialised skills and functional perspectives, will have different views. Strategy involves making sense together, through an innovative and creative process.

Students will be asked to perform research based on complex information and constructs, analyse real life business situations challenging the status quo, and reflect on their own practice.

Outline Syllabus:

• The concept of Strategy, strategy as a theory and strategy as a practice, and the manager as a strategist, the importance of anticipating the future and strategic thinking.
• Shaping organisational vision, culture and values
• Organisational structures; business modelling; diversity; global perspectives; the external environment, social, technological and policy implications
• Supporting the strategy making process with tools and models. The importance of understanding industry dynamics to anticipate and shape competition in the future. Identifying, analysing and appraising resources and capabilities.
• Strategy in practice in creating and sustaining competitive advantage. Business Strategy, Corporate Strategy,
• Use of horizon scanning and conceptualisation to deliver high performance strategies focusing on growth/sustainable outcomes
• Leadership Reflections

Duration: 8 weeks

The module aims to give background and advancement of the understanding that managers and leaders need in terms of financial applications. The module will cover the basis of financial and management accounting, introducing concepts which lead to the development of a more competent understanding of the budgeting and other associated resource allocation problems. Further to this, financial accounting is introduced as separate from management accounting, to enable understanding of the financial reporting statements which firms must produce to be compliant with the regulations of their company structures. Beyond this we review some financial analysis, including trend identification and concepts or issues that firms face from their funding choices. This leads to a greater understanding of the financial consequences of the decisions which management choose.

Outline Syllabus:

• Management Accounting – The identification of core concepts such as revenues and costs. How these constructs come together to create profit or surplus. What is the importance of profit and cash. Why are these constructs different. This section will include cost management in the form of procurement contracts and supply chain management.
• Management Accounting – How we can use ideas of costs and revenues to create/manage profit or surpluses, and how we can plan for these, using the various Management Accounting concepts and tools (Break-Even, Budgeting, Full Costing, etc.).
• Financial Accounting – What types of firms exist and what are the requirements placed upon them report information to stakeholders. This will include Statement of Financial Position, Statement of Comprehensive Income, Cash Flow Statement and how they are derived.
• Financial Accounting – Analysis of the financial health, including, profitability, liquidity, etc. of an entity and how this information can be interpreted for use in terms of financial decision making.
• Financial Management – from budgeting and cash flow management, the module develops the ideas of cash flow investment appraisal techniques. This includes how the discount rates are derived, which cash flows to include, as well as reviewing other investment appraisals techniques, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses.
• Leadership reflections

Duration: 8 weeks

The module examines corporate governance concepts and principles, developing the key skills necessary to support the development of good governance, risk management, control, and stakeholder dialogue throughout the organisation. The module provides an overview of the role of boards and directors in corporate governance and also develops an understanding of an essential role that corporate social responsibility (CSR) plays in corporate governance worldwide. The module aims to develop students who understand and appreciate the importance of going beyond financial information and supporting good ethical business practices to help companies sustain long-term success. Cybersecurity is essential to good corporate governance and risk management. The module evaluates techniques to manage cybersecurity risks within the student’s own organisation and the wider environment.

Outline Syllabus:

• An overview of governance evolution and practice
• Framework and principles of corporate governance
• The role of boards and directors in corporate governance
• Relations with stakeholders
• Risk management and internal control
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• CSR and Sustainability within the student’s own organisation
• Introduction to Business Ethics
• Ethics in organisations and values-based leadership
• Cybersecurity in governance and risk management

Duration: 8 weeks

The module has a strong focus on entrepreneurial thinking, innovation, creativity and intrapreneurship, leading to the development of a business case. There will be consideration of the innovative and creative process, both at individual and corporate level. Corporate entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship take place not only as a desired result of a company’s strategy but also as a precondition of strategic success in a responsible environment which can result in creating and sustaining competitive advantage. In a similar role to that of entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs seek to provide solutions to problems, for example low productivity, excess waste, poor quality, low morale. As well as identifying the potential business benefits of intrapreneurship, there will be consideration of strategies to encourage, nurture and lead intrapreneurship within the organisation There will be the production a strategic plan for a project which will enable the implementation of an innovative solution to a business issue.

Outline Syllabus:

• Individual and corporate entrepreneurship
• Models of intrapreneurship
• Benefits of intrapreneurship, fostering and encouraging entrepreneurial thinking at different levels within own organisation, and strategies and frameworks to support this
• Leading and driving a culture which supports the development of innovative and intrapreneurial thinking
• Strategies for resourcing innovation within an organisation
• Producing a plan for an innovation-based project.

Duration: 8 weeks

This module will focus on leading and managing change within the broader economic, political and social contexts which organisations operate within, barriers to change as well as strategies to overcome these. There will be consideration of organisational change theories, models and frameworks, and different approaches for managing change. Through understanding the drivers of change, and new ways of working across infrastructure, processes, people, and culture there can be effective leading of organisation change.

Outline Syllabus

• The nature of organisational problems
• Approaches for leading and managing change
• Drivers of change that impact on an organisation
• Approaches to systems thinking, knowledge/data management and programme management to enable change
• Ambiguity, complexity and uncertainty
• Barriers to change
• Structure and agency
• Psychological well-being
• Ethics and sustainability
• Evaluation of use of big data and insight in influencing organisational change

Duration: 8 weeks

The module will focus on knowledge and strategies for developing and leading collaborative networks and building collaborative relationships across multiple and diverse stakeholders, both within their own organisation and across external political environments. As there is the need to lead beyond one’s own area of control/authority, there will consideration of developing influencing, negotiation and advocacy skills to build reputation and effective collaborations and ways of dealing with conflict.

Outline Syllabus

• Organisational forms and structures
• Collaboration and cooperative working
• Managing complex relationships across multiple and diverse stakeholders
• Dialogue and trust building
• Large scale and Inter-organisational relationships including influencing and negotiation strategies
• Leading beyond own area of control/authority, using advocacy skills to build reputation and effective collaborations
• Social, economic and political context
• Working with board and company structures
• Dealing with conflict

Duration: 32 weeks

The Negotiated learning Project forms the final part of the MBA Leadership, MBA Finance, University of Lincoln Module Specification MBA Hospitality Management and associated pathways and allows students to demonstrate mastery of their chosen pathway in a ‘capstone’ project for an organisation, which also considers the Lincoln International Business School’s principles of responsible management. It is an individual and independent project in which students can focus on a chosen business problem or challenge, bringing together elements of the students learning from different parts of their MBA to demonstrate accumulated knowledge and understanding of management and its application to an organisation through synoptic assessment. The Negotiated Learning Project provides students the opportunity – as leaders and managers in an organisation – to initiate, lead and drive change within a company. The Business Project is undertaken in an area chosen by the student, related to their pathway and is supervised by a member of Faculty. The module provides a framework for business research methods and requires the in-depth development of a proposal for the Business Project. By undertaking the project students will be demonstrating their ability to research and critically analyse and integrate complex information as well as demonstrating the core skills and behaviours necessary in the world of contemporary leadership and management and cognisant of ethics, sustainability, and responsible management.

Outline Syllabus:

• Leading and identifying the stages of a work-based project which is appropriate for the professional context Project planning focusing on aims, methodology, resources and criteria for evaluation
• Principles of responsible management; reflection and critique
• Research ethics process (LEAS)
• Values and ethics of an organisation and their impact on organisational projects
• Undertaking research, data analysis, problem solving and decision-making techniques
• Use of evidence-based tools and ethical approaches to undertake problem solving and support decision making
• Presenting project process and outcomes in appropriate manner and format