MSc Management with Human Resource Management

The module aims to develop the student’s ability to critically analyse the financial statements for single and group companies, understanding how the financial statements are prepared, considering compliance with legal and regulatory requirements and the relevant International Accounting Standards. Students taking the module will examine both financial and non-financial matters that affect a business on a day-to-day basis and develop proactive ideas to solve these issues.

The module will equip the students with the knowledge and skills necessary to understand corporate financial performance and the relevance of accounting information, including the implications for the organisation, stakeholders and for effective corporate governance. The module recognises the different types of decisions that managers are required to make and considers how financial and management accounting information can be used in support of these decisions.

The module aims to develop the skills needed to understand, apply, and critically appraise the various tools and techniques that may be used to support managers in decision-making in order to determine their relevance in different organisational contexts. The module also evaluates the impact of financial and management decisions on different stakeholders and ensures that decisions are properly made and implemented to maximise value for key stakeholders of the organisation.

The practical side of the module extends to the role of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in decision-making and explores the impact of cyber security on a company’s financial performance and financial reporting.

Outline Syllabus:

• Published financial statements: Income Statement, Statement of Equity, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement, in the context of single and group accounts including multinational companies.
• The analysis and evaluation of complex financial and non-financial information including limitations of financial reporting.
• Appraisal of a company’s financial performance through analysing a set of company accounts and applying ratio and financial analysis.
• Capital investment decisions including the concepts of risk and uncertainty, relevant costing, and mergers and acquisitions.
• Working capital management and short-term financing decisions.
• Capital markets and long-term financing decisions.
• Cyber security in accounting and finance including the role of ERP systems in strategic decision-making.

The business world never stands still; technologies and the move towards a more global economy are creating opportunities that organisations must embrace to maintain their competitive edge. Never before has global events and innovations had greater impact on local markets. Business now competes on a global stage where marketers can do so much more with small budges ultimately shrinking the historic chasm between SME’s and large enterprise. Creative marketing that grabs the attention of the ever-demanding changing needs of the consumer takes careful planning. International Marketing Planning provides students with the fundamental building blocks to manage an organisation’s marketing function. By establishing an organisation’s current market position, unpacking their value offering to consumers and formulating a plan to meet strategic marketing objectives, the marketing planning process provides a creative framework to drive organisational success.

Outline Syllabus:

• Market analysis
  • International macro-environmental issues that impact on an organisation’s strategic direction
  • Micro-environmental issues including the capabilities of the organisation, their suppliers, marketing intermediaries, their existing customer profile, who their competitors are, and the public that may influence their strategic direction.
• Setting marketing objectives
• Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning
  • Segmentation tools to profile the desired audience.
  • Targeting strategies
  • Positioning strategies
• Implementation and control of the international marketing plan
  • Marketing mix
  • Implementation issues in effective planning
  • Contingency planning
  • Monitoring and controlling the plan
  • Module Learning Outcomes

This module is designed to provide students with a conceptual and theoretical background in leadership, and an opportunity to develop leadership competencies in themselves and others. It covers topics such as leadership style, followership, ethical and responsible leadership, gender and leadership, and cross-cultural leadership. Over the course of this module, students will gain an understanding and appreciation of the impact interpersonal skills have on leadership effectiveness. This module has an applied focus and requires students to reflect on and apply theories and techniques to their personal real-world context in order to enhance their leadership practice.

Outline Syllabus:

• Leadership style
• Situational leadership
• Leader-member exchange
• Followership
• Ethical and responsible leadership
• Cross-cultural leadership
• Gender and leadership
• Power and influence
• Communication and conflict resolution

With the rapidly changing context of modern business, the process of introducing novel technologies, products, infrastructures, or systems has become vital yet more challenging due to often conflicting stakeholder requirements, irreversible investments, operating constraints and associated risks. Therefore, any business change has to be project-managed as the current emphasis in business is on flexible, rapid response to customer demands. Managers increasingly require a project competence with a systems-oriented management style that cuts across traditional functional roles throughout the project life cycle. Project management is thus considered a crucial management philosophy of how organisations manage fluctuating business environments and bring to life something innovative or simply never accomplished before.

Through the Project Planning and Management module, students will get a solid foundation in the theory and best practice of project management and develop the practical skills of how to plan, implement and control projects. The module provides students with an understanding of the system perspective on management and a practically oriented overview of the nature and purpose of project management and its key functions (scope, time, cost, quality, etc). The role and qualities of the Project Manager and the composition of the team are also examined. Overall, the material and approach in the module incorporates world-wide best practices from major professional bodies: the PMI Body of Knowledge, APM Body of Knowledge and PRINCE2 – providing a common ground and concentrating on the underlying principles rather than specifics of any given framework.

The module is specifically strong on transferable skills for boosting students’ professional development and employability: practical problem solving and decision making in conditions of uncertainty and ambiguity; planning capability; adaptability to work in different contexts – all highly valued by employers.

Outline Syllabus:

• Systems approach and project integration
• Traditional and alternative project life cycles
• Project requirements definition and scope management
• Sequencing and scheduling of project activities
• Resource allocation and levelling
• Cost estimation and project budgeting
• Quality management in the project environment
• Risk assessment and mitigation
• Stakeholder and communication management
• Project execution and control

In our current globalised world, individuals in leadership and management positions within organisations across sectors are often confronted with a myriad of ‘wicked’ problems which demand for a comprehensive and cohesive strategy. To succeed, individuals in position of responsibility must develop a range of capabilities needed to gain competitive advantage in markets and in the globe. This module seeks to equip students with crucial knowledge and strategy making skills to perform as a strategist and contribute to responsible business strategies to give their organisation a competitive advantage. Students who fully engage with the module will develop the knowledge and professional expertise needed for the formation, implementation, and analysis of responsible business strategies; to make appropriate choices between strategic options; and then to follow a strategic route that will deliver results that are robust, ethically sound and socially responsible.

Outline Syllabus:

• Introducing strategy
• Making sense of strategy making and execution process
• Understanding and Analysing the External Environment Using Analytical Tools
• Understanding and Analysing Industry/Sector Contexts Using Analytical Tools
• Understanding and Analysing the Internal Context of an organisation Using Analytical Tools
• The crafting of a strategy and the achievement of a competitive advantage
• Designing organisational control systems to sustain effective strategy and promote ethical business behaviour and environmental sustainability.

The purpose of this module is to develop students’ understanding and management of people at work. This will be achieved by introducing students to key concepts and theories in the field of organisational psychology and their application to different organisational settings. A wide range of topics relevant to effective people management are covered including personality, selection and assessment, training and development, team working, motivation, work design, stress and well-being, and organisational change and culture. The module will also provide the opportunity for students to reflect on their own experiences and competencies as managers.

Outline Syllabus:

• Individual differences
• Personnel selection and assessment methods
• The psychological contract
• Groups, teams and teamwork
• Motivation
• Work design
• Training and development
• Stress and well-being at work
• Organisational change and culture

The cornerstone of all human resource management (HRM) activity is the employment relationship – as a legal, social, economic, and psychological exchange. This module is designed to provide students with the chance to develop a comprehensive understanding of employment relations perspectives and debates, both national and international, from a theoretical and behavioural competency perspective.

This module will look to enable students to understand, analyse and evaluate competing theories and perspectives associated with managing employment relations strategies and their outcomes on organisational climate, employees, and management. The module provides opportunities to critically apply the activities, knowledge and behavioural competencies required for managing employment relations practices in union and non-union, small and large, private, public & indigenous and multinational organisations. The module aims to enable students to review and critically evaluate the roles and functions of different stakeholders in employment relations and the structures and processes required to manage the employment relationship effectively.

Outline Syllabus:

• The differing perspectives on the Employment Relationship
• Participants in employee relations – who are the stakeholders?
• Power and conflict in employee relations, the causes, and the possible solutions
• The Historical, National, Global, and organisational contexts
• Trade Unions, Works Councils & Collective Bargaining – the balance of power
• Communication, Participation & Involvement from an HRM/D perspective
• Employee Relations Strategy & contributing factors
• The roles of Culture and Leadership in shaping Employee Relations
• Downsizing and Redundancy – how the employee relations work in times of austerity
• Employee Relations Skills -Grievance and Discipline
• Contemporary developments in Employee Relations

 

Human resource (HR) professionals and managers operate within an increasingly complex and changing organisational context, whether in the market, public or ‘third’ sectors. Whatever the size of their organisations or the types of goods or services these enterprises produce for their customers or clients. This module provides learners, first, with an understanding of the principal internal and external environmental contexts of contemporary organisations, including the managerial and business context, within which managers, HR professionals and workers interact in conditions of environmental turbulence, change and uncertainty. Secondly, the module examines how those leading organisations respond to these dynamic environmental contexts.

The module also indicates how leaders in organisations, those in the HR function, and line managers with HR responsibilities need to recognise and acknowledge that corporate decisions and HR choices are not always shaped by managers alone. They are also shaped by internal and external forces beyond their immediate control. Having studied this module, learners will be aware that managers and HR professionals in different types of organisations (small, large, national, global), in responding to their internal, business, and external environmental contexts, not only have opportunities and choices when taking organisational and HR decisions but also face constraints on their autonomy in determining their futures. This module explores the implications for professional practice and provides opportunities for applied learning and continuous professional development.

Outline Syllabus:

• Contemporary organisations and their principal environments and the tools for analysis from an HRM/D perspective
• The managerial and business environment and its impact on HR professionals
• The differing perspectives of and approaches to HRM/D Strategy.
• The changing global economy and the organisational responses
• Government policy and employment legislation and their impact on HRM
• The globalisation process and the impact of international regulation and governance
• The changing nature of work and employment with particular reference to the diversity in the labour market, technology, employment contracts and global workplaces.

This module covers organisation design and development and will enable students to develop a critical understanding of the theory and conceptual framework of organisation design and of the principles and practices of organisation development. Both are critical to our understanding of organisations and how they function, and both reside within a framework of organisational theory. The module focuses on decisions that have to be made on the most appropriate organisational structure(s) to ensure delivery of organisational activity. Organisation design is about shaping an organisation to maximise its effectiveness, aiming for flexibility in delivery of its services. Through breaking down departmental barriers, seeking improved supply efficiencies, teamwork and collaboration and working towards better customer management and retention, organisations can enhance their performance and ensure that organisational goals and targets are achieved. Organisation design activities therefore focus on finding the most appropriate structures, relationships between departments and sections, and allocation of work activities, including definition of duties and role responsibilities. It has a clear link to performance management in that effective delivery of work and output will be measured and managed. The module also focuses on how an organisation’s culture, values and environment support and enhance organisational performance and adaptability.

Organisation development is defined by CIPD (2018) as a ‘planned and systematic approach to enabling sustained organisation performance through the involvement of its people’. This might include how organisational members acquire new skills, knowledge, and behaviours, and do things differently, often as part of the application of continuous improvement strategies. The concept of the ‘learning organisation’ as one of a number of organisation development strategies that might be adopted as part organisational change activities is also explored. The importance of cultural awareness in managing outcomes of design and development strategies, the practical applications of organisation design and organisation development concepts and the implications for the effective management of organisations and professional practice are considered.

The module requires critical reflection on theory and practice from an ethical and professional standpoint and provides opportunities for applied learning and continuous professional development.

Outline Syllabus:

• Competencies required to implement OD interventions to diagnose, plan, change and develop the organisation for sustainable performance.
• Analysis of the relationship between strategic HR, HR Business Partners, and OD practitioners
• Understanding the business function and what strategies are needed to meet the overarching business purpose.
• Identifying and analysing the factors that impact upon organisation design and business models.
• Understanding the role that HRM/D plays in aligning the Business Strategy with the HR strategy
• Using organisational models as a roadmap to diagnosis and interventions, working to ensure interventions impact the root cause.
• Building capacity of self
• Organisation culture
• Understanding the theoretical basis of organisational design and development along with the contribution this has to organisational life and the wider stakeholders.
• Evaluation of interventions.

The professional Inquiry Project allows students to demonstrate their mastery of management within the field of their degree. It is an individual and independent project in which students can bring together and apply their learning from the programme to help to solve a chosen business problem or challenge, a real-world issue, or a research topic. Through bringing together learning from across their degree programme, students will demonstrate their accumulated knowledge and understanding of management within their field and its application to organisations, through synoptic assessment.

This module seeks to enable and facilitate innovation and creativity in terms of project foci, form and output. Rather than being prescriptive, students are required to not only undertake an in-depth study of a topic related to the title of the degree but also to take responsibility for their own learning and negotiate the form and output of the final project. The choice of topic and format of the final assessment will be negotiated with the tutor, which will ensure mutuality of intent, process, practice and format of assessment. Although the foci and form of the final project are to be negotiated, the following are indicative of the potential formats students may choose: work based project, client based project; or other negotiated project.

The module requires students to draw upon the framework for research methods and requires the in-depth development of a proposal for the Business Project. Students will be responsible for finding an organisation and negotiating access where necessary with regard to client-based projects. Students who are employed will normally undertake a project based on an agreed business problem that forms part of their role and agree the project title and support arrangements with their employer and tutor.

Completing the Professional Inquiry Project gives you a unique opportunity to undertake an extended piece of personal research on a topic of your own choosing. By undertaking the project students will be demonstrating their ability to research and critically analyse and integrate complex information necessary in the world of contemporary management.

Outline Syllabus

Whilst the specific content of each project will vary, in general it will be underpinned by a process of research; interpreted in an applied, rather than a pure academic, sense.

Projects will typically include a number of activities:

• Mapping ideas for research/project topics
• Identification of the stages of a project which is appropriate for the professional context
• Project planning focusing on aims and objectives, methodology, resources and criteria for evaluation.
• Critically surveying current knowledge
• Arguing and advocating
• Considering ethics and principles of responsible management
• Undertaking research, data analysis and interpretation, problem solving and / or decision-making techniques
• Use of evidence-based tools and ethical approaches to undertake problem solving and support decision making.
• Discussing findings, making conclusions, and constructing recommendations
• Reflecting and identifying future directions
• Presenting project process and outcomes in appropriate manner and format