Master of Business Administration

Course details

The Master of Business Administration (Strathclyde Business School) is an internationally recognised management qualification aimed at talented, ambitious and well-qualified people with solid business experience.

In particular it:

• Thoroughly prepares you for higher level, policy-forming positions
• Allows you to make a successful career move from one field or industry to another
• Allows a smooth progression from a technical specialism to general management
• Polishes the skills and enhances the abilities of people working for themselves or about to set up in business

What are the Prime Benefits

Self-Development:

• A broad understanding of business and management issues
• Strategic orientation and the ability to successfully implement the strategies formulated
• Development of management skills, techniques and competences
• Self-awareness as a manager and leader
• Increased confidence in all areas of business

Course Curriculum

Module 1: The Reflective Practitioner (The Learning Manager, Entrepreneurial Management & Leadership and Comparative Corporate Governance)

• The Learning Manager: The class aims to develop the managerial capabilities through developing their skills as reflective learners by enabling them to analyze their learning processes and ensuring that they appreciate core aspects of self-awareness and can effectively interact with others.
• Entrepreneurial Management and Leadership: The aim of this class is to enable students to experience and reflect on entrepreneurial skills and practices that are appropriate to managing and leading organisations in competitive, uncertain and fast-changing environments.
• Comparative Corporate Governance: The class aims to develop the managerial capabilities of students through analysing the importance of structural elements in promoting good corporate management.

Module 2: Making the Businesse Work

• Finance and Financial Management: The primary aims of the Finance and Financial Management class are to develop an understanding of the principles of finance and financial decision taking, the nature of financial markets and institutions, and corporate financial theory. The principles of financial decision taking will consider applications covering personal finance, the public and private sectors. The analysis of financial markets and institutions will provide a general introduction to the financial environment. The primary focus of the class will be on corporate financial theory and this will address two basic questions.
• Financial and Management Accounting: The unit is designed to provide an understanding of accounting that is essential for any manager and to develop the ability to use accounting information, especially for decision taking purposes. The focus will be on understanding the nature and limitations of the information provided in the financial reports and to ensure that managers appreciate the significance of the financial implications of any decision or policy initiation being proposed.
• Operations Management: Operations Management refers to those activities which are more or less directly concerned with the creation and delivery of goods and services. Effective operations management gives organisations the potential to improve efficiency and customer service. The course is intended to give you a theoretical framework for thinking about operations in both manufacturing and service contexts and to describe some practical applications of operations management. In the course we will address key aspects of design, planning and control of operations systems, and to provide an understanding of modern operations management in a global context.
• Marketing Management: Marketing Management introduces major marketing concepts and techniques and the marketing planning process. This includes exploration of what marketing is, understanding of marketing orientation and buyer behaviour. The development of an appropriate marketing strategy for an organisation will be emphasised to enable the manager to make important marketing decisions. The changing role of marketing, within and between organisations, will be studied incorporating information technology, new organisational structures and different forms of market relationships.
• Managing People in Organizations: The aims of the unit are to provide you with a range of concepts, insights and evidence that will enhance your understanding of contemporary organisational events and processes so that you can make judgements about your behaviour, and that of others, and can seek to influence organisational practice and outcomes effectively. In addition, the aim of the course is to provide an understanding of modern organisations in terms of the management of people, the strategies and processes of HRM, and to provide the basis for a critical review of human resource systems and techniques.
• Analytical Support for Decision Making: The broad aims of the class are to develop skills in the effective practice of business analysis through the application of basic tools and techniques and to develop an appreciation of the issues which may require careful management if the decisions made are to be based upon valid data and models.

Module 3: Strategic Managemnt for Sustainable Success

• Exploring the International Business Environment: The class aims to help students understand and become comfortable with the inherent ambiguity and uncertainty in the contextual (or macro) environment where the irreducible uncertainties lie and which impacts all organisations but which they essentially have no control over; this is distinct from the stakeholder or internal environments of organisations over which they have varying degrees of control.
• Strategy, Analysis and Evaluation: The class aims to develop students’ ability to work as managers within complex, dynamic and systematically interwoven organisational environments by providing them with structured opportunities to explore and understand the major management and economic theories, alongside the language of strategy and strategic management.
• Making Strategy: The class aims to develop students’ ability to make strategies for their own department, operating unit, Strategic Business Unit, in contrast to servicing a Chief Executive. It seeks to introduce in theory and practice the principles of negotiating strategy in a small management team.

Module 4: Personal Development

Strategic Consulting in Practice

The Class aims to:

• to provide students with further experience in applying strategy tools and techniques
• to real organizational issues
• to appreciate better how different tools and techniques can be integrated so as to build up a more coherent and robust set of options/recommendations
• to learn to manage the uncertainties and ambiguities that exist when applying strategy tools and techniques.

electives:You will be required to complete 2 elective subjects each of 10 credits. You may choose a combination from a particular subject area, hence developing your understanding of a subject to a greater depth, or you can choose electives from different subject streams according to your personal interest.

MBA Project: The primary aim of the project is to create deep learning in an area of management chosen by the student. A variety of options are available regarding both subject and method of exploration, for example undertaking an applied managerial project, investigative hypothesis testing, investigative theory deducing or action research.

Entry Requirements

The standard requirements* for entry to Strathclyde Business School (SBS) MBA programme are as follows:

1. Direct Entry
   • A university degree or professional qualification
   • A minimum of three years of full-time working experience
   • At least 24 years old
2. Diploma Entry
   • A diploma holder
   • A minimum of eight to ten years of varied work experience
   • At least 27 years old

Applicants may be required to take the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) for entry to the programme.