Management Foundations
Managing in a Competitive World
Introduces the nature of management in today's competitive landscape. Covers the four functions of management, sources of competitive advantage, management levels, key managerial skills, and career development principles.
Managerial Decision Making
Examines the types of decisions managers face, the rational decision-making process, psychological biases, group decision making, creativity, and organisational decision models including bounded rationality and the garbage can model.
Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
Examines ethical systems that guide managerial decision making, how organisations build an ethics environment, the process for ethical decisions, and the four dimensions of corporate social responsibility. Also covers sustainability and the natural environment.
Strategy and Structure
The External and Internal Environments
Examines how organisations are influenced by and can influence their environments. Covers the macroenvironment, competitive environment (Porter's Five Forces), environmental analysis techniques, organisational culture, and strategies for managing environmental uncertainty.
Planning and Strategic Management
Covers the six-step planning process, strategic vs tactical vs operational planning, SWOT analysis, corporate and business strategy options including the BCG matrix, and the keys to effective strategy implementation.
Organisational Structure
Examines how organisations are designed through differentiation and integration. Covers authority, span of control, delegation, functional and divisional structures, the matrix organisation, network organisations, and coordination mechanisms.
Leading and Changing
Leadership
Explores what effective leadership means, sources of power, trait and behavioural approaches, situational leadership theories, and contemporary perspectives including transformational, servant, and authentic leadership.
Managerial Control
Examines why and how organisations develop control systems. Covers bureaucratic, market, and clan control; the control cycle; budgetary and financial controls; the balanced scorecard; and how to design effective control systems.
Technology, Innovation, and Change
Covers the technology life cycle, diffusion of innovation, managing technology for competitive advantage, sources of new technology, and creating organisational change. Includes Kotter's change model and the concepts of reactive vs proactive change.
People and Organisations
What Is Motivation?
Explores motivation theories including goal-setting, reinforcement, expectancy theory, Maslow's hierarchy, ERG theory, McClelland's needs, and job design. Based on Chapter 13 of Bateman & Snell.
What Is Communication?
Covers the communication model, one-way vs two-way communication, verbal and written channels, media richness, communication pitfalls, downward/upward/horizontal communication, the grapevine, and organisational transparency.
The Contributions of Teams
Examines how teams contribute to organisational effectiveness, types of teams, the stages of team development, building effective teams, team norms and cohesiveness, and managing conflict. Based on Chapter 14 of Bateman & Snell.
