Management and Leadership Course
This course is framed within the complex and challenging nature of XXI century management. Its dual aims are to help you build on your current understanding of management and enable you to develop and improve your practice of managing. This course is a year-long programme of professional development which requires your active engagement with a wide variety of materials, activities and resource to enlarge your knowledge of the functions of management and make a real difference in your own context of managing.
The course is part of the prestigious MBA offered by The Open University UK and leads to the Executive Diploma in Management.
Vocational relevance
The course is designed for professionals from a wide range of contexts and backgrounds who need actively to engage with the challenges of twenty-first century management, to develop their management skills and knowledge of management frameworks, theories and tools and to use these appropriately in order to make a real difference in their own practice.
What you will study
Through learning about different management functions within organisations you will develop a better understanding of the context in which your own practice takes place. You will gain confidence in understanding how different parts of organisations operate and in having successful conversations across these areas, including:
- organisational structure, power and politics, and change management
- managing people and organisations
- managing financial resources
- marketing management
- operations management.
Over the course of a year’s study you will learn, develop and consolidate your understanding of the principal management functions and how each area is interrelated with each other these areas are interrelated. This will provide you with a foundation that will enable you to move successfully to strategic and specialist areas in your LEADERSHIP studies.
The course aims to:
- develop your understanding of the core and current frameworks, theories and tools and to assess their relevance to the issues of twenty-first century leading and managing
- increase your awareness of different perspectives on, and approaches to, managing and leading in different organisational and cultural contexts
- develop your ability to engage critically with management frameworks, theories and tools helping you to select and adapt techniques and approaches appropriate to own management context, in order to shape your own management practice
- develop your awareness of the wider global context in which business and management takes place, and increase your ability to work confidently across sectoral and national boundaries
- develop interpersonal and conceptual skills that will help you to use ideas and frameworks to make sense of, and to work with, organisational complexity
- challenge your own thinking and practice by reflecting upon it critically in the light of the ideas you encounter, and through debates with others
- enhance your ability to plan and implement change which will have real impact within your own organisational context.
Teaching and assessment
Support from your tutor
Your learning will take place within a tutor-facilitated group of approximately 16 students. Your tutor is responsible for providing individual tuition, professional advice and support, mentoring, assessment and regular feedback on your performance throughout the module. You will learn by working with your group and individually online in structured activities supported by a wide range of resources including specially designed books, a world-class online library and face-to-face opportunities including a Residential school. Activities generally require online participation over 2 to 6 week periods and contribute to your reflective practice and your assessment.
Contact us if you want to know more about study with Intratest Business School before you register.
Assessment
The assessment details can be found in the facts box above.
You must use the online eTMA system to submit your tutor-marked assignments (TMAs).
Tutor-marked assignments are scheduled at regular intervals (approximately every six weeks) throughout the module and are based on the work you do during the relevant block. Extensive guidance is given on all assignments submitted.
Residential School
Satisfactory participation at a compulsory four-day residential school or 21-day online equivalent is required. The residential school has long hours (one day runs from 09:00 to 20:30) but with regular breaks. Students participating in the online version should expect to spend about 1.5 hours per day on various tasks and activities.
The school is an opportunity to meet other managers and tutors and to work in small groups on cross functional management problems. Skills development includes problem solving, team working, applying module concepts to real situations and working on self development and professional development.
Both versions of the residential school (face to face and online) have been devised to deliver the essential learning outcomes for L1, however it is fair to say that past experience shows that the majority of students prefer to attend a face-to-face school if they can. The cost of the residential school (excluding travel) is included in the module fee.
At the face to face residential school you will need to carry out online research and so you should endeavour to bring a portable device such as a laptop, PDA or smart phone to the school in order to participate in these activities.
Entry requirements
Normally, to register for this course you must have a bachelors degree or equivalent professional qualification, and have a minimum of three years’ experience in a managerial, professional or technical role. Usually this means that you are at least 25 years old as it is unusual (but not impossible) to be able to satisfy the ‘experience’ requirement under this age. You will be required to study between 12-15 hours per week for one year.
Experienced managers who do not meet the academic requirement can be accepted onto L if they first complete the Professional Diploma in Management which has open entry.
You will also need an appropriate facility in English language, sufficient to be able to work effectively at postgraduate level; generally this means capability equivalent to an International English Language Test System (IELTS) score of 6.5. To assess your English language skills in relation to your proposed studies you can visit the INTRATEST website.
Additional costs
Study costs
There may be extra costs on top of the tuition fee, such as a laptop, travel to tutorials, set books and internet access.
Residential school
This course includes one or more compulsory residential schools. You’ll have to pay for your own travel to and from the venues. If you are unable to attend the residential school, an online alternative is available.
What’s included
As well as the individual tuition provision you will have access to regular opportunities for engagement with other students, university library access, an extensive variety of specially-written resources presented in different media (print and online) and designed exclusively for this course, audio-visual material, published articles, case-studies and a set of interactive tools to help you develop your management thinking abilities.
Computing requirements
A computing device with a browser and broadband internet access is required for this course. Any modern browser will be suitable for most computer activities. Functionality may be limited on mobile devices.
Any additional software will be provided, or is generally freely available. However, some activities may have more specific requirements. For this reason, you will need to be able to install and run additional software on a device that meets the requirements below.
A desktop or laptop computer with either:
- Windows 7 or higher
- macOS 10.7 or higher
The screen of the device must have a resolution of at least 1024 pixels horizontally and 768 pixels vertically.
To participate in our online-discussion area you will need both a microphone and speakers/headphones.
