Introduction: Resourcing the Manager

Open University Business School Diploma B752 Managing Resources for the Market

• Session 1 Starting Points
• 1.1 Your Current Managerial Environment
• Expected competence on entry to the course
• Marketing
• People
• Operations
• Information technology
• Finance
• 1.2 The Changing Role of Mid-Level Management
• Changes to the managerial environment
• Recognizing the challenges of change
• Addressing external accountability
• 1.3 The Impact of External Change
• Impact of change on video case study firms
• Effects of the Single Market
• STE(E)P analysis
• Session 2 Theoretical Underpinnings
• 2.1 The Systems Approach
• The basic model
• Feedback (closed-loop) systems
• Applying systems theory
• 2.2 The Economics of Management
• Supply and demand
• Prices and perfect competition
• Satisfying demand
• Consumer choice
• Behaviour of the firm
• Transaction costs
• Macro-economic effects
• Session 3 The Market as a Working Environment
• 3.1 The Demands of Customers and Competitors
• The role of marketing
• Defining an appropriate product offering
• Marketing lessons from the neoclassical model
• Barriers to entry
• information asymmetries
• Competitive advantage
• 3.2 Gathering and Sifting Information
• Chains of information
• Communication and bias
• Costs of information
• 3.3 Managing Capital and Labour
• Combining capital and labour
• Efficient management of capital
• Efficient management of labour
• Session 4 Meeting the Needs of Your Organization
• 4.1 Hierarchies, Communications and Quality Management Systems
• Hierarchical organizations
• Internal versus external transaction costs
• Quality management systems
• 4.2 Management and Ethical Issues
• Ethics in organizations
• Arguing about values
• Cultural and philosophical differences and ethical behaviour
• Codes of conduct
• Conflict of interest
• Bribery and corruption

MBA material, what do you expect?