Unit description 

Master of Business Administration

Accounting for Managers 

While this unit provides an introduction to accounting issues relevant to both preparers and users of business reports, it predominantly explores the principles of financial and management accounting from a user perspective. The focus of the unit is on decision-making, providing practical knowledge of preparing basic financial statements and analysing information obtained from the accounting system to assist in management decision-making. 

 

Business Finance 

This unit provides students with an understanding of the macroeconomic setting in which corporate financial decisions are made. They will be exposed to finance theory, and the tools and techniques used in financial decision-making. To assist students in achieving this understanding, it is necessary for them to perform basic financial calculations. The conceptual framework and techniques covered in this unit will provide students who wish to progress to a practitioner role within the finance discipline with a foundation for further studies. 

 

Economics and Business Strategy 
Increasing competition and rapid technological change mean that managers must have a sound understanding of the economic fundamentals of business enterprises, the operation of markets and the role played by governments. In this unit, particular emphasis is given to the strategic interdependence of many businesses and their efficiency. 

 

Leading the Engaged Enterprise 

The modern enterprise engages with all quarters of society as it pursues its goals. The core of the engaged enterprise is its people, who execute strategy with intent while continually exploring new horizons. This unit focuses on fostering and engaging with staff by distributing leadership at all levels of the enterprise, leveraging the power of groups and reaffirming the strategic role of human capital development in learning to innovate new responses to organisational challenges. 

 

Strategies for Growth and Excellence 

This unit enables students to investigate how firms and organisations design and execute effective strategies, and it explores relevant issues such as environmental, leadership and organisational culture and values, macro-globalisation, market competition, meso-government regulatory frameworks and shareholder/stakeholder needs, micro-resources, sustainability and information communications technology. Students will analyse recent case studies and “hot topics” in strategy drawn from the media and business journals. 

 

Strategic Marketing Management 

This unit offers a sound foundation in aspects of marketing management strategy, relevant for all types of profit and not-for profit businesses and organisations. Marketing management strategy is essential for all brand and service operations. The main topics include consumer behaviour, identifying competitive forces, international marketing, marketing communications, marketing mix, market positioning, market segmentation, online marketing, product life cycle and strategic options.  

Master of Communication

Communication Management: Professional Perspectives 

This unit allows students to apply their theoretical learning to authentic industry-based communication projects in order to develop high-level professional communication skills. Students may participate in a client or educator-led project under the supervision of an academic member of staff. The focus is on enhancing the capacity of students to manage communication in different international and organisational business and cultural contexts. It examines the organisational and entrepreneurial challenges associated with communicating persuasively and with authority in various communication contexts. 

Critical and Ethical Issues in Communication  

Communication professionals operate in complex digital contexts that are governed by laws, policies, regulations and professional codes. Practitioners have to learn, understand and apply them constantly. They also need to exercise ethical behaviour in critical situations, often under pressure. This unit considers communication ethics broadly and investigates some key contemporary issues that impact the media and communication industries. 

Global Media: Asia-Pacific Perspectives 

This unit explores the dynamics of the cultural, economic, political and social impacts of the global media from an Asia-Pacific perspective. It discusses the key functions of the global media industry and institutions, media content and discourse, as well as media markets and consumption in a number of key Asia-Pacific nation-states. Students will engage with current issues, debates and themes about the global media, from a Western and non-Western perspective. 

International Strategic Communication and Culture 

This unit explores the theory and practice of communication, drawing on recent strategic communication and public relations scholarship focusing on critical, global and cultural perspectives. Students will develop skills in academic reading, research and writing, and critically engage with theory to explore the challenges of communication management in different cultural contexts and the implications for communication practice. Topics include gender and diversity in public relations and public activism. 

Strategic Communication 

Explore the main theoretical perspectives that inform organisational communication and situate them in relation to the strategic communication skills necessary for those in corporate and not-for-profit organisations, and the public sector. 

Examine the importance of organisational culture and communication with stakeholder groups. Develop the conceptual ability to link the development of organisational goals with communication practices appropriate for the political environment and learn to conduct professional communication within a diverse range of environments. 

Web Strategy 

This unit explores the function and form of communications strategy in the web environment by analysing the impact of the Internet — in particular, mobile communication technology, social media and websites — on the way that organisations interact with stakeholders and audiences in the online public sphere. Students will engage with Internet theory, marketing communication and public relations in order to research, develop and implement strategies in real time for real-life projects.