The Postgraduate Certificate in International Business Practice is structured around a group of three courses. These are:

1. Management Principles and Practices
2. Managing People in Organisations
3. International Business Environment

Each course comprises:

• Four weekend teaching blocks
• Five two-hour evening seminars
• Online learning

Course Sequence:

Management, Principles and Practices

This course aims to develop a detailed appreciation of the functional areas that underpin the study of Management and to provide a developmental framework for critical review. The course seeks to examine the discipline of management from both a theoretical and practical perspective, as well as equipping students with a sound understanding of the business environment within which commercial and non-commercial organizations operate. Particular emphasis is placed on examining the interaction between organizational strategy, values and ethics in the process of management.

Course outline:

• Introduction to Management: Management defined. The organizational context of management. The role and process of management. Scope and level of management. Historical Development of Management. Schools of management thought (Classical, Human Relations, Systems and Contingency). The Business Environment. The internal and external business environment. Direct and indirect forces. Applying PEST and SWOT analysis. The changing nature of the business environment. Public and private sectors compared.


• Organizational Mission Values and Ethics: The legal, ethical and social component of business management. The roles of government, legal systems, global ethics, culture and values. The value theory of management, corporate social responsibility and governance across cultures.


• Strategic Management: The process of strategic analysis, planning and choice. Strategic capability. Strategic choices at business, corporate and international levels. Strategic development and change management.


• Marketing: The marketing component. Marketing in the twenty first century. Successful objective setting. Evolution and planning systems. Needs led business approaches. Market orientation, strategic planning.


• Finance: Raising capital. The profit and loss statement. Balance sheet. Cash flow statements. Shareholder value. Internal performance measurement and ratios.


• Quality Management: Quality systems. Benchmarking. The Balanced Scorecard. EFQM. Six Sigma. Quality systems in manufacturing and service industries.

Managing People in Organisations

This course seeks to examine the nature of organizational behavior and human resource management from both an individual and corporate prospective and will provide students with a comprehensive appreciation of the importance of work psychology. The course provides students with a detailed understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of organizational behavior as well as appreciating the interface of ethics and human psychology in the work place.

Course outline:

• Organizational Behaviour and Management: The interdisciplinary nature of organizational behavior. The importance of organizational behavior to effective management. The psychological contract.


• Individuals in Organizations: The nature of personality. Personality models. The measurement of personality. Ethics and the regulation of individual personality. Personal goal setting. Personal development logs. Coaching and mentoring.


• Work Groups and Teams: Characteristics of work groups and teams. Team building. Evaluation and development. Communication.


• Leadership: Leadership styles. Power politics and conflict.


• Organizational Structures and Cultures: Organizational forms and functions. Relationship to performance, culture and behavior. Culture formation, the culture web, open systems, multiple cultures, cultural perspectives.


• HRM and the Business Environment: The corporate/business environment. Changes in the national and global business environment. The social context, the ethics of work and the work organization.


• International HRM: Managing across borders. The environment of international business. Domestic and international HRM compared. Ethics and globalization.

International Business Environment

The aim of this course is to critically review the key elements in the international business environment and, by employing a comparative framework, develop a detailed appreciation of the principles and practices arising from international management. The course aims to equip students with a detailed appreciation of current globalization issues and the strategic context of cross border transactions.

Course outline:

• The Nature of Globalization: The political, economic and social drivers of globalization. Differences in societies and cultures. Implications for successful global management. The role of international trade in economic development and global living standards. Foreign direct investment, its role in economic growth and the implications for business strategy. Ethics and corporate social responsibility in a global context.


• Global Trade, Investment and Monetary Systems: International trade theory. Regional economic integration. The foreign exchange market. International Monetary System. The management of currency risk. Purchasing power parity. Floating versus free currencies.


• Strategy and Structure of International Business: The strategy of international business. Organizational forms. Entry strategic and strategic liaisons. Cross-cultural management. Defining culture. Role of nationality in shaping assumptions beliefs and values. Business conduct in cross-cultural negotiations.


• Global Business Operations: Export. Import and countertrade. Production, outsourcing and logistics. Global marketing. Human Resource management. Accounting and financial management.


• Process Technology: The nature of process technology. Materials processing technology. Information processing technology. The dimensions of technology.


• Planning and Control: Planning and control defined. The nature of supply and demand. The planning and control task. The volume - variety effect on planning and control. Capacity planning. Measuring demand and capacity. The alternative capacity plans. Inventory planning. The timing decision. The nature and importance of timing.


• Just-in–Time Production: The nature of just-in-time production. The JIT philosophy. JIT techniques planning and control. JIT and optimised production technology compared.


• Quality Planning and Control: Nature and importance of quality. Conformance to specification. Stratification. Statistical processes control. Acceptance sampling. Measuring and improving performance. Improvement priorities. Approaches to improvement. The techniques of improvement.


• Total Quality Management: The origins and nature of TQM. Implementing TQM improvement programmes.


• How to present and discuss research progress.