This module provides an opportunity to critically examine leadership and management from social, cultural, political, and economic perspectives, recognising current imperatives in the global context of contemporary business. In the module you will compare and contrast traditional and modern approaches to leadership and management, engaging with management styles and practices from different regions and cultures, and informed by a diversity of examples and case studies. You will also systematically examine and reflect on your leadership disposition, skills, and behaviours. The GAME+ attributes covered in this module are: Influence and Impact; Critical Self-Management and Skills Mastery.

This module directly precedes the dissertation and will enable you to develop a research proposal, a more fully developed version of which will form the first three chapters of your dissertation. You will develop feasible research objectives and an understanding of the research context (towards Chapter One of your dissertation); an appropriate conceptual/analytical framework to analyse your data following a critical review of the appropriate literature (towards chapter Two of your dissertation). This module will allow you to make informed decisions about which research philosophies, strategies and methods are suitable for your research. The subjects of triangulation, reliability, validity and research ethics will be explored and a combination of methods to form a critically robust research design (towards Chapter Three of your dissertation) will emerge. With regards, to academic study skills, this module serves to develop academic study skills with particular emphasis on building your confidence as an independent learner and your academic writing skills. It will provide practice in other academic skills such as referencing, strategies for avoiding plagiarism, the difference between essay and report writing and how to search for relevant information effectively. You will practise using critical thinking skills, formal and informal presentation skills and learn how to get the most out lectures, seminars and tutorials. 

The dissertation provides you with the opportunity to undertake an extended and substantial piece of research; to synthesise the academic knowledge acquired from the taught MBA modules and to produce an evaluative and critical discussion of strategic issues relevant to the international management topic under study. The dissertation follows the completion of the research methods module completion of which is a prerequisite for commencement of the dissertation. Following receipt of feedback from the second research methods assignment, you will improve the initial three chapters and in con junction with your supervisor’s guidance, you will then undertake the data gathering either by fieldwork or desk research or some combination of both, evaluate and synthesise the findings and present them clearly. You will also present a set of conclusions drawn from the findings.