Business and Management Online Degree Pathway

Examine the landscape in which modern organisations operate, from the legal structures that define different types of business to the competitive and regulatory forces that shape strategy. You explore how organisations respond to market pressures, economic cycles, and national policy frameworks, developing the analytical skills to evaluate business performance in context and understand why structure and environment are interdependent.

Study the principles and practices that govern how people are managed within organisations. The unit covers organisational communication, the dynamics of effective teamwork, the challenges and management of remote working arrangements, and the mechanisms organisations use to monitor, develop, and support their workforce. You build a working knowledge of people management theory that underpins the more advanced people management unit in Year 2.

Develop practical literacy in the financial information that managers use to make decisions. The unit covers the structure and purpose of financial and management accounting systems, methods for assessing business performance using financial data, and the application of management accounting techniques such as cost-volume-profit analysis, budgeting, and variance analysis to real-world business decisions.

Build the professional communication competencies that underpin effective business practice. You examine how internal communication flows within organisations and how businesses communicate with customers, study the factors that affect communication effectiveness, practise oral presentation skills for business contexts, and develop written communication proficiency including reports, emails, and formal correspondence at a professional standard.

Explore the classic and digital dimensions of the marketing mix across its traditional product, price, place, and promotion elements. The unit develops your ability to analyse how organisations apply marketing mix principles across different markets and customer segments, and introduces digital marketing channels and how they extend and modify the traditional mix in an e-commerce and social media environment.

Investigate the growing importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a strategic and ethical dimension of business. You examine current CSR issues including environmental sustainability, supply chain ethics, and community engagement, analyse the impact of CSR policy on shareholders, employees, customers, and wider communities, and develop the skills to formulate recommendations for responsible and sustainable business practice.

Study the principles and systems that enable organisations to build and sustain productive customer relationships over time. The unit examines why CRM is central to business competitiveness, how effective CRM is achieved through data, service design, and staff behaviour, the role of loyalty programmes and retention strategies, and how to identify and plan improvements to CRM in a real organisational context.

Examine how information and knowledge function as strategic assets within organisations. The unit covers the sources and types of information available to managers, the systems and practices through which knowledge is shared and used, the importance of information quality and currency for decision-making, and the policies, legislation, and best practices that govern the management of data and information, including data protection principles.

Analyse the strategic challenges and opportunities that globalisation presents to business organisations. You examine how international business operations are structured, how external factors including political risk, currency volatility, trade regulation, and cultural difference affect global strategy, and how globalisation reshapes internal operations in areas such as supply chains, human resources, and organisational culture, using a specific country context as a case study.

Advance your understanding of how organisational structure and culture shape the management of people. The unit develops your ability to manage individuals and teams to achieve sustainable business performance, to use motivational frameworks and development approaches to build high-performing teams, and to critically review people management strategies in real organisations, drawing on theories from organisational behaviour and strategic HRM.

Extend your financial management knowledge to the strategic level required of senior managers. The unit covers the range of finance sources available to organisations, the assessment of organisational financial performance using ratio analysis and financial statements, and the application of costing methods including absorption costing, marginal costing, and activity-based costing to support strategic decision-making.

Design, conduct, and present an original business research project on a topic of your choice. You develop a structured research proposal, select and apply appropriate research methodologies including primary and secondary data collection, analyse your findings, evaluate the outcomes against your research questions, and present your conclusions to a stakeholder audience. This unit demonstrates the independent academic capability that university partners value at degree level.

Develop advanced competencies in organisational communication management. You examine the full range of communication channels and formats used within and between organisations, analyse the factors that enable or obstruct effective workplace communication including culture, structure, and technology, develop your own communication skills through practical application, and produce a plan for improving communication effectiveness within a defined organisational setting.

Advance from the foundational marketing mix unit to a strategic analysis of marketing principles and their application in contemporary business. You examine the role of marketing in creating and sustaining competitive advantage, apply core marketing principles to real business contexts, evaluate a range of marketing methods and their suitability for different products and markets, and develop a practical marketing plan for a specific product or service.

Build the legal literacy that business managers need to operate within the regulatory framework. The unit covers the principles governing the legal relationship between businesses and consumers under consumer protection legislation, the law of agency and consumer credit, monopoly, merger, and anti-competitive practice regulation under UK and EU competition law, and the key provisions governing intellectual property rights including patents, trademarks, and copyright.

Examine the ethical dimensions of business decision-making and their implications for stakeholders and society. You explore the main ethical frameworks applied in business contexts including utilitarianism, deontological ethics, and virtue ethics, analyse business objectives through an ethical lens, study the ethical dimensions of workplace relationships including equality, dignity, and whistleblowing, and apply your learning by assessing a current ethical issue in a real organisational context.