To succeed in management you need good interpersonal skills, you need to understand how to deal with other people. This unit will help you gain an awareness of your skills and understand that an awareness of the interpersonal skills of others can help us enormously in dealing with the work tasks we are responsible for. View course on original website...

Do you need to change the way you think when faced with a complex situation? This unit examines how systemic thinking and practice enables you to cope with the connections between things, events and ideas. By taking a broader perspective complexity becomes manageable and it is easier to accept that gaps in knowledge can be acceptable. View course on original website...

There is an ongoing ‘revolution’ in the running of state schools and this is making the position of the school business manager both significant and necessary. Government thinking, together with profound changes in society generally, will affect every institution both in terms of pedagogy and the physical environment, particularly technology and levels of security employed... View course on original website...

Have you ever wondered what ‘management’ means? What kinds of ideas and activities are involved? What or who makes a good manager? Or a bad one? This unit provides a taste of the Open University's Understanding management course which could point you towards some of the answers to these questions. View course on original website...

Businesses are increasingly making explicit their committment to dealing with ethical concerns. This unit explores the business case for an ethical approach to human resources management and examines whether a more 'human-centred' approach can bring dividends, and how an ethical approach fits within an organisation's strategy. View course on original website...

It is hard to think of a part of the world that has not been touched by globalisation. From ‘Big Macs’ in Moscow to Blockbuster video in Beijing the world seems less distant and twenty-four-hour-a-day news makes foreign places more familiar. This unit examines the dimensions of globalisation and the processes that connect people together. View course on original website...

The interactions of business with the non-commercial enviromnent are under increasing scrutiny. This unit looks at the relationships between business and social and ecological environments, often referred to under the umbrella term of Corporate Social Responsibility. The unit examines efforts to reconcile what often look to be competing demands by moving towards a more ethical environ... View course on original website...

Strategic management and planning are no longer the preserve of senior executives. This unit looks at three different approaches to strategy before analysing the direction that strategic management may take now that it has become an accumulation of small tactical decisions rather than a top-down process. If you are interested in ‘ how’ a business... View course on original website...

Operations management is one of the central functions of all organisations whether producing goods or services, or in the private, public or voluntary sectors. This unit will provide you with a basic framework for understanding this function and discusses the role of operations managers, in particular the importance of focusing on suppliers and custo... View course on original website...

Does the recruitment and selection process fill you with dread? Discrimination and equal opportunities legislation can make this area feel like a minefield. If you are faced with appointing a new employee, then this unit will provide a straight-forward guide to the process: from writing job descriptions to finally assessing who to appoint. View course on original website...