MBA with Specialism in International Human Resource Management (with optional Placement/Project year)

This module integrates advanced leadership theories with ethical management strategies, emphasising the practical skills needed to address complex organisational challenges. It cultivates ethical decision-making, shapes accountable leadership practices, and fosters sustainable and value-driven organisational cultures.

This module provides a critical overview of the core areas of marketing for organisations. It covers key concepts such as customer value, market analysis, and strategic marketing planning.

Students will explore key factors shaping the marketing environment, target marketing and consumer buyer behaviour, the importance and role of positioning and integrated marketing communications with an emphasis on the development and rationale for developing strong brands. Students will also examine the contemporary marketing challenges facing organisations students and how to evaluate marketing strategy.

This module equips students with adequate financial knowledge of corporate finance including investing, financing and dividend decisions in an organisational context. It aims to achieve the following objectives:-

1. To enable students to explore and develop an understanding of the theoretical techniques, concepts and methods employed in finance
2. To develop the ability to apply the theoretical to the practical, through the analysis of data and application of relevant techniques in the context of a variety of organisations
3. To evaluate and develop a critical and reflective awareness of the importance of the application of finance to decision making within organisations

Indicative contents include but are not limited to:

• Financial accounting – financial reporting/statements/corporate financing/financial control techniques/cash flow management
• Management and cost accounting – operational/implementation/strategic financial decision making/performance measurement
• Investment decisions – appraisal/risk/financing/capital rationing/strategy/acquisitions/rationing/strategy/acquisitions and mergers
• Value based management – shareholder value/valuation/ethical issues

This module equips students with the knowledge and skills to manage people strategically in a global context. It explores how international HRM integrates with corporate strategy to deliver sustainable business success across borders. Students will learn to diagnose global trends, design people strategies, and lead workforce planning that aligns talent with long-term organisational goals.

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

1. Understand global trends and create people strategies that drive business success

   • Analyse macro forces such as globalisation, technology, demographics, and geopolitics.
   • Translate insights into actionable HR strategies for multinational organisations.

2. Manage people across international contexts by aligning global talent practices with organisational strategy

   • Navigate cultural diversity, international labour laws, and global mobility challenges.
   • Apply inclusive practices and ethical standards across regions.

3. Critically assess and apply concepts and principles of Human Resource Management Strategy

   • Evaluate strategic HRM frameworks and models.
   • Integrate HR strategy with corporate objectives and risk management.

4. Lead strategic workforce planning that aligns global capacity and skills with long-term business goals

   • Forecast future talent needs and critical roles.
   • Develop workforce plans that support organisational resilience and growth.

This core module provides a critical and practice‑oriented examination of International Human Rights frameworks and their implications for contemporary Human Resource Management (HRM). Positioned at the intersection of global standards and domestic employment regulation, the module explores how human rights principles shape, inform, and challenge HRM practice within the UK and across international jurisdictions.

Delivered in collaboration with the University of Chester Law School, the module equips students with the legal literacy, analytical skills, and ethical awareness needed to navigate complex employment environments and uphold workers’ rights in diverse organisational and cultural contexts.

Indicative content to include:

• International Human Rights and the rights of workers 
• Institutions and sources of International Human Rights and workers' rights
• Fundamentals of employment law
• Dealing with employment relationships across jurisdictions
• Responding to diverse labour forces - Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

A course of individual study and research project in accordance with established research principles involving the completion of a Management Research Project, usually in the form of a dissertation. 

The module is designed to enable learners to:

• Be able to identify & justify a Business research "real world" problems, evaluate, and apply appropriate research methods to address the research problem.
• Design and implement a management research project using methodologies and methods appropriate to
  research questions and objectives
• Analyse and report business/management research findings to meet academic and practitioner needs
• Demonstrate critical reflection on the research process, managerial implications and alignment with future study.
• Demonstrate the application of knowledge and skills to plan a substantial management research project.
• Assess and evaluate potential ethical and practical challenges to conducting a management research project.
• Provide students with the skills to develop the work from an existing research proposal into a piece of rigorous management research or an organisation-specific project using secondary or primary data as negotiated with their supervisor
• To provide students with the skills to write up an extended piece of research, demonstrating academic rigour, including consideration of methodological and ethical issues associated with the programme of academic research or the organisation specific project
• To enhance students' project planning, presentation, critical reflection, and analysis skills
• To support students with the opportunity, and the enabling mechanisms to support their development towards
  independent learning.

Indicative content includes, but is not limited to:

• The nature, extent and purposes of management research
• Management research paradigms
• Research strategies
• Research designs, methods and approaches
• Research quality standards: establishing validity, reliability and generalisability
• Sampling and Research instrument design
• Research ethics
• Research Data Management: collection, organisation and analysis
• Managing a dissertation research project