BA (Hons) Global Business and Sustainability Management

Module Descriptions for Year 2, Semester 2

STG5500 Business Planning
HRM5300 Human Resource Management
STM5900 Corporate Social Responsibility
2 x Pathway Electives (24 Credits)
STM5410 Ecological Challenges and Environmental Management
FIN5850 Finance and Accounting for Sustainability
MKT5750 Social Marketing

STG5500 Business Planning (12 Credits)

Serves as a key preparation for Level 300 studies, integrating elements of marketing, finance and research, and provides a bridge to the required Level 300 modules of Corporate Strategy and the Dissertation. A key element of any viable business should be a practical business plan, outlining the market opportunity and the resources required to meet the need identified, along with a plan of what needs to happen and when. This module exposes students to business planning, outlining the elements required, and having them construct a business plan for an SME business of their own choosing.

HRM5300 Human Resource Management (12 Credits)

This module traces the emergence of HRM as a development from Personnel Management. The emphasis is on the practical uses of HRM in the workplace and the use of HRM in a strategic capacity at managerial levels. Upon successful completion, students will be able to demonstrate knowledge of current employment issues and an awareness of the link between corporate strategy and the strategic use of HRM. In addition, part of the module’s assessment rests in the Leadership Weekend, which takes place once every semester and forms an essential component of the module. Leadership Weekend: Additional information for students with disabilities or long-term health conditions

STM5900 Corporate Social Responsibility (12 Modules)

This module focuses on how managers can implement effective strategies in relation to corporate sustainability and corporate social responsibility issues in their organisation. Some of the topics covered include cultural change, value versus values and leadership in sustainability. The emphasis is on the change strategies – incremental and transformative – required to shift organisations towards CSR. The subject examines the role played by chief executives, business managers, employees and other stakeholders as change agents for corporate social responsibility.

2 Sustainability Management Electives (24 Credits) choosing from:

STM5410 Ecological Challenges and Environmental Management
(12 Credits)

Environmental problems like pollution and resource depletion have become a key factor that no business can afford to ignore. This module contains a macro and micro approach to environmental sustainability, which for the purposes of this module should be understood as the kinds of practices that people and businesses can repeat for the long term without destroying the ecological balance of the planet. Sustainability is both a constraint for business, since it requires managers to change their way of organizing corporate activities, but also an opportunity, given the possibilities being created as the world transitions to new forms of economic, political and social organization. Upon completion students will be able to engage in an insightful way with the debate around environmental issues within the context of sustainability and explore environmental sustainability as a key growth area.

FIN5850 Finance and Accounting for Sustainability (12 Credits)

Finance can be defined as the art and science of managing money. It is concerned with the process, institutions, markets and instruments involved in the transfer of money among individuals, businesses and governments. Financial management can be seen as the financial art relating to the acquisition, financing and managing of assets with a pre-conceived objective. Sustainable financial management requires and encourages these operations to be carried out in full consideration of their social and environmental implications. Sustainability accounting provides data and a reporting system to support sustainable financial management and communicate the social and environmental effects of a company’s economic actions to the stakeholders and society at large. Its concerns lie with identifying, measuring, and reporting the corporation’s impact on the environment and people. Upon successful completion of this module will be able to identify and evaluate the significance of and main factors driving socially responsible investment decision-making and apply appropriate financial practices in response.

MKT5750 Social Marketing (12 Credits)

This module examines issues of social responsibility in business and how marketing theory and techniques may be used to promote more environmentally and socially conscious business practices. The module aims to apply social marketing frameworks and tools within consulting firms, commercial firms, and not-for-profit ones. Particular emphasis is placed on the fact that effective social marketing requires a change in mind set from being organization-centred to audience-centred. Upon its completion students will be able to apply social marketing tool-kit in order to raise awareness of sustainable practices within business context.