Programme Summary

COURSE SYNOPSES

MBL5101 Legal Environmental in Business                                                                       18 credits

This course aims to equip students with an appreciation of the legal environment in which business operates today. It provides a conceptual frame work for the broader context in which business decisions are made. It also focuses on the legal frameworks governing contracts, property and business relationships, and covers those principles of Commercial Law which are relevant to business transactions, law of contract and statutory remedies for breach of contract, law of lease, law of agency, types of business entities, the law of property, product liability, common law duties of the employer, environmental regulations and sustainability. Emphasis is placed on active, experiential application of legal reasoning and analysis of legal and ethical issues as they relate to business.

MBL5102 Financial and Management Accounting                                                              18 credits

Accounting and finance knowledge is crucial in effectively managing organizations. This course provides a broad understanding of accounting and finance tools and concepts. These tools are widely used in business practice and successful completion of this course will enable students to make considered and knowledgeable business decisions. The course covers the use and interpretation of financial and management reports to help plan, control and evaluate in today's business environment. It covers the basics of investments and securities markets –bonds, equities, derivatives, portfolio theory and risk, sustainable finance and Quantitative risk management. It enables students to develop analytical and critical abilities in relation to the provision and evaluation of relevant accounting techniques for decision making and control purposes. The course further helps students gain insight and knowledge in analysing financial statements, use of accounting information for strategic, tactical, and operating decisions with a focus on strategic cost management. Emphasis is placed on the use of cost and other management accounting information in making informed business decisions.

MBL5103 Business Statistics & Management Science                                                        18 credits

This course aims to equip students with an appreciation of basic statistics concepts and their relevance to the business environment. Students will be introduced to the application of statistics in the workplace. The course covers methods for gathering, analysing, and interpreting data. And the topics include data distributions, probability theory and probability analysis sampling, hypothesis testing, inferential statistics, and linear regression, correlation, optimization models, decision trees. The course also covers permutation and combination

MBL5104 Management Information Systems and Leadership                                              18 credits

Exposes students to modern information leadership strategies, decision support and expert systems, planning and development. The leader’s informational roles like monitor, and disseminator require leader to receive or source information, analyse the information for information-organization-fit before dissemination. In this information age the leader must take the lead in issues of the business dash-board using big data analytics techniques so as to keep abreast with changing trends. Topics covered include; concepts of systems and organisations, strategic uses of information technology, application of information systems to functional business areas, decision support and expert systems, management of information systems, security and ethical issues of information system.

MBL5105 Change Management                                                                                        18 credits

The course provides students with the insight that in the contemporary world the only thing that is constant is change hence it equips them with Different approaches on how to manage it. Topics will include: why change is necessary, models of change, change management as a tool for competitive advantage principles of change management and change competencies. A major emphasis is on the study and use of techniques and interventions to implement change and development programs, the role of managers as change agents, and the use of external consultants. It examines the essential skills of the change agents, explores the types of interventions and programs that should be considered and the importance of line and staff functions to ensure a successful change effort. That would also include: performance, designing strategies, concept of power, organisational politics, change model, resistance, models for growth and decline, structural forms.

MBL5206 Corporate Governance and Business Ethics                                                      18 credits

The course aims to enable students to define ethics, articulate what ethics entails tapping from the various perspective posited by the ethical theories, analyzing ethical relationships in business and Corporate Social Responsibility issues. Various corporate governance frameworks such as African Round Table, King Code I, II, III and IV, National Code of Corporate Governance of Zimbabwe and the Ubuntu Framework are used as the basis for defining good corporate governance. Topics to be covered are as follows; definition of ethics, utilitarian ethics, deontological ethics, virtue theory, theories of justice, ethical discussion and ethical relationships in business and social responsibility, definition of cooperate governance, separation of ownership and control, corporate scandals and reaction. Other topics and aspects to be covered are; corporate ownership around the world, board composition, functions of boards and their committees, corporate governance and the media, information management and disclosures, the governance of risk, corporate conflict prevention and resolution.

MBL5207 Business Research Methods                                                                             18 credits

This course introduces students to the philosophy of research in the business/management field, including both qualitative and quantitative methods. It covers the research process and introduces students to the Statistical packages like SPSS, AMOS and others. This course is highly recommended for students contemplating postgraduate study in management. Topics to be covered include formulation of research topic, introduction, background of the problem, statement of the problem, formulating research objectives and conceptual and or theoretical framework, literature review, research methodology and data presentation and analysis.

MBL5208 Managerial Economics in Leadership                                                                 18 credits

This course introduces business leaders to analysis of economic environment with an intention to help them in decision making. The main topics to be covered are foundations of managerial decision–making. supply and demand, empirical methods, organization and objectives of the firm, competition and monopoly, pricing with market power, oligopoly, game theory, uncertainty and information, the agency problem, behavioural economics, and market failure.

MBL5209 Strategic Human Resource Management                                                            18 credits

The course equips students with the knowledge that Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) promotes high performance workplaces. Students get an insight into the linking of human resources (HR) with organisations’ strategic goals and objectives to improve business performance and develop organisational culture that nurture innovation, flexibility and competitive advantage. Topics to be covered include Strategic human resource planning, Strategic recruitment and selection, Strategic training and development, Strategic performance management, Strategic compensation and reward management.

MBL5210 Artificial Intelligence and Leadership                                                                  18 credits

This course introduces students to artificial intelligence (AI) and the basics of machine learning, deep learning, and types of AI. It will cover the role of AI in business strategy and provide the students with a deep understanding of AI in day-to-day business operations. This course is recommended for students contemplating postgraduate study in business management. Topics to be covered include machine learning and Data Science; types of AI; the use/role of AI in leadership and decision-making; theories and methods of implementing AI; Leadership skills for the AI age; AI applications in people management, finance and marketing; AI and business strategy; ethics and regulatory considerations (governance) in AI; The future of AI and its impact on leadership.

MBL5311Strategic Management                                                                                       18 credits

The course intends to develop students to think strategically about a company, its present business position, its long-term direction, its resources and competitive capabilities, the calibre of its strategy and its opportunities for gaining sustainable competitive advantage. The course looks at the manager as the strategist, organizational mission, vision, goals and objectives. Strategic decision-making process, organizational structure and control systems, stakeholder’s analysis, competitor analysis and business analysis, Chaos Theory, the balanced scorecard and business strategy and Results based management are some of the other aspects to be covered in this course.

MBL5312 Strategic Marketing Management                                                                       18 credits

This course aims to inculcate a managerial approach to Strategic Marketing decision- making. Topics include: market segmentation, product strategy, pricing strategy, promotion strategy, distribution strategy, demand analysis, future market projection and global marketing. Case studies, reading sand simulations are used. The role of marketing in the organization and its impact on the strategic planning process will be covered. Emphasis will be placed on identifying and solving business problems faced by business leaders.

MBL5313 Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation                                                        18 credits

The course provides students with the opportunity to explore the nature and challenge of entrepreneurial work and specifically aims at putting into place the initial building blocks for coming to better grips with the exciting and increasingly prominent field of theory and practice related to creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. Students develop their own capacity to be creative and show how creativity can be put to work in organizational contexts. The meaning, antecedents and nexus between creativity and innovation is explored. Finally, students are exposed to a number of managerial leadership challenges including the different ways or options of going into business, how to do market research, evaluation of entrepreneurial opportunities, how to draft a business plan, how to finance new and growing entrepreneurial ventures and their legal considerations.

MBL5314 Strategic Leadership and Organisational Dynamics                                             18 credits

The course will enable students to gain clarity about their leadership principles, values, and ethical boundaries, and how they will respond under pressure when challenged. Topics to be covered include: leadership versus management, the psychology of management, the learning organizations- leveraging knowledge, Peter Senge’s five disciplines of learning organizations, personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning, systems thinking, the leadership environment, employee trust and organizational change basics. Students will also learn negotiation and decision-making strategies, engagement, high performance work culture, strategies and processes for impactful outcomes. Students will also cover transformational leadership in the 21st century and ways of managing cross functional relationships, to build social capital and ways of building organisational strategic partnerships.

MBL5315 Leadership and Conflict Transformation                                                 18 credits

This module is designed to equip students with knowledge on how to exercise leadership in a conflict situation. Topics covered include: Understanding conflict transformation, Lederach’ transformation framework, Mediation as a conflict transformation tool, Negotiation, Dialogue, Reconciliation, Peace and conflict impact assessment, Peace economics, The role of leaders in conflict transformation.

MBL5400 Research and Innovation Dissertation                                                                90 credits

A supervised dissertation of between 19 000 and 21000 words which allows a student to explore in depth, subjects of specialisation/operational interest to him/her showing the student’s innovativeness in dealing with issues relating to leadership, thereby demonstrating a comprehensive and qualitative understanding of the area of study.