This unit will challenge and develop your wider understanding of the context in which healthcare services operate. The unit will address challenges facing healthcare delivery in the 21st century, with a focus on local, regional and global policies that healthcare leaders have to understand and develop to meet the needs of increasingly complex and evolving healthcare environments. Your current leadership practices will be addressed by concentrating on strategies that enable healthcare leaders to balance the requirements of an increasingly complex and evolving healthcare environment whilst meeting the challenges of modern societies. The unit also examines issues faced by health care organisations when dealing with the use of information technology in the form of information systems.

This unit explores strategy and the implications for marketing. You will consider the broad external environment, current issues and challenges facing directors, senior managers and entrepreneurs in guiding the longterm development of organisations. The objectives of organisations and the means of achieving these objectives through the mobilisation and deployment of assets and resources and the integration of the various functions of the organisation will be the focus of the unit. You will most specifically:

• Understand and develop strategy; think strategically;
• Research, develop and demonstrate expertise in understanding the global business environment in which the modern organisation operates gaining confidence in handling current affairs and relating these to organisations’ strategies;
• Identify and evaluate political, economic, social and technological developments relevant to organisational strategies;
• Apply a range of skills in developing business and marketing strategies for different environments and opportunities that can harmonise the organisations’ objectives, capabilities and resources

In today’s business world digital technology in all its facets is crucial to facilitate decision-making, create new business models, and achieve competitive advantage. This unit, informed by staff research and other scholarly activities, develops your knowledge and understanding of the use of digital technology for effective management in a variety of business settings, as well as enabling you to manage digital technology. Crucially, you will learn about the role of digital technology in strategy, Internet marketing, and related areas. The unit takes an integrated approach to critically assess the relationship between information systems and how they can create a competitive advantage. The aim is to enable you to understand and critically assess what information systems are, what key characteristics they have and what they can (and cannot) do for an organisation. Successful completion of the unit will give you a comprehensive and detailed overview of theory and practice and you will acquire a ‘toolkit’ that provides the basis for understanding the potential – and limitations – of information systems for business success.

Practice events are integral to the University of Bedfordshire Business School’s vision to take business education, research and practice in exciting new directions. Central to this vision is the aspiration to give you the skills and knowledge to find the career and future success you want. We aim to develop intelligent practitioners who imaginatively integrate theory and practice, supported by contemporary research evidence. You will need to select and apply knowledge and principles you have learnt through the taught MBA units, experiential learning activities and challenges to develop an understanding of current realities in work organisations and be better placed as a future manager. This unit is specifically designed to help your transition into the professional work environment through combining academic rigour with practice skills: the behaviours, attributes and intent which give you immediate impact in the organisations you join. This produces individuals with the confidence and know-how to fit in and be effective from day one: managers who understand business context, and have the creativity, drive and focus to bring about change. The aim of this unit is to:

• Enhance your transition to the workplace through experiential learning
• Improve your personal, interpersonal and business skills
• Develop your awareness of professional working practice and increase your employability
• Relate the theories learnt in the earlier stages of the MBA to real-word business practice issues

The unit aims to enable you to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of management and business as well as the skills essential to effective operation in a corporate, business, public sector or not for profit environment. It is a unit specifically designed to help your transition into the professional work environment through the integration of theory and practice supported by contemporary research evidence.