Keele University Prospectus Undergraduate | 2016 | Page 66

BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

Business Management and
Human Resource Management
Overview

Effective management of the people in the workplace
lies at the heart of a successful business. Strategic
decision making, change management, investment in
training, and successful workforce relations all impact
upon productivity and company performance. As a
result, human resource managers require not only
an understanding of workers and the workplace,
but also a solid grounding in core business functions
and the modern business environment. Business
managers require a complementary understanding
of worker behaviour in order to plan and manage the
business effectively. The dual honours programme
in business management and human resource
management provides precisely this background.
The programme offers:
• in depth knowledge of modern approaches to
business, management, industrial relations and
the workplace;
• an understanding of the broader societal context
of the world of business and employment;
• excellent career prospects in the business,
public and social enterprise sectors.
Business management and human resource
management at Keele share a distinctive critical
approach that will enable you to understand the
nature of the employment relationship, business
theory and practice in their historical, cultural and
philosophical context. As a result the programme
provides the opportunity for you to develop
analytical skills to successfully apply theory to
everyday practice, while recognising the advantages
and limitat ions of how businesses currently operate.
Such skills are highly valued either in the workplace
or as a precursor to further study. The critical
approach means that our graduates have the
capacity to think differently, unconventionally, and
from a new perspective. By promoting the asking
of cogent questions, your studies will enable you to
approach problems creatively and use information to
its fullest extent. This is a valuable skill that is widely
applicable in the workplace, especially for those
problems where more than one possible solution
may exist.
Programme content is strongly research led
which means that teaching is informed by current
trends, developments and knowledge in business
and employment issues. This delivers a learning
environment that is designed to develop the
intellectual skills required for subsequent career
success in an increasingly complex and dynamic
business environment.

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Course content

The progressive structure of this degree is designed
to support you throughout your studies and
will enable you to develop your knowledge and
understanding of the subject in a systematic manner.
First year
Key study skills that will help you make the transition
to effective university level study are also introduced
in the first year and developed across the programme
to support you.
Second year
The key components of the programme are
developed systematically through the core modules.
These build upon background modules introduced
in the first year to provide a thorough grounding
in organisational behaviour, operations and
quality management, business strategy, industrial
relations, workforce planning, managing human
resources, the employment relationship and the law.
Alongside this core, the degree offers a wide range
of elective choice which enables you to deepen
your understanding of important areas of human
resource management and business behaviour,
including relationship between pay and performance,
discrimination and equality at work, leadership,
entrepreneurship and international business strategy.
Third year
In the final year, these strands are drawn back
together in a project that involves an exploration
of the current debate on the globalisation of
production, employment and living standard or a
project which involves establishing and managing
a new business venture.
The dynamic nature of the business environment
highlights the importance of covering up to
date developments in your studies. As a student
of business management and human resource
management you will have the opportunity
to explore these contemporary issues and
developments in the third year.
Developments, such as those relating to transnational
corporations and their strategy of policy diffusion
and management of employees across national
boundaries are, however, already changing the way
businesses work profoundly and the programme
offers the opportunity for you to examine these
developments among the elective modules. In
business management, for example it is possible to
explore the growing significance of visual media,
including film, as resources in management and
organisational communication while in human
resource management you can examine the
nature and effect of international human resource
management, migration and child labour for
companies that operate in an increasingly
globalised market.