Recommended Study Sequence

The development of business skills in the form of the application of information collection, analysis and evaluation, logical reasoning skills and communication skills relevent to business and economic issues.

This unit provides an opportunity for students to engage with the dynamics of the management of organisations. Students will be introduced to the connection between the way work and systems are organised and managed and their impact on individuals and societies. This is achieved by using case based opportunities to examine real life contexts. This is an essential unit for business students that can be taken by any student needing a broad initial understanding of management.

This is an introductory law unit designed to introduce the fundamentals of law in a commercial context. The unit introduces students to the basic principles of law and the legal system as well as examining some of the major areas of law that impact on commercial dealings. This unit examines the structure of the legal system, the way law is made, legal reasoning and problem solving. The main areas of law covered include contracts, torts and agency.

For information on this unit please contact the Unit Coordinators: Sharon Taylor (Blacktown and Campbelltown Campuses) and Jean McCartney (Parramatta Campus). This unit provides exposure to financial and management accounting information from a user viewpoint. The unit aims to provide breadth of awareness and knowledge in relevant fields of accounting essential to decision making for managers.

Managing People at Work provides an introductory framework for the study of employment relations. The unit is approached from a stakeholder perspective, emphasising the way that management, labour and the state, along with other key stakeholders, act, both separately and together, to structure the employment relationship. In doing so, the unit integrates industrial relations and human resource management theory and practice, illustrating the links between the two disciplines. The content of the unit is structured so as to provide an initial introduction to the disciplines of industrial relations, human resource management, and employment relations, and to the key stakeholders in the employment relationship. Building on this framework, a theoretical and empirical analysis of employment relations processes is provided, with particular emphasis given to recent changes in the role and perspectives of stakeholders.

This unit is an introduction to economic concepts and contemporary economic issues. It introduces students to basic concepts such as markets and their operation, the behaviour of firms, the efficiency and potential failings of free markets, the role of government, key macroeconomic variables and problems such as unemployment. It illuminates these concepts via application to contemporary economic issues and debates over different theoretical perspectives. This unit also exposes students to recent developments in economics via presentations by specialist guest lecturers.

This Level 1 unit introduces the basic concepts and techniques of statistics that are particularly relevant to problem solving in business. It also provides a sound base for more advanced study in statistics and forecasting in subsequent sessions. Topics include: presentation of data; descriptive statistics; the role of uncertainty in business decision making; hypothesis testing; and basic forecasting.

Introduction to Economic Methods will cover basic concepts in Mathematics and Statistics to help their understanding of subjects like accounting, management, marketing, finance, and economics. In addition, the analytical techniques, concepts and models that will be discussed in this unit will play a foundation role in a Business degree. Topics include: Use of summation signs; financial mathematics; differential calculus and its application in business; collection, analysis and interpretation of data using simple descriptive statistical methods; probability distributions, and hypothesis testing.

This unit is a survey of the marketing process, introducing students to the marketing concept, strategic and marketing planning, marketing research, consumer and customer behaviour, issues of market segmentation, targeting and positioning as well as all the elements of the marketing mix (product/service, pricing, distribution and marketing communication strategies).

This unit explores such questions as: Training -- what is it!! How is it linked to strategic development!! It explores education versus training versus development; managing the training department, upper management involvement, career development; cost-effectiveness of training and development; training and development needs -- how people learn, implications for training and development of staff, models and roles for training; needs analysis, objective setting, and the implications of politics, culture and government; curriculum -- methods content, people, sequencing of curriculum; the advantages and disadvantages of various training methods; measurement of success philosophies, instruments of measurement and post-training measurement.

Managing and Developing Careers is an introductory unit designed to identify the determinants of the process of career management and analyse the roles of key stakeholders in this process including employers, unions, employees, government and societal groups. This unit will explain the nature and process of career management using a stakeholder focus. In achieving these goals, this unit will evaluate the different approaches to career management and relate such approaches to contemporary issues in the field of career management

Organisational Learning and Development introduces a powerful way of understanding the nature of contemporary organisations and the key strategic tasks they face. Promotion of individual self-development within a continuously self-transforming organisation is presented as essential if organisations are to innovate and evolve, and so meet the challenges of a turbulent world. The unit introduces the idea that promoting organisational learning means adopting an appropriate management philosophy, one that challenges traditional theories of management. The concept and practice of organisational learning and implications for management approaches are introduced and critically evaluated. Students are stimulated to learn through involvement in reflection upon a range of individual and collaborative activities.

This unit introduces the concepts of organisational change, the need to manage change as a change agent and how to develop and optimise change models and schemes. In this unit we will build upon the work you have done in Management Foundations, Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Learning and Development and encourage you to consider the world from different perspectives. We wish you to challenge your own ways of learning and to try to include more reflection in the work that you do. The unit will be driven by theory as well as practice and will need you to read conflicting viewpoints in order to understand the complexity of the relationships we are discussing.

This unit integrates the study of strategic theory and practice in the management of human resource management and industrial relations as they co-exist together in the employment realtions model. The dynamic contemporary environment influencing strategic planning of business, human resource and industrial relations is analysed. Models of strategic choice theory, strategic planning, human resource management and industrial relations strategy are used to examine the strategy in employment relations. Models from Dunlop, Porter, Kochan, Penrose, Schuler and Jackson as well as postmodernist and Marist critiques are considered. The application of ethics and standards at work in the development and implementation and evaluation of strategy is examined.

This unit is concerned with organisation theories, forms and practices at both the macro and micro levels. Tensions and paradoxes that arise through processes of ‘getting things done’ in organisations are examined. Various classical and contemporary approaches to conceptualising organisations are introduced and critically appraised. Historical shifts in organisational structure and design preferences are examined. Multiple perspectives are brought to analyse organisation designs. Organising as a social meaning making process, where order and disorder are in tension and unpredictability is shaped and managed, is examined. Students are invited to learn through involvement in, and reflection upon, a range of individual and collaborative activities.

This unit uses engaged learning to allow students to apply knowledge and develop skills developed in the Human Resource Development and Organisational Development Key Program. Student will participate in consultancy teams that will undertake empirical research and problem diagnosis and solution for a specified project, normally for a real-world organisation, which may include commercial firms, not-for-profit organisations and community/public organisations. Projects will be reported upon and presented to clients from the organisation. Project topics may include training needs analysis, HRD evaluation, a change management project, employee attitude or organisational climate surveys, employee well-being and health promotion, work/life balance initiatives, etc.