This module addresses the traditional practical managerial and leadership skills that any professional working in public or faith community administration will require. The module will engage with contemporary scholarship, reflect upon its specific implications for and challenges to faith-based organisations, and encourage and facilitate practical reflection upon the application of this learning to professional contexts among faith communities.
Topics to be addressed will include issues such as strategic thinking and implementation, financial management & accounting, performance improvement, operations management, marketing, decision science, ethical purchasing and procurement, project management, non-profit management, business planning and development.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
Engage, interpret and evaluate contemporary literature on key aspects of management science;
Reflect upon their professional insights into leadership theory theologically within or for a particular religious tradition and explore the implications of their professional awareness within or for a faith-based context;
Apply their learning to specific practical contexts and challenges in the workplace;
Demonstrate their understanding and application of practical and professional leadership skills in areas such as organisational management and administration, strategic thinking, project management and business planning.
At the discretion of the module convenor, students taking this module as a degree apprenticeship candidate can be invited instead to submit an alternative form of assessment, which can be EITHER:
a) A strategic business proposal of up to 4,000 words (to be delivered to a detailed specification to be provided); OR b) A portfolio of evidence of professional development (comprising up to 18 discrete pieces of evidence, to be delivered to a detailed specification to be provided).
Each of these alternative assessment models a) and b) may only be applied once each across the MPA programme and to modules determined by the programme leader (ordinarily to the fifth and sixth modules to be delivered on the programme respectively).
Reassessment: Resubmission of any and all failed components (selecting a different essay title/topic where there is a choice of titles/topics).
