Course Title: Business Analysis and Management Research

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Business Analysis and Management Research

Credit Points: 12.00

Terms

Course Code	Campus	Career	School	Learning Mode	Teaching Period(s)
BUSM1533	City Campus	Postgraduate	660H Graduate School of Business and Law	Face-to-Face	Sem 1 2006

Course Coordinator: Chris Booth

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 5417

Course Coordinator Email: chris.booth@rmit.edu.au

Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

You are required to be enrolled in the RMIT MBA program MC088 or be enrolled in the Masters of Biotechnology and Business MC129.

Knowledge and capabilities assumed for this course include capacity to plan and self-organise inclusive of time management to complete pre class preparations, class activities and course assessments.

Course Description

This course exposes students to various frameworks utilised in business analysis and to different research approaches which may be applied in the business environment. This course aims to enable students to understand and analyse the external environmental factors that affect business performance, such as the common macro economic policies of government. It introduces participants to data collection and the basic statistical methods used to forecast and analyze economic trends.

Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

You will develop the following capabilities through successful completion of this course:
• Encouraging Economic and Social Responsibility;
• Managing Resources;
• Operating Globally;
• Implementing Organisational Strategy, and;
• Leadership and Management.
These capabilities will be developed through a managerial practice of sound critical examination and judgment making when dealing with business and economic information.

On completion of the module you will have developed a sound business perspective on aspects of key business decision making, in particular:
• understand major research approaches in business management research;
• understand the theory and practice of approaches to business analysis;
• describe an understand the basic national and international economic factors and be able to analyse their impact on business performance.
• utilise data as the basis for business analysis using appropriate techniques such as SWOT and Case based analysis
• describe an understand of the major approaches and strategies of management and organisational research and the methodological choices that need to be made;
• be familiar with the various quantitative and qualitative methods of data gathering and have detailed knowledge of methods appropriate to their project;
• be able to access library resources using various retrieval techniques;
• understand the various aspects of a research design and be able to design and write an organisational research project plan and be familiar with the ethical issues involved in management and organisational research.

The course has been designed to complement learning in BUSM1534 Marketing Management and BAFI3159 Finance and Accounting for Business Decisions.

Overview of Learning Activities

The course will be taught with a variety of teaching and learning activities. Students will be allocated to collaborative learning networks (CLN) to facilitate and enhance interactive and participatory learning.

Through directed readings and research, students will further develop their critical appreciation of the many issues affecting managers and leaders within workplaces.

Overview of Learning Resources

You will have access to extensive course materials through the online RMIT Learning Hub, including digitised readings, courseware notes and a detailed study program, external internet links and access to RMIT Library online, RMIT library data bases and hardcopy resources where relevant.

Overview of Assessment

Assessments for this course are designed to develop capability to think about business and economic issues and develop business decisions in light of analysis.
Assessment tasks may include:
• Group based project reports on business analysis.
• Contribution in class activities, discussions and demonstration of capabilities to use business, economic and statistical analysis skills to interpret a business situation
• A comprehensive individual assessment of topic areas of theory, application of economic and business decision concepts and reflection on economic and business decision issues will be a feature of this course. Ability to use terminology and concepts associated with business, economic and statistical analysis will be developed through assessments. Assessment may include a comprehensive test of topic areas, a project report or a case analysis.
The assessment tasks will provide suitable evidence to demonstrate learning outcomes and program capabilities.
Feedback on progress will be provided through a formative feedback approach to class interaction and assessments undertaken during the semester.