Most of the modules you will be taking will be giving you knowledge, through the delivery of lectures and tutorials, and through personal reading. The Practice of Management module is different in that it seeks to enable you to develop a set of key management skills. The extent to which you develop these skills and become competent in their demonstration will be down to the amount of reading you do, the amount of practice you get at demonstrating them and the quality and amount of feedback you are given. Managers only become competent through the practice of relevant skills, and often through learning from mistakes. This course and its assessment sets out to enable you to find out more about the areas you can offer an employer as your strengths, and those areas you need to work on further. (NB When asked about your weaknesses in a job selection interview, it can be useful to start by saying something like “Well, one of the areas I am presently working to become more competent in is...” so long as then you can describe what you are doing to become more competent, of course!).
You may learn something about yourself during this course: in fact, since two of the assignments request you to look at the topic of self-awareness, in some ways it would be surprising if you went away with no more information about your capabilities than you began with.
Tutor Introduction
The module is led by Dr Peter Morgan – Faculty Development Co-ordinator and Senior University Teacher at the School of Management. Peter (or Dr Morgan) completed both his first degree in Business Studies and his PhD in Occupational Psychology at the School and has been teaching the course since 1996. He has been involved with delivering training to Unilever, ICL, Coca Cola and the BBC as well as staff training for the University of Bradford, for Law educators and other academics nationally.
For the University, Peter has chaired a quality assurance committee, has recently been a member of...