The MBA curriculum is structured around 15 core courses. These are designed to map the contextual landscape in which businesses operate, give students a solid grasp of the fundamentals of management, build their business acumen and offer integrative practice opportunities. Course designs are updated and adapted annually, therefore the topics listed for each course can be considered as a guideline of what students can expect to be covered on each course.
1. Organisations, Leadership and Values
This course seeks to introduce students to leadership theories, organisational leadership and the complexity of a number of leadership and managerial situations and to give insight into the underlying processes. The course invites students to develop a critical attitude towards leadership theories and practices. It aims to develop a thorough understanding of the relationships between organisations, people, and leadership.
2. Markets in Emerging Countries
The course provides an in-depth analysis of markets from various perspectives, focusing on how they differ within emerging and developing countries.
3. Business, Government and Society
During this course students will be familiarised with a variety of economic, social, environmental and political trends and developments that may impact either directly or indirectly on the strategy and operations of businesses in an emerging market economy such as South Africa. They will also be challenged to consider the role and some of the current responses of the business community to these trends.
4. Leadership and Personal Development
The course is intended to be a catalyst for personal reflection and insight into processes and concepts critical for completing the MBA successfully, as well as to provide a platform for future work and personal success.
5. Economics for Business
The economy is the environment of business. Thus the purpose of the course is to outline the key principles of economics that will be of use to students in their working lives. This course is a principles course in micro and macroeconomics.
6. Accounting
The Accounting course focuses on introducing MBA students to the language of accounting and providing students with the ability to read, interpret and understand financial statements.
7. Organisational Behaviour and People Management
The OBPM course will provide an overall organisational approach to people management strategies and covers three main themes:
- The Individual in the organisation
- High performance work practice
- Leading and managing people
8. Operations Management
This course aims to equip students with the ability to describe and analyse operations and to understand the key operations decision areas with respect to process, capacity, inventory, workforce, quality and measurement.
9. Finance
The MBA Finance course focusses on both theory and practice at a corporate and investor level. This course will enable students to develop an understanding of the practical aspects of finance.
10. Marketing
This course provides students with an overview of the marketing function and is designed to give students confidence in their ability to apply marketing theory in business practice.
11. Social Innovation Entrepreneuring
This course offers MBA students an introduction to the rapidly emerging field of social innovation. While there are many emerging perspectives on social innovation, most generally a social innovation can be understood as an intentional, positive, creative shift in systemic social-ecological patterns.
12. Strategy
The course aims to introduce students to the fundamental principles and concepts of strategic management. It serves as an opportunity to develop their skills for strategic thinking and analysis. Students learn about business strategy and corporate strategy formulation relevant to the macro-environmental industry and competitive drivers facing the organisation, as well as the role that purpose, resources and capabilities play in strategy formation and action. An important aim is that the student develops rigour and confidence in their own ability to think and work in a strategic context.
13. Business Model Innovation Lab
The Business Model Innovation Lab will provide students with the opportunity to critically explore, through the combined use of integrative and systems thinking, business models and innovation. In resonance with the broader vision of the GSB, this course uses the emerging market context as the backdrop within which to explore the intriguing developments of innovation responsive to a highly volatile, uncertain, and yet, promising economy such as South Africa.
14. Research Methods and Research Report
This course is delivered in two parts. The first part will assist in preparing students for the MBA research project, by training them to develop a well-reasoned, empirically rigorous argument and how to make decisions on the basis of existing evidence and research. During the second part of the course, students will take what they have learned and apply this to writing up their research topic.
15. Company Analysis
Flex your consulting muscle as you engage with, analyse and advise a real-world organisation. This course combines lectures with student-led fieldwork. Working in teams, you will need to integrate a wide variety of managerial knowledge, tools, and techniques to identify, conceptualise and design methods to address a specific challenge in your selected organisation.