Certificate in Business Management

Qualification    :   G.C.E. O/Level

Course Details :   

Certificate in Business Management (CBM) programme is designed specifically for students who are working and wish to develop a pathway towards higher level academic studies at the university degree level. CBM lays the perfect foundation for students to complete a degree in management by enabling them to acquire the basic knowledge and skills in the core functions of Business Management.

A list of programme units:

• Business Organizations and Environment

• Concept and Process of Marketing

• Behavioral Aspects of Organizations

• Elements of Accounting

• Business Communications & Academic Skills

Business Organizations and Environment

Introduction to business organizations: organization and environment, organisational internal and external environment; Objectives of organizations: mission, objectives and values of organizations; Ownership of organizations: private sector business organizations, public sector business organizations, franchising, licensing and implications of legal structure; Stakeholders: identification of stakeholders, stakeholder groups, conflict of expectations, power-influence matrix and satisfying stakeholder objectives; Responsibility of organizations: responsibilities relating to consumer and environment, corporate responsibility, encouraging environmental concerns within businesses and business ethics.

Concept and Process of Marketing

Marketing and market orientation: the development of marketing, the contribution of marketing, market orientation: a philosophy, marketing as a managerial function, marketing and society, relationship marketing; Marketing process overview: marketing audit, integrated marketing, environmental analysis, SWOT analysis, marketing objectives; Buyer behaviour: dimensions of buyer behaviour, environmental influences, personal variables – demographic, sociological, psychological - motivation, perception and learning, social factors, psychological stimuli, attitudes, other lifestyle and life cycle variables, consumer and organisational buying; Segmentation: Macro and micro segmentation, bases for segmenting markets i.e. geographical, demographic, psychographic and behavioural; multivariable segmentation and typologies, benefits of segmentation, evaluation of segments and targeting strategies, positioning and segmenting industrial markets, size, value, standards, industrial classification; Managing the marketing mix: the marketing mix, the extended marketing mix, targeting, positioning, ICT and the marketing mix.

Behavioural Aspects of Organizations

Functions of management: planning, organising, leading, co-ordinating, controlling. Nature of managerial authority: power, authority, responsibility, delegation. Managerial roles: interpersonal, informational and decisional; Type of organizations and associated structures: functional, product-based, geographically based, matrix; centralisation and de-centralisation. Authority and power: organisational charts, spans of control; Organisational culture: classification of organisational culture – power culture, role culture, task culture, person culture, cultural norms and symbols, values and beliefs, development of organisational culture; Motivation theories: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Hertzberg’s two factors motivation – hygiene theory, Vroom and Expectancy theories, rewards and incentives, motivation and managers, rewards: monetary and non-monetary; Leadership: leadership in organizations, managers and leaders, management style, contingency approach, leadership and organisational culture.

Elements of Accounting

Introduction to accounting: qualitative characteristics of accounting information, users of accounting information, and conventions; Accounting system in action: the concept of double entry, process of accounting operations, source documents, introduction to journals; Framework of financial statements: main accounting equation, introduction to balance sheet & income statement; Interpretation of Financial statements: Measures of performance and position; Benchmarking; Horizontal analysis; Vertical analysis; Calculation and application of accounting ratios; Interpretation of elementary financial statements; The budgeting process & budget preparation: purpose, benefits, links with organisational objectives/strategy, the budget manual, the budget committee, limiting or key factors, master and functional budgets, cash budgets, the preparation of sales budget, raw materials budgets.

Business Communications & Academic Skills

Academic writing: Understanding essay titles, improving paragraphs with topic sentences, structure in writing, citing examples to support written statements & conducting a critical literature review; Data analysis: Expressing fact and opinion in writing, recognising the different functions to language, describing graphs and tables, comparing graphs; Plagiarism: Finding out about plagiarism, identifying plagiarism and avoiding poor practice, using quotations, using paraphrasing in writing.

Progression: Graduate Diploma in Management