Management Practice

The MSc in Management Practice encourages you as a senior leader to adopt new ways of seeing, thinking and acting. An action research project promotes an active enquiry process which prompts you to look beyond the familiarity of the status quo and establish ways of working together. The programme has a distinct heritage dating back to 1976 and participants join an extensive alumni network.

While traditional Master’s programmes focus on individual aptitude and skill, the MSc in Management Practice has a targeted learning focus on disrupting and rewiring social norms. This approach reflects the latest CEO research* which suggests that C-suite leaders should take four actions to advance their agendas through targeted learning:
• Develop a holistic view of strategy execution challenges;
• Use targeted learning to intervene in the places that matter most for the CEO’s agenda;
• Measure impact through leading metrics linked to execution;
• Position the learning function to address strategic problems from the outset.

The programme is blended, offering high-impact monthly seminars which can be attended virtually. The seminars are designed to offer contemporary thought leadership in key functional areas such as leadership, strategy, finance, marketing, IT and organisational design. These experiential seminars will empower you to translate your change project into action through coordination with peers, feedback from the programme director and a team of programme tutors.

In addition, the programme offers you a personal tutor who works closely with you to identify and target a major change initiative. The result is that you will begin to deploy your new skills in a strategic way and resolve key execution problems and social challenges to drive solid strategic change.

Why the MSc in Management Practice?
The MSc will take you on a hands-on learning journey that will help you develop the leadership and change skills needed to transform any organisational context. The use of Action Learning Projects ensures that all of the modules and assignments that you undertake on the programme are white papers, helping you translate your organisational change project into action. It will allow you to articulate your change project and apply the latest thinking, and you will return to work enabled to develop and support a creative culture within your organisation.

Programme structure
The programme is delivered in four phases over 24 months. You will attend several transformational seminars, distributed evenly between virtual and face-to-face interactions at the IMI campus in Sandyford, Dublin.

By the end of the programme you will have completed a thesis which captures your Action Learning Project and fulfils the credit requirements of the programme. You will receive short, specific assignments (1,000-1,500 words) after each seminar on the subject area covered, which will allow you to practise your writing and evaluation skills.

The programme covers a range of key areas, with year 2’s seminars customised to the needs of the cohort. Themes explored in the programme include.

Organisational Behaviour (Leadership, Culture, Power and Engagement)
The transformational force that helps organisations embrace change, develop products, services and experiences that connect and resonate with stakeholders which includes consumers, employees and the wider ecosystem. Stakeholders are demanding more meaningful connections with businesses. Your role as a senior leader is to get ahead of those needs. These sessions will ensure that you are aware of the needs and how to meet them by examining the latest thinking in purpose and value-led leadership.

Organisational Design
Success requires learning at scale, with speed, in the places where it will matter most. For most companies, organisational lethargy poses a significant risk for execution. These sessions will discuss how modern organisations have evolved, characterise different organisation types with their respective contexts, structures and management styles, and explain their characteristics, strengths and weaknesses. You will learn to apply organisational models analytically and diagnostically.

Managing change
Learning is a valuable tool for CEOs to drive change. This part of the programme will examine the tools and techniques used, the main execution problems and how to drive strategic change. While traditional approaches to leading change focus on individual aptitude and skill, targeted change management focuses on the ways individuals work together, namely on disrupting and rewiring social norms.

Strategy
Dynamic and successful organisations have managed to carve out a competitive advantage despite the uncertainty brought about by the pandemic. These sessions aim to help you address your key business challenges in innovative ways, and will evaluate your current value chain, a multi-stakeholder system approach, as well as design and execute a strategy which is deployed in a strategic way.

Entry to the programme is based on the applicant holding a Level 8 degree with a classification of Second Class Honours, and having at least five years’ work experience, a minimum of three of which is at managerial level. Standard University RPL regulations apply.

Each applicant whose first language is not English is required to show evidence of the successful completion of an IELTS or TOEFL test.

The English language requirement for this programme is an IELTS or equivalent score of 6.5 and minimum individual sections 6.0.

Duration: 24 months.
The programme will run over two days each month, for a total of 20 days across the year.

Programme fee: €18,855

Contact provider for start date details.