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Leading Through Uncertainty (BUSA90509)
Graduate courseworkPoints: 25On Campus (Parkville)
Overview
| Availability | Summer Term - On Campus |
|---|---|
| Fees | Look up fees |
This subject contains five components, as described below.
Organisational Behaviour:
Effective leadership requires an understanding of organisational behaviour and strategic human capital management to drive organisational performance and achieve sustainable competitive advantage. Senior executives must make informed decisions that optimise employee potential, leveraging best practices in people management to address challenges and seize opportunities. This requires developing an organisational culture and human capital strategies that foster employee engagement, trust, and thriving. In this subject, you will learn to diagnose people-related issues, adapt best practices to maximise engagement, and cultivate relationships that enable effective team leadership and conflict resolution, ultimately driving organisational success.
Technology & Innovation:
This subject explores the intersection of strategy, technological advancement, and innovation in shaping organisational success. This subject equips senior leaders with the knowledge and tools to develop and implement strategies that leverage technological change and foster innovation within their organisations. It delves into key concepts such as disruptive innovation, digital transformation, and competitive advantage in the context of emerging technologies. Through case studies, strategic frameworks, and practical applications, students will learn how to navigate the complexities of integrating technology into business models, drive innovation, and stay competitive in dynamic, technology-driven markets. The subject emphasises leadership decision-making, aligning technological initiatives with long-term strategic goals, and fostering an organisation that embraces continuous innovation for sustained growth.
Negotiations:
Negotiation is an interpersonal decision-making process that can secure valuable agreements. This subject will build on your existing negotiation experience, by providing you with a vocabulary and a framework to critically evaluate negotiation situations. These will help you to gain confidence, make informed strategic decisions, and use tactics that will create the conditions for optimal outcomes across a range of negotiation scenarios.
You will learn ways to create value in negotiations, manage personal and interpersonal dynamics, leverage power effectively, navigate multi-party negotiations, and manage conflicts. This subject will equip you to make better deals and foster stronger relationships across all levels of an organisation.
Leading with Influence for Impact V:
Effective leadership is central to driving organisational success, particularly in times of transformation or uncertainty. Senior executives must not only provide direction, alignment, and commitment but also demonstrate courage, visibility, and approachability. This subject is designed to refine your leadership capabilities by enhancing your self-awareness, improving relationships through communication, while honing your leadership presence in team settings. You will learn to assess the nature of change and its organisational implications, ensuring you can lead with confidence and insight through complex transitions.
To be impactful, leaders must be able to successfully navigate change within a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world. In this module, we will explore the unique challenges of leading in a VUCA environment. You will learn how to lead with clarity, drive transformation and inspire teams in the face of constant disruption and crises.
Senior Executive Project III:
This subject offers an action-learning opportunity where senior executive MBA students conduct research and provide consulting for their own or another organisation, addressing a current global issue. It provides an opportunity to engage with and practically apply the subject matter from across the various modules, synthesising their interdisciplinary learning towards tangible real-world outcomes. Each cohort will focus on a specific, high-impact theme—such as ESG or AI—ensuring a deep, interdisciplinary exploration of a strategic challenge.
The subject is delivered through structured sessions, with key deliverables due at various points throughout the course. Emphasising collaboration with alumni and industry partners, students will engage with guest speakers and project mentors, enriching the learning experience and fostering connections to enhance the project’s impact.
In this module, students will delve deeper into how their project will create value for the organisation, drawing from the learning from prior modules, with a focus on budgeting and financing their projects.
Intended learning outcomes
Organisational Behaviour:
On completion of this component students should:
- Evaluate the strategic impact of management decisions on individual, team, and organisational performance, and formulate strategies to address challenges and opportunities through effective human capital management.
- Analyse and diagnose the influence of organisational culture, design, and people-related factors on motivation, engagement, productivity, and team development.
- Investigate and design high-performance human resource and leadership practices that foster employee wellbeing, responsible use of power and influence, and sustainable organisational success.
Technology & Innovation:
On completion of this component students should:
- Analyse and evaluate the role of emerging technologies in shaping business strategy, competitive advantage and organisational performance, applying financial and strategic metrics to assess investment decisions and risks.
- Apply and integrate frameworks to embed new technologies into business models, identifying opportunities for innovation, efficiency, and market differentiation across industries.
- Develop comprehensive technology strategies and digital transformation initiatives, aligning with business goals and applying change management principles to ensure successful adoption and execution.
Negotiations:
On completion of this component students should:
- Analyse and evaluate negotiation contexts to design and implement effective strategies for complex situations, such as multi-party and cross-cultural negotiations.
- Develop and apply negotiation and conflict resolution skills that foster ethical practice, constructive workplace outcomes, and long-term relationship management.
- Create opportunities for mutually beneficial outcomes, by leveraging influence, creativity, and collaboration to resolve conflicts and achieve strategic goals.
Leading with Influence for Impact:
On completion of this component students will be able to:
- Refine the capacity to assess and navigate the strategic environment, identifying key drivers and external forces that influence organisational decisions and performance.
Senior Executive Project:
On completion of this component students will be able to:
- Leverage advanced problem-solving and creative thinking to generate evidence-based solutions for organisational challenges, and develop actionable strategies for successful implementation.
Generic skills
- Articulate, integrate and adapt knowledge from different domains;
- Apply critical thinking, analytical and problem-solving skills to unfamiliar challenges;
- Collect and organise accurate and complete data, and articulate its value;
- Interpret and present data logically and effectively;
- Work as part of a team to achieve a common goal;
- Demonstrate appropriate leadership in group settings;
- Communicate effectively, in oral, written and digital forms
Last updated: 19 November 2025