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Year 1 Postgraduate Diploma in Management of Technology Modules
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Management and Organisation Behaviour: This module is designed to provide participants from technical backgrounds with a comprehensive grounding in the key concepts in management, leadership and organisational behaviour. The module is designed primarily from a managerial perspective, with the intention of providing participants with a basis for understanding the human aspects of management work and how organisational interventions can improve business performance. An awareness of management functions, individual and team behaviour and of those methods employed to enhance performance are key learning outcomes.
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Marketing and Sales: This module provides a comprehensive introduction to the subject and practice of marketing today, in addition to examining future trends and provides a special focus on understanding the sales function within the technology sector. It provides the learner with a detailed foundation of marketing theory, principles and practice but also builds a practical framework which is further developed in the Innovation and Commercialisation module. On completion of this module, the learner will have gained a comprehensive understanding and appreciation of the role of marketing and in the successful operation of the enterprise and in particular a critical understanding of its role in relation to the enterprise’s successful management of technology and innovation.
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Operations Management: This module addresses specific issues relating to process innovation and new process development with a particular emphasis placed on approaches to quality management and process improvement. The aims of the module are to introduce the student to the substantive and procedural aspects of the quality trilogy – quality planning, quality control and quality improvement in both manufacturing firm and service firm, and also to develop their skills for the analysis of all the major activity of an organisation; such as activity within the company, supplier-company activity, and company-customer activity; related to achieving customer satisfaction and loyalty. The activities contained within the module are designed to give participants a toolkit of technology management and improvement mechanisms for use in a work environment.
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Innovation Management: The module provides the participant a variety of approaches and strategies for effective product and service innovation. The main focus of the module is on the participant’s acquisition of a set of powerful analytical tools that are critical for the development of new products and services. The strategic deployment and management of innovation and technology for competitive advantage constitutes a focal theme of this programme. These tools can provide a framework for insightful planning when deciding initiatives to invest in, how to structure an organisation’s resources to gain competitive advantage over other industry participants, and how to use capabilities to exploit innovative activities. The module also aims to examine methods and tools in which innovation strategies and processes can be continuously improved upon.
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Business Research Methods: This module is designed to develop information research skills, and to familiarise the participant with a variety of available data sources on business and management, including academic papers, consultancy reports, company and governmental data. Qualitative and quantitative research methods are the key research approaches for generating such knowledge, and, as such, participants need to understand its contribution to technology and innovation management. The module focuses on the skills involved in understanding, evaluating and conducting research in the wider management field. It also introduces the participant to the conceptual frameworks and skills required to carry out a successful research assignments and prepare effective consultancy reports. The content is provided within a consultancy framework which includes key approaches and practices necessary for the programme participant with the skills necessary to engage in business research projects in their organisation.
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Finance for Management Decision Making: This is an accelerated course that combines accounting fundamentals and financial analysis tools. The module deals with the analysis and application of financial and management accounting as inputs into the management decision process in general and their relevance in the context of project assessment and development. Emphasis is placed on practical aspects of business finance relevant to the funding of new enterprises and new business management. Knowledge of practical business finance issues and how to address these will be built up through an integrated and applied approach including case based learning.
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Managing the Knowledge Worker: This course is designed to build on the foundational Management and Organisational Behaviour module, and provides a specialised focus on knowledge work and knowledge workers. As knowledge management is a field in continual evolution it aims to utilize the most up-to-date developments in the KM disciplines to underpin learning on the various perspectives which exist on knowledge work. The course has a focus on managerial and real-life issues and scenarios, and the contemporary Irish and global economic contexts are be a strong point of emphasis throughout the course.
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Technological Entrepreneurship: This module provides the tools for promoting an entrepreneurial orientation at all organisational levels, including indigenous firms, large multinationals and subsidiary operations. The focus is not on start- up companies but on organisations where the business concept is built around the entrepreneurial exploitation of technology. To meet the challenges of the international business environment the technology specialist needs to combine professional competence with a fundamental grasp of the entrepreneurial process.
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Major Group Consulting Project: The Group Project involves programme participants working in teams to undertake company based business improvement projects. The Group Project enables participants to integrate theoretical perspectives with innovation management tools and skills to solve real world problems facing companies and other organisations. Participants gain experience in the design and development of a group-based consulting project, and develop their problem-solving and team-working skills. The Group Project is designed as a group rather than an individual project on the premise that general management skills are grounded in the ability to manage with and through others. Success in a group project is a direct function of group effectiveness and considerable attention must be given by the group to maintain and improve its own functioning.
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Year 2 MSc Technology and Innovation Management Modules
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Supplier Management: Supplier management refers to the discipline of working collaboratively with those suppliers that are vital to the success of your organisation, to maximise the potential value of those relationships. This module seeks to generate an understanding of supplier management, outsourcing and strategic partnering within a global supply chain context. It highlights the challenges involved, and route maps for success and the potential rewards. The module provides a variety of approaches and strategies for effective supplier management and outsourcing management. The key focus of this module is the tools and techniques that help organisations improve in all aspects of supplier relationship management and the activities contained within the module are designed to give students a toolkit for use in a work environment. The main focus of the module is on the participant’s acquisition of a set of powerful analytical tools that are critical for the enhancement of process improvement and quality management in their organisation. These tools can provide a framework for insightful planning when deciding initiatives to invest in, how to structure an organisation’s resources to gain competitive advantage over other industry participants, and how to use capabilities to exploit innovative activities.
Strategic Management: Strategic management is concerned with the overall purpose and direction of the organisation, encompassing the decisions and the decision making processes which direct the nature, scope and competitive position of the enterprise. The course emphasises the need for an holistic perspective of the strategic issues confronting the organisation and of the performance implications of the alternative structures and processes available for implementing strategy. This module introduces the participant to the main analytical techniques and conceptual frameworks provided by the strategic management and business policy discipline, with particular focus on how these tools apply in a technology environment. The practical application of strategic management and business policy concepts and theories through case work (which will be focused on technology and technology based enterprises) enhances the learner’s understanding of the business issues involved in managing organisations, and develops the participant’s analytical skills and decision making ability.
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Technology Strategy: This module provides a series of strategic frameworks for managing high-technology businesses. The course deals with those decisions that determine future directions of the technology intensive organisations and effective implementation of the directions chosen. The emphasis throughout is on the development and application of conceptual models which clarify the interactions between competition, patterns of technological and market change, and the structure and development of internal firm capabilities. This course builds on the learning outcomes of the Strategic Management module by dealing with subjects that are directly relevant for technology intensive organisations such as sources of innovation, types and patterns of innovation, resourcing strategies, developing capabilities, collaboration strategies, and protecting innovation. The aim of this module to provide to the student a set of analytical tools which are critical for the development of a technology strategy as an integral part of business strategy. Frameworks to assess investment decisions in technologies are examined as part of these tools.
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Innovation and Commercialisation: This module addresses the key requirements of the Government policy objectives relating to the Smart Economy. The module design takes the position that technology developments for market happen in two stages – (i) exploration where the primary task relates to the generation and production of new knowledge, and (ii) exploitation, where the new knowledge is developed through a commercialisation process and brought to market. In this context the module illustrates where industry interacts with sources of knowledge including technology developments, how it adopts and develops these technologies and how it brings new technologies to market. The module builds on work completed in the first year of the programme in relation to Marketing & Sales and New Product Development modules. Delivery of the module will involve Hothouse, the DIT technology transfer office. The course aims to provide students with an understanding of innovation and commercialisation such that s/he will be able to contribute to this area at a management level in any organisation. The student will acquire a set of tools and frameworks for the development of a commercialisation strategy, and the management of technology innovation for commercial return. A major part of the assessment will require students to be matched with DIT technologies and develop commercialisation plans for these technologies. This will include matching the students with the DIT inventor.
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Major Individual Project: Programme participants are required to complete an individual project assignment. This project must be related to the study area of the programme and can be selected from any part of the programme. Projects that have an applied nature or focus on a business improvement initiative. They should represent an opportunity for significant management learning.
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