General Management

All short courses are completed individually through technology-enhanced distance learning. You do not need to attend any classes. You have access to your lecture videos and other material on a weekly basis, and all your assignments are submitted online.

The fee is R 6, 900.00, which includes your online study material. Persons based outside South Africa can pay in US Dollars, Euros or GB Pounds. Payment of fees must be effected before access to the course.

English

Short courses are available internationally. A new cycle of short courses starts every first Monday of each month from February to November.

After completing this short course you will be able to:

• Describe the important role of management and how the principles thereof are efficiently and effectively applied in organisations to achieve their goals.
• Discuss the traditional view of managerial tasks in terms of planning, organising, leading and controlling, in relationship to the ‘New Economic Management Functions’, which focus on leading, creating, implementing and improving.
• Analyse the challenges managers face in a continuous changing and competitive global environment and what skills they need to adjust to internal and external organisational changes.
• Explain the significance of superior decision making and the impact thereof on creativity, innovation, and planning organisational strategies in relation to the organisation’s business requirements.
• Discuss the advantages and disadvantage of a product organisational structure and cross-functional organisational structure in relation to organisational success.
• Understand how business-level strategies and corporate-level strategies are applied to develop and strengthen an organisation’s competitive advantage, and the vital role managers’ play in the implementation of these strategies to achieve organisation’s mission and goals.
• Assess the role of value chain management in achieving superior quality, efficiency, innovation, and responsiveness to customers.
• Identify the types of organisational structures managers can design for business performance, and why a cross-functional structure is such an effective tool for optimum function and performance integration as well as value chain creation.
• Differentiate between different value chain strategies for process improvement for the attainment of corporate competitive advantage.
• Define leadership as a management function with the distinction between transactional and transformational leadership approaches, in relation to the sources of power that enable managers to be effective leaders.
• Examine how the management of knowledge is strategically important for organisations to advance innovation and leverage competitiveness and why it is required of managers to demonstrate appropriate skills and expertise to manage knowledge assets in organisations.
• Recognise the vital role of organisational learning as a catalyst for managerial decision making, creating business competitive advantage, and tool to respond to industry changes.

You will complete weekly online exercise assignments that combine to yield your final mark. The questions may involve multiple choice, a brief discussion of an important issue, or solving a short case study. Your final course mark will be based on the average of the weekly scores achieved. The final pass mark is 50%. A certificate is awarded upon successful completion of the course. Should you achieve a distinction (75% or higher), this will be so indicated on your certificate.

The course is open to anyone who is basically proficient in English and has internet access.