Understanding management: I'm managing thank you!
This free course, Understanding management: I'm managing thank you! provides you with a set of ideas for developing your approach to managing your own work what we might call self-management. In order to do this, we will examine some of the key processes of management decision making, such as allocating time, staff, physical and financial resources: prioritising and problem solving and monitoring performance.Author(s):
Understanding and managing risk
This free course, Understanding and managing risk, provides an introduction to financial risk management. The processes of risk identification, risk measurement and risk management are explored. The course then goes on to examine reputational risk and operational risk. It concludes with an examination of the subject of behavioural finance and what this can contribute to our understanding of risk taking and risk management.
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Discovering development management
Discovering development management is a free course that sets out to build up the basic capacities for managing the multiple challenges of development – any development. It rests on the assumption that management is a political and ethical process, a matter of the use of power to bring about desired goals in contexts characterised by conflicts of interests, values and agendas. It is of relevance to managers in every sector, nationally and internationally.
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Introduction Many managers find that they are required to manage projects. In this unit we aim to help you to take an overview of the features of a project and the issues that arise in managing a project. Once you have identified a piece of work as a project, you are able to use a number of management approaches that have proven effective in managing projects. A project is a one-off, non-repeated activity or set of tasks that achieves clearly stated objectives within a time limit. Most projects are goal-o
Workplace learning with coaching and mentoring
In this free course, Workplace learning with coaching and mentoring, you will consider theoretical and practical issues in planning and managing learning and talent development programmes in your organisation. You will also explore ideas about coaching and mentoring; both are prominent learning and development tools in contemporary organisations. You will also learn about how different learning theories and philosophies become concrete in the practical decisions you make about learning and talen
What is strategy?
Thinking about strategy generates many controversial questions. This free course, What is strategy?, focuses on practitioner views of strategy. You will learn about application of its major theoretical advances in professional life. The course provides definitions of the concept of strategy and strategy-related vocabulary and examines Mintzberg's five Ps framework.
First pu
Introduction Campaigning organisations, whatever their size or orientation, are intent on achieving change in the behaviour or attitudes of their target groups. But if you have ever tried working to achieve change in this way, you will probably know that getting the results you want from campaigning can be difficult. It is all too easy to get sidetracked, or run out of energy and resources, before the objective has been achieved. And the decision to campaign on a particular issue can expose tensions and c
Discovering management
This free course, Discovering management, introduces you to the role of the manager. It covers management activities looking at leadership, human resources, finance, project management, change management, operations management and stakeholder management. First published on Mon, 10 Jun 2019 as Author(s):
Management: perspective and practice
What does it mean to be a manager? Being a manager is a complex and challenging activity. This free course, Management: perspective and practice, introduces you to the role of the manager. In this OpenLearn course you’ll look at an array of activities including leadership, human resources, finance, project management, change management, operations management and stakeholder management.
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Facilitating group discussions
Gain an insight into facilitating meetings and discussions in the workplace. In this free course, Facilitating group discussions, you will look at some of the behaviours effective facilitators exhibit. Informative and engaging videos will introduce you to examples of facilitation in practice.
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The business of football
Welcome to this free course, The business of football, produced by The Open University working in partnership with The English Football League Trust. If you are fascinated by football and interested in discovering more about business and management, then this engaging and stimulating course, which provides the opportunity to share and comment on your learning with others, is for you. You can progress at your own pace over 3 to 5 weeks, and it will take a minimum of around 9 hours of your time ov
An introduction to public leadership
In this free course, An introduction to public leadership, you will learn more about leadership in the context of public service provision, by public sector organisations, community and voluntary groups, and political bodies. First published on Thu, 20 Jun 2019 as Author(s):
2.2 Objectives of financial reporting The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has a conceptual framework that aims to set out publicly which qualities should be in the forefront of the standard-setters' minds when making accounting rules. The IASB explains that ‘the objective of financial statements is to provide information about the financial position, performance and changes in the financial position of an entity that is useful to a wide range of users in making economic decisions’ (IASC, 1989, paragraph 12). (
1.8 Conclusion This section has demonstrated that regulation evolves in response to a number of factors. Some of the more significant ones, such as economic development, ‘borrowed’ legislation, colonisation and imperialism and economic domination, have been discussed here. The consequence of this is that accounting regulation has evolved differently in various countries. The reasons for the diversity in accounting regulations will be considered in more detail in Author(s):
Acknowledgements Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence Course image: Author(s):
4.2.4 Collecting possible solutions This is the most creative part of the problem-solving process: it involves breaking the mindset within which situations are normally interpreted. Brainstorming is a good way to generate new approaches, by making sure that even apparently ridiculous ideas are not thrown out in the initial stages. Brainstorming has two basic principles: quantity is more important than quality, in the creative phase; critical comments are not allowed, at th
4.2 Problem solving Involving the whole team in the problem-solving process shows that you value their experience and knowledge in devising a solution. It may also be appropriate to involve other stakeholders and/or the project sponsor. If problems are solved jointly there is usually wider ownership of the solutions and their implications; and, if more resources are agreed to be needed or new procedures are put into place, there is also likely to be more support. Problem solving can be broken down into a s
2.6 Maintaining balance Monitoring is also concerned with achieving a balance of the three dimensions of the project: cost – the resources available; time – the schedule; quality – the scope and appropriateness of the outputs or outcomes. Many of the difficulties in implementing a project are caused by poor time management. This will have a direct effect on the costs of the project, as well as on the quality of what is achie
2.5 Project meetings schedule You need to decide early on what meetings are essential to the monitoring process. All your stakeholders will expect to receive reports at regular intervals, whether formally or informally. So you need to ask yourself: Who needs to be informed? About what? How often? By what means? Effective communication involves giving information, collecting information and listening to people. To ensure the smoot
2.4 Project status reports Project status reports are regular and formal. You will need to decide how often they are necessary – depending on the size and nature of the project, it might be weekly, monthly or quarterly. In some situations reports might need to be hourly, if a problem is causing serious concern and has the potential to delay progress seriously. Daily reports might be necessary if there are implications for arranging work for the following day. The degree of risk involved, and the time it would t
