Advanced Diploma in Management Development

Purpose:

The purpose of this qualification is to equip graduates with the confidence and ability to apply and integrate the acquired skills, theories, concepts, and methods appropriately and holistically with high levels of professional responsibility in the organizational and environmental context they operate. The Advanced Diploma will equip graduates to enter the workplace with the necessary managerial knowledge and skill to create value-generating organizations. The notion of a value-generating organization is one that thinks beyond profits alone-it is also about doing business based on purpose, sustainability, and responsible practices that create dignity and belonging as well. Embedded within the purpose is thus a holistic, broad, and inclusive understanding of "value", where such value is created with and through people and their creativity, as well as being underpinned by key managerial theories, tools, and methods. While values-based leadership is a key feature of managing such an organization, given the holistic approach, the program will be structured to create degrees of competency at three levels-the personal or individual level (I), the collaborative team and stakeholder-based level (WE), and the functional or technical level (IT). In addition to the primary purpose of the qualification, the qualification will be designed to:

• Allow the student to exit with an integrated understanding of the fundamentals of organizational administration, management, and leadership, which will equip them to run their own, existing businesses, or organizations, or departments, or teams more efficiently and effectively. This will include understanding and evaluating key managerial frames and methodologies from economic theory, finance and accounting, as well as marketing, operations, and people management, and then, importantly, the ability to apply such an understanding in an integrated, innovative manner and lead teams of people toward value-generating outcomes.
• The qualification is designed to equip graduates to assess complex work-based problems with a degree of critical thinking to create sustainable solutions using integration of methods and approaches from Economics, Finance and Accounting, Marketing, People Management, Operations, Leadership, and Strategy to these problems in an emergent market context.
• The students will be able to:
  • Demonstrate heightened levels of self-awareness and the ability to impact broader organizational aims within unique socio-economic circumstances of emergent market contexts, with a clear understanding of the professional ethics associated with any managerial action.
  • Acquire improved verbal and written managerial communication skills focusing on authenticity and creating well-formed arguments based on evidence.

Rationale:

The Advanced Diploma in Management Development is designed to provide learners with an understanding of management development. This qualification is aimed at developing a broad understanding of the fundamental aspects of the management process, in order to prepare them for positions and senior management level. This qualification has career-enhancing offerings aimed at management-level employees. It also aims at fulfilling a clear gap in the offering by presenting the opportunity to tie in with the transformational agenda of the Institution by providing opportunities to learners who have not had the opportunity to study at this level before.

The Advanced Diploma in Management Development has been developed to enable experienced middle managers or individuals who want to equip themselves for a new career in management, to develop a broad understanding of the fundamental aspects of the management process, in order to accelerate them towards senior management positions.