Aims and philosophy
‘You’re constantly thinking and working on what you’ve discovered about yourself.'
Oluwafunke Amobi
Full-time MBA, 2008
Read more about the new Mindful Manager module on the Lancaster MBA
Our aims in doing this are to enable you to gain the most you can out of your year at Lancaster – not purely functional knowledge but self-knowledge, too – and perhaps a different, more reflective, perspective on the process of management and leadership.
At its core, the Lancaster MBA seeks to:
- enable you to gain a knowledge and understanding of the functions of business and their inter-relationships
- show you how to structure and understand complex business situations so that you can apply your functional knowledge effectively
- give you experience and confidence in using theoretical knowledge in practice
- stimulate you to read and critically appraise management theory and, in doing so, develop your desire for life-long learning
Find out what our students think of the Lancaster MBA. You can also view videos on the New Venture Challenge and Consultancy Challenge, and on the MBA Summer Project.
A drive to develop skills
The many different team and project-based activities help you to refine important managerial skills – such as leading, managing and consulting, critical thinking, quantitative skills and business planning. You will be developing your communication skills, your capacity to scope and manage projects effectively, and your skills in negotiation and facilitation.
A focus on critical thinking
An area central to the programme philosophy, and a crucial complement to the action component, is an emphasis on critical thinking and reflection.
What critical thinking means for our MBA students is the ability to understand the increasingly complex world of management and business, and to make responsible changes for the better in that world. It also means being able to see through gloss, rhetoric and shallow argument, and to pose questions which go right to the heart of complex issues.
To help you deconstruct messy organisational problems, we will introduce you on the MBA to a range of conceptual thinking skills whose usefulness will live on long beyond the latest management fashions.
A culture of co-operation
The worlds of management and consulting increasingly require people who are effective team players, who can be equally effective in situations where they have no hierarchical authority – for example, with supplier partners, or with partners in a joint venture or strategic alliance.
While we set high standards for individual performance, the Lancaster MBA cultivates a culture of team co-operation, in contrast to the more individually competitive class cultures found on so many MBA programmes.
