MSc Sport Business and Leadership degree

The aim of this module is to deliver a thorough grounding in the main leadership models, and the issues that impact on leadership practice in the sport environment. It is intended as an introduction to leadership and will be the theoretical foundation upon which other sport leadership units are built.

Topics studied may include:

• organisational contexts and leadership models
• leadership behaviours and competing expectations
• contemporary issues impacting on leadership
• the importance of leadership to shaping appropriate organisational practices.

This module aims to introduce you to recent developments in leadership research with focus on diversity and change in sport business. You will become familiar with a range of leadership challenges executives face when managing culturally diverse, or remote teams to better understand the adoption of leadership styles in different parts of the sport business industry. As part of your studies, you willl examine the challenges increasingly high innovation pressures bring for sport business professionals and how seemingly competing management strategies can be balanced to satisfy various stakeholders.

On completion of this module, you will be able to:

• Identify current developments in leadership and organizational theory and derive implications for the practical actions of managers in the sport industry
• Recognize that based on increasingly complex tasks that teams and individuals in the sport industry face, executives have to develop seemingly contradictory but actually complementary leadership strategies to compensate for the undesirable effects of their opposite strategies (Ambidextrous leadership).
• Identify the implications for leadership in sports that arise out of generational differences (i.e. Millennials, Generation Z)
• Recognize that leaders can become key drivers of innovation and can enable changes in organizational culture
• Explore the nature of leadership in modern times and demonstrate an understanding for how leadership styles might be adapted to fit different genders, age groups, and cultures
• Evaluate academic leadership papers to appraise their value and significance for contemporary management in the sport industry
• Link empirical findings to wider theoretical debates concerning leadership developments in sport.

This module aims to examine the scope and size of the sport business industry globally and the challenges this brings for insight and research. You will become familiar with a range of research methodologies to better understand the role and adoption of insight and research in the sport business industry.

Topics covered may include:

• research approaches to the sport business industry
• standardised questionnaire design
• methods of sampling
• document-based research
• conducting qualitative interviews
• analysing qualitative data through thematic analysis
• developing multi method research strategies, research paradigms, research design, quantitative approaches v qualitative approaches, social media research.

With a multi-talented group of students you will work on a brief from a real company looking to solve a real social or business problem.

Together with your student team, you will research and build solutions to a business problem, supported by our project tutors, clients and staff. Previous project partners include Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, Mobike, Foster + Partners, and the West Ham United Foundation as well as many other companies, start-ups and charities.

The Collaborative Project aims to provide you with an opportunity to be exposed to project-based teamwork in diverse settings. By undertaking this module, you will strengthen your cooperative and collaborative working skills and competencies, whilst raising your awareness and appreciation of cultural and disciplinary diversity and differences. The project will support the development of your ability to engage in critical enquiry and individual reflection, as well as to apply your individual strengths and skills and build on your educational background.

The Collaborative Project aims to provide you with a hands-on experience of identifying, framing and resolving practice-oriented and real-world based challenges and problems, using creativity and appropriate tools to achieve valuable and relevant solutions. Alongside the collaborative elements of the module, you will be provided with opportunities to network with stakeholders, organisations and corporations, which will give you the experience and skills needed to connect to relevant parties and potentially develop future employment opportunities.

This module will provide you an understanding of the relationship between sustainable business practices and leadership in sport organisations.

Topics studied may include:

• drivers of sustainability leadership
• characteristics of leaders for sustainability
• sustainability leadership in action
• entrepreneurs as sustainability leaders
• the context of sustainability in differing cultural contexts
• the influence of sustainable methods
• the application of sustainable practices in various global settings.

This module aims to develop an awareness of how critical reflection can facilitate improved leadership and personal growth in sport management practice.

On completion of the module, you should be able to understand and analyse the place of critical reflection in improving leadership and sport management practice, and how it can be used to solve organisational problems in the sport environment. You will also be able to understand and analyse the relationship between critical reflection, leadership and personal growth

Topics studied may include:

• knowledge, skills and values of reflective practice
• leading and reflective practice
• action research and reflective practice.

The Dissertation module will equip you with the relevant skills, knowledge and understanding to embark on your own research project. The module aims to provide you with the opportunity to study a subject, business problem or research question in depth and to research the issues surrounding the subject or background to the problem.

Dissertation pathways may include:

• A desk based research project that could be set by an organisation or could be a subject of the your choice
• A project that involves collection of primary data from within an organisation or based on lab and/or field experiments
• A professional placement within an organisation during which time you will complete a project as part of your role in agreement with the organisation (subject to a suitable placement position being obtained)

By undertaking a dissertation at master's level, you should achieve a high level of understanding in the subject area and produce a written thesis or project report which will discuss your research in depth and with rigour.

This module is designed to equip you with an understanding of the main theoretical and empirical issues in the development of sport innovation and an appreciation of the relevant skills needed to manage sport innovation. The module also provides evidence based on applied sport innovation examples from the sport industry. You will have the opportunity to develop an innovative business concept for the sport business industry.

As part of the module, you will provide an analysis of the main sectors of sport innovation, including software and apps, big data, equipment, apparel, health, fitness, training/coaching, fantasy, and gaming. You will also be introduced to sport entrepreneurship principles, including product development, IP, sales and distribution, sport marketing, social media, funding, and participate in a sport accelerator.

Sport Business Statistics and Analytics blends statistical analysis and data visualisation through the use of software applications to guide evidence-based decisions. The aim of the module is to help you understand the importance of data-driven decision making and strategy formulation, and how statistical analysis and data visualisation assist in identifying sport business trends and solutions. The module covers three areas.

Firstly, it provides a sound understanding of quantitative analysis.

Secondly, the module introduces various data visualisation techniques (including exposure to relevant software programs) to develop skills in understanding and presenting complex data.

Thirdly, it provides an understanding of the importance of data in identifying insights and trends in the sport sector. Recent examples from the sport industry, both in team and player performance and in commercial activities, will be used to illustrate these complex concepts.

This module will equip you with background knowledge of business planning and strategy execution with simulated experience of running a company.

We will look at a variety of frameworks for assessing entrepreneurs, products, markets, industries and operations in order to understand the importance of thorough market/product analysis and the operation of a new venture, as well as the dynamic nature of strategy. Conceptual foundations are matched with practical training to enable students to formulate and execute their business strategies.

Topics studied may include:

• The essentials of business planning
• Strategy and positioning/market analysis
• Marketing
• Operations management
• Financial statements
• Using business simulation software to run your own business

This module will enable you to use analytics to study a wide variety of issues affecting the sport industry, and to work together with the class to uncover how various sport properties are leveraging new media and new technologies; specifically, the Internet and mobile technology.

The first part of this module will demonstrate how various sport properties are leveraging new media and technologies. Specific focus will be placed on: social media and online communities, sponsorship, broadcasting, streaming video and fan/user-focused engagement.

The second part of the module will utilise analytics to study a wide variety of issues affecting the sport industry, with a strong focus on the business and commercial side of sport. You will learn not only how data-driven insight is being used and applied within the professional sport industry, but also how analytics can improve decision-making in sport business and other fields of business.

Topics covered may include:

• commercial applications
• fan segmentation and individualisation
• CRM systems
• sponsorship
• e-commerce and social media.

This module examines the nature of sports integrity and the threats to it presented by the manipulation of sporting outcomes and corrupt governance practices in both national and international contexts. It will enable you to develop a greater awareness of ethical issues in relation to combatting sport integrity issues, and to improve your understanding of the role of the board and senior management in providing organisational leadership and implementing cultural change, with particular emphasis on composition and values-based leadership models.

Topics studied may include:

• defining sport integrity and corruption
• good governance and structural governance
• compositional governance and vertical leadership
• anti-doping challenges and solutions
• match fixing challenges and solutions
• exploring ethical reasoning and its practical application to key sport industry issues (eg anti-doping, match fixing, anti-discrimination)
• anti-corruption risk minimisation strategies and evaluation of identified challenges and proposed risk minimisation strategies
• combatting corruption in sport: the link between on-field and off-field behaviour and culture
• analysing and evaluating applied sport integrity cases.