This course presents an introductory over-view of the study of business organisations. The course examines business organisations in terms of their missions and values, their structures and cultures and the key organisational processes which underpin business activity. Although organisations are essentially unique, they also share common features which are explored in detail.

We also present a number of basic models for analysing business organisations and their performance. Business organisations can only be fully understood if we know how they interact with their environments and the course presents a number of ideas for analysing their interaction with their competitors, their markets and the wider set of prevailing circumstances which influence business performance.