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The UK Academy for Information Systems (UKAIS) defines Information Systems as the means by which people and organisations, utilising technologies, gather, process, store, use and disseminate information. Well-designed information systems are central to good governance and to the success or failure of the organisation. They are also central to the effective functioning of society in an increasingly digital world.

This module provides a basis for the understanding of Information Systems related concepts and how information systems are developed, managed, and used within organisations and society.

The UK Academy for Information Systems (UKAIS) defines Information Systems as the means by which people and organisations, utilising technologies, gather, process, store, use and disseminate information. Well-designed information systems are central to good governance and to the success or failure of the organisation. They are also central to the effective functioning of society in an increasingly digital world.

This module provides a basis for the understanding of Information Systems related concepts and how information systems are developed, managed, and used within organisations and society.

This module provides an overview of industrial safety management and occupational health, highlighting safety culture, regulatory frameworks, hazard identification, risk assessment, and accident prevention. It also covers process safety, fire safety, safety in design, case studies, and continuous improvement methods, along with industrial hygiene aspects such as workplace hazards, stress, mental health, and the role of protective equipment and trade unions in ensuring safe and healthy work environments.

This module provides an overview of industrial safety management and occupational health, highlighting safety culture, regulatory frameworks, hazard identification, risk assessment, and accident prevention. It also covers process safety, fire safety, safety in design, case studies, and continuous improvement methods, along with industrial hygiene aspects such as workplace hazards, stress, mental health, and the role of protective equipment and trade unions in ensuring safe and healthy work environments.

This module provides an overview of industrial safety management and occupational health, highlighting safety culture, regulatory frameworks, hazard identification, risk assessment, and accident prevention. It also covers process safety, fire safety, safety in design, case studies, and continuous improvement methods, along with industrial hygiene aspects such as workplace hazards, stress, mental health, and the role of protective equipment and trade unions in ensuring safe and healthy work environments.

As you progress to more senior roles in your school or educational institution there is a need to develop your skills and knowledge in the area of leadership and management. In this module you will focus on the principles of leadership and management and the challenges facing those tasked with leadership roles in education.

This module addresses the inter-related activities of defining, developing, exploring and working with ill-structured organisational problems. Such activities are often classed as problem structuring activities, and they can be contrasted with activities that are directed specifically towards problem solution. The underlying rationale is that most organisational problems are so rich in complexity, uncertainty, and subjectivity that they need to be structured before they can be solved (or otherwise dealt with), and that for ill-structured problems, structuring may be a far more challenging task than solution.
As anyone with any organisational experience knows, organisational problems that present in a well-structured form are the exception rather than the rule. Most problems are “messy”: ill-defined, complex and subtle, often vague and poorly expressed, and with as many subjective versions as there are people involved. Further, such problems rarely lend themselves in any obvious way to quantification or neat solution by the traditional methods of, say, management science.
In recent years, management scientists have increasingly recognised the limitations of traditional, generally mathematical, problem solving methods, and have developed a corresponding interest in methods for structuring messy problems: methods which enable problem owners to define, discuss, explore and work with problems in a constructive way, without over-simplifying or distorting problems by attempting to fit them into a traditional, often quantitative, framework. Such methods are centrally informed by systems thinking, which emphasises a holistic, as opposed to a reductionist, perspective on problem-solving.
Problem Structuring Methods PSMs) of this type, and their underlying systemic nature, are the subject matter of this module.

This module addresses the inter-related activities of defining, developing, exploring and working with ill-structured organisational problems. Such activities are often classed as problem structuring activities, and they can be contrasted with activities that are directed specifically towards problem solution. The underlying rationale is that most organisational problems are so rich in complexity, uncertainty, and subjectivity that they need to be structured before they can be solved (or otherwise dealt with), and that for ill-structured problems, structuring may be a far more challenging task than solution.
As anyone with any organisational experience knows, organisational problems that present in a well-structured form are the exception rather than the rule. Most problems are “messy”: ill-defined, complex and subtle, often vague and poorly expressed, and with as many subjective versions as there are people involved. Further, such problems rarely lend themselves in any obvious way to quantification or neat solution by the traditional methods of, say, management science.
In recent years, management scientists have increasingly recognised the limitations of traditional, generally mathematical, problem solving methods, and have developed a corresponding interest in methods for structuring messy problems: methods which enable problem owners to define, discuss, explore and work with problems in a constructive way, without over-simplifying or distorting problems by attempting to fit them into a traditional, often quantitative, framework. Problem Structuring Methods PSMs) of this type, and their underlying systemic nature, are the subject matter of this module.