To book for this event, download the PDF or email CEDA. More information can be found on the GSB website.
Choosing the right course can be a daunting task. There are many unique situations to take into consideration – employment needs, study preferences, lifestyle, prior study etc. The GSB hosts a series of information evenings to help you choose a course to suit your career and your professional development.
Check out the GSB premises, mix with Alumni and present students- and do me a favour, look for an MLM to talk, not only an MBA. Get them to explain to you the difference between the two courses to get a well-rounded perspective!
RSVP: 9266 3460 or enquiries@gsb.curtin.edu.au
Wednesday 25 June 2008 at GSB.
Thought of a great new idea, service or product? Time to become the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates? Check out the IP event and the opportunity to catch up with old, current and new friends at GSB.
Most MLM’lers resume or start their degree with the “Organisational Behaviour 550 unit“. According to the unit outline:
…through the analysis of local and international case studies and individual and group exercises, students gain knowledge of practical and theoretical approaches adopted by organisations to improve and enhance the quality of life in the workplace. The unit also focuses on building students’ skills in academic writing and research required at postgraduate level in business.
This last sentence is the lasting first impression I got when I had completed the unit- “the student skills in writing”. Or rather: the impression, that some students write (more) than others in group assignments.
Group assignments are a central part of the whole experience unless you do the unit online instead of face-to-face. You will quickly get accustomed to meetings and group dynamics, to people, who say that they contribute and then forget to deliver their part 10 hrs before you are responsible to hand in the assignment on the group’s behalf.
You will experience the whole palette of humanly possible disasters (“my boy was poisoned and threw up on my only hard copy”… “I am telling you a secret- I’m with the SAS and we had a mission on the weekend I could not reveal”.)
I kid you not, you will hear the most amazing stories why people could not deliver what they say they would. I don’t say they lie, but you got to take away one pearl of wisdom from this: make sure you have a backup PLAN B.
Organisational Behaviour 550 is one of the in-depth and rich experiences and the last thing you will need is a laggard amongst the lot of reading and presenting you will have to do. But remember, OB (as the unit is affectionately known) is all about HUMAN behaviour. Don’t forget that while you’re having fun with your group who will, in the best case scenario, really turn into a team.
At a recent GSB study orientation evening I was asked to explain the difference between the MLM and MBA to prospective students. As a recent graduate I could only speak from my experiences of the curriculum and what would attract others to the MLM and not the MBA. Both courses share 4 core units out of 12. And that’s about as obvious as the resemblances go.
Unlike many of fellow students I followed the pathway as it was suggested in the consecutive order of the units as they appear in the MLM brochure. The course prerequisites made sense to me but I know a lot of students did some of the more advanced units first and later struggled with the effectiveness of their learning.
In the first units you learn about yourself (self-reflection is as effective as you let it happen). Then you learn about yourself in conjunction with teams and in the last units you put all this together in the context of organisations.
Along the way there are heaps of things to think about actual business methods and models in the context of leadership and management.The MLM is challenging if you are only after that piece of graduation paper for the title on your business card.
If you need to learn more technical business skills but are not phased or worried about your interaction with others, of course, go, do as the majority of managers do- get a solid administrative degree, the MBA. MBA’s think MLM’s are a different breed of people because they do ‘frufru touchy feely group hug stuff’ (I can’t remember hugging people all the time, but i do remember having breakthrough ideas and forging genuine and lasting networks).
On the flipside, if you question your long-standing career path, experience ongoing office turf wars and think there’s got to be a better way to do things, then you will find the MLM a toolbox for answers and actions.
I know the MLM is always under threat to be taken out of Curtin courses as it is not a generic crowd pleaser and economically not as viable for Curtin than the MBA. We know from the academic literature and business practitioners, that education is challenged to come up with courses designed to support managers in today’s high-pressure economies to respond differently to global business issues.
It may not be the finite remedy to all our problems, but at least the MLM begins, where most people stop to look for answers: in themselves.
To me the MLM is the foundation to inspire people to be self-directed and equipped with tacit and explicit knowledge.
masterleaders
wpsensio
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