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Preliminary Reading

Welcome to the preliminary reading for the MSc in Engineering Management. The information on this page is intended to prepare you for the programme and give you an introduction to some of the subjects that you'll be studying here. Some background reading before you arrive will enable you to make the best use of your time at York.

One of the aspects of the taught MSc in Engineering Management that gives students some difficulty is in the specific language of management, in particular in the area of Law. Law is full of technical terms that are not commonly found in everyday conversational English. All subject areas, be it management or technical, have their own discipline specific language with varying degrees of overlap with the typical conversational vocabulary. The pressure, in a 50-minute lecture, can build if we need to look up the unfamiliar words in a dictionary. You do not need to be overly concerned about this, our students have only raised it as a mild concern. But that said being prepared will give you an edge. There are two very good introductory books on Law that will introduce you to the subject. I recommend you read one or the other – you do not need to read both as they cover very similar topics. Why recommend two? Well books, like us, are individual in style – we prefer some to others and these are by different authors so have different styles.

• “Essentials of business law” Ewan MacIntyre, 3rd edition, Pearson Publishing, ISBN 1-408-27876-6
• “Law for Business Students” Alix Adams, 6th edition, Pearson Publishing, ISBN 1-408-27880-4

For your general engineering management preparation I suggest you read:

• “Fundamentals of Management - Global edition” by Stephen Robbins, David DeCenzo and Mary Coulter, Pearson, ISBN-10 0-273-75586-2

This book covers some of the essential elements of management and some tools you might find very useful in our programme.

For Accounting and Finance – the best book(s) depends on whether you have studied it before or not, if you are already familiar with the subject and want a complete and full text then:

• "Management Accounting for Business" by Colin Drury, ISBN 10: 1844801527, ISBN 13: 978-1844801527

If you are not familiar there are a number of books that cover a similar content, some examples are:

• "Finance and Accounting for non-specialist students", Alan Pizzey, Financial Times Publishing, ISBN 0-273-63020-2
• "Accounting in a Business Context", Berry and Jarvis, Thompson International Press, ISBN 1-86152-090-5
• "Finance for non-financial managers". Millichamp, Letts Educational Press, ISBN 1-85805-304-8
• "Accounting for non-accounting students", Dyson, Pitman Publishing, ISBN 0-273-60435-X
• "Accounting for non-specialists", Jones, Wiley, ISBN 0-471-49572-7

Any one of the above on accounting and finance would serve you well. I suggest you take a look at one or two and see which one suits you best – they are all slightly different in style and like any interaction one style will suit you better than another.

Specific Vocabulary

All the different management disciplines have some specific terminology, the ‘language’ of production, the ‘language’ of Accounting and Finance, the ‘language’ of law. Understanding new management subjects is both a learning activity for the technical aspects of the subject but also of the terminology. One of the modules in the first term is Law for Engineering Managers. This module has, for the past two years, led some students to dive for the translation dictionary because many of the commonly used words in law are not common vocabulary. What we have been doing this year is starting to compile a list of the words that are used in lectures that are less commonly used – an example of some of the law words are listed below.

Terms relating to Law:

Vicarious liability; Peacework; Tribunal; Regulations; Anti-discrimination; Duty of trust; Collective agreements; Statutory notice; Maternity and Paternity; Redundancy; Proportionate; Entitlement; Conciliation; Arbitration; Mediation; Grievance; Litigation; Jurisdiction; Solvency; Enforcement; Solicitor & Barrister (understand the difference); Disclosure; Pre-action Protocol.

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