Course Descriptions

MBA 510 Managerial Economics
Application of economic tools in solving managerial problems. Topics include markets and organizations, demand and cost functions, demand and supply analysis, game theory and the economics of strategy, pricing incentives, evaluation, regulation, incentive conflicts and contracts, and ethics and the organizational architecture. Students develop critical thinking skills and a framework of analyzing business decisions. In summary, the objective of the course is to help business students become architects of business strategy rather than simply middle managers following the path of others.

MBA 520 Accounting for Business Managers
Concepts of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) for preparing financial statements. Students will learn to analyze income statements, balance sheets, and annual reports, and to budget using projected sales, fixed and variable expenses, break-even calculation, and capital budgeting.

MBA 530 Managerial Finance
Understanding the foundations of financial management including markets, institutions, interest rates, risk and return, and the time value of money. Included are security valuation, corporate valuation, strategic investment and financing decisions, working capital management, mergers and acquisitions, derivatives, bankruptcy, and multinational implications.

MBA 540 Business and Professional Ethics
An understanding of the ethical problems faced by people in organizations and businesses today. A framework for recognizing ethical problems helps the student determine how decisions will affect people positively or negatively. This course conveys a model of analysis of ethical problems to allow students the ability to make better judgments about what is right and fair. The course also allows students to gain confidence in their understanding and their proposed solutions for ethical issues, thus being able to forcefully and reasonably defend their point of view.

MBA 545 Organizational Behavior
Theory and application of organizational behavior to human resources within organizations. Topics include strategies and tactics for developing human resources to support organizational cultural changes (such as total quality management), team building, collaboration with other teams, training, the impact of diversity, and evaluation of contemporary organizational strategies.

MBA 550 Marketing Management
Applying marketing theory and practice to real-life marketing situations. Topics include market segmentation, targeting, positioning, distribution of goods and services, the relationship between price and demand, brand management, and marketing plans and strategy. Students gain hands-on experience with marketing in cross-functional organization strategies.

MBA 560 Communication Issues in Management
An ethnographic approach to communication in the workplace including how physical settings, communication channels, institutional goals, institutional culture, and the roles of participants shape communication. Students will use case studies and their own workplace experiences to examine effectiveness, ideologies and biases, network theory, persuasive appeals, and communication of institutional values.

MBA 565 Managing in a Global Environment
Explores the reasons, conditions, processes, and challenges of internationalization from an enterprise perspective. The foci of the course will be international trade theory and institutional governance of international trade/monetary policy, and the differences in political-economic/socio-cultural systems and their implications for international business.(This course may be taken in conjunction with the faculty-led international experience.)

MBA 570 Quantitative Decision-Making for Managers
Extracting actionable information from data, interpreting data in tables and graphs, interpreting statistical significance, evaluating survey data, using data mining with large databases, and using simulation and modeling in business decisions.

MBA 575 Strategic Technology
Making strategic technology decisions most favorable to organization and culture, interaction with customers and suppliers, and future growth of the organization. Students will come to understand the impact of the internet and electronic commerce on the traditional business model, the effect on employees, and the ethical and societal results of given technology choices.

MBA 581-582 Management Consulting Project
Working in teams with a local organization, students develop expertise in an area related to their vocation, using communication, leadership, and collaboration skills, and academic knowledge to research, analyze, and make recommendations. The management consulting project culminates in a presentation to the client and the faculty adviser. (The Management Consulting Project course is divided into two required .5 credit courses.)

MBA 592 Leadership: Ethics, Service, and Transformation
Provides learners with well-rounded, comprehensive leadership skills that will enhance personal and organizational effectiveness. Leadership skills and abilities have long been viewed as important contributors to success in personal and professional spheres. Topics include leadership strategy, critical and distinctive functions and skills of management and leadership, relationship building, servant leadership, leadership communication, and  self-awareness and discovery of leadership styles, traits, and abilities.

MBA 595 Strategic Management
Organizations that survive over time generally meet customer needs more effectively than the customer’s alternatives. These organizations adapt to a constantly changing environment, usually coordinating change in a variety of different functional areas. Strategy matches the organization’s capabilities to its market position, facilitates resource allocation, and provides guidance for decisionmaking. This course is integrative of all subject matter in the MBA program, and adopts the perspective of senior management. (This course may be taken in conjunction with the faculty-led international experience.)