MBA Course Requirements

This course examines how accounting information is used in managerial decision-making and control. The course stresses how to use rather than how to prepare accounting reports. Topics to be covered include: basic cost concepts, cost volume profit relationships, product costing, differential analysis, strategic product pricing, cost allocation, budgeting and the evaluation of financial performance. This course is designed for MBA and MPA students who have not had ACCT 3030 or its equivalent. Prerequisite: This course is not open to students who have taken ACCT 3030 or its equivalent.

This course addresses the formulation of financial policies for obtaining and using financial resources for the purpose of value creation. Heavy emphasis is placed on the analysis of real-world cases that focus on the decisions confronting the financial manager. Statistical analysis, financial analysis, and advanced spreadsheet applications are required. Students will be challenged with both theoretical and practical problems in the following areas: performance analysis, long-term planning, working capital management, capital budgeting, long-term financing, acquisitions, and international financial management. Student presentations are required.

This course is an examination of principles related to the effective utilization of factors of production in manufacturing and non-manufacturing systems. This course uses extensive readings and case studies to define and analyze problems of productivity improvement, production planning, inventory management, quality control, system design, and implementation from the operating manager’s perspective. Issues in the management of technology-based organizations, capacity planning, scheduling, facilities design, operations strategy in services, and supply chain management will also be explored.

This course focuses on developing and enhancing managerial skills that are of major importance for current and future career survival and success. Specific skill areas include: self-management, communication, decision making, motivation, delegation, team management, diversity management, negotiation, organizational politics, and change management. The course is primarily experiential in nature with skill assessments, exercises, role-plays, case studies, and group discussion activities being the primary learning tools. Relevant literature from the behavioral sciences will provide a knowledge base for skill development.

This course is about the strategic management of human capital. A strategic analysis of the traditional human resource management functions-selection, compensation, recruiting, and training will be completed. The influences of the legal environment are also considered. Other topics focus on the tools that are used to manage data necessary to manage human capital effectively. These include HR-based change management methods, process mapping HR processes, and Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS).

The subject of this course is competitive behavior and the “strategy” of business firms. Competition is defined to be the effort to create and retain economic value within an environment of interdependence among competing firms. Strategic behavior is the effort of a firm as a coherent objective-seeking entity to create economic value within a competitive environment. An understanding of strategic behavior requires a close examination of 1) business objectives, 2) firm structural interdependence, and 3) value creation within the structure of competitive interdependence. Prerequisites: FIN 6000, MGMT 6000 and MKTG 6000.

Information and information systems (IS) are vital organizational resources and constitute an integral part of managerial decision making. It is important to understand how managers can effectively utilize IS to achieve organizational goals. The objective of this course is to train students to identify, understand, and resolve managerial issues surrounding the use and management of IS in organizations. The course adopts the perspective that, in a world where the half-life of a particular hardware or software technology is often measured in months, developing intuitions about the core concepts to assess and deploy Information Systems is more valuable to future managers than learning the intricate details of a specific technology. The focus of the course is to develop – through cases, lectures, discussions, examples, application development assignments, and a system analysis and design project-insights into when and how MIS can be used to create and enhance an organizations competitive advantage.

This course presents the development of marketing strategy for the organization and design of integrated product/service, promotion, and distribution programs utilizing systems analysis. It includes intensive analysis of management’s marketing problems, including market analyses, pricing, channels of distribution, promotion, competition, product strategies, and marketing research. Applications are emphasized to include research, quantitative, and business analytical techniques through the development of case and project assignments.

The culminating project provides an opportunity for each student to utilize and demonstrate the tools and understanding he or she has developed during the program. Through a comprehensive interactive competitive simulation, each student will manage a firm in competition with other student-managed firms. At the completion of the simulation, each student will produce a historical account of the firm’s performance via an annual report, an account of how the firm responds to its key stakeholder groups via a social audit, and a strategic plan for the future via a business plan. Each student is expected to demonstrate mastery of the essential tools of the business disciplines and an understanding of markets and the external environment.