Master of Business Administration

Leadership

This course examines social and corporate responsibility as a strategy to improve products, profits, and brand equity. This course provides a short historical review examining why laws, regulations, and other rules were set into place to address less-than-responsible organizational behavior. The character traits of stewardship and dependability are essential to this study. The content of the course will challenge students to think preventively and discard assumptions that might lead to avoidable organizational vulnerabilities, as well as to research options and propose opportunities that build up corporate social responsibility. The character traits of integrity and dependability are essential to this study.

This course provides students with faculty guidance in the preparation of material to completely satisfy the requirements to earn a graduate degree. Through this course, students will develop abilities to undertake independent research using the concepts and tools learned throughout the program. The principal assignment to be worked on is the research needed to undertake a publishable thesis or comparable project. Students must substantiate analysis and conclusions with appropriate data and other evidence. Research completed should be substantial enough to include professional recommendations that might inform the body of knowledge or be adopted by industry.

Cost management across the supply chain is integrated with strategic analysis to understand the role of financial and non-financial information in operational and strategic decision making. Topics include value-chain analysis, cost driver analysis, activity-based management, line business evaluation, technology costing, quality cost management, and balanced scorecard. The importance of ethical conduct is also covered.

This course focuses on decision-making processes involved in offering products for sale for the first time across national borders, including via e-commerce platforms. Management factors are examined related to corporate operations, product marketing, and personnel selection and training. Students develop preliminary strategies for ecommerce sales. The course provides a comprehensive survey of entry-level multinational commerce so that students can develop a commercial strategy and articulate its adoption by senior corporate executives. The character traits of integrity and agility are essential to this study.

This course introduces students to basic concepts, practices, and analytical techniques of marketing at scale. Global marketing challenges are examined. Students will weigh and interpret consumer preference data from meta sources and targeted social media sampling of purchasing influencers and early adopters to propose options for senior management’s consideration of recommendations. Students develop analytical skills, recognize, and adjust for bias by those surveyed and those interpreting data, and improve their team innovation talents through the examination of a series of retail marketing scenarios to develop actionable marketing recommendations. The character traits of communication and dependability are essential to this study.

This course explores a period of technological and social change called the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) in which we live today. Students will examine and evaluate trends in the replacement of human labor with machines, robots, automation, AI, and emerging new autonomous capabilities. They will be challenged to explore direct societal, economic, and lifestyle consequences, both positive and adverse. The course outcome for students is a more comprehensive understanding of the Fourth Industrial Revolution so that they can begin to anticipate changes they need to make, advocate, and act upon. The character traits of integrity and dependability are essential to this study.

In this course, students will examine foundational elements of the communications process internal to an organization’s individuals and groups. They will develop and exercise essential listening skills, understanding conflict resolution, power dynamics, leadership styles, and cultural competencies. Students will rehearse messaging that respects diverse worldviews through careful observance of cultural norms. The overall objective of this course is to improve student knowledge about and to develop basic skills in communicating persuasively, internally, and externally to an organization. The character traits of communication and service are essential to this study.

This course will explore the role of creativity and proven methods for generating ideas to complete concentration specific projects. The course will focus on improving performance, accelerating learning, and developing superior skills needed now and in the future. Projects are designed to improve students’ knowledge, address the challenge of timely and robust solutions, and provide a comprehensive application of the student’s program and specialization. The projects will challenge students to think critically while utilizing software to enhance fundamental skills. Additionally, projects will allow the students to apply relevant and real-world solutions.

Students will examine essential steps leading a group to consider relevant factors in an unbiased manner, as well as techniques to begin to seek, sort, and interpret pertinent data. They will also examine indicators to identify and dismiss destructive factors in problem-solving, including decision traps, unconscious bias, personal-opinion assessments, discarding the likely impact of risk elements, and addressing overt demands for urgency and the addition of non-essential expectations. Students will examine the role and application of data analytics and qualitative research as means and methods to employ in responsible decision-making. Course content will include contemporary issues. The character traits of agility and integrity are essential to this study.

Leaders must exhibit the behaviors and productivity they expect and exercise skills that cultivate trust, optimize individual talents and knowledge, and motivate productivity among team members. Balancing the capacities and constraints of team members, external third- party vendors, and contractors, and available time, resources, and the organization’s purpose is a continuous effort. Students will examine factors to nurture non-toxic collaborative environments, even while under time and resource stressors, to deliver outputs and outcomes that executives and clients continuously assign and change. The character traits of dependability and stewardship are essential in this course.

Several societal values will be compared domestically and internationally, such as transparency in reporting, avoidance of conflict of interest, expectations of personal integrity, appreciation for the rule of law, adherence to accountability standards, and how privacy is variously perceived in business environments. Students will become knowledgeable about central assumptions that can underlie different cultural worldviews and explore how trust might be developed among groups and teams across cultural divides. The character traits of integrity and stewardship are essential to this study.

This course prepares students to integrate generally accepted business and interpersonal coaching principles focused on nurturing individual team member strengths with non- manipulative motivational techniques to enhance individual engagement and team productivity. Students will propose improvements to diagnostic or developmental tools or remediation approaches that will tend to enhance their suitability for their industry’s macroenvironment. Students will participate in virtual ‘hands-on’ exercises with coaching design, centered on improving talent management, job satisfaction, and enhanced service to the value proposition for their organization’s customers, clients, partners, and key stakeholders. The character traits of service and stewardship are essential to this study.