MBA Course Descriptions
BUS 605 High-Performance Teams
3 Hours
This course is designed to help students polish and develop leadership skills designed to take their teams to the next level. Throughout the course, students will learn theories and principles of contemporary and effective leadership. Skill improvement focuses on areas including communication (writing, presenting, listening), time-management, information literacy, personality and strength assessment, and more. Students will also engage in practical and hands-on strategies to accelerate performance among individuals, groups and teams within organizations. Students will be able to: develop a strategy for building a high-performance team, reflect on their own leadership strengths, implement improvement plans for self and others and develop and deliver professional presentations using oral and written tools and techniques.
BUS 606 Adaptive Leadership and Change Management
3 Hours
Organizations are faced with constant and rapid changes in their local and global environments. This perpetual change necessitates that leaders have skills in resiliency, adaptation and innovation. During this course, students will explore theories of adaptive leadership, reflect on their adaptive leadership skills and develop strategies for improvement. In the second part of the course, students will explore principals of change management, learn how to uncover and address resistance to change, develop change plans, and implement and monitor change progress. Students will be able to: incorporate strategies to improve resiliency and adaptation in their context, conduct a stakeholder analysis, and address resistance to change through appropriate behavior change plans.
BUS 625 Practical Economics
3 Hours
Students will explore aspects of the global economy including resources acquisition, development, global shocks, international business, and trade. Students will investigate globalization and seek to provide an understanding of today's interdependent world. Students will be able to: evaluate elements of global economics and reflect on their impact to local context, analyze economic interdependencies created by globalization, and synthesize economic metrics for financial, marketing, and operational performance. Prerequisite: an economics course, equivalent experience or an approved leveling course.
BUS 626 Data-Driven Decision Making
3 Hours
This practical managerial decision-making class will incorporate analysis of financial statements and accounting metrics. Using case study and application students will: improve their ability to use data to drive financial, marketing, and operational decisions as well as use appropriate metrics to measure performance. Students will be able to: analyze financial statements, use financial analysis for business planning, and use statistics and data to drive business decisions.
BUS 635 Coaching and Mentoring in the Workplace
3 Hours
Coaching is a trending competency in progressive organizations. Having an executive coach helps leaders move more quickly and more intentionally in their leadership journey. Coaches can be internal to the organization, working from within, as well as external to the organization, serving as a consultant. This class will help students gain skills and experience for coaching internal and external professionals. Coursework will explore coaching theory, adult learning styles (andragogy), and decision-making styles. Students will be able to: apply adult learning (andragogy) to personal change, develop executive coaching skills at the personal and managerial level, and deploy a variety of decision-making styles.
BUS 636 Conflict Management
3 Hours
Conflict can be positive and negative, depending on several factors including how leaders manage. This course engages students in strategies to engage conflict in ways that are constructive for the organization and people involved. Activities will help students understand their conflict style and develop their own conflict management skills. Students will be able to: use mediation, negotiation, and other relevant conflict management strategies in professional settings; use communication effectively in high-stress environments; and apply needs- and interest-based strategies to resolve conflict.
BUS 640 Managerial Accounting
3 Hours
An analysis of financial accounting provides the foundations underlying corporate financial statements. This portion of the course will provide students with the ability to read and understand financial statements, along with developing skills to analyze and interpret financial information. The use of managerial accounting tools will help students understand how to better contribute to managerial decision making, planning and controlling processes of management. Students will be able to: use tools for analyzing profitability and liquidity, leverage activity and risk through application of financial ratios, and connect accounting principles to managerial reporting. Prerequisite: an accounting course, equivalent experience or leveling course.
BUS 650 Financial Analysis
3 Hours
Students will acquire working knowledge of financial analysis principles and practices, including cost of capital analysis, cash flow and budget analysis, forecasting, financial risk management, and capital budgeting that are required to support management decision making. Students will be able to: conduct cash flow analysis that is appropriate for her/his/their industry, and develop a future-focused capital forecast that incorporates working knowledge of current markets and trends. Prerequisite: BUS 640, equivalent experience or leveling course.
BUS 655 Project Management
3 Hours
Contemporary business leaders are often tasked with leading the execution of projects. Throughout this course students will learn tools and techniques for connecting the organization’s mission and vision to organizational deliverables. Experiential work will engage in development of a project plan that benefits an organization of their choosing using tools such as WBS, PERT, Gantt charts and heat maps. Students will be able to: use appropriate project management techniques and tools for project design and delivery, and demonstrate principles of benefits realization management.
BUS 656 Contemporary Marketing
3 Hours
Students who engage in this course will learn strategies for turning knowledge of consumer behavior into actionable plans designed to improve and increase operational performance. In addition to learning through text and case-study students will develop practical solutions for reaching a consumer audience in their context. Students will be able to: form data-driven predictions about consumer behaviors, analyze big-data, build insights and marketing strategies, and apply course concepts to the design of an effective marketing campaign.
BUS 685 Legal Environment
3 Hours
This course is designed to equip students with the tools necessary to analyze an organization’s exposure to risk and formulate solutions to mitigate or eliminate such exposure through identification, assessment and prioritization. This course offers a contemporary perspective on legal and ethical issues that organizations face. Students will understand components of legal and regulatory environments, liabilities, contracts, and more. Students will be able to: analyze legal dilemmas and make decisions that mitigate risk and identify, assess, prioritize; and develop strategies that maximize mission profitability while honoring corporate ethics.
BUS 695 Strategic Business Analysis and Management
3 Hours
This course covers the determination and analysis of strategic goals and objectives for an organization, both in theoretical approaches and actual application. Students will learn how to do environmental and competitive analysis. Students will also learn to assess various internal and external factors that influence strategic planning such as: economic, social, legal, political, technological and competitive factors. This course will include the completion of a business content area exam. Students will be able to: conduct and present findings of an environmental and competitive analysis, and apply principles of strategy and organizational analysis through simulation. Prerequisites: BUS 640 and BUS 650 or the consent of the instructor.
BUS 698 Practicum
3 Hours
This course is an applied, monitored and/or supervised field-based learning experience, such as an internship or directed study. Students will gain practical experience through a negotiated and or directed plan of study determined by the instructor and student. Director and instructor approval is needed. *Students who have not taken an economics or accounting course in a previous undergraduate or graduate program must work with the MBA program director to verify equivalent experience or take an appropriate leveling course as a prerequisite. Students should make contact and appropriate arrangements with the director prior to beginning the MBA program.