This upper-division course is an independent study where the student does research on a management subject under the supervision of the professor. The research produces a professional research paper which includes data gathering from companies and organizations. Registration is based upon a petition form submitted by the student and approved by the professor and the Chair of the Management Department. Regular review and progress meetings with the professor during the semester are required. Management 379C is a similar but three hour course with extra requirements.

The purpose of this course is to enhance your understanding of the process and the challenge of effective management consulting. This course will also specifically focus on consulting as it relates to managing organizational change. Exercises, discussions and cases will cover models of management consulting and activities will allow students to practice the specific skills required to be effective consultants. Students will be introduced to models of effective change management and will engage in a rich change management simulation. Through readings, discussions, cases, experiential exercises, and field work, this course will focus on the patterns of interaction that occur between consultants and people and teams in organizations, and how those interactions ultimately impact the sustainable success of the organization.

The learning philosophy in this course can be summed up as follows: Theory informs Practice. In short, this means that you learn best when you understand the underlying theoretical principles and then how those principles translate into specific behavioral practices, followed by actual implementation of those practices. I will use every opportunity to have you actually apply what you are learning through the course assignments and activities. This model requires your active participation in each class session. There will be an assignment for each session designed to facilitate this participation.

The reading assignments provide an especially important foundation for class discussions and must be completed prior to each class session. You must come to class prepared to discuss the assigned readings. Your responsibility in this course is to be an active participant in the ongoing learning processes inside and outside the classroom.

Entrepreneurship is the principal source of jobs and wealth in market economies. This is a course that is concern with entrepreneurship, with special emphasis on technology transfer and wealth creation. Technology transfer is the process of taking innovations out of laboratories and finding commercial applications. Although we will look at all kinds of entrepreneurship, the focus is on technology transfer and new venture development. The course is also concern with explaining how entrepreneurship takes place as well as to why it takes place.

The how of new venture development is related to the entrepreneurial process (innovation, business plans, fund raising, launching of the enterprise, and the harvest or running of the enterprise). Research in this area is rich, comes out of the discipline of Management and, tends to concentrate on case studies and best practices.

The why of entrepreneurship is concerned with why people and groups of people engage in the entrepreneurial process? Research in the area is found in the disciplines of History, Sociology, Psychology and Economics, and is less concerned with case studies but instead concentrates on statistical analysis of measured variables of individuals and groups of individuals.

The course brings together both the Business side of entrepreneurship research and the Liberal Arts side of new venture development. The course thus concentrates on the entrepreneurial process as well as the history (elements from the ancient world) and theoretical aspects of new venture developments. Reading range from the development of high tech firms (remember that high tech is everything from the discovery of fire, automobiles and airplanes) to how immigrants and internal minority groups develop and create wealth.

The course also utilizes live case studies; these are individuals who have created wealth and will share their knowledge with the class. The overall aim of the course is to create within you the idea that someone has to concentrate on wealth creation and job creation within the context of market economies. You will have an opportunity to create your Big Idea with your classmates as team members. The final project of teams is to present their Big Idea to the class.

The impact of powerful variables such as culture, politics and regional economics on strategy formulation and implementation has aggrandized exponentially. While post industrial revolution companies have been “international” since the late 19th century, few companies are organizations are maximizing their potential by mastering truly global strategies. The course also centers on the implementation and control of various strategies through the study of evolving global and transnational management tools, practices and research.

The team experiences will be complemented by readings, class discussions, projects, and reflections on your learning. Therefore, your full participation is necessary to attain the maximum benefit of the course. Among the objectives of the course are to learn how to: Analyze and understand the group dynamics that impact teams Build and maintain effective relationships Deal with conflict productively Tap into team creativity Help teams make better decisions Motivate and lead teams Prevent and overcome obstacles that cause teams to fail Evaluate and reward team performance Facilitate groups and manage meetings effectively Leverage the team within the organization.

The Entrepreneurial Management course covers the natural life cycle of an entrepreneurial business:

1. Evaluating the attractiveness of an idea;

2. Launching the business;

3. Growing the business; and finally,

4. Harvesting the profits.

The Entrepreneurial Management course examines the entrepreneurial venture as a journey; an adventure with a natural life cycle that begins with selecting worthy goals and ends with the harvesting of profits. The goal of the course is to prepare students for long, profitable and meaningful lives in business. As such, we stress lifelong learning, the practical application of sound theory and ethical, moral and philosophical reflection.

The course relies mostly on cases from the Harvard Business School to pose real world dilemmas. Teaching notes introduce new techniques and propose conceptual frameworks to help analyze the cases. Since class participation is a large portion of your final grade, attendance and willingness to speak in class is mandatory. Guest speakers who are experts in their respective fields will be brought in to touch on relevant topic areas. In lieu of a final exam, students will be required to form teams in order to prepare an executive summary on a business venture of their choosing and present their concept to the class.

This course provides frameworks for understanding:

1. The creation of new markets and business models;

2. The generation of commercializable new ideas in both new ventures and existing organizations; and

3. The strategies for competing in dynamic industry environments characterized by fast-changing and creative products.

With globalization decreasing barriers to entry and increasing quick imitation, today’s global markets require companies to exhibit fundamentally new ideas and strategies. Therefore, the importance of innovation for competitiveness is increasing. Furthermore, innovation today extends beyond technological innovation into activities to create new business models, new value chain architectures, and new market spaces. Consequently, a strategic approach to innovation is essential to achieving dramatic value improvements for customers and high growth for companies. Strategic innovation management focuses on how companies incorporate innovation in every aspect of their strategy and discover “blue oceans” of growth and profitability.

Strategic innovation management requires the creative synthesis of knowledge from several functional areas and the development of design thinking. To this end, the course integrates perspectives from strategy, organizational behavior, new product development, and design thinking.It further involves learning-by-doing through rigorous analysis of cases, observational and analytical work, and a field project with a company seeking to introduce an innovative product, service, practice, or business model. The course should be of particular interest to those interested in managing a business where innovation is a necessity for competition; those interested in capitalizing on personal or organizational creativity; and those interested in careers in new business ventures and consulting.

Women represent an increasing proportion of the labor market in most countries including the US where women comprise approximately 47% of the general workforce and over 50% within managerial professions. Women also represent an increasing (though still highly disparate) proportion of managers and entrepreneurs – 13.5% of Fortune 500 corporate officers in 2009, up from 5% in 1990 though still only 3% of CEOs of Fortune 500 companies in 2010. The number of women-owned sole proprietorships grew 33% between 1990 and 2000, compared to a 23% growth rate for all sole proprietorships.

Between 1983 and 2005, the number of self-employed women grew 77%, compared to a 6% growth rate for men in the same period. So, depending on one’s perspective the glass is either half-empty or half-full. The rise of women in visible and influential positions brings many career opportunities for women. But, it also generates a variety of challenges, ranging from the personal (leadership styles, balancing work and family) to the managerial (how to design job and reward structures that accommodate working parents).

This course will address these challenges and opportunities as they affect managers, focusing on both enhancing students’ career prospects, both as individuals and as managers, and creating organizational structures and cultures that support both men and women at work. This course will address these challenges and opportunities as they affect managers, both male and female. During the semester, we will try to answer the following questions:

• How do men’s and women’s leadership and mentoring styles differ?
• How do men’s and women’s networks differ?
• How do they use networks differently?
• How does workplace demography (in terms of race and functional background, as well as gender) affect how men and women are viewed?
• How does the legal environment affect firms’ decisions about male and female employees? How is the situation of minority men and women different?
• What about men and women who work outside their home country?
• How can demanding careers be structured to accommodate family and lifestyle needs?
• How can firms create and sustain a workplace that supports both male and female employees?
• What impact do such policies have on firm performance?

Management Majors are required to take the MAN 353 course as part of the degree requirement. This course is usually taken the semester after completion of an approved summer internship but may be taken concurrently with an internship in the fall or spring. A petition must be completed on-line and approved before registering for the course.

This course addresses management strategy and the processes a general manager/owner uses to examine business situations, to develop strategies, goals and objectives, and to implement chosen courses of action that guide the organization toward success. Concepts, knowledge, and skills acquired in previous functional core courses are integrated with information about the activities and environment which a manager faces when making strategic decisions. This is a case-based class, with a heavy emphasis on class participation. There is also substantial group work in the course.

This course addresses management strategy and the processes a general manager/owner uses to examine business situations, to develop strategies, goals and objectives, and to implement chosen courses of action that guide the organization toward success. Concepts, knowledge, and skills acquired in previous functional core courses are integrated with information about the activities and environment which a manager faces when making strategic decisions. This is a case-based class, with a heavy emphasis on class participation. There is also substantial group work in the course.