Business Leadership (Certificate) Curriculum

This introductory course provides students with a practical and concrete explanation of the concepts and techniques they will need as managers in today's new organizations. The sequence of topics follows the familiar pattern of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Throughout the course, the manager's role in leading and accommodating change is emphasized. The course also introduces the student to the issues of managing global businesses, especially the ways in which managers need to develop a global perspective in order to be successful. Issues in strategy, diversity, and entrepreneurship are covered extensively.

This intermediate course is designed to provide the student with a basic understanding of business and how it relates to society as a whole. The major topics include the corporation in society, the business and the social environment, business and the ethical environment, business and government in a global society, the corporation and the natural environment, business and technological change. A systems-thinking approach is central to the course, wherein business, government and society are so closely intertwined that an action that affects one will inevitably affect the others. The corporation's responsibilities to primary and secondary stakeholders, both economic and ethical, are studied in light of various social issues.

In this course, students will analyze and evaluate the fundamentals, major concepts and theories of bargaining and negotiation. Case studies will provide an experiential approach to learning the strategies and tactics of negotiation while examining power and emotions in interpersonal conflict and its resolution. International and cross-cultural negotiations and ethical standards will be covered in this course.

This course introduces students to concepts and principles of organizational behavior. Students investigate the impact that individuals, groups, and structures have on behavior within organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization's effectiveness. Topics addressed include motivation, leadership, communications, group structure and process, attitude and values, and the change process.

This course introduces students to the organizational view of performance excellence as reflected by the Malcolm Baldridge Criteria, principles of quality management, and tools and techniques managers use to drive design, control, and improve performance of the firm. Performance management is relevant and important for today's students and future business leaders, as well as those already in the workforce. Today's business and nonprofit organizations need to capitalize on the knowledge and lessons learned that excellent organizations have acquired. In this course, students will be able to discover the purpose of performance management as the approach of systems thinking into the process of work improvement in organizations. Topic covered in this course include quality management systems, variations and statistical models for improving quality and performance of the firm, customer and workforce engagement, processes, high performance work culture, and high-performance work systems among others.

This course presents leadership as a way of acting that involves the influence of people to inspire change toward a mutually desired outcome. Technological advancements and globalization have created a business environment where rapid and constant change is the norm. This course uncovers how effective leaders embrace the inevitability of constant change and diversity, and use their interpersonal skills to promote change, communicate vision, provide a sense of direction and inspire employees.