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2011-2012 Academic Catalog and Handbook

BUSG (Business) Course Descriptions

BUSG (Business) Course Descriptions

BUSG 500 Mission and Vision
3 hours. This course covers both theory and application in the competency areas needed to be capable managers in individual organizational contexts: performance, relationships, values, crisis, and leadership. Sessions examine how managers manage (or should manage); what their contribution is and should be; what results mean in the organizational context; how performance is assessed; managers' responsibilities to themselves, the people who work for and with them, and the communities they operate within. Attention is given to how managers do all of the above with competence, character, effectiveness, and enjoyment.

BUSG 503 Accounting and Financial Reporting
3 hours. We examine the fundamental assumptions, principles, conventions, and concepts underlying financial reporting, with the objective of developing the ability to read, comprehend, and perform a basic analysis of financial statements. We learn the basic accounting tools used by management for decision making and control.

BUSG 507 Economics
3 hours. We seek to harmonize the world of theoretical economics with the reality around us. The received wisdom of neoclassical economics is challenged by the changing realities of economic practice. We also acknowledge ourselves as economic actors and agents and consider the options for a good economic life individually and collectively.

BUSG 524 Marketing
3 hours. We review the basics of marketing, engage in the marketing planning process, and conduct research used to develop marketing plans and strategy. Specific topics include understanding the consumer, brand management, selection of target markets, and marketing mix decisions.

BUSG 525 Global Environment
3 hours. As world citizens we are increasingly aware of the globalization of markets, economies, strategies, and structures in our world. This class offers an overview of the issues encountered in transnational enterprises, with a concentration on understanding the nature of international business, and the development of cultural awareness. Students will understand the functional differences in transnational organizations and be able to identify key issues to be resolved in internationalizing, recognizing that these processes produce both positive and negative results.

BUSG 527 Managerial Finance
3 hours. We learn to evaluate the financial implications of business decisions. The tools include financial forecasting, managing growth, financial leverage, capital budgeting, risk analysis in investment decisions, and business valuation.

BUSG 528 Financial Leadership
3 hours. This course offers a senior executive perspective on financial challenges facing companies. Class sessions will rely heavily on case studies to develop an overview of finance and accounting from a general management perspective and to help to increase analytical skills. Emphasis will be on the interplay of operating decisions with financial results.

BUSG 530 Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship
3 hours. We take the road less traveled, on occasion, to find new opportunities and challenges. The strategic requirements for exploiting these are formed into business plans.

BUSG 534 Ethical and Legal Responsibilities
3 hours. This course introduces practical legal issues that arise in the work environment and the ethical tools to understand and inform day-to-day activities in the workplace. Issues such as contracts, human resources, tort, intellectual property, competition and sales, the judicial system, white-collar crime, forms of organization, and appropriate communications are covered. The threads of ethical decision making, alternative dispute resolution, and Christian values run throughout the course and are covered specifically in several topics.

BUSG 544 Organizational Systems and Change
3 hours. We study the fundamental changes in the ways organizations are managed and led in an environment that is increasingly global, diverse, and unpredictable. We probe the nature of organizations, their culture, how they change, and the human impact of those changes. We will pursue integrity between our espoused theories and our theories.

BUSG 546 Market Research
3 hours. The study and application of market research methodology to solving a variety of marketing issues faced by both the profit and non-profit sectors. A specific focus of this course will be the opportunity for students to work with a public benefit organization to apply marketing research to help the organization improve its decision making.

BUSG 551 Operations Management
3 hours. We investigate the systematic design, improvement, and control of processes in all areas of business. We study project management and the use of a project-based approach to managing processes in an organization.

BUSG 552 Community Learning and Consulting
3 hours. This experience provides an opportunity for students to work with a public benefit organization to apply skills, theory, course concepts, and research-based decision-making skills. A faculty mentor will structure the learning, coordinate with the cooperating organizations, assess level and significance of student learning, and monitor the overall experience. Students will provide oral and written reports to organization and class.

BUSG 553 Business Seminar I
3 hours. This course involves in-depth student research, company visits, high-level corporate debriefings and student reports and presentations on a variety of businesses in the greater Portland area.  There will be a strong global component to the businesses that are studied and visited. Educational objectives including critical thinking, financial analysis, specific discipline related issues, global awareness, primary research and communication skills will be emphasized. The format will consist of developing a teaching/learning environment that is built around interactions with Portland area business leaders, visits to a variety of organizations, and written and oral pre-briefings and de-briefings involving students and faculty.

BUSG 554 Business Seminar II
3 hours. A continuation of Business Seminar I, the course will focus on continued organization visits and debriefings. There will be a culminating experience that will involve student presentations and interaction with the organization executives who have been involved throughout the two semester sequence. These two courses together will give particular emphasis to the major integrating curricular strands of the Residential MBA program, including critical thinking, verbal and written presentation skills, financial analysis, teamwork, global awareness and Christian world view.

BUSG 556 Transformational Leadership
3 hours. Explores both historical and contemporary leadership theories and models. Particular emphasis is given to evaluating leadership theories from a values perspective and determining the ways in which they can be applied to the most current developments in organizational change strategies. Using this knowledge, students are presented with ways in which leadership can be reconceptualized and applied to meet the requirements of today's increasingly complex organizations.

BUSG 560 Strategic Thinking
3 hours. In the process of learning to think strategically, we become proficient in the use of strategic management tools and apply these tools and concepts to our own professional contexts. We seek to creatively anticipate alternative futures.

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