2007-2008 Academic Catalog

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• School of Management Course Descriptions
• BUED (Business Education)
• BUSG (Business) Course Descriptions
• EDFL (Educational Foundations and Leadership) Course Descriptions
• MAOL (Organizational Leadership) Course Descriptions
• School of Management Programs

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 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 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.

BUSG 701 Faith, Spirituality, and Management
3 hours. Designed to enhance understanding of the relationship between Christian faith, spirituality, and the practice of organizational management. Special focus on the integration of faith and learning, the relationship between religion and spirituality, vocation, and the application of theological and spiritual principles and practices in the workplace. Taught jointly with faculty from department of religion or George Fox Evangelical Seminary.

BUSG 702 International Management
3 hours. Study of major issues facing today's international managers, including, for example: international trade and monetary policy; the role of multinational institutions such as the World Bank and the World Trade Organization; the ethics of globalization; and environmental economics (resource depletion, food security, genetic modification). Taught in an overseas location when possible.

BUSG 703 Organizational Theory
3 hours. A doctoral-level survey of major theoretical perspectives required for understanding, researching, and developing organizations. Typical topics include: classical management theories (scientific management, bureaucracy); human relations and human resources approaches; the system perspective; cultural studies; critical, feminist, and postmodern theories.

BUSG 704 Doctoral Research Seminar
3 hours. Examination of theory and research of current management topics through selected readings, discussion, and development of research projects. Taken before the BUED research sequence. Students will begin topic selection for the doctoral project and create an initial project proposal.

BUSG 705 Management as a Liberal Art
3 hours. Study of management as a practice that draws upon the knowledge and insights of the humanities, social sciences, and physical sciences. Students will explore the relationship of the arts, literature, psychology, philosophy, environmental science, and other fields to effective management practice. George Fox faculty from a variety of academic disciplines will participate. Pass/No Pass.

BUSG 706 History of Leadership/Management
3 hours. Examines leadership and management theory and practice from the earliest historical records to the present day. Includes important writers, leaders, and theories drawn from both Western and Eastern traditions. For example: Plato, Machiavelli, Burns, Confucius, and Lao-tze (Taoism). Students will conduct an in-depth study of selected leaders and theorists and the insights they provide to contemporary management issues.

BUSG 707 Executive Level Management
3 hours. Addresses contemporary issues facing top-level organizational managers and leaders, drawing upon the expertise of faculty and guest executives. For example: succession planning, establishing vision, building executive-level teams, organizational transformation, financial leadership, current legal and ethical issues.

BUSG 708 Human Resources in High Performance Organizations
3 hours. This seminar focuses on human resources activities such as employee compensation, staffing, selection of new employees, performance evaluation, and training and development. The purpose is to prepare upper-level managers who have responsibilities in these areas both in terms of practice and to be organizational consultants. The seminar will explore advanced thinking within the human resources arena with specific attention to its value to the entire organization.

BUSG 709 Knowledge Management and Learning Organizations
3 hours. An organization's ability to create and successfully leverage knowledge-based assets and problem solve in times of rapid change will be a key element of its strategic health. Knowledge management brings together information content and the contexts in which it is created, distributed, organized, and used in order to deploy organizational practices and processes to increase an organization's return on its knowledge capital. This course will explore ways of: promoting relevant information/knowledge within an organization; examining the meaning and purpose of information and knowledge resources and how they contribute to decision making and problem solving; and managing the intellectual assets of the organization. It will assist with the development of knowledge and information as a core business function and as a basis for management decisions.

BUSG 710 Advanced Topics in Leadership Studies
3 hours. An in-depth analysis of emerging perspectives in leadership theory and research. Possible topics include: current trends in leadership development, emotional intelligence, leadership ethics, relational leadership theory, cross-cultural leadership, gender differences, and leadership communication. Students will conduct a literature review and develop a major paper for presentation and review.

BUSG 712 Nonprofit Management
3 hours. Many challenges face nonprofit organizations as they seek to solve public problems and respond to human need. This course will examine the complex field of nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations as they respond to particular issues. We will study these in light of: collaborative relationships, cross border and international growth, the role of the individual manager as a professional and world citizen, the significance of various constituencies, and the moral and philosophical underpinnings of service. Students will select areas of professional or personal interest and investigate those areas in light of the broader framework in which nonprofits operate, partner, and effect change in society.

BUSG 713 Enterprise Development
3 hours. Advanced study of the principles and practices of new business ventures leading to development of a business plan for a not-for-profit organization. Emphasis on entrepreneurship as an innovative approach to solving social problems and on the work of 18th-century Quaker entrepreneur John Woolman.

BUSG 714 Crisis Management
3 hours. Incorporates literature review, organizational analysis and assessment of key change, risk and crisis issues in selected business, nonprofit, governmental, and nongovernmental scenarios and contexts, as they can be applied to the student's area of management practice and research. Each participant will create an annotated bibliography of at least fifty related and current sources, sufficient to describe the most recent scholarship in their area of inquiry, and a draft scholarly paper of at least 5,000 words that will be presented to other seminar participants. Students are encouraged to frame their research within the scope of their dissertation project, and relate their paper to individual dissertation chapters and topics.

BUSG 715 Advanced Topics in Marketing
3 hours. Intensive study of current marketing literature, focusing on rapid globalization, the growth of not-for-profits, the call for ethics and social responsibility, the impact of the digital age, and the new world of customer relationships.

BUSG 717 Doctoral Seminar: Special Topics
3 hours. Selected topics from the fields of business, management, and leadership designed to acquaint students with the latest developments in theory and research. Will draw upon the special expertise of Fox faculty as well as visiting instructors. Extensive reading and writing requirements to be completed before the seminar convenes. Offered periodically as an additional doctoral elective.

BUSG 785 Management Teaching Practicum
1-6 hours. Teaching/training experience supervised by a faculty member and/or on-site supervisor. Possible practicum placements include: teaching at the Newberg, Portland, or Boise campuses or in a Fox overseas program; serving as an instructor at another college or university; teaching at a community college; acting as an organizational trainer. Pass/No Pass. Course may be repeated once if necessary to fulfill degree requirements.
Prerequisites: permission of instructor and EDFL 506 Effective Teaching

BUSG 795 International Executive Practicum
1-5 hours. International learning experience overseen by a faculty member and on-site supervisor. Includes a significant overseas component. Possible practicum placements include a short-term project at a branch of the student's current employer or service with an international relief or mission agency. Pass/No Pass. Course may be repeated once if necessary to fulfill degree requirements
Prerequisite: permission of instructor and BUSG 702 International Management.

BUSG 801, 802 Doctoral Research Project
4 hours. Designed as an extended examination and analysis of an organizational context. Includes a literature review, data collection and analysis, and conclusions/recommendations. School of Management faculty must approve all project proposals. Typically, the proposal will be developed during BUSG 704 Doctoral Research Seminar and completed during the final year of the student's program under the direction of a project advisor. Includes an oral defense in front of a project committee made up of SOM faculty and other representatives.

BUSG 805 Doctoral Research Project
2 hours. Designed as a continuing course for those who did not complete the doctoral research project in BUSG 801, 802. Registration for this course is necessary to maintain continuous enrollment until the doctoral research project is complete.