Curriculum
Leading Self & Others
(MGMT 603) - 3 Credits
Explore principled leadership, gaining a framework and skillset to make meaningful impact within dynamic and complicated organizations. This course provides insight into individual strengths and diversity, interpersonal and team dynamics. You’ll also learn about taking initiative and having influence both with and without formal authority, and examine the larger impact on organizational systems and the common good. Prerequisite: None.
Current St. Thomas MBA students will take MGMT 603 with their MBA curriculum.
(MGMT 702) - 3 Credits
Examine how change occurs in organizations, so you can better understand the process and develop a framework to manage change more effectively. We’ll look at major world and societal changes that contribute to change in organizations, review the major theories that try to explain change, and explore diagnostic tools and actions needed to facilitate and implement change. You will learn to be a more successful manager by recognizing your personal capacities to direct and experience organizational change, while dealing with competing demands on your time and attention. Prerequisite: None.
(MGMT 704) - 3 Credits
Organization Development (OD) models, principles, and techniques provide a strong foundation for successful organizational change. OD interventions can positively impact individual and team performance, changes to organizational structure and culture, leader effectiveness and technology integration. This course gives you experience in applying a variety of OD approaches to real-world business problems and to your own organizational experiences. Equipped with knowledge of current and evolving practices in organization development, you will experience first-hand how to effectively build diagnostic models based on data gathering and analysis. Design a variety of intervention strategies and activities that result in successful and sustainable outcomes at the individual, group and organizational levels. Prerequisite: None.
(MGMT 616) - 1.5 Credits
Learn to help organizations address the problems and opportunities they face in meeting their mission, strategies, and goals. This course provides an overview of the consulting role (both internal and external) with an emphasis on organization consulting issues. Explore how to integrate your own perspectives with the experience of the client system, while effectively managing the consulting process during the important phases of a project. These phases include contracting, overcoming resistance, data gathering, analysis and diagnosis, reporting results, implementation and building engagement. Explore ethical practice, building strong helping relationships, holding difficult conversations, mitigating risk, and understanding the notion of using the “self as an instrument of change.” Prerequisite: None.
Effective Team Management
(MGMT 607) - 3 Credits
Businesses increasingly use teams to get work done at all levels of the organization, but often teams are not managed effectively. This course examines when teams are the right choice (and when they are not), how to be an effective team member and leader, and how to diagnose and solve common team problems. You’ll also examine how teams operate under special circumstances, e.g., cross-functional, temporary, global, and distributed (or virtual). Prerequisite: None.
Developing Talent
(MGMT 609) - 1.5 Credits
Talented employees are one of an organization’s greatest resources for achieving current goals and transforming to meet future challenges. This course reviews the issues and practices of developing employees. Topics include identifying talented employees, determining an employee’s goals, planning the movement of individuals within the organization, creating formal and informal opportunities for employees to develop, determining approaches to retain employees (e.g. rewards), as well as engaging, motivating and retaining all employees. Prerequisite: None.
Competitive Strategy
(MGMT 625) - 1.5 Credits
Learn how business functions (finance, marketing, accounting, operations, human resources, etc.) align with business-level strategy to support the mission, goals and objectives of an organization. Questions explored in this course include: Why are some industries more profitable than others? Why do some firms consistently outperform others? How can a firm build and sustain a competitive advantage? We’ll use a variety of industry contexts and firms to illustrate the analytical tools and frameworks covered in the course. Prerequisite: None.
Inclusive Leadership in Diverse Organizations
(MGMT 804) - 3 Credits
To be effective and just, leaders need to understand the diverse people who comprise their organizations and markets, and practice inclusion at all levels. Culturally competent leadership relies on foundational knowledge, skills and mindsets applied in both domestic and global contexts. This course introduces a range of perspectives (legal, ethical, structural, political, symbolic, historical, social, relational).We’ll explore a number of topics, including: dimensions and categories of human diversity and of cultures; social identity and perception; attribution, bias, stigma, and harassment in organizations; cross-cultural communication and conflict; power, privilege, and oppression; domestic and world workforce and market demography. Prerequisite: None.
Persuasion
(BUID 635) - 3 credits
Study theory and research on social influence and persuasion, drawing primarily from work in the social sciences. Gain a conceptual foundation upon which to develop your own skills and techniques for increasing message persuasiveness, instigating behavioral and attitude change, and protecting oneself from unwanted persuasion. Topics covered have broad applicability both within and outside business contexts but relate particularly to issues in marketing, sales and management. Learn from a variety of approaches, including lecture, case analysis and both instructor- and student-led discussion. Prerequisite: None.
Project Management
(MGMT 623) - 3 credits
Learn about scheduling and project scope challenges, and gain tools for creating practical solutions. Explore why project pitfalls occur, the complexity team members can bring, and the reasons why organizations are becoming more chaotic. We will use numerous disciplines to create a more dynamic and flexible project management methodology. These disciplines include Industrial Behavior, Psychology, Human Behavior, Chaos and Complexity, Organizational Behavior, and Systems Theory. Prerequisite: None.
Storytelling: Influencing Organizational Decisions
(MGMT 708) - 3 credits
Our business culture demands concise and meaningful communications that can both inform and influence decision makers. This course introduces principles that effectively link storytelling and successful business outcomes. Learn the principles of presenting information in a way that creates an emotional connection with your listener. Explore a variety of communication channels and skills, and the effect of storytelling on organizational strategy and culture. Learn to build a structured thinking process or informational dashboard to tell a compelling story, and gain confidence in understanding and using information to influence outcomes. Prerequisite: None.
Negotiation Skills
(MGMT 808) - 3 credits
Explore the major concepts of negotiation inherent in any business or personal situation. Focus on interpersonal and inter-group conflict and its resolution. Through the analysis of bargaining and conflict situations, learn your own individual "negotiating styles." Some of the major elements of the course include distributive (win-lose) negotiations, integrative (win-win) negotiations, the use of power in negotiations and negotiation ethics. Extensive study of negotiation cases will help you improve your negotiation skills through "hands on" scenarios. Beginning with relatively simple one-on-one negotiations, the course will progress to complex, multi-party negotiations where class members will assume different roles. Prerequisite: None.