Upcoming Start Dates: September 3, November 25
Why this program is needed It is imperative that the leadership teams of virtually every company collectively recognize that they are managing their organization in a complex global network of suppliers, competitors, partners and customers - with all of the threats and opportunities entailed. In our view, this global context is not to be feared. Rather, it must be embraced, and our leadership and management teams must be educated and prepared accordingly.
For whom this program is designed Our online MBA with a focus in Global Leadership is designed for early-career professionals and managers of medium to large sized companies who aspire to lead their companies towards much higher performance in their global networks. It begins with coverage of fundamental management essentials such as financial, analytical and decision-making skills, and knowledge of an organization's core functions and interactions. The program goes much further than that. Its core focus is on leadership techniques, especially collaborative leadership in the complex cross-boundary global context, both within the company and between companies.
Our goal is to prepare early-career professionals and managers for senior leadership positions, for success in those positions, all without interrupting their career momentum. To accomplish our educational goal we employ a variety of educational tools and techniques, including some of the most advanced online teaching and learning applications available, and a carefully designed suite of courses delivered in a focused and flexible schedule. MBA program students are exposed to additional per-course-credit hours to allow for broader and more detailed instruction.
Timeline There are fourteen courses: eight foundation courses, five specialization courses including one elective, and one capstone integration project (see Curriculum below). Courses are completed in an eleven-week fixed-agenda format. If courses are taken in a typical eleven-week fixed-agenda format, the duration of the MBA program is three years, three months. Students are also able to double-up on courses, which shortens the program duration to only one year and nine months!
The Online Experience To maximize the global learning experience throughout the program our students will participate in "live" seminars and/or conferences with experienced leaders from global organizations. Our students and faculty are not limited by geographical boundaries, providing a new educational experience that allows learners to think with a global perspective while working on case studies and projects with other colleagues from around the world.
The program is also designed to integrate knowledge across subject areas. Students keep a journal/portfolio throughout their program, accumulating projects and assignments as they progress through the program and using this prior work as resource material for their final project. There are also specific portfolio activities and assignments throughout the program where learners are asked to combine or compare knowledge across courses.
Admission Requirements Individuals wishing to gain admission to the MBA in Global Leadership degree program will have an undergraduate degree and at least one year of full-time work experience. For further information, please visit the Requirements section of our website.
Level A - Foundation Courses (32 credits):
| MBA 499 | Orientation |
| MBA 600 | Accounting for Managers (4 cr.) |
| MBA 601 | Managerial Finance (4 cr.) |
| MBA 602 | The Global Economic Environment (4 cr.) |
| MBA 603 | Strategic Marketing Planning (4 cr.) |
| MBA 604 | Corporate Governance, Strategy and Structure (4 cr.) |
| MBA 606 | Strategic Operations Planning (4 cr.) |
| MBA 608 | Strategic Information Systems Planning (4 cr.) |
| MBA 650 | Strategic Human Resource Planning (4 cr.) |
| MBA 710 | Theories of Leadership (4 cr.) |
| MBA 720 | Leadership Values and Ethics (4 cr.) |
| MBA 622 | Global Strategy (4 cr.) |
| MBA 623 | Global Collaborative Teams (4 cr.) |
| MBA 624 | Global Change (4 cr.) |
| MBA 625 | Strategic Sustainability Planning (4 cr.) |
| MBA 699 | Integration Project (6 cr.) |
| Course Code(s): | MBA 499 |
| Course Name: | Orientation |
| Course Weight: | 0 credits |
| Course Description | |
| The purpose of this course is to provide students with an overview of the online collaborative learning environment and course delivery methods. | |
| Course Code(s): | MBA 600 |
| Course Name: | Accounting for Managers: Become more competent in the understanding and use of accounting information |
| Course Weight: | 4 credits |
| Course Description | |
| This course offers a comprehensive, graduate level exploration of managerial accounting. The course utilizes case studies and audit reports to focus on the use of appropriate accounting systems and the application of accounting data in the management of an organization. In conjunction, what accounting data are interesting or relevant-to-task, and how such data might be used is dependent upon what the manager is seeking to accomplish and what other information may or may not be available. | |
| Course Code(s): | MBA 601 |
| Course Name: | Managerial Finance: Better understand how to source and use financial resources |
| Course Weight: | 4 credits |
| Course Description | |
| All managers are required to possess a basic understanding of financial concepts. This course explores the principle role of finance via its concepts, calculative applications, and capital market analyses. In addition, the basic concepts of the time-value of money, rates of return, and valuation are covered. Students will learn how capital markets function, what different securities exist, and how to manage cash flow. Credit, risk, working capital, and analysis of financial statements receive particular attention. Cases are used throughout the course to provide students with hands-on experience in the use of financial tools. Unlike other finance courses, this consists of half concept and half mathematics. Besides providing basic math skills, this course should provide students with an excellent introduction to financial management concepts. | |
| Course Code(s): | MBA 602 |
| Course Name: | The Global Economic Environment: Apply economic reasoning to business leadership concerns |
| Course Weight: | 4 credits |
| Course Description | |
| Systematic understanding of the internal and external economic environments of an organization, and the ability to analyze them as a basis for sound decisions, are core pre-requisites of sound leadership. This course reviews basic macro and micro-economic concepts (e.g. supply and demand, elasticity, production function, competitive environments, pricing, etc.), and illustrates their impact on decision making and strategy formulation. Students will learn how to think through economic challenges and opportunities presented to their organization. | |
| Course Code(s): | MBA 603 |
| Course Name: | Strategic Marketing Planning: Better define and implement effective marketing strategies |
| Course Weight: | 4 credits |
| Course Description | |
| This course focuses on the strategic marketing planning process from the perspective of two key roles in the organization, i.e., the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and the Brand (or Product) Manager. Leaning heavily on external and internal analyses and the CEO's strategic guidance, we examine how these managers refine the company's long-term go-to-market strategy, at both the corporate level and the product level. We also briefly examine which leading edge digital applications are most useful with respect to intelligence gathering, analysis, decision-making and/or implementation. | |
| Course Code(s): | MBA 604 |
| Course Name: | Corporate Governance, Strategy and Structure: Better understand an organization's superstructure, its visioning, its corresponding form |
| Course Weight: | 4 credits |
| Course Description | |
| This course examines an organization's top-level constitution and processes, i.e., how its Board of Directors is selected by, and interacts with, its owners; how the Board appoints, and interacts with, the senior management team; how the Board and senior management team jointly determine the strategic direction of the organization; and finally, how the organization itself may be structured to most effectively and efficiently accomplish the strategic directive. | |
| Course Code(s): | MBA 606 |
| Course Name: | Strategic Operations Planning: Better define and implement effective operations strategies |
| Course Weight: | 4 credits |
| Course Description | |
| This course focuses on the operational planning process from the perspective of the Chief Operating Officer (COO). Leaning heavily on external and internal analyses and the CEO's strategic guidance, we examine how the COO develops the company's long-term operations strategy, comprising decisions about supply-chain logistics, production, customer service, quality assurance (QA), distribution and field support. We also briefly examine which leading edge digital applications are most useful with respect to intelligence gathering, analysis, decision-making and/or implementation. | |
| Course Code(s): | MBA 608 |
| Course Name: | Strategic Information Systems Planning: Enhance performance with comprehensive, effective and efficient management information systems |
| Course Weight: | 4 credits |
| Course Description | |
| In today's 24/7 global operating environment, the possession of sufficient and correct information about the relevant external and internal environments, obtained and circulated to the right decision-makers in a timely fashion, can spell the difference between success and failure. This course introduces the main concepts of management information systems (MIS), examines how the design of MIS can affect the performance of an organization, and explores the process of Information systems planning from the perspective of the CIO. | |
| Course Code(s): | MBA 650 |
| Course Name: | Strategic Human Resource Planning: Develop world-ready personnel and build change-ready organizations |
| Course Weight: | 4 credits |
| Course Description | |
| In today's global context the rate of change is accelerating, and personnel have to be world-ready, and organizations have to be change-ready. This course examines the human resource recruiting and development function and the organizational design function within a global and organizational lifecycle perspective, emphasizing how personnel and designs must change as projects and divisions evolve. This dynamic approach to organizational development prepares students to diagnose mismatches between existing personnel and designs versus changing demands, and to develop personnel and designs to accommodate new realities. | |
| Course Code(s): | MBA 710 |
| Course Name: | Theories of Leadership: Build foundational knowledge about leadership concepts |
| Course Weight: | 4 credits |
| Course Description | |
| This course gives students the foundational knowledge they need to critically assess leadership concepts and their utility. Students survey the leadership theories of key thinkers and practitioners in the field, learning about the empirical, theoretical and pragmatic strengths and limitations of each approach. Through case studies and exercises, students develop an understanding of organizational leadership. They will also learn a comprehensive set of leadership practices that will have immediate value for application at work. | |
| Course Code(s): | MBA 720 |
| Course Name: | Leadership Values and Ethics: Exhibit values and make ethical choices which enhance stakeholder trust |
| Course Weight: | 4 credits |
| Course Description | |
| Organizational leaders convey values and ethics that affect public trust, stakeholder trust, and trust within the organizational team. This course teaches students how to enhance this value-laden ethical capital. Classic moral philosophies are reviewed, and we explore their application to cases in community relations, environmentalism, marketing, operations, accounting, information technology and human resource management. Learners will gain an enhanced understanding for and respect of the different managerial values of their colleagues, and concepts for analyzing ethical issues. | |
| Course Code(s): | MBA 622 |
| Course Name: | Global Strategy: Lead organizations to greater accomplishment and competitive success |
| Course Weight: | 4 credits |
| Course Description | |
| This course makes use of cases, lectures and assignments to help students identify and understand the operating and competitive environment of an organization, to use this information to define its strategy and market positioning, and to implement by reorganizing its resources, its competitive ability, and its operating efficiency. We'll also examine issues related to the collaborative management of relationships with global alliance partners that become essential for implementing a successful global strategy. | |
| Course Code(s): | MBA 623 |
| Course Name: | Global Collaborative Teams: Build consensus when understanding and interests diverge |
| Course Weight: | 4 credits |
| Course Description | |
| Managerial roles and responsibilities are becoming increasingly global in nature. In many companies, the ability to manage in a global environment has become an important criteria (if not the most important criterion) for both promotion to top management levels and concomitant business success in the corporate world. This course begins with an orientation on global management, and ends with perspectives on career pursuits for global managers. In between, the course will focus on important conditional topics like the understanding of cultural differences, cross-cultural ethics, business communication in a global context, skills for avoidance/dealing with conflict, and personnel negotiations; topics relevant to the key subject of “global collaborative teams.” | |
| Course Code(s): | MBA 624 |
| Course Name: | Global Change: When global forces command change, how is the necessary change defined, embraced and successfully implemented? |
| Course Weight: | 4 credits |
| Course Description | |
| The world is changing in two fundamental ways. First, the development of a truly global market in products, services, capital, and even certain types of labor is changing the basic terms of competition for an array of different firms and industries. Second, the rules and institutions governing the new international economic order are still in flux. National regulations are no longer adequate yet international accords over trade, intellectual property, labor standards, and a host of other issues are fiercely and frequently contested by competing interests. The final results of these debates will determine who wins and who loses in the new global economy. Understanding the interaction between environment and business around the world is the key to understanding both the possibilities for and constraints on either managing an existing or starting a new business in today's fast-changing global economy. | |
| Course Code(s): | MBA 625 |
| Course Name: | Strategic Sustainability Planning |
| Course Weight: | 4 credits |
| Course Description | |
|
This contemporary topic of study lends an important level of understanding the challenges; and, in developing the strategy skills that are important for business leaders and managers facing the pressures to meet higher accountability levels of social and environmental responsibilities in their operational policies and practices. 1. This course will provide students with the opportunity to assemble "briefing materials" that can make the case for sustainability in a business organizational perspective. 2. This course will strengthen skills in the management of strategic program planning processes. 3. This course will contribute to an objective understanding of contemporary needs and responsive methodologies that stakeholders in business communities must consider within the context of their corporate responsibilities. |
|
| Course Code(s): | MBA 699 |
| Course Name: | Integration Project: Integrate your educational journey through the MBA with a major applied analytic research report |
| Course Weight: | 6 credits |
| Course Description | |
| The Integration Report is a capstone course undertaken by either an individual student or team of students. Under the supervision of faculty members, individuals or teams (of 3 or 4 students) will approach and establish a formal project relationship with an existing business organization to: 1) identify a global or corporate new venture management issue that the organization is interested in having analytically studied and summarized; 2) design and execute a study which involves the integration and synthesis of relevant knowledge acquired in the MBA program; 3) draft a report presenting their analysis and conclusions; and 4) present its final report to the participating business organization. Feedback from the client organization will be incorporated into the students' final grades. | |