Management and Organizations Department | Undergraduate

Management and Organizations (MCT Essential)
MGMT-UB.0001 
Professors: Michael North, Taylor Phillips, Julianna Pillemer, Elizabeth Howard, Molly Kern, Ephrat Livne-Ofer
Prerequisite: Highly recommended for ALL sophomores 
In this course you will attain an understanding of the key factors that contribute to organizational success and the role that managers play in helping their organizations become more successful. The better that you understand these issues, the more effective you will be in your future careers. More specifically, the course will explore how organizational leaders develop winning strategies, and then design their organization in a way that aligns structures, social relationships, tasks, human resource practices, and people to achieve those strategies. In exploring these issues, you will identify the challenges that organizational leaders and managers face as they try to make good decisions in the face of a constantly evolving industry environment, competing goals and agendas, and an increasingly diverse and global workforce.

Global Strategy
MGMT-UB.0004 
Professors: Rob Salomon, Sinziana Dorobantu, Steven Altman
Prerequisites: MGMT-UB.0001, ECON-UB 0011
This course focuses on the strategic and organizational challenges facing the multinational firm. Types of questions addressed in the course include: (1) What are the sources of competitive advantage in a global context? (2) What differentiates a global from a domestic industry? (3) How does/should a multinational operate in these different environments?

Strategic Analysis (MCT Essential)
MGMT-UB.0018 
Professors: Sonia Marciano, Callen Anthony
Prerequisites: Sophomore standing
This course emphasizes the need to look outward to the environment and inward to a firm’s resources, capabilities and operating policies. It describes a firm’s strategy as the formulation of “competitive strategy”, “corporate strategy,” and “organizational strategy.” Competitive strategy involves identifying structurally attractive industries and developing the most attractive position within that industry - where attractiveness is driven by absolute conditions combined with the resources and capabilities the firm brings to that position. Businesses create value by operating in positions within industries that, by virtue of the characteristics of industry, the position, and the firm, are defensible from the encroachment of competitors and deterioration of the environment as a whole. Corporate strategy focuses on the management and understanding of multi-product, multi-location, and multi-business firms. Organizational strategy involves developing policies within each functional area of the business unit that are integrative and consistent with the firm’s plan for creating value.

Negotiation and Consensus-Building (MCT)
MGMT-UB.0030 
Professors: Gavin Kilduff, Elizabeth Howard
Prerequisites: Sophomore standing
Not applicable towards BS/MS Accounting Program.
Effective negotiation and consensus-building skills are essential for success in almost any life domain—whether your goal is to be an entrepreneur, film producer, business manager, or political leader. In this course, students study how people reach agreement and develop an analytical approach for reaching more effective agreements in organizational settings. The course draws from research in psychology and economics to provide academic content, while making use of role-playing exercises and experiential learning to emphasize key applied lessons.

Managing Change (MCT)
MGMT-UB.0025 
Professors: Anat Lechner, Batia Wiesenfeld
Prerequisite: MGMT-UB.0001. Recommended: junior standing.
Managing change is a central concern for today’s managers. Managing change is also the primary focus of the management consulting industry. To effectively manage change you will need a solid understanding of what change is about, what are its critical aspects, and how one can lead change initiatives in a disciplined and successful way. Case analysis and applied projects are the major vehicles for learning in this course.
Note: This course is particularly relevant for students who plan to pursue careers as general managers or management consultants.

Managing Innovation (MCT)
MGMT-UB.0008 
Professors: Melissa Schilling, Gino Cattani
Prerequisite: MGMT-UB.0001
The success of firms, managers and individual contributors depends on their ability to identify innovative products, processes, or both. Research has shown that managing innovation requires a learning mindset attuned to new experiences, entrepreneurial thinking and pragmatic leadership. Some of the specific questions we will consider are: How is design thinking impacting our understanding of strategy and organization design? What roles do the project, middle and senior management play in the innovation process? How do you decide which ideas are worth pursuing? How do firms choose among multiple attractive innovation projects? What are the best ways to protect a firm’s intellectual property?

Becoming You: Crafting the Authentic Life You Want and Need
MGMT-UB 40 1.5 units
Prof. Suzy Welch
Offered in the undergraduate, full-time MBA, part-time MBA, and Executive MBA programs, "Becoming You" makes extensive use of exercises, activities, psychometric testing, research, and lectures to teach a transformational methodology that guides students through the profound, exhilarating, and sometimes surprising journey of discovery to their authentic purpose, a life and career rich with meaning. In short, "Becoming You" is designed to help students uncover the best, most thoughtful answer to the often elusive question, "What should I do with my life?"

Power & Politics 
MGMT-UB.0066 
Prof. R. Kabaliswaran
Prerequisite: MGMT-UB.0001
Politics is not a dirty word! You just need to learn how to play good politics and keep out bad politics. By the same logic, power by itself does not necessarily corrupt though absolute power may corrupt absolutely. In other words, this course is about how to conquer the world, or at least survive the corporate jungle, without losing your soul. Even if you don’t want to play politics, good or bad, you need the skills from this course to ensure that you don’t become a victim of politics. By the end of this course you will (1) be able to have not only a conceptual understanding of what power is within an organizational context but a practical grasp of what the actual sources of power are; and (2) will have gained substantial insight into how best to harness your political skills for effective management of your career path.

Patterns of Entrepreneurship
MGMT-UB.0085 
Prof. Ashish Bhatia, JK Suh
Prerequisites: MGMT-UB.0001 and sophomore standing.
This course offers a framework for understanding the entrepreneurial process and exposes students to challenges, problems, and issues faced by entrepreneurs who start new businesses. Case studies are the principal teaching method, supplemented by lectures, business cases, and guest speakers. Students learn to identify and evaluate business opportunities, develop a business concept and assess and obtain the required resources, and manage the growth of new ventures.

Managerial Skills
MGMT-UB.0021 
Prof. Valerie Belanger
Prerequisite: MGMT-UB.0001
Increasing self-awareness and openness to feedback are important first steps in leading today’s business for tomorrow’s results. Many companies bestow a management title on key talent and expect appropriate behavior to follow, but that is not the most effective way to develop future business leaders. In this course you will focus primarily on the practical aspects of managing. While based on solid research, the course stresses a hands-on approach to improving students’ management skills. Each session focuses on developing (1) personal skills: self-awareness, managing stress, solving problems, and creativity; (2) interpersonal skills: coaching, counseling, supportive communication, gaining power and influence, motivating self and others, and managing conflict; and (3) group skills: empowering, delegating, and building effective teams.

Digital Innovation & Crowdsourcing 
INFO-UG.0070 
Prof. Natalia Levina 
Prerequisites: None, but M&O is highly recommended.
This course explores new ways in which traditional firms as well as start-ups can become more innovative in today’s global digital economy by tapping into digital platforms for information, ideas, expertise, and skills. We will discuss new practices of digital innovation and crowdsourcing and evaluate risks and benefits of such practices. The course focuses on qualitative analysis of cases, application of strategic theories, hands-on exercises, and meeting of industry leaders. Students will engage in real-time crowdsourcing projects ranging from outsourcing their homework online to designing a social innovation challenge. 

Independent Study in Management and Organizations
MGMT-UB.0094-0099
Prerequisite: MGMT-UB.0001 and permission of the undergraduate faculty adviser.
Independent study provides students of academic quality an opportunity to engage in intensive independent study of management issues or pursue a career-related subject area of managerial significance. It requires completion of an individual report based on the student’s investigation, research, and critical analysis, and must be supervised by regular, full-time faculty and approved by the management department’s undergraduate faculty adviser.

Additional Courses that can be taken as Advanced Management Electives:

Competitive Analysis
ECON-UB 15 - 3 units.
Prof. Gregory Kubitz, Yossi Spiegel, Pricila Maziero, Simon Bowmaker
Prerequisites: ECON-UB 1 (or ECON-UA 2) and sophomore standing
This course offers an economics approach to analyzing the way firms make marketing decisions and interact strategically with each other in the marketplace. The main goal of the course is to develop the basic intuition for pricing and other forms of strategic behavior on the part of firms.

Decision Models and Analytics
MULT-UB 7 - 3 units.
Professors: Ilan Lobel, Lucius Riccio, Jiawei Zhang
No prerequisites
An introduction to basic principles and techniques of applied mathematical modeling for managerial decision making (models used in fields such as finance, operations, and marketing). Students learn the use of important analytical methods (e.g., spreadsheet modeling, Monte-Carlo simulation) to recognize their assumptions and limitations and to employ them in decision making. Emphasis is placed on model formulation and interpretation of results, not mathematical theory. Aimed at undergraduates with little prior exposure to modeling and quantitative analysis, but appropriate for all students who wish to strengthen their quantitative skills. 

Decision Making Under Uncertainty
MULT-UB 16 - 3 units.
Prof. David Juran
This course introduces the basic concepts, principles, and techniques of decision making under uncertainty. You will learn how to model complex business problems that involve risk and uncertainty with the help of spreadsheet models. The course covers analytical models such as Decision Tree, Stochastic Optimization, Simulation & Optimization, and Dynamic Optimization. The course is hands-on. The emphasis will be on model formulation and interpretation of results, not on mathematical theory.

Game Theory
MULT-UB 20 - 3 units.
Prof. Rob Seamans
Prerequisites: Sophomore standing
This course introduces the basics of game theory. It focuses on fundamentals of game theory, covering basic concepts and techniques through a mix of lectures, exercises, and case discussions. Students also think about how the lessons learned may apply to other contexts, such as politics. The course equips students with game theory techniques for making good business decisions by learning how to recognize and model strategic situations and to predict when and how actions will influence the decisions of others.

Case Analysis 
MULT-UB 5 2 units 
Prof. Chris Mazzei 
Case methodology is a critical tool for analysts, managers, and entrepreneurs. This course explores how strategic frameworks are applied to high level business problems. Case interviews and case competitions are used as models for learning. Students study the principles behind creating and delivering effective visual slide-based presentations via mock deliveries. Class time focuses on concept lectures and skill-building through individual and group exercises with self-critique. Assignments focus on creating and editing data-based presentations. This course is highly recommended for students who wish to participate in case competitions.

Entrepreneurship for the New Economy
MULT-UB 40 - 3 units.