Required Courses

GSM 403 Foundations of Business

Foundations of Business introduces new MBA students to the concepts and principles that serve as the foundations to the many disciplines that they will study. Scheduled during the first week of the Fall or Spring term, Foundations of Business establishes the demands and performance expectations of the MBA program. Throughout the week, students learn important mechanics and, through the use of case studies, learn how to integrate cross-disciplinary concepts. Foundations of Business is also intended to encourage an appreciation of each other as co-members of a challenging and invigorating program. The course is team taught. 0 credit

GSM 411 Economic Analysis for Managers

Economic Analysis for Managers examines the applications of macro- and micro-economic principles to managerial decisions concerning production, finance, market performance, growth, and organizational efficiency. Students learn to analyze production and consumption alternatives using the quantitative techniques of demand forecasting, price determination, market-share strategies, cost accounting, and resource planning. 2 credits

GSM 412 Business, Government, and the Global Economy

Business, Government, and the Global Economy focuses on the strategic challenges that all companies confront when they engage in international trade or face competition from foreign concerns. Students examine the key role played by governments in shaping a domestic business environment for good and for ill. This course covers both the theoretical foundations of international political economy as well as the managerial skills necessary to apply that knowledge in a practical fashion. Students are encouraged to study regions of particular interest to them. Prerequisite: GSM 411. 3 credits

GSM 415 Quantitative Analysis

Quantitative Analysis provides an introduction to statistics, and covers how to manage data, obtain descriptive statistics, and conduct a variety of statistical tests including chi-square, correlation, t-test, analysis of variance, and regression. Students also learn how to interpret and report results. The course is taught from an applied perspective using examples from industry whenever possible. A computer lab component to the course enables students to gain hands-on experience with statistical software. 3 credits

GSM 420 Financial Reporting and Analysis

Financial Reporting and Analysis gives the student a clear understanding of how accounting data is used to communicate financial information to those outside an organization. The student learns to evaluate accounting issues and becomes thoroughly familiar with the concepts and mechanics of the balance sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flows. Course emphasis is on using accounting data as an effective tool for decision making. 3 credits

GSM 421 Managerial Accounting

Managerial Accounting is concerned with management control systems and the information they generate, as well as their role in management analysis and decision making. The course introduces costing techniques, responsibility accounting, the budget process, and information analysis. Attention is given to the interrelationship between internal measurement systems and overall management planning, decision making, and control. Prerequisite: GSM 420. 3 credits

GSM 425 Marketing Management

Marketing Management focuses on the analysis of marketing opportunities and problems in both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, and on the strategic and tactical decisions faced by the marketing manager. The course has three main components: (1) how environmental forces can influence the success or failure of a marketing plan and how to use market research to understand these environmental forces, (2) how marketing strategies are employed by a variety of organizations, and (3) how to successfully implement marketing strategies through product planning, pricing, promotion, and distribution decisions. Prerequisite or co-requisite: GSM 415. 3 credits

GSM 426 Strategic Decision Making

Strategic Decision Making relies on a computer-based marketing strategy simulation, MARKSTRAT3, as the primary pedagogical tool. In the simulation, students are assigned to "managerial teams" who are fully responsible for the strategic and product marketing-related decisions of a company within an assigned industry. As a member of the management team, students are responsible for developing, producing, and marketing a line of consumer products that compete against other brands within the same industry.

This course is designed to integrate key learning from a variety of courses in the MBA program and to enhance student's abilities to use data effectively, to work successfully in management teams, and to formulate both strategic objectives and appropriate supporting tactics to realize these objectives. Prerequisites: GSM 415, GSM 420, GSM 421, GSM 425, GSM 430, GSM 455. 1 credits

GSM 430 Technology and Operations Management

Technology and Operations Management provides a foundation for understanding the role of production and delivery capabilities in creating business value. While the disciplines of strategy and marketing deal with choosing the best approaches to the right markets (the –what"), operations focuses on developing and managing processes for serving those markets (the –how"). This course provides an in-depth introduction to the fundamentals of transforming inputs into outputs and explores the interdependence of strategies, processes, technologies, and people. 3 credits

GSM 435 Finance

Finance provides students with a set of analytical tools to use in financial decision making, and for a better understanding of an organization's interaction with the financial markets. Topics include: return and risk relationships in the capital markets, time value of money and capital budgeting techniques, capital structure and cost of capital, leasing, mergers and acquisitions, duration, asset allocation, and options and futures pricing. This course provides a rigorous treatment of key financial concepts and analytical approaches, and thus builds the student's appreciation of the role of financial theory and models in business. Prerequisites: GSM 411, GSM 415, and GSM 420. 3 credits

GSM 440 Strategy and Leadership

Strategy and Leadership, the capstone course of the MBA program, explores the role of strategy, decision making, and implementation at all levels in the organization. Drawing on previous course work, students develop an integrated view of the organization and its industrial and social/political environment. They progress from examination of single-business firms to consideration of larger, diversified global corporations, and from strategic positioning to administration of strategic change in complex organizations. The role of the leader is critical to effective strategic management, therefore, leadership is discussed in the context of strategy development and implementation. Prerequisites: GSM 411, GSM 412, GSM 415, GSM 420, GSM 421, GSM 425, GSM 426, GSM 430, GSM 441 (co-requisite is ok), GSM 435, GSM 455, GSM 460, GSM 465, and GSM 470. 3 credits

GSM 441 Leadership, Governance, and Accountability

This course examines the essential concepts of and current challenges in organizational governance as well as the legal and ethical responsibilities of both managers and directors. Using the case format, the course employs concepts and techniques from the core MBA curriculum to analyze business and stakeholder issues and recommend action steps. Prerequisites: GSM 411, GSM 412, GSM 415, GSM 420, GSM 421, GSM 425, GSM 426, GSM 430, GSM 435, GSM 455, GSM 460, GSM 465 & pre or co-requisites GSM 450 and GSM 470. 2 credits

GSM 450 Career Strategies

Career Strategies presents a systematic approach to career exploration useful to students at every stage of their career growth, whether they are ready to change careers, move up to the next step in their current organization, or find a new job. Students start with a rigorous exploration of their skills, interests, and values through a series of diagnostics to clarify their career goals. Subsequently, skills in all facets of job hunting or positioning for promotion are covered, including resume and cover letter writing, industry research, networking, increasing one's visibility, interviewing, and salary negotiation. 1 credit

GSM 455 Leading Individuals and Groups

Leading Individuals and Groups focuses on the function, role, and responsibility of the manager in an organizational context. Emphasis is placed on understanding the organizational culture and on developing skills needed for the manager in middle- and senior-level management positions; the transition that must be taken into account in moving from supervisory positions to middle management and from middle management to senior management; the management of relationships with subordinates, peers, and supervisors; managing change and conflict; leading a group; and valuing and managing a diverse workforce. The course also explores the more intangible management issues that may confront women in higher level management positions and examines the increasingly strategic need to identify and negotiate both formal and informal sources of support for implementing decisions within the organization. 3 credits

GSM 460 Communication Strategies

Communication Strategies focuses on using oral and written communication skills to advance ideas, agendas, and careers in an organization. Students learn how to "read" their audiences and shape their message accordingly. Through case analysis, written assignments, and personal inventories, they learn to identify and adapt to an organization's overt and covert communication protocol, and to observe the "hidden dimensions" of communicating with a culturally and gender diverse workforce. Videotaped presentations help students hone their public speaking skills. 1 credit

GSM 465 Organizations and their Environment

Leaders design their organizations to meet the competitive challenges they face in their local and global environments. This course explores the major elements of organizational dynamics from multiple perspectives, including formal structural arrangements, work practices and cultural norms, and relations of power and influence. The focus is on how existing organizational designs and cultures serve strategic ends and what possibilities exist to add value to the organization by changing these arrangements. During the course, students continually evaluate different approaches to conceptualizing and implementing organizational change. Prerequisite: GSM 455. 2 credits

GSM 470 Negotiation and Conflict Management

While negotiation has traditionally been associated with dealings over resources, it is now clear that the skills are more broadly applicable to getting work done in teams, in complex organizations, and in partnerships and alliances. Like more traditional negotiation courses, this gives students the theory, analytic tools, and specific skills that enable them to deal with conflict issues in both win/lose and mutual gain situations. What distinguishes this course is its focus on gender and how it comes into play in negotiations. To effectively negotiate, women need to master the dual skills of empowering themselves, psychologically and organizationally, to advocate for their interests and needs--and connecting, working to foster collaborative problem solving. Prerequisites: GSM 455, GSM 465. 2 credits