Business Administration (MBA)

This course will introduce students to the fundamentals of business.  Students will cover all the areas addressed in the Trevecca MBA program including: leadership, organizational behavior, statistics, economics, ethics, organizational culture, IT management, accounting, finance, and marketing. Additionally, this course will cover topics needed for success in a graduate business program including critical thinking, oral and written communication, research, and analysis skills. This course is 6 weeks in duration because of it includes a blend of both undergraduate and graduate level work including content often required in graduate business prerequisite courses.

Course Hours: 3

Serves as the foundation for the program by providing a survey of key management theories and terminology. Both classical approaches and contemporary conceptualizations of management are studied. Special emphasis is placed on leadership, motivation, culture, team building, and organizational communication.

Course Hours: 3

Familiarizes students with the economic forces, institutions, and policies that govern the environment in which business operates. Changes in both the national and global economy are explored from managerial, market and financial perspectives. Topics include opportunity cost, demand and supply, industrial organization, antitrust, deregulation, fiscal and monetary policies, trade policies, and exchange rates.

Course Hours: 3

Provides participants with tools and techniques to perform data analysis and hypothesis testing in order to make data-based management decisions. Data collected from students' organizations is used throughout this course to answer practical, "real-world" research questions. Topics include basic statistics, control charts, one-sided mean tests, two-sided mean tests, variance comparison, correlation analysis, and introduction to experimental design.

Course Hours: 3

Emphasizes computer systems technology and is designed to enable the learner to understand the field from a managerial perspective. Existing and emerging technologies will be reviewed to provide an awareness of technology capabilities from the managerial perspective. Topics to be covered include information systems planning, systems management, the systems development life cycle (SDLC), project management (P.M.), change management, networking and telecommunication concepts. Other topics to be discussed are transaction processing systems (TPS), decision support systems (DSS), executive information systems (EIS), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and artificial intelligence/expert systems AI/ES. Cases will be used to supplement the learning experience and to apply course principles and concepts. Project management and systems analysis methods will be thoroughly explored and applied in a learner-selected project where the learner carries out the project planning and implementation strategies/techniques to see the project to fruition.

Course Hours: 3

Focuses on the importance of modern organizations being market driven and globally competitive. It examines the role of the marketing function and fundamentals, such as market segmentation, targeting, product life cycle, new product planning, distribution strategies, pricing, promotion, forecasting, market analysis, and competitor analysis. Students conduct marketing audits of actual organizations.

Course Hours: 3

Analyzes and develops models for business culture development. Key components of ethics, vision, mission, and institutionalization of culture are addressed from a Christian world view. The use of the case-study method where real-life business situations, organizations, and cultures are examined for their foundation, and decision-making basis will play an important role. A key goal is to improve student's clarity and consistency in judging organizational models and developing plans for institutionalization of organizational ethical and cultural change.

Course Hours: 3

A review of managerial accounting concepts and techniques used by managers in planning, performance evaluation, and decision-making. Topics include, but are not limited to, the following: classification of costs, determining costs of products, the study of cost behavior and its application in making business decisions, introduction to capital budgeting, operating budgets, standard costing, and the use of management accounting in evaluating business performance.

Course Hours: 3

Integrates many of the financial concepts that managers need to understand. These concepts include capital budgeting, break-even analysis, working capital management, financial instrument valuation, cost of capital, and the risk and return trade-off. Emphasis will be on the application of concepts and techniques in the analysis of cases.

Course Hours: 3

Serves as the foundation for the program by providing a survey of key management theories and terminology. Both classical approaches and contemporary conceptualizations of management are studied. Special emphasis is placed on leadership, motivation, culture, team building, and organizational communication.

Course Hours: 3

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Explores the many legal, ethical and regulatory issues that come with using information technology. Key topics will include technology licensing and contracts, privacy, piracy, security, confidentiality, intellectual property rights, and internet regulation.

Explores the discipline related to IT architecture and its basis. The key components of IT architecture are examined and considered in light of the organization needs and processes, which include application, security, data, and technology architectures.

Examines the key components of IT projects and it introduces the student to a variety of project planning, management, and financial control techniques that can be applied in an IT project context. Within this context students will explore the management of scope, time, cost and quality. The unique issues related to IT project management will also be discussed.

The delivery of healthcare has been influenced by the legal issues surrounding the delivery, security, and research associated with the patient / provider relationship. The legal influences on the corporate healthcare environment will be presented. Discussions of the influences on the delivery process and policy will be reviewed, including, but not limited to, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX).

Outcome based healthcare delivery and case management have been topics of discussion for some time, and the influence on delivery and reimbursement will continue to impact the healthcare environment. Topics include the quality of care and the influencers, such as staff shortages, educational shortcomings and technology velocity, and their influence on healthcare delivery. Patient safety and patient satisfaction will be presented through current data on the topic and the results of quality initiatives such as the Healthcare-focused Baldrige award and audit process. The influences of the organizational efficiencies on healthcare delivery and the opposing healthcare delivery process on organizational efficiencies will be reviewed and discussed.

The delivery of healthcare in the U.S. has been influenced and changed significantly through the legislative process at the federal, state and local levels. The strategic planning of healthcare delivery has been significantly altered by these changes. This course will present and discuss the strategies available to address the changing landscape of healthcare delivery through the use and study of healthcare issues and how they will influence the future of healthcare delivery. Case studies will be a major portion of this course to determine how others have approached the policies in the past and how they have been impacted by the choices made.

Development of project scope, work breakdown structures, project planning and project budgets will be discussed and presented. Project Management tools and techniques will also be introduced to support the project development process. The Project Manager must maintain a knowledge of the current systems and solutions available to ensure successful project/product delivery. In addition to the waterfall techniques, the tools and processes that support Agile, Lean and Six Sigma will be reviewed and presented. Detailed discussions regarding the benefits and limitations of each technique and the supporting tools will be of value to the participant when presented with making choices regarding the selection, development and delivery of projects.

The development of the sequencing and timing of project components and the risks associated at every point within the project must be understood and addressed. Recognition of the risk and the influence of the costs associated with risk, the scope challenges presented by the risk, and the schedule complexity that adds to and is influenced by risk must be understood by the successful Project Manager. Quantitative and qualitative techniques for risk management are components of Project Management, but the ability to recognize the threat is perhaps more critical. Threats can take the form of human, operational, procedural and technical threats or they may be political in nature. In any case, addressing threats and risks associated with these threats must be a tool in the Project Management arsenal.

Many Project Managers are confused or sidetracked by the legalities of the cost management issues when utilizing contract or outsourced providers for portions of project delivery. The procurement process is often subjugated to the purchasing group(s) within the organization. The responsibility for the project cannot, however, be transferred to others. Therefore, the process must be understood and managed by the successful Project Manager. Most projects have some contract and procurement component that will influence the overall success of the project. With competitive bidding, technology advancements, and federal and state legal issues that influence the process of procurement, it is important that the Project Manager be aware of and knowledgeable in this aspect of the project process.

Provides fundamental knowledge of legal concepts and principles important to business decision-making. Topics include the legal system, torts and product liability, contracts, agency, forms of business organization, employment law, and government regulation.

Analyzes the strategic role of the human resource function in relation to the company's overall objectives. The focus is how the company builds and maintains a work environment conducive to business performance excellence while enabling employees to develop and utilize their full potential. Key topics include employment law, the labor market, human resource planning and costing, HRIS, workforce diversity and EEOC, union/management and compensation systems, health/safety/security, employee rights and discipline, training and development.

Surveys models and best practices for organizational strategic planning, including leaders' roles in the planning process and in implementing the plan at various operational levels. Various methods for analyzing and solving problems, as well as decision-making strategies, are examined for utilization as change in organizations' operations becomes necessary. Using the servant-leadership model, learners will discern how to serve others while staying focused on achieving results in line with the organization's values and integrity.

This course analyzes the strategic role of the human resource management function.  The following topics will be examined: the environment of HR, job analysis, HR planning, labor relations, and health and safety considerations.

This course analyzes the steps necessary for recruiting and selecting the employees needed to effectively execute an organization’s strategy.  Topics related to successful performance appraisal, training, and development are also explored.

 This course examines theoretical and practical issues of compensation and benefits including legally mandated benefits (social security, worker compensation, unemployment, health insurance, family and medical leave, etc.) as well as voluntary programs (retirement, disability, life insurance, time off, etc.).