Course Descriptions
TERM I
Adult Development - Overview of adulthood in context of life span, including biological change, cognitive characteristics, personality, and moral reasoning. Also addresses issues of gender, interpersonal relations, ethnicity, aging, and impact of theory on organizational development.
Discovery and Practice of Academic Learning - This mandatory workshop will inform and prepare students to maintain their course of study while teaching them how to become successful adult learners. Key factors include the importance of critical thinking and insight into adult learning theories. Emphasis will be placed on self-directed learning as it relates to the program and beyond.
Business Writing - Emphasis on improving ability to communicate effectively through writing, identification of audience and purpose, clear reasoning and rational organization, suitable wording, and effective rewriting.
Work-team Dynamics - Focus on dynamic processes affecting task-oriented work groups, including their formation, development, maturity, and effectiveness. Addresses goals, interactions, problem recognition, interventions and team meetings.
Presentational Speaking - Performance course involving the preparation, delivery, and evaluation of presentations commonly required in an organizational setting, including both informative and persuasive presentations. Emphasis on the process of communication, audience analysis, message content and structure, and extemporaneous delivery. The goal is developing students' confidence and competence as a public speaker.
TERM II
Fundamentals of Management - Effective reasoning and decision making for organizational managers. Assessment and development of individual managerial competencies, involving leadership styles, ethical perspectives, problem solving, stating goals and objectives, strategic and tactical planning.
Worldviews at Work - Provides managers and other workers with an enhanced understanding of the way in which worldviews, in particular a person's basic faith commitments, impact the workplace, and vice versa. It is an introduction to the relationship between religion and the culture of organizations, and as such is designed to help one identify and begin to reflect (or extend reflections) on the relevant issues.
Human Resources Management - Perspectives on traditional, current, and emerging practices in human resources management, including matters related to the study of economics, law, psychology, sociology, and programs and policies used in employee management.
Quantitative Decision-Making - Statistics as a tool in solving real-world problems, including organizing data, using models for predictions, constructing simple graphics, use of logic and reasoning in drawing conclusions and making recommendations. Emphasis on process improvement and decision making.
TERM III
Personal and Professional Ethics - Focuses on ethical theories and specific moral issues in the workplace, and includes small group analyses of selected cases and applicable principles.
Accounting and Finance for Non-financial Managers - Introduction to accounting and finance concepts, including cost control, understanding and analysis of financial statements, budgeting, working capital management, and financing alternatives.
Diversity in the Workplace - Sociological approach to examining workplace diversity, stratification, stereotyping, and misunderstandings, including matters related to culture, gender, ethnicity, and race. Emphasis on contemporary issues and problem solving.
Organizational Development - Development of theory and innovative practice relevant to leadership and organizational change. Major topics include change processes within organizations, intervention strategies in organizations to improve their effectiveness, studies of such interventions, the roles of change agents, and problems of self-awareness, responsibility, and the political consequences of organizational development theory and practice.
