Management Course Descriptions

MGT 230: Principles of Management, 4 credits

This course focuses on management in action and strives to develop in-depth knowledge of managerial theory, concepts, terminology, technique, and methods, including motivation and authority. Emphasis is on the function of the manager and leader to plan, organize staff, direct, and control the organization or enterprise.

Goals and Objectives
By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

1. Be able to define such major management functions as planning, organizing, directing, and controlling, and specify their significant contributions to business organizations.
2. Be able to identify and discuss key aspects of the general management in shaping the internal environment and responding to the external environment.
3. Be able to define social responsibility and trace its historical development including the principles on which contemporary attitudes toward corporate and social responsibility are based.
4. Understand the concept of goals and understand how goals contribute to organizational efficiency and effectiveness.
5. Understand the steps of planning and the manager's role as a planner.
6. Be able to describe the nature of decision making and to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of group decision making.
7. Understand the concept of strategic management and its importance.
8. Understand the nature of leadership and leadership processes.
9. Be able to explain the evolution of management thought, established theories, and analytical models of motivation, group dynamics, and leadership.
10. Be able to identify special problems and current issues associated with global and entrepreneurial ventures, and ethical and social responsibilities of business.

MGT 231: Credit Management, 4 credits

Discusses the principles, methods, and procedures of effective credit management. Emphasis is on the functions of credit, credit investigation, and analysis. As a requirement of the course, students write short reports in the different fields of credit to learn how it is practiced and how to analyze credit bureau reports, Dun & Bradstreet reports, and financial statements of various companies.
Prerequisites: MGT 230

Goals and Objectives
By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

1. Know the role credit plays in our personal lives, business, and the entire economy.
2. Understand federal and state regulations affecting credit.
3. Understand the calculation of interest rates of the different types of retail credits.
4. Be aware of the different types and sources of cash loans.
5. Understand the management of retail credit, policy formulation, objectives, and functions of the retail credit manager.
6. Understand both the terms of sales in commercial credit and the factors involving commercial credit.
7. Understand the management of commercial credit information, and be able to analyze credit reports of specialized commercial agencies, e.g., Dun & Bradstreet, National Association of Credit Management, National Credit Information Service.
8. Understand the analysis and interpretation of financial statements (relevance of analysis, methods of analysis, limitations of analysis).
9. Understand the collection policies and practices of commercial credit.

MGT 233: Managerial Emotional Intelligence, 4 CREDIT HOURS

Course Description: This course addresses the various aspects of EQ or Emotional    Intelligence as applied to the business setting. Topics include Honesty, Feedback, Intuition, Authentic Presence, Trust, Resilience and Renewal, Unique Potential and Purpose, Commitment, Applied Integrity, and Opportunity Sensing. Methodology includes discussion of readings as well as experiential exercises.

Goals and Objectives
By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

1. Write a mission statement regarding one's life and values.
2. Explain one's personal strengths and weaknesses.
3. Distinguish between self reliance and externalizing responsibility.
4. List key managerial success factors and contrasting pitfalls.
5. Explain how "projection" can be a limiting defense mechanism.
6. Explain how leadership is affected by Emotional Intelligence.
7. Provide at three specific examples showing the connection between Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and Executive Intelligence (EI).
8. List five key ingredients leading to high levels of Emotional Intelligence.
9. Identify at least five famous figures, dead or alive who encompass the key ingredients listed in #8.
10. Compare and contrast Northwood's outcomes and ethics with emotional intelligence.

MGT 236: Principles of Insurance, 4 credits

Basic forms of insurance to aid the non-specialist and to serve as a basis for advanced work in the insurance field.
Prerequisites: MGT 230

MGT 237: Principles of Real Estate, 4 credits

History of uses of land and its development; descriptions of kinds of property; federal, state, and local laws and regulations.
Prerequisites: MGT 230

MGT 299: Internship, 1-5 credits

The internship (400 hours of paid employment) is designed to provide the student with supervised on-the-job training. A contract between the college, student, and employer provides the groundwork. Objectives, evaluations, written log, and a study of the organization are designed to provide a realistic learning experience.
Prerequisite: Faculty approval

Goals and Objectives
By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

1. Have obtained practical knowledge of a business operation obtained in the workplace.

MGT 300: Directed Study, 1-5 credits

Appropriate research of problems fitted to the need of the specific student as determined by his/her interests, aptitudes, and abilities.
Prerequisite: Faculty approval

Goals and Objectives
By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

1. Have had the opportunity to evaluate and assess career objectives the light of specific academic information.
2. Have had an opportunity to test ideas empirically and to determine an appropriate course of action.
3. Have been exposed to the need for career choices and to determine specific goals.
4. Have had an opportunity to establish professional contacts with the business community and to acquire firsthand knowledge business practices.
5. Have been given reinforcement to academic learning experiences.
6. Have had opportunities leading towards achievements which will directly enhance career objectives.
7. Have had gaps bridged that may exist between career objectives and classroom training.
8. Have been given assistance in evaluating the role of career choice in lifestyle and overall lifetime goals.

MGT 301: Directed Travel, 1 credit

A directed travel experience focusing on managerial techniques and processes of specific industries.

MGT 310: Human Resource Management, 4 credits

This course is a comprehensive view of personnel policy development. The human resource policies are discussed with interrelationships between management and the management functions of planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling. Explores the human resource functions of recruitment, development, compensation, integration, and maintenance of personnel.
Prerequisite: MGT 230

Goals and Objectives
By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

1. Understand the relationship of the employee to the organization.
2. Understand the framework of the regulatory issues with which human resource management must deal, including ADA, FEB, Family Leave, etc.
3. Be able to assess the effective leadership and motivational approaches in the organization.
4. Understand equal opportunity employment compliance and affirmative action.
5. Understand the methods of job analysis and job descriptions in the area of human resource management.
6. Understand the use of training and development programs and how they are applied.
7. Be able to develop incentive and merit pay programs.
8. Understand progressive discipline.
9. Be able to trace the evolution of labor unions and identify various stages of unionization.
10. Understand the legal and behavioral approaches to grievance procedures.

MGT 312: Applied Management, 4 credits

A course specifically designed for students to apply management principles and to identify important components related to issues such as leadership, emotional intelligence, diversity, organizational structure, human resource management, empowerment and participatory management, training and development, and organizational change.
Prerequisite: MGT 230

Goals and Objectives
By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

1. Understand the application of the functional areas of business to a company and how it is developed.
2. Be able to perform a sound analysis of written, simulated, and actual problems in business.
3. Demonstrate strategic planning and effective implementation of plans in management.
4. Be able to identify increases and awareness of their own behavior on others and how it affects performance.
5. Understand selected theories and models of management, motivation, creativity, group dynamics, and leadership.
6. Know how to build teamwork and to effectively utilize employees.
7. Be able to contribute meaningfully to team-building and maintenance of effective, productive relationships within a work group.
8. Be able to demonstrate sensitivity and effectiveness in diagnosing and dealing with resistance to change in a work group.

MGT 340: Employment Research and Planning, 1 credit

This course is designed to provide juniors with research skills and methodology to gain information and understanding about specific industries and enterprises in which the students are interested in seeking employment. The course equips students with a refined resume and strategies for successful placement.
Prerequisite: MGT 230

Goals and Objectives
By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

1. Be able to identify and outline career field/job target based upon education, experience, interests, skills, assets, and personal qualities.
2. Understand the importance of developing a personal job research support system through networking techniques.
3. Be able to identify, list, and use sources of job information to research prospective employers, job target, and career field.
4. Have developed a job search and career planning vocabulary.
5. Be able to uncover and tap career opportunities in the hidden job market.
6. Be able to formulate a resume and cover letter reflecting uniqueness.
7. Be familiar with library resources, such as SIC Index, Standard and Poor's, Dun and Bradstreet.

MIS 344  Production Management

Management supervision in production areas. Labor contract negotiations, arbitration, and labor law review for first line supervisors.
Prerequisite: MGT 230

MGT 350: Operations Management

MGT 350 is a business course that deals with the strategic/operational activities that relate to the creation of goods and services through the transformation of inputs to outputs.  As a result of this course, students will be able to formulate strategies that increase productivity and quality so as to maximize a firm’s profitability in a global marketplace and to benefit society.
Prerequisite: MGT 230

Goals and Objectives
By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

1. Define and apply the concepts of productivity (metrics) for both goods and services.
2. Assess operations strategies in a global environment.
3. Apply OM tools and strategies to product/service design and the product life cycle to improve the firm’s performance.
4. Use modeling tools to implement projects.
5. Measure and assess capacity for goods and services, and enhance operating leverage via break-even analysis.
6. Apply fundamental forecasting methods in an operations environment and relate this to the budgeting process.
7. Use techniques to manage quality in order to maximize customer satisfaction. Measure and improve using process control charts.
8. Employ various tools to design and measure a human resource strategy.
9. Evaluate supply chain strategies and their use in minimizing total cost of ownership.
10. Use fundamental inventory techniques to maximize service levels while minimizing investment.
11. Learn the fundamentals of aggregate planning for both goods and services.

MGT 351: Management Systems, 4 credits

Modern systems theory as applied to management and its problems. Applications of integrated computer software are evaluated for their potential in systematic approaches to problem solving, decision making, planning, and controlling.
Prerequisites: MGT 230 and MIS 105

Goals and Objectives
By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

1. Be able to identify and summarize generally accepted principles of systems theory.
2. Understand how systems analysis techniques apply to business organizations, particularly, in the design and improvement of work processes, management and business functions, problem solving, and decision making.
3. Be able to explain the major phases in the life cycle of an information system, and sound approaches to managing it through those phases.
4. Be able to demonstrate systems analysis skills, by applying them in the analysis of written cases and an actual local business organization.
5. Be able to identify, and describe distinctive characteristics of, basic types of production and service processes.
6. Perform sound and reasonably complete benefit-cost analyses of proposed changes in business and management systems.
7. Be able to explain recent developments in computer hardware and integrated computer software, and will have gained higher-end skills in applications of such technology to selected technical, management and business functions.
8. Be able to explain the nature of and relationships among management information systems, decision support systems, data processing systems, office automation, artificial intelligence, expert systems, information resource management, and other elements of computer-based and computer-related systems.
9. Be able to explain security measures applicable to computer-based information systems.

MGT 397: Practicum I, 1 credit

A period of observation and/or job shadowing in a work environment, typically unpaid, and requiring a written report for the responsible Professor.

MGT 398: Practicum II, 1 credit

A period of observation and/or job shadowing in a work environment, typically unpaid, and requiring a written report for the responsible Professor.

MGT 399: Residency in Work and Study, 1-5 credits

A full-time job or project involving job descriptions, training plan, evaluations, reading, and reports by student and by employer or project director. Limited to junior students, with faculty and employer or project director approval.

Goals and Objectives
By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

1. Have obtained practical knowledge of a business operation obtained in the workplace.

MGT 403: International Management, 4 credits

This course applies the concepts and principles learned in MGT 230 (Principles of Management) to the context of the global business environment and to multi-national corporations.  It provides an overview of the evolution of multi-national corporations and global corporate strategy over the last century.  It discusses the differences in organizational structures and management styles in different regions of the world.  The learning in the course is accomplished through a combination of lectures, case discussions, and presentations.  Students are required to analyze and make detailed presentations of cases.  External sources of information such the Wall Street Journal are used to acquaint students with the most recent developments in global business and related areas. 
Prerequisites: MGT 230, MKT 208

Goals and Objectives
By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

1. Acquire the basic skill sets needed to function effectively as a manager in a multi-national corporation, in his/ her chosen area of specialization.
2. Understand the complex environmental forces impacting multi-national corporations, and develop the knowledge, attitude, and confidence to successfully deal with these forces.

Mgt 425: Organizational Behavior and Leadership, 4 credits

Organizational Behavior is the study of how individuals relate in the workplace, and how group and organizational structures affect individual behavior. This course explores issues of coordination, control, leadership and influence, the difference between leadership and management, negotiating adjustments and compromises between divergent interests and players. In addition, the course will exam critical personal characteristics or organizational members, conflict, change, the importance of emotional intelligence and critical thinking skills, the role of teams, and personally adapting to various organizational settings. The key question: How do I work with people to make this organization successful?
Prerequisite: MGT 230 and SOC 250 or PSY 250

Goals and Objectives
By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

1. Provide the necessary tools and information for students to self evaluate emotional intelligence (EQ) and to continue to improve their EQ.
2. Review critical thinking skills in the organizational setting and provide students with the necessary tools to self evaluate their IQ skill and to continue to improve their analytic thinking skills.
3. Understand the difference between being an effective leader and manager. Understand how to self evaluate those dimensions.
4. Compare and contrast various organizational settings in terms of norms and culture.
5. Focus on the most effective methods for continuous organizational improvement and their members.
6. Identify processes and methods that can improve the behavior and attitudes of organizational members and their effectiveness.
7. Practice detecting and solving problems as related to organizational improvement.
8. Analyze the application of team efforts compared with unilateral decision making.
9. Be able to review and articulate values and establish a preliminary compromise negotiation plan and adaptation and/or refusal to conform to an organizational culture.
10. Understand how to review strengths and weaknesses of the performance appraisal process with special reference to Edward Deming's criticism and proposal for 360 evaluation.

MGT 430: Management of Information Technologies, 4 credits

The goal of this course is to help business students learn how to use and manage information technologies to revitalize business processes, improve business decision making, and gain a competitive advantage. A major emphasis is placed on the essential role of the Internet and networked technologies in order to create efficiencies that will help contribute to business success in the global economy.

Goals and Objectives
By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

1. Be able to improve management decisions with the aid of information technologies.
2. Be able to understand the role of essential information technologies in the productivity of a business or digital firm.
3. Be able to apply information technologies to enhance organizational performance and efficiency.
4. Be able to design and integrate the functional components of an enterprise system in order to add value to a business.
5. Be able to electronically integrate the processes of business partners into the daily operations of a business.
6. Be able to design an e-commerce application to help a business compete successfully in the marketplace.

MGT 436: Risk Management, 4 credits

In this course, students develop focus on financial, legal, safety, economic, and insurance risks related to how a business is organized, planned, directed, controlled, and staffed. Students learn to make risk management decisions utilizing the functional areas of management to accomplish the goals and the objectives of the firm.
Prerequisite: MGT 230

Goals and Objectives
By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

1. Understand various types of risk, including financial, legal, and economic.
2. Be familiar with insurance as a risk management tool.
3. Understand personal risk management.
4. Understand business risk management exposures and treatment.
5. Understand institutional aspects of the insurance industry.
6. Understand the growing importance of international business and world commerce.
7. Understand the fundamental unifying elements of risk and insurance.
8. Understand the concept of rate making.
9. Understand types of policies.
10. Understand the nature of risk and the risk management process.

MGT 479: Current Topics in Management, 4 credits

The analysis, discussion, and reporting from current literature of significant trends, controversial issues, and advanced techniques in business decision making, with special emphasis on academic studies relevant to present business.
Prerequisite: MGT 230 and MKT 208 

Goals and Objectives
By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

1. Be able to discern current and impending economic, political, legal, technological, and social trends which have special significance for specified industries.
2. Be able to analyze current literature and summarize important concepts.
3. Understand current significant business trends and the factors shaping them.
4. Have developed an appreciation of sources of practical business information, including periodicals, databases, books.
5. Be able to demonstrate written and oral reporting, critical analysis, and discussion skills, in presenting and defending the methods used and findings reached.

MGT 480: Strategic Planning, 4 credits

Explores a broad range of managerial decisions and actions that bear directly on the total business enterprise. The center of attention is the organization as a whole — the environment in which it operates, the direction in which it is headed, how it plans to get there, and the whole scope of its internal activities.
Prerequisites: FIN 301 or FIN 321

Goals and Objectives
By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

1. Be able to integrate various academic disciplines into the management decision-making process.
2. Be able to construct and use one or more models of strategic management.
3. Be able to discuss the environment considerations (at the macro, industry, and firm levels) in strategy formulation.
4. Be able to analyze appropriate corporate and/or business strategy alternatives.
5. Understand the value of and the role of entrepreneurs in a dynamic economy.
6. Understand the realistic market value of a firm.
7. Be able to identify good new business opportunities.
8. Be able to analyze businesses and pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses, their threats and their opportunities.

MGT 481: Seminar III, 1-5 credits

Special topics in business.

Goals and Objectives
By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

1. Be able to apply management skills learned in prior courses to practical situations.
2. Be able to identify business problems, collect the required data for the solution to those problems and recommend a solution.
3. Be able to discuss and put into practical use a formalized problem solving process.
4. Be able to communicate their findings in both written and oral presentations.

MGT 490: Oral/Written Comprehensive Examination - University College, 4 credits

This two-hour comprehensive examination with three faculty members is based on questions sent to the student in advance. The exam begins with one-half hour of written response to one question.

Goals and Objectives
By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

1. Be able to integrate their acquired academic knowledge with their present work.
2. Be able to discuss and review their learning of various subjects.
3. Be able to express in written form their thoughts and understanding of a topic that they have covered during their program.
4. Be able to orally present their academic knowledge to a professional group.
5. Be able to assess the present role of government in the American business community.
6. Understand the relationship between business and the arts.
7. Understand the value of a free market economy.
8. Understand how their degree has helped them grow, and what areas of future growth they will undertake.