MBA
500 Economic Analysis
This
course surveys micro- and macroeconomic principles, with an emphasis
on strategic applications. Microeconomic topics covered include:
demand and supply, elasticities, firm cost structure, market structure,
and pricing. Macroeconomic topics covered include national income
accounting, national income, employment, and price level determination,
money supply determination, and fiscal and monetary policy. Three
credit hours.
MBA
501 Accounting Analysis
An introduction to the principles of accounting
with emphasis on preparation and analysis of the four general
purpose financial statements, the accounting cycle, and the types
of business entities. Issues covered include cash, receivables,
inventory, long-term assets, liabilities, stocks, and bonds. Three
credit hours.
MBA
502 Mathematics for Managers
This course surveys elementary algebra and calculus,
emphasizing practical applications in management and economics.
Topics covered include: systems of linear equations, matrices,
linear programming, techniques of differentiation and integration,
nonlinear optimization and applications. Three credit
hours.
MBA
503 Business Statistics
This course provides the basis for building decision
models reflecting strategic business decision making. Various
statistical methods will be analyzed that are crucial to various
areas of business behavior. These include: data summarization,
probability theory, statistical decision analysis, sampling and
hypotheses testing, and simple linear regression. Three
credit hours.
MBA
504 E-Skills for Management
This course surveys the computer skills required
to prosper in today's networked organizations. By designing and
running a computer-based communications center, students will
gain more control over strategically relevant software tools.
They will demonstrate their competencies during oral presentations.
Three credit hours.
MBA
600 Multimedia Applications in Business
This course presents principles of multimedia
to the business professional. Several major categories that will
be discussed include: the use of video and animation in design,
preparation of graphic files, and imaginative use of clip art
materials. As part of this course, students will create a multimedia
presentation using audio, video, still images, graphics, and text.
The majority of class time will be spent in the lab familiarizing
oneself with the various software applications available to create
multimedia presentations. Three credit hours.
Prerequisite: basic understanding of the Macintosh
Operating System.
MBA
601 Strategic Human Resource Management
The way we manage the people in our organizations
needs to be aligned with our business strategies. The means for
this alignment is human resource strategy--a directional plan
for managing human resources that addresses important people-related
business issues. The purpose of this course is to examine how
managers may implement more effectively the people-intensive strategies
that are rapidly becoming a primary source of competitive advantage.
Only by addressing human resource issues in the context of overall
strategic management will managers and human resource staffs together
achieve the results needed to sustain and develop a business.
Three credit hours.
MBA
602 Organizational Behavior and Development
The objective of this course is to provide a broad
survey of the field of organizational behavior on three distinct
levels of analysis--individuals, groups, and organizations. Specific
topics to be examined from these three perspectives include but
are not limited to: motivation, job design, leadership, diversity,
organizational design, communication, decision-making, conflict
management, power, innovation and the work environment. Special
attention will be given to the most common organizational development
methods used in solving managerial and organizational problems.
The course examines such intervention strategies as team building,
team skills training, survey-feedback, sensitivity training, behavior
modification, job enrichment, and management by objectives. Three
credit hours.
MBA
603 Managerial Accounting
This course is an in-depth study of cost behavior
and its implications on cost-volume-profit analysis and variance
analysis. Current topics in product costing are reviewed including
process costing, job order costing, activity based management
and just-in-time inventory. Operational decision making, pricing
decisions, strategic planning and strategic cost analysis are
examined. Three credit hours. Prerequisite:
MBA 501.
MBA
604 Marketing Through New Media
This course looks at the graphical user interfaces
of multimedia presentations and the effectiveness within the business
marketplace. Various authoring software packages will be analyzed
for their effective use of QuickTime movies, animation, graphics,
and still images. Interactive design elements will be a main focus.
For example, the layout, choice of interface design elements (e.g.,
buttons, menus, popups, sliders, etc.), use of color, choice of
background textures, and typography, within the multimedia presentation
will all be studied. Discussions of the copyright laws that are
in effect and not yet in effect regarding fair use and distribution
will be debated. Throughout the course an emphasis will be planned
on any new media tools to serve businesses. Three credit
hours. Prerequisite: MBA
600.
MBA
605 Financial Management
This course develops the theoretical and practical
uses of financial management principles, including the concepts
of risk, return, and value. Areas of concentration include working
capital management, capital budgeting, the cost of capital, and
capital structure. Three credit hours.
Prerequisites: MBA 500, 501,
502, 503,
and 504.
MBA
610 Labor and Employment Law
This course provides a comprehensive approach
to labor and employment law, legislative foundations of labor
laws, and the legal processes and institutions that add to their
effectiveness. The course will address a variety of topics including
the National Labor Relations Act, contract negotiations, strikes,
unfair labor practices, federal and state employment law, and
equal employment opportunity legislation. A wide range of contemporary
issues will also be addressed, including contractual interpretation,
discipline and discharge matters, and conduct off the job. Current
industrial relations policies and practices are highlighted with
case problems and leading court decisions that offer additional
insights into employee-management relations. Three
credit hours.
MBA
611 Strategic Planning and Staffing
This course deals with the processes, concepts
and techniques relevant to the manpower planning, recruitment,
and selection functions of personnel management. It is designed
to expose students, practitioners, and professionals to the entire
range of activities associated with staffing work organizations.
Specific attention will be given to major areas of interest in
personnel psychology, including job analysis and job evaluation,
personnel recruitment, screening, and selection, training and
development, and performance appraisal. The course is intended
to provide valuable insights to human resource professionals,
operating managers, students, and others seeking practical guidance
on staffing procedures, policies, techniques, and problems. Three
credit hours.
MBA
612 Compensation, Organizational Strategy, and Firm Performance
This course focuses on pertinent theoretical and
applied issues in compensation. Relevant topics include job analysis
and job evaluation, pricing and job structure, performance appraisal
systems, making wage decisions, compensation systems, performance
standards, incentive methods, salary administration, and analytical
and empirical evaluation of payment techniques and procedures.
The focus is multidisciplinary with economic, psychological, sociological,
and legal perspectives interjected where appropriate. Three
credit hours.
MBA
613 Strategic Training and Human Resource Development
Training and development is viewed by experts
in the field as a process that increases the capacity of the human
resource through development. As a consequence of this process,
value is added to individuals, teams, and the entire organization
as a human system. The purpose of this course is to equip students
with the skills necessary to assess individual and organizational
needs, to design training sessions, to utilize effective training
methods, to transfer learning to the work environment, and to
evaluate training.Three credit hours.
MBA
614 Theory and Practice of Negotiations
Negotiation and bargaining skills are essential
characteristics of effective management. Whether a manager has
formal responsibility for negotiating inter-firm agreements or
not, he or she must contend with fellow managers for a share of
organizational resources. In simply resolving disputes among subordinates,
a manager will regularly be involved in negotiations and bargaining.
While these negotiations may yield what appear to be satisfactory
outcomes, this course provides a substantive grounding in the
analytics of negotiations, which can ultimately improve the chances
that satisfactory agreement is achieved in the first place. Three
credit hours.
MBA
620 Economics of Strategy
This course applies economic reasoning to develop
a coherent analytical basis for the formulation and evaluation
of the external and internal strategies of the firm. The course
emphasizes practical managerial applications of topics from industrial
economics and strategy: economies of scale and scope, industry
analysis, market structure, commitment, dynamic competition, entry/exit,
and the economics of competitive advantage. Three credit
hours. Prerequisites: MBA
500, 501, 502,
503, and 504.
MBA
621 Operations Management
In this course, techniques of managerial decision
making are applied to problems in the management of production
and operations in both manufacturing and service organizations.
Quality management is emphasized throughout the course. The course
emphasis is on people operating in teams for improved delivery
of goods and services to customers. Topics covered include: quality
assurance and control, forecasting, aggregate planning, scheduling,
inventory planning and control, facility location, and process
and job design. Three credit hours. Prerequisites:
MBA 500, 501, 502,
and 503, and 504.
MBA
622 Multinational Business
This course is about how firms become and remain
international in scope. It deals with the experiences of firms
of all sizes, from many countries, as they come to grips with
an increasingly competitive global environment. It is about the
practice of management when a home market perspective is no longer
enough. Through carefully selected comprehensive case studies
and integrated text material, this course bridges both the internationalization
process and multinational management. Three credit
hours. Prerequisites: MBA
500, 501, 502,
and 503, and 504
MBA
623 Strategic Marketing
This course presents the importance of the marketing
function in the strategic management of the organization. Within
the framework of the marketing discipline, students will learn
how to ascertain customer needs and to strategically plan to fill
those needs while serving an increasingly diverse population.
Also considered in this course are issues such as environmentalism,
consumerism, consumer life style and government regulation. As
part of this course, students will identify actual consumer needs
and devise a comprehensive strategic marketing plan to fill them.
Three credit hours.
MBA
624 Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation
A text- and cases-based course on the strategic
management of change. Emphasis is on decision making as a learning
activity in a context of transformational uncertainty. Topics
include: the role of innovation in competitive advantage, designing
and implementing a technology strategy, forecasting the advent
of novel technologies, appropriating the benefits of new technologies
without undue risk exposure, and managerial styles and corporate
cultures that enhance technological leadership and innovation.
Three credit hours. Prerequisites:
MBA 500, 501, 502,
and 503.
MBA
630 Advanced Strategy
The first of a two course integrative capstone
experience, this course will teach managers to think and act strategically.
Emphasis will be placed on the creation of competitive advantage
within a dynamic environment. A variety of analytical techniques
will be discussed that will enable managers to thoroughly analyze
the organization's environment in order to clearly identify its
competitive advantage and how the organization will seek to utilize
this advantage. Topics to be covered include various strategic
management decision models, industry analysis, competitive position
analysis and the analysis, choice and implementation of strategic
options. Case studies will be utilized as the primary method of
familiarizing students with the strategic analysis process. Three
credit hours. Prerequisite: Completion
of all M.B.A. Core Courses and at least 6 credits of the Concentration.
MBA
631 Integrative Case Studies
A final capstone experience, this course is intended
to provide a complete integration and application of previous
course work. The course consists of three parts: a series of case
analysis discussions, a business simulation game in which student
teams will compete with each other in a computer simulated business,
and a final presentation. The final presentation is to be a significant
portion of the grade in this course. For purposes of this presentation,
student teams will do an extensive analysis of an existing business
and report on their findings in both a written report to management
and a full period oral presentation. Three credit hours.
Prerequisite: MBA 630.
MBA
640 Fundamentals of Financial Planning
This
course provides an in-depth consideration of the fundamental concepts
central to a professional's understanding of personal financial
planning. It surveys the economic, legal, ethical, and regulatory
issues affecting financial planners. Construction of personal
financial statements, and application of time value of money concepts
are mastered. A rigorous understanding of the six step financial
planning process is developed, providing a basis for further study
of the major topical disciplines covered in subsequent courses
in the financial planning currriculum.
Three credit hours. Prerequisites:
MBA 500, 501, 502,
503, and 504.
MBA
641 Insurance Planning
This
course provides a rigorous consideration of the principles of
risk management. A sound understanding of the supporting legal
theory is provided, with coverage of tort law, agency law, and
contract law. Fundamental insurance theory, including policy pricing
analysis, provides the basis for an overview of the insurance
industry, surveying the property and casualty, life, disability,
and medical sectors, as well as group contracts and social insurance.
Risk management techniques, including use of the insurance device,
are applied in the context of a comprehensive personal financial
plan.
Three credit hours. Prerequisite:
MBA 640.
MBA
642 Investment Planning
This
course provides a survey and examination of the various investment
vehicles and markets. Investment analysis, selection, and management
are considered from the perspective of an investor's risk tolerance
and profile. The elements of investment risk, and the quantitative
measurement of risk, are examined in the context of the modern
portfolio and pricing theories and investment strategies. Rigorous
application of the time value formulae to investment pricing models
is required.
Three credit hours. Prerequisite:
MBA 640.
MBA
643 Tax Planning
The
federal and state income tax codes primarily applicable to individuals
will be studied. The tax ramifications of various financial and
investment alternatives will be considered, and facility in making
financial planning recommendations in contemplation of the pertinent
tax implications will be financial planning recommendations in
contemplation of the pertinent tax implications will be developed.
Case study problems will be utilized to assist the student in
understanding the practical application of tax code. Particular
attention will be devoted to those topics emphasized in the financial
planning context..
Three credit hours. Prerequisite:
MBA 640.
MBA
644 Retirement Planning and Employee Benefits
This
course provides a consideration of the various alternatives available
to the individual in planning and saving toward retirement. A
survey of the individual and employee-sponsored retirement programs
and employee benefits, including tax benefits, as provided by
the tax code, provides a basis for the development of proficiency
in making retirement planning recommendations to individual clients.
Three credit hours. Prerequisites:
MBA 640.
MBA
645 Estate Planning
This
course studies the estate planning process. A practical understanding
of the federal estate and gift tax code, and its application in
the personal estate planning context, is developed. Study of the
probate process, wills, trusts, property ownership forms, charitable
transfers, and business transfers, and the applicable tax implications,
provides a basis from which to formulate a comprehensive estate
plan, within the framework of a comprehensive personal financial
plan.
Three credit hours. Prerequisites:
MBA 640.
MBA
650 Foundations of Public Policy
This
course is designed to inform students with respect to what public
policy is, how it is formulated, and implemented, and what public
policy analysts do. It presents the prevailing theories and practices
of contemporary policy analysis. Further, the issue of ethics
is highlighted in the articulation of the interplay of moral and
political values and how they are expressed in the American policy
process.
Three credit hours. Prerequisites:
MBA 500, 501, 502,
503, and 504.
MBA
651 Public Administration and the Nonprofit Sector-A Regional
Perspective
This
course examines the structural character of present day nonprofit
organizations that are legally empowered to deliver human or public
services. This includes state government, municipal corporations
and the subordinate entities they create, authorities, special
districts and not-for-profit corporations. This study will spotlight
the current trend to reorganize service delivery on a consolidated
or regionalized basis. Emphais will be given to the service quality,
the service quantitiy and the cost implications inherent in such
organizational efforts.
Three credit hours. Prerequisites:
MBA 500, 501, 502,
503, and 504.
MBA
652 Health and Human Services
This course will examine both the health and human service problems
of people who live in large metropolitan areas and the political
economy of urban health and human services delivery system. Many
large urban centers are experiencing an increase in low-income
population as well as proliferation of new morbidities such as
AIDS, TB, substance abuse, and the exacerbation of social patholoogies
such as violence aand homelessness. Further, mental health issues
present demands for increased resources. At the same time, the
health care networks are consolidating and many community hospitals
have closed; this has placed greater strain on the public health
care system. This course will discuss the public policy responses
of different cities to these challenges. Three credit hours.
Prerequisites: MBA 500, 501,
502, 503, 504,
and 650.
MBA
653 Economic Development: Theory and Practice
Economic development is examined in the countext of theories,
strategies, and practices. The advantages and disadvantages of
economic development programs and strategies for communities and
cities are discussed. Approaches to economic development in Western
New York are compared with other areas. Successful strategies
from other regions are also presented. Three credit hours.
Prerequisites: MBA 500, 501,
502, 503, 504,
and 650.
MBA
654 Economic Development: A Western New York Regional Perspective
This course examines current programmatic attempts by government
to influence private-sector location and development decisions
to strengthen local economies, generate and upgrade job opportunities,
and improve the viability of cities. The class analyzes the rationales
of a variety of development strategies and assess their effectiveness.
Approaches to economic development in Western New York are compared
with other areas. Successful strategies from other regions are
also presented. Three credit hours. Prerequisites: MBA
500, 501, 502,
503, 504, and 650.
MBA
655 Regionalism
The delivery of government services on a regional rather than
local basis promises benefits for both the taxpayer and the service
consumer. The reorganization of a multiplicity of small overlapping
units of government into fewer, more cost effective service delivery
organizations presents itself as an imperative in the quest for
a higher quality of life. This course analyzes the theories and
practices that pertain to the movement to regionalize as well
as the economic and service trade-offs that must be managed in
such a transition. There is strong emphasis upon the interrelationship
between the evolution of metropolitan regions and the impact of
political institutions on regional economies. Three credit
hours. Prerequisites: MBA 500, 501,
502, 503, 504,
and 650.
MBA
656 Neo-Urbanism
This course anlayzes new patterns of metropolitan development
and the planning for decentralized metropolitan region and edge
cities. Urban sprawl, urban growth boundaries, the preservation
of communities, and environmental system, infrastructure and transportation
improvements and the roles that public and private institutions
play are all included in this analysis of the 21st centruy trend.
Three credit hours. Prerequisites: MBA
500, 501, 502,
503, 504, and 650.