UMUC

Graduate School of Management & Technology – Programs

Course Descriptions - AMBA

AMBA 600 MBA Fundamentals (3)

An overview of fundamental management concepts across a broad spectrum of subject areas. Topics covered include the online environment and technologies used in the MBA program; research, writing, and analytical skills; and basic management concepts. Assignments focus on statistics, financial accounting, and the theory of constraints. Exercises improve skills in the areas of research, writing, critical thinking, and teamwork. Special emphasis is placed on plagiarism issues and the utilization of the UMUC Web databases. The Web-based technologies used throughout the MBA program are also explored. Topics covered include both the academic requirements and the technical skills necessary to succeed in the MBA program.

AMBA 601 The Role of Managers and Organizations in Society (6)

An overview of the essential concepts and theories that provide a foundation for the study of business administration.

Five major themes that reflect key characteristics of managers and organizations and span the curricula of the MBA program are introduced:

  • leadership
  • ethics and legal concepts
  • technology
  • globalization
  • innovation

Ten important competencies required of high-performing managers that are emphasized throughout the MBA program are also introduced:

  • information literacy/research skills
  • technology fluency
  • diversity and cross-cultural perspectives
  • communications skills
  • team building skills
  • systems thinking
  • critical thinking
  • problem solving
  • leading change
  • ethical leadership

Finally, assignments include the construction of an electronic portfolio for use in achieving personal and professional goals. The electronic portfolio is used to document learning throughout the MBA program.

AMBA 602 The Dynamics of Individuals and Groups at Work (6)

An investigation of the interplay of the nature, meaning, and value of work with individual, group, organizational, and societal outcomes. Strategies and methods for aligning individual interests and organizational needs to reach organizational goals are explored. The philosophical, legal, psychological, and structural decisions that managers and leaders must make in managing the dynamic human element at work are analyzed through readings, case analyses, exercises, presentations, and discussions. Topics covered include interpersonal skill development, with an emphasis on effective communication processes, to increase competence in successfully working with people.

AMBA 603 The Marketing of New Ideas (6)

A study of the processes of strategic marketing and the development of new products from the perspective of understanding customers and cultivating and nurturing customer relationships.

Such increased understanding is achieved through the effective flow of knowledge resources within and external to the organization, with an emphasis on the importance of market research, customer relationship management, data mining, demand forecasting, and market planning.

As a managerial process, marketing is the way in which organizations determine their best opportunities and avoid major threats in a constantly changing marketplace. The managerial philosophy of marketing puts central emphasis on the customer, but does not lose sight of the competition and the environment in which it operates.

Accelerated technological change, major ethical business decisions, and increased globalization exert substantial pressure on organizations to develop and transform their goods, services, and marketing programs. Stable product design and long production runs are no longer the norm.

Topics covered include the increasing importance of electronic commerce as it relates to the distribution, promotion, and pricing of consumer and business pro-ducts. Marketing applications and the effectiveness of various e-commerce strategies in an emerging new economy are explored. In addition, the important topics of ethics and social responsibility are investigated within the context of strategic marketing management and the current business climate.

AMBA 604 Technology and Operations Management (6)

Seminar focusing on three key areas of modern business functional management:

  • project management
  • operations management
  • information technology management.

Effective managers need to understand the principles and techniques of management in these areas. For instance, the fast pace of product innovation and decreasing product life cycles today mandate that managers possess effective project management skills. Further, managers continually restructure business processes in order to maintain or improve operational efficiency and effectiveness, which is the heart of sound operations management. In support of this purpose and many others, managers should also be able to quickly but critically acquire, analyze, and deploy business information, which requires an ability to manage information technology, that is, automated information systems and information security.

AMBA 605 Economics of Management Decisions (6)

A study of the concept of economic decision making in a wide variety of managerial situations, including financial statement analysis, asset valuation, cost management, and organizational performance.

Critical thinking is applied to make connections among concepts from the disciplines of microeconomics, finance, and managerial and financial accounting. Current legal and ethical issues surrounding financial accounting along with the valuation of both financial and business assets in a domestic and international context are addressed. Because cost management is crucial to a company’s continued competitiveness, activity-based costing is discussed. Increasingly, managers are supplementing financial information with nonfinancial information to best analyze the economic performance of their organizations. Toward this end, several performance measurement techniques are covered, including economic value added, throughput accounting, and balanced scorecard.

AMBA 606 Organizations and the External Environment (6)

An overview, global in scope, of various types of business organizations and environments that shape organizational decisions. Approached from an opportunities and risk perspective, emphasis is placed on the regulatory structures, legal systems, governance models, and policy making that define the internal and external functions of business at the confluence of local, state, national, and international affairs.

Major theoretical approaches and issues guiding the seminar include critical thinking, international ethics, business sustainability, social responsibility, and the impact of economics and technology. The study functions as a term-long team project that comprises group, subgroup, individual, and conference activities enhanced by Web- and media-based resources and some teleconferences. A significant shift is required in conceptual development from local and national focus to international and local thinking, and from an emphasis on individual performance to an emphasis on effective teamwork.

AMBA 607 Strategic Management (6)

The business environment of the 21st century is undergoing radical change. Companies now compete concurrently in domestic, global, and electronic markets. Such markets are often characterized by accelerating technological change, rising customer expectations, intense competition, and transitory competitive advantage. Added to that are demands for corporate transparency and responsibility that have lately become even more emphatic. Focus is on developing frameworks and models for understanding the rules of the game and taking appropriate action in these different, but concurrent, business contexts. An explicitly integrative approach is adopted, building on knowledge of the different functional areas of management covered in previous seminars. A top management perspective is also adopted because strategic thinking requires a good understanding of the interrelationships that exist within a firm and between the firm and its external environment.

The seminar is divided broadly into three parts:

  • The first deals with value creation in different contexts—namely domestic, global, and e-business.
  • The second part explores issues related to value capture through various organizational and strategic processes.
  • The final part provides a synthesis of the foregoing themes as an opportunity to apply these concepts, tools, and techniques in a real-life project.