Academic Catalog

Management and Entrepreneurship (MENT)

MENT 5138.  Managing Organizations.  (3 Credits)  
Today's business climate demands that organizations and their managers be innovative, flexible, adaptive, and capable of maximizing the contributions of all their members. In addition, effective managers must possess the leadership and team skills necessary to manage an increasingly diverse work force. This course examines topics such as leadership, motivation, team dynamics, organization structure, design and culture, conflict, power and politics.
Enrollment Requirements: Open to MBA students, others with consent. Not open to students who have passed or are currently enrolled in MENT 5183.  
  
MENT 5182.  Motivating Individuals and Teams.  (1.5 Credits)  
Development and improvement of "people skills" as they relate to managing individuals and teams in organizations. Prepares students to understand how to best organize and motivate the human capital of the firm, how to solve problems effectively, influence the actions of individuals and lead successful teams. Topics include personality, perceptions and perceptual distortions, decision making, developing a motivational climate and effective incentive systems, creative problem solving, managing conflict and negotiations, designing and managing diverse teams and team processes. Through the use of experiential exercises and role-playing, participants are given a "hands-on" opportunity to practice and refine their management skills as well as to gain significant insight into their own strengths and weaknesses as a manager.
Enrollment Requirements: Open only to MBA students, others with consent. Not open to students who have passed BLAW 5182.  
  
MENT 5183.  Organizational Behavior in Context.  (1.5 Credits)  
Builds upon the individual and team managerial skills developed in MENT 5182 by focusing on "people skills" as they relate to managing oneself and others within an organizational context. Prepares students to navigate and succeed in a complex organizational environment. Topics include organizational design, culture, managing diversity, understanding and managing social networks, power, politics, and organizational communications. Through the use of cases, experiential exercises and role playing, participants are given a "hands-on" opportunity to practice and gain insight into their managerial skills as they pertain to the larger organizational context.
Enrollment Requirements: MENT 5182.  
  
MENT 5223.  Managing Innovation and Change.  (3 Credits)  
Students will learn both the theory and practice underlying successful organizational change, providing them with the understanding necessary to become effective change agents. Addresses such topics as assessing organizational effectiveness and performance, fundamental organizational development techniques, change methodologies, individual, group, and organizational change processes, applied research methods for analysis of change problems, process interventions, the power and politics of change, and strategic change.
Enrollment Requirements: MENT 5138 or 5183, either of which may be taken concurrently; open to MBA students, others with consent.  
  
MENT 5335.  Venture Planning, Management, and Growth.  (3 Credits)  
Presents students with an opportunity to put all of their business skills to the test as they prepare and pitch their business plans, while also exposing them to multiple facets of starting and managing new ventures in a very hands-on fashion. The business plans will concentrate on the fundamentals of building a great business, including the business proposition, the business model, the customer, the product, the competition, the market, the industry, the channels of distribution, the selling cycle, and funding requirements, etc. Through a business simulation, students are concurrently placed into a very realistic business setting where they start-up and run a company. Students are given full control of the simulated business and must manage its operations through several decision cycles, challenged with business fundamentals and the interplay between marketing, manufacturing, finance, accounting, etc., as they manage and grow the business.
Enrollment Requirements: MENT 5138 or 5183, either of which may be taken concurrently; open to MBA students, others with consent.  
  
MENT 5377.  Human Resource Metrics and Talent Analytics.  (3 Credits)  
Creating and managing appropriate metrics is vital to enabling the development of high-­achieving people in organizations and maintaining an effective human resource function. Introduces techniques for developing effective metrics and identifies connections between human resource metrics and other performance measurement systems commonly used in organizations. Introduces students to talent analytics, the tools and techniques managers use to mine organizational data in pursuit of actionable knowledge. Students learn how to structure research questions, communicate data needs to technical specialists, and interpret data to yield organizational insights and support effective decisions.
  
MENT 5401.  Managing Risk in the Workplace.  (3 Credits)  
Successful professionals evaluate business issues with proper consideration of organizational risk. Risk is defined as the likelihood of unfavorable outcomes with respect to the organization's process, financial, reputational, competitive market, and people outcomes. The class examines risk-related challenges linked to workplace activities and issues including employee separation, hiring, promotion, employment laws, regulations, interpersonal conflicts, employee privacy, workplace safety, intellectual property and data security.
  
MENT 5420.  Employee and Labor Relations.  (3 Credits)  
Examines the broad range of concepts and practices that arise out of the relationship between an organization and its employees. Covers the core topics of labor relations, including organizing, collective bargaining, and the grievance process. Examines trends in unionization and the impact of these trends on employees and organizations. Also examines broader employee relations issues such as managing diversity, arbitration/mediation, downsizing, performance appraisal, implied contracts, and statutory rights.
  
MENT 5615.  Leadership.  (3 Credits)  
Exposes students to current thinking and research on leadership, to help students develop new ways of viewing the leadership process, and to examine characteristics of effective and ineffective leadership.
Enrollment Requirements: MENT 5138 or 5183, either of which may be taken concurrently; open to MBA students, others with consent.  
  
MENT 5620.  Project Leadership and Communication.  (3 Credits)  
Comprehensive and in-depth coverage of project leadership and communication designed to increase the student's ability to be a successful project manager. It covers critical competencies for leadership, critical components of communication, key roles involved in taking charge of an organization, building and using networks, motivation and influence, and authority and non-authority bases for power. Students will identify ways to further develop their own leadership potential and their own communication style.
Enrollment Requirements: Not open to MBA students.  
  
MENT 5634.  Opportunity Generation, Assessment, and Promotion.  (3 Credits)  
Hands-on experience in opportunity development, exposing students to three distinct modules. The first, creativity and innovation, stimulates the flow of ideas. The second, feasibility analysis, runs these ideas through a comprehensive assessment framework. The third module, getting the first customer, focuses on the initial sales and marketing process needed to get the idea off the ground. At the end of the course, students will be able to identify, evaluate, and shape new business opportunities; effectively present and sell their ideas to critical constituencies; manage the resource constraints associated with launching new ventures.
Enrollment Requirements: MENT 5138 or 5183, either of which may be taken concurrently; open to MBA students, others with consent.  
  
MENT 5639.  Diversity and Inclusion.  (3 Credits)  
The globalization of product, labor, and capital markets has led to significant changes in the demographic composition of the international labor force. This course chronicles and examines the transition that is taking place in the global workforce due to the increased diversity in employees on the basis of personal characteristics such as sex, race/ethnicity, and national origin. Examines how employers respond to these new workforce realities and how workforce inclusion strategies can contribute to positive outcomes for employers, employees and their families, and other stakeholders.
  
MENT 5640.  International Business.  (3 Credits)  
The growing impact of a rapidly changing international business environment on organizations today means that few managers can afford to remain indifferent to the issues of international business. It is important to understand the changing patterns of international business, the dynamics of international competition, government-business interactions in other countries, and the organizational challenges of managing strategically across borders. This course addresses these issues through an applied approach in the discussion of cases.
Enrollment Requirements: MENT 5138 or 5183, either of which may be taken concurrently; open to MBA students, others with consent.  
  
MENT 5650.  Interpersonal Relations, Influence, and Ethical Leadership.  (3 Credits)  
Communication challenges and difficult conversations faced by business professionals. Emphasizes core values associated with ethical leadership in the professional world with a particular focus on the connections between applied ethics and management issues. Topics include conflict resolution styles and models, negotiation, organizational politics, influencing processes, the language of leadership, and models for examination and resolution of ethical workplace dilemmas.
Enrollment Requirements: MENT 5138 or 5183, either of which may be taken concurrently; open to MBA students, others with consent.  
  
MENT 5672.  Leading Yourself.  (3 Credits)  
Human resources professionals and managers who understand their own management skills and style are more effective in achieving their personal and professional goals. To help build student self-­awareness, the class introduces and employs assessment instruments commonly utilized by business leaders. Students learn to give and receive feedback, build skills inventories and develop personal growth and career development plans, goals and strategies.
Enrollment Requirements: MENT 5138 or 5183; open to MBA students, others with permission.  
  
MENT 5674.  Negotiation Strategies.  (3 Credits)  
Effective negotiations skills are essential for successful managers in complex contemporary organizations characterized by changing structures, temporary task forces, multiple demands on resources, and the increased importance of interdepartmental cooperation. Critical negotiation situations with other organizations range from those dealing with labor unions, purchasing, mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures. During this course, participants plan and conduct negotiations simulations and receive feedback on their performance.
Enrollment Requirements: MENT 5138 or 5183, either of which may be taken concurrently; open to MBA students, others with consent.  
  
MENT 5675.  Business Acumen and Strategic Human Resource Management.  (1-3 Credits)  
Business acumen involves understanding and managing a business situation in a manner that is likely to lead to a good outcome. Human resources managers need the capability to evaluate multiple dimensions of complex business issues and to understand their implications for a range of stakeholders. In pursuit of these objectives, the course examines the role of HRM activities in organizational strategy design and execution. Specific topics include identification of human capital as a firm resource, understanding employee value propositions and the role of human resources in creating value for customers and other stakeholders.
May be repeated for a total of 3 credits  
MENT 5676.  Human Capital and Workforce Capability Development.  (3 Credits)  
Students in this course will learn how to assess and develop an organization's human assets. The class explores organizational learning and focuses on specific ways in which learning is achieved through training and development activities. Students study human resources trends such as increasing competition, globalization, technological complexities, regulation, and dynamic labor markets, and how these issues interact with increasing demands on workforce productivity. Topics include learning strategy development, training needs assessment, training program design, training techniques, evaluation strategies, and career development practices.
  
MENT 5678.  Total Rewards and Performance Management.  (3 Credits)  
Explores the concept of total rewards, its fundamental elements, and strategic prevalence in attracting, motivating and retaining valued employees, and its integration with performance management. Topics include job evaluation, pay surveys, compensation plans and structure, individual and group incentives, and employee benefit principles and concepts. Covers the design of incentive plans, including merit pay, bonuses, equity awards, gain sharing, profit sharing, piece rate, tipping, and commission systems. Students will participate in strategic goal and program development, examining how total rewards, compensation, and benefit design impact performance and contribute to defining organization culture.
  
MENT 5680.  Talent Management Through the Employee Lifecycle.  (3 Credits)  
One of the primary responsibilities of human resources is managing talent throughout the employee lifecycle. Talent management spans recruiting, hiring, retention, and separation and requires a keen awareness of individual and organizational issues and strategies. Topics covered include recruitment, selection, on-­boarding, career planning, job/competency analysis, benefits administration, retention, retirement, voluntary and involuntary separation, and downsizing.
  
MENT 5681.  Human Capital and Teams.  (3 Credits)  
Securing and retaining human capital is vital for organizational competitiveness. However, that capital needs to be effectively developed and deployed to transform it into valuable human resources (HR), and teams are often the mechanism by which this occurs. In this class, we will draw upon participants’ experiences and current organizational examples to describe different human resource architectures (i.e., different bundles of HR programs for different employee populations). We will then consider the use and composition of different types of teams for enhancing performance and development in those different circumstances. We will also consider interventions that help teams to start off on the right path (e.g., charters, role specifications), how to sustain performance (e.g., team training and development, effective meetings), and how to use feedback and adapt over time (e.g., after action reviews, debriefs). This will be a hands-on course where participants must apply the course material to their team experiences.
Enrollment Requirements: Department consent; open to Human Resource Management students.  
  
MENT 5800.  Strategic Management.  (3 Credits)  
Course dealing with the two major aspects of strategy: formulation and implementation. Strategy formulation examines such issues as environmental threats and opportunities, the values and priorities of management and societal stakeholders, and the strengths of company resources and competencies relative to principal competitors. Strategy implementation covers such topics as strategic leadership, organizational structure, resource allocation, and building a strategy-supportive culture. Uses cases and readings to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to prepare students to deal with strategic issues.
Enrollment Requirements: MENT 5138. Open to MBA students, others with permission. Not open to students who have passed MENT 5184.  
  
MENT 5805.  Human Resource Management Capstone.  (3 Credits)  
Hands-on experience in the development of an HR related initiative within students' work organization. Students will diagnose a problem or opportunity that needs to be addressed, identify specific cause and effect relationships driving current unsatisfactory outcomes, and build evidence in support of their causal theories. Students create guidelines to steer their change plans including identifying clear objectives, determining boundaries of the challenge, and explaining how changes can lead to desired outcomes. In the final stage of the project, students develop a coherent set of change actions expected to lead the organization from its current performance to its desired future outcomes. This course should be taken at the conclusion of the students' HRM program.
Enrollment Requirements: HRM masters students only.  
  
MENT 5893.  Management Internship.  (3 Credits)  
The application and implementation in a work situation of theories and practices related to the student's area of specialization, facilitated by the student, sponsoring organization, and faculty advisor. Among other course assessments to be determined by the faculty advisor, a comprehensive project is required.
  
MENT 5894.  Seminar.  (1-3 Credits)  
Investigation and discussion of special topics in management.
Enrollment Requirements: MENT 5138 or 5183; open to MBA students, others with permission.  
May be repeated for a total of 12 credits  
MENT 5895.  Special Topics in Management.  (1-3 Credits)  
Faculty-student interaction on a one-to-one basis involving independent study of specific areas of management. Emphasis, selected by the student, may be on theoretical or applied aspects. A written report is required.
May be repeated for a total of 12 credits  
MENT 6200.  Directed Readings in Special Topics.  (1-6 Credits)  
Enrollment Requirements: Open only to Ph.D. students in the School of Business.  
May be repeated for a total of 12 credits  
MENT 6201.  Seminar in Organizational Behavior.  (3 Credits)  
A survey of research in organizational behavior and theory. Topics include learning and cognition in organization, attribution theory, satisfaction and performance, leadership, motivation and group dynamics.
  
MENT 6202.  Research Methods in Strategic Management.  (3 Credits)  
An in-depth review of the content of policy research. Covers several "streams" of research currently popular in the strategic management literature. Also the major findings within each stream.
  
MENT 6203.  Contemporary Research in Organizational Behavior.  (3 Credits)  
Focus is on several of the contemporary research themes popular in Organization Behavior. Students critique the methodology and future potential of each theme.
  
MENT 6204.  Seminar in Strategic Management.  (3 Credits)  
Reviews the research of strategic management that emphasizes macro explanatory models. Students review recent dissertations and critique the content and methodology of each.
  
MENT 6206.  Applied Research in Management.  (3 Credits)  
Students, individually or in groups, formulate, conduct and prepare a written report in publishable format on a research project pertaining to the area of management. Meetings will be devoted to discussion of issues which arise in the conduct of student projects and to presentation of projects.
  
MENT 6405.  Research Design.  (3 Credits)  
Examination of research methods utilized in management research. Topics include the laboratory-field distinction, randomized experiments in field settings, content analysis and interrater reliability, log-linear analysis, instrument design and reliability analysis, survey design and sampling techniques, meta-analysis, quasi-experimental design, nonequivalent group design, interrupted time-series design and correlational analysis.
  
MENT 6408.  Seminar in Strategic Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and New Ventures.  (3 Credits)  
Major theoretical and empirical issues in the area of strategic entrepreneurship, innovation, and new ventures. The construction and testing of theory regarding the generation, identification, assessment, and capture of opportunities that support the expansion of existing ventures or formation of new businesses. Includes an overview of the field; generation and identification of entrepreneurial opportunities; entrepreneurial thinking and the associated decisions to explore and exploit; and influences on and processes associated with innovation management and venture creation.