MBA for Professionals   ::  Courses

The Willamette MBA for Professional 2010 curriculum design is distinctive and robust. Each course provides a firm grounding in a functional area while introducing advanced topics and concepts.

The 2010 curriculum is delivered through a proven learning model that emphasizes learning by doing and the immediate application of new knowledge. Willamette's respected and recognized faculty understand the unique needs of working professionals and provide a learning experience focused on individual outcomes and success.

MBA Candidates progress through the integrated curriculum in small cohorts, offering a unique opportunity to develop relationships, learn from diverse experiences and approaches, and benefit from a built-in support network. All MBA for Professionals' courses are delivered 6:00pm to 10:00pm.

FOUNDATIONAL KNOWLEDGE

• LEAD: Leadership Effectiveness and Development
• Data Analysis, Modeling and Decision Making
• Accounting for Managers
• Managing Organizations: Individuals, Teams and Human Resources
• Managing Organizations: Design and Change

FUNCTIONAL KNOWLEDGE

• Creating and Implementing Market-Driven Strategies
• Finance and Economics for Managers
• Operations and Information Management

SYNTHESIS AND INTEGRATION

• Global Management & Innovation
• Creating Value through Governance
• Special Topics in Management
• Strategic Management
• Integrated Project

Download a PDF of the 2010 course descriptions

Course Descriptions

LEAD: Leadership Effectiveness and Development (4 Credits) GSMPR 621
LEAD embraces the necessity for self-discovery and personal development to become a leader in modern organizations. LEAD is designed to allow students to frame their future success in terms of their emotional, social, and cultural intelligences.  LEAD explores essential competencies for managing and leading people.  These include: assessing the student’s personal balance sheet against his or her strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats; techniques for leading, managing, and influencing group and individual behavior and performance; coaching and mentoring others; inspiring others to embrace organizational vision and mission; communicating effectively both orally and in writing; and negotiating to secure a mandate and the resources to pursue it.

Data Analysis, Modeling and Decision Making (4 Credits)
GSMPR 622
Taking real world examples from finance, accounting, marketing, production, and human resource management, we will use statistical tools and methods to improve decision making in uncertain environments. Students learn to transform data into managerial insight and actionable information by applying statistical processes and models. Course concepts will be implemented and supported by spreadsheets, statistical software, and direct application to a team project.

Accounting for Managers (4 Credits)
GSMPR 623
This course introduces basic financial and managerial accounting tools that are useful to managers.  It is designed for the graduate student with no prior exposure to accounting.  Students will learn to: (1) record, report and interpret basic transactions and events through the accounting equation and integrated financial statements, as well as prepare basic financial statements, (2) read and interpret audited financial statements, (3) apply analytical tools using managerial accounting data and understand how and when these tools may be used, including estimating and analyzing Cost-Volume-Profit relationships and operational leverage, preparing financial forecasts and identifying relevant cost-benefit information in decision-making scenarios, and to (4) appreciate the role of the financial and managerial accounting systems as planning and control tools.

Managing Organizations: Individuals, Teams and Human Resources (2 Credits)
GSMPR 624A
This course explores the interpersonal dimensions of effective managerial behavior at the individual and team level and views human resource management from the perspective of the “line” manager. Topics include: the new world of work, cross-cultural management, diversity, talent management, performance management, motivation, and team dynamics. Students learn to increase organizational effectiveness by better managing themselves, other individuals, teams and stakeholders of the organization. Students also learn to diagnose and analyze individual and group behavior from different perspectives (using strategic, political and cultural lenses) and to prescribe appropriate courses of managerial action.

Managing Organizations: Design and Change (2 Credits)
GSMPR 624B
This course examines the behaviors of large formal organizations – whether public, private, or not-for-profit – in terms of their functioning, performance and accountability to their various stakeholders.  We apply macro organizational theory to examine the co-depending relationship between organizations and their external environments and the ways in which this relationship shapes outcomes for organizations and large organizational units. The class addresses the following key topics: organizational structure and design choices as informed by the characteristics of an organization's environment; the deployment of formal and informal power and authority; the role of leadership; managing and leading organizational change; and decision-making processes. In addition, the course identifies some of the most pressing changes that contemporary managers face at macro level as well as their sources, and offers solutions as to how to break old "bad" habits in order to develop flexible and adaptive organizations designed for learning.

Creating and Implementing Market-Driven Strategies (4 Credits)
GSMPR 625
This course explores key issues in strategic marketing and the formulation of market driven strategies. Through lectures, readings and case studies students, students learn to design and implement a process of creating relationships with customers that maximize their satisfaction, whether in profit-making, not-for-profit, or governmental environments. Students participate in a computer simulation requiring them to apply concepts discussed in the course. The course emphasizes learning by doing and requires substantial work in teams.

Finance and Economics for Managers (4 Credits)
GSMPR 626
This course explores key issues in strategic marketing and the formulation of market driven strategies. Through lectures, readings and case studies students, students learn to design and implement a process of creating relationships with customers that maximize their satisfaction, whether in profit-making, not-for-profit, or governmental environments. Students participate in a computer simulation requiring them to apply concepts discussed in the course. The course emphasizes learning by doing and requires substantial work in teams.

Operations and Information Management (4 Credits)
GSMPR 627
Starting with a framework for aligning business, organization, and technology strategy, we will analyze internal performance by applying a process-oriented lens. Students will be able to articulate key issues and details of implementation lifecycles for business and enterprise applications, e-business, customer relationship and knowledge management initiatives, and to build a case for a business process improvement. Each student will participate in a team project to redesign processes and systems in an organization.

Global Management & Innovation (4 Credits)
GSMPR 628
The course exposes student to the high velocity, high complexity world of managing globally. Students learn through targeted case studies, review of empirical research and theoretical frameworks, and a capstone assignment to integrate key learning on global management and innovation. Learning objectives include: understanding the motivations and alternative mechanisms for entering and conducting business across borders; incorporating multiple levels (e.g., firm, institutional, national) into global management decisions; building skills in selecting partners, negotiating, developing networks, and designing alliances; using technology and organizational innovation to accelerate global business; and applying critical and creative thinking skills to practical and theoretical problems of global strategy, structure, cultures, and performance.

Creating Value through Governance (4 Credits)
GSMPR 629
Governance is the set of processes, customs, policies, laws and institutions affecting the way an organization is directed, administered, or controlled. Legal and regulatory governance provides a foundation for establishing stakeholder confidence and exercising fiduciary responsibility in businesses and not-for-profit organizations. This course improves student ability to enhance performance and create value through governance and leadership. Learning objectives include: understanding how historical economic, political, and cultural trends impact relationships, structures, and performance across the business, government, and not-for-profit sectors; evaluating and selecting among alternative institutional and operational arrangements in managing business, government, and not-for-profit organizations; assessing the dimensions of governance and leadership in managing ethics, risk and performance.

Special Topics in Management (4 Credits)
GSMPR 630
These courses are designed to delve into the issues that will shape management in the future. The course topic changes with each Cohort.

Strategic Management (4 Credits)
GSMPR 631
Addressing the question of why some organizations succeed while others fail, the course explores effective cooperation across functions, competitive strategy across organizations, and strategy formation across time. Students learn to create and evaluate business strategies that deal with uncertainty to improve organizational performance, to analyze competitive dynamics so as to sequence initiatives, including investment acquisition and investment decisions, and to manage delegation from strategy to execution. We will apply models and insights from course material to case studies about competitive strategy, resource allocation, market leadership, organizational design, and entrepreneurship/new product development.

Integrated Project (4 Credits)
GSMPR 632
A synergistic project drawing on concepts from previous courses.

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For Current Students Enrolled Before September 2010: Click here to view your MBA for Professionals curriculum.

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