Outcome Objectives  

        The MBA core curriculum is designed to help you master objectives that the faculty deems critical for success in a business career. The curriculum emphasizes teamwork and collaboration, communication skills, and an ability to apply knowledge to solve business problems from a multi-dimensional perspective. 

The curriculum is designed to help you develop: 

MBA 402 will focus more on some of these outcome objectives than others. Upon satisfactory completion of MBA 402, you should be able to:  

1. understand how to design and manage the process of effectively producing products and services; 
2. understand how to measure costs and performance of business processes; 
3. understand how managers internally allocate tasks, authority, and resources to achieve a firm's objectives; 
4. understand how to manage capital resources within a firm; 
5. understand how to gather, analyze, and communicate data; and 
6. 6. successfully think on your feet, appropriately give and receive feedback, and effectively communicate leadership ability. 

The instructional team consists of professors, academic professionals, and core faculty associates (student assistants). A professor or academic professional has lead responsibility for each theme. Theme leaders are: 
 

Theme leaders and core faculty associates will maintain "traditional" and "electronic" office hours to answer questions. The schedule above shows traditional office hours; theme leaders will also be available to meet with you by appointment. Electronic office hours will be provided via FirstClass. 

The Communications Consulting Center offers a walk-in tutorial service which assists individual students or study groups to develop written, oral, and graphic communication skills. Students may bring in written work for courses or job correspondence to provide a context for tutorial assistance. For oral presentations, students may bring in outlines or overhead slides for review. Students also may arrange for a videotaped rehearsal. 

Course Organization  

This course will use a variety of teaching methods. Some sessions will be primarily lecture-oriented, others will be primarily discussion-oriented, and others will involve active learning and experiential learning exercises. You are expected to read and study assigned material before each class meeting. The assignments are designed to assist you in mastering the material; some require individual work and others require study group collaboration. A course schedule with readings and assignments is attached. The outline specifies pre- and post-class readings and assignments. Unless otherwise noted, pre-class assignments are due at the beginning of the class session; post-class assignments are due in class at the beginning of the session shown in the schedule. The outline also indicates which assignments should be done individually and which should be submitted by study groups. 

Attendance and Class Participation  

You are expected to attend every class session. Class participation is encouraged in all classes. As described in the Grades section of the syllabus, class participation constitutes a portion of your grade in some themes. 

Study Groups  

Each student will be assigned to a study group. Typically, study groups will have four members. Some assignments are to be prepared by the entire study group; others are to be prepared individually. (See Homework Assignments, below.) For group assignments, submit one assignment for the group, unless the assignment provides other instructions. Unless the assignment indicates that grades may vary across group members, a common grade will be assigned for every group member. 

Course Materials  

MBA 402 will use a variety of materials, including textbooks, cases, readings, assignments, and notes. These materials are: 

The quiz and exam schedule is: 

The final examination is designed to assess your mastery of both theme-specific and course-wide learning objectives. The final exam will examine your knowledge of the material covered in the MSP, OTD, DA, AIO, and MCF themes. This requires, of course, mastery of theme-specific material as well as an ability to integrate this material across themes. 

If you miss a quiz or the final exam, you will receive a score of 0 for that component of your grade. Exceptions will be made only upon presentation of documented evidence indicating a serious illness, family emergency or University-authorized absence. Contact Tom Finnegan, MBA Director of Academics or the MBA Office prior to the exam if feasible. At the faculty's discretion, the weight of other components that affect the course grade may be adjusted. You are strongly urged to make every effort to take quiz and exams as scheduled. 
 

Homework Assignments, Problem Sets, Cases, Exercises and Projects  

These activities are important learning devices when used properly. Unless otherwise indicated, required assignments must be submitted at the beginning of the class session on the date shown in the course schedule. The point allocation for each assignment is shown in the Grades section of this syllabus or is shown on the assignment where it also indicates whether an assignment is to be prepared individually or by a study group. For individual assignments, you may consult with other students, but may not examine another student's solution. For group assignments, you may consult with students who are not members of your study group, but detailed discussions of solution techniques should occur only within your study group. Copying of solutions from any source is prohibited under any circumstances. Assignments must be submitted at the time indicated. Late submissions will not be accepted. 
 

Goals and Components of MCOMM  

The Communications package in MBA 402 promotes the interpersonal communication skills and strategies necessary to enable MBAs to excel in business management roles.

• Oral Skills and Strategies are covered in think-on-your-feet exercises
• Critical Writing Skills are covered in individual and collaborative memos
• Critical Listening Skills and Strategies are discussed and implemented in class discussion and feedback exercises

Grades  

The course grades will be assigned using the system adopted by the University in 1996. This system uses a four point scale with pluses and minuses. Grades may be A+, A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D+, D, D-, and F. There are many components of the evaluation of performance in MBA 402, with differing weights, as described below, 

Designing and Managing Business Processes MBA 402 is an integrated course. Since virtually all MBA candidates come from universities where the curriculum consists of a collection of stand-alone courses, taught independently by faculty who were entirely responsible for a narrow discipline, this takes some getting used to. You will not receive a letter grade in accounting, data analysis, etc. Specific learning experiences have been designed by the entire teaching team to assist you master Designing and Managing Business Processes, but for consistency of feedback to you, specific theme leaders are responsible for grading these assignments as indicated above. For each component learning experience, you will be told how you did in relationship to the other members of the class. At the end of the term, all of the assignments will be combined to determine your grade in the course, as described below. 
  To assure fair treatment of all students, the course letter grade will be based on three criteria: 

1.  A standardized Z-score will be calculated for each assignment. An aggregate 'assignment" Z-score weighted by the above points, will be used to assign a letter grade based on numerical cutoff levels to be determined by the faculty. 
2. A standardized Z-score will be calculated for each theme, final and ABP. The aggregate 'theme" Z- score, weighted by the above points for each theme, will be used to assign a letter grade based on cutoff levels to be determined by the faculty. 
3. The raw scores from all the above assignments will be summed and used to assign a letter grade based on cutoff levels determined by the faculty. 

MINI Applying Business Perspectives Seminar 

The purpose of mini-ABP is to offer you an opportunity to revisit and refine the Fall ABP project and to apply the concepts learned in MBA 402 to it. Groups will present their work in a poster session to be held on Friday, December 4th at the Levis faculty center. We will provide a table for your poster board. All other materials used by the teams is their responsibility. The student teams will be divided into four Zones (Zone A, Zone B, Zone C, and Zone D) with each zone consisting of approximately 10 teams. Two existing MBA 402 teams will be combined to form a new mini-ABP team for this project. The mini-ABP project will be worth 100 points.  
 
 

Academic Integrity   

Academic integrity is a cornerstone of the intellectual life of a university. Consistent with University and MBA Program policy, violations of academic integrity will be considered a serious offense. Any student who is judged to have violated academic integrity in this course will be subject to the penalties discussed in section 33 of the Code on Campus Affairs. These penalties include, among others, failure for the course or dismissal from the University. 

Collaborative learning activities are encouraged, but activities such as copying results on an exam or plagiarizing homework constitute academic integrity violations. In addition, inappropriate study materials, including previously prepared solutions to required homework problems and files containing tests used in previous courses, compromises the concept of equal opportunity for all students and is therefore prohibited. You may use materials that are generally available to all students provided that they maintain the spirit of the learning objectives. You may consult with other students, colleagues, friends, family members, and tutors (paid or unpaid) provided that such an individual: 

1. does not prepare any assignment or examination, and 
2. uses only those study materials that you are permitted to use. 

Final Note  

Success in this course requires an in-depth study of each reading assignment, completion of all assignments, and regular class attendance. Because the material is cumulative, satisfactory progress is contingent on adequate preparation prior to each class meeting. The instructional team is here to assist you in learning the material, but you are responsible for completing the required work and seeking help. If you are having particular difficulty in any theme, please consult with the theme leader as early in the term as possible.