GSM 5103: Data Analysis, Modeling and Decision Making (3 credits)

The techniques of quantitative analysis are deployed against problems in such diverse areas as financial management, quality control, public budgeting, research and development, compensation analysis, and market research. Upon successful completion of this course, students should be an intelligent interpreter and user of data and statistical information. This includes different types of data and how they are obtained, the range of statistical processes for transforming data into useful and actionable information, a working familiarity and self-sufficiency with basic computational tools of data summary, analysis, and modeling, and the ability to effectively communicate the results of quantitative analyses with numerical and graphical tools. Course number prior to fall 2012: GSM 503.

GSM 5104: Managing Individuals, Teams and Organizations (3 credits)

This course focuses on individuals and teams in organizations, related HR management processes, organizational design, change processes and the broader global context in which organizations operate. It emphasizes how to diagnose and analyze individual and group behavior from different perspectives (using strategic, political and cultural lenses) and various levels (micro, meso and macro) of the organization. The goal of the course is to enhance your knowledge of management concepts and theories so that you can increase organizational effectiveness in terms of better managing yourself, other individuals, and teams, understand the impact of organizational design, power and authority, improve decision-making, manage change processes and the potentially conflicting demands of various stakeholders of the organization. The outcome of this course is to identify leading management practices and appropriate courses of managerial action in a legally compliant and ethical manner. This graduate-level management course should make you a more effective manager independently of your employment sector (private, public and non-profit). Selected cases, instructional vignettes and interactive class exercises are used to apply management concepts to real-world applications. You will learn from your own pre-class readings, lectures, discussions, cases, vignettes, application exercises and your interactions with a diverse group of peers. Course number prior to fall 2012: GSM 506A and GSM 506B. Course number prior to fall 2015: GSM 5101 and GSM 5102.

GSM 5105: Accounting for Managers (3 credits)

This course is structured in three parts. Part one follows an accountant as they record the events that impact the firm in a journal using the accounting equation, tabulate the entries in a ledger, and format them in a standard way for reporting as financial statements. The second part introduces students to working directly with the financial reports that companies submit to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and that non-profit corporations submit to the Internal Revenue Service. The third part of the course acknowledges that, when the most important consideration is making good decisions, the accounting rules that we learned in parts one and two of the class can be relaxed. Once we understand the various categories and behaviors of costs we can use that knowledge to make better pricing, investing, and budgeting decisions. Course number prior to fall 2012: GSM 505.

GSM 5107: Marketing - Creating Satisfied Customers (3 credits)

Marketing is not advertising. Marketing is not persuading customers to purchase your products. The essence of marketing is to create satisfied customers. From a marketer’s perspective a satisfied customer is any entity whose expectations for performance of the product or service you provide is exceeded by the actual performance of the product or service. The course begins by building a model for creating satisfied customers in a for-profit setting in order to make sure everyone in the course understands the model. The model is then extended to the international for profit, the not-for-profit, and government settings. Students will understand how the principles in the private domestic sector are applicable to the public, not-for-profit and international contexts. Course number prior to fall 2012: GSM 507.

GSM 5108: PACE I - Practical Applications for Careers and Enterprises (3 credits)

You begin with a series of broad questions about management and organizations, with direct career and personal applications. As the semester progresses, you will form small student teams and begin planning out a projects for non-profit or public client organizations. The service/consulting project provides a valuable opportunity to put ideas from the first part of PACE into action and to work on your career goals in a more practical situation. Course number prior to fall 2012: GSM 508A.

GSM 5109: PACE II - Practical Applications for Careers and Enterprises (4 credits)

The service/consulting projects move into implementation, and you will provide management consulting services for non-profit or public client organizations. This real-world experience challenges you to contribute to the community through enhancing the operations of a social organization. During the semester, you will receive both mentor and content inputs that are aligned with project progress. As the semester concludes, you should anticipate a major presentation, a chance to reflect on learnings from the projects, and the series of steps you need to be positioned for a fulfilling internship during the summer. Course number prior to fall 2012: GSM 508B.

  • Prerequisite(s): GSM 5108

GSM 5110: Economics, Finance and Markets (3 credits)

This is the first MBA course in finance and economics. Topics include building a financial model of a company, corporate strategy, valuation, analysis of risk and return, and the interaction of business, government, and society. Course materials include cases and a game of investing. Course number prior to fall 2012: GSM 510.

  • Prerequisite(s): GSM 5103, 5105

GSM 5111: Finance and Economics I (3 credits)

This course introduces students to the fundamental tools of economic decision-making with a focus on preparing students for success in studying and understanding financial management.  Economic decision-making is at the heart of rationally assessing incentives for employees, understanding market conditions and opportunities, and acts as the basis for the tools of financial management.  Students are expected to apply insights from economics to all areas of management and have a firm grasp of the theory underlying financial management by the end of the term.

GSM 5112: Finance and Economics II (3 credits)

This course introduces students off all business disciplines to the fundamental concepts and techniques of financial management in the modern business enterprise.  Financial decisions affect virtually all production, marketing, and management strategies.  Evaluation of the financial risks, returns, and costs is the necessary framework in which all business policies must be examined.  Students are expected to have a basic understanding of the concepts and methods of financial management by the completion of this course.   

  • Prerequisite(s): GSM 5111

GSM 5114: Operations and Systems Management (3 credits)

This course is largely a survey of concepts, principles, tools, and techniques widely used in production and service delivery organizations. It adopts as a unifying theme a consistent focus on process: its organizational dimensions, its analysis, its management and its improvement. While some important concepts require some math and statistics, Operations Management is not a “quant course,” per se. Indeed, you’ll find that some of the “softer” ideas from organizational theory and behavior are equally important. Course number prior to fall 2012: GSM 514.

  • Prerequisite(s): GSM 5103

GSM 6121: Politics and Public Policy for Managers (3 credits)

Public, private and not-for-profit organizations operate within a framework of rules at the global, national, state and local levels. This course looks at the impact of customs, policies, laws, regulations, technologies and trends on these rules, how interests in society influence rules informally and formally, and how organizations respond to opportunities and threats these rules create. Each nation’s unique governmental and procedural arrangements make cross sectoral relationships even more complex. Students will explore common and disparate features that impact management in a global economy and polity, incorporating the perspective of public service values – including efficiency and objectivity, fairness and respect for the individual, accountability and transparency, and public trust. Course number prior to fall 2012: GSM 698. (Governance & Leadership: Creating Value through Governance)

  • Prerequisite(s): Core courses of the first-year curriculum.

GSM 6123: Strategic Management (3 credits)

Addressing the question of why some organizations succeed while others fail, we will develop our understanding of effective cooperation across functions, competitive strategy across organizations and strategy formation across time. We will apply models and insights from course material to case studies, creating effective new strategies and anticipating challenges to successful implementation. This involves comprehensive thought around the functional, competitive, technical, global, and corporate components of potentially successful strategy. The course includes application of these ideas and concepts to new enterprise development. Course number prior to fall 2012: GSM 650.

  • Prerequisite(s): Core courses of the first-year curriculum, GSM 6121 and GSM 6122
Willamette University

Early Career and Career Change MBA

Salem Campus

Address
900 State Street
Salem Oregon 97301 U.S.A.
Phone
503-370-6167

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