CATALOG - University of Maryland University College

COURSE DESCRIPTIONSAMBA 605 Economics of Management Decisions (6)A study of the concept of economic decision making in a wide varietyof managerial situations, including financial statement analysis,asset valuation, cost management and organizational performance.Critical thinking is applied to make connections among conceptsfrom the disciplines of microeconomics, finance, and managerialand financial accounting. Current legal and ethical issues surroundingfinancial accounting, along with the valuation of both financialand business assets in a domestic and international context, areaddressed. Because cost management is crucial to a company’s continuedcompetitiveness, activity-based costing is discussed. Increasingly,managers are supplementing financial information with nonfinancialinformation to best analyze the economic performance oftheir organizations. Toward this end, several performance measurementtechniques, including economic value added, throughputaccounting, and balanced scorecard, are covered.AMBA 606 Organizations and the External Environment (6)An overview, global in scope, of various types of business organizationsand environments that shape organizational decisions.Approached from an opportunities and risk perspective, emphasisis placed on the regulatory structures, legal systems, governancemodels, and policy making that define the internal and externalfunctions of business at the confluence of local, state, national,and international affairs. Major theoretical approaches and issuesinclude critical thinking, international ethics, business sustainability,social responsibility, and the impact of economics and technology.The course functions as a session-long team project comprisinggroup, subgroup, individual, and conference activities enhancedby Web- and media-based resources and some teleconferences. Asignificant shift is required in conceptual development from localand national focus to international and local thinking, and froman emphasis on individual performance to an emphasis on effectiveteamwork.AMBA 607 Strategy (6)An investigation of strategy, value creation, and value capture indifferent business contexts. The business environment of the 21stcentury is undergoing radical change. Companies now competeconcurrently in domestic, global, and electronic markets. Suchmarkets are often characterized by accelerating technologicalchange, rising customer expectations, intense competition, andtransitory competitive advantage. Added to that are demands forcorporate transparency and responsibility that have lately becomeeven more emphatic. Focus is on developing frameworks and modelsfor understanding the rules of the game and taking appropriateaction in these different, but concurrent, business contexts. Anexplicitly integrative approach is adopted, building on knowledgeof the different functional areas of management covered in previousstudy. A top management perspective is also adopted becausestrategic thinking requires a good understanding of the interrelationshipsthat exist within a firm and between the firm and itsexternal environment. The seminar is divided broadly into threeparts. The first deals with value creation in different contexts—namely domestic, global, and e-business. The second part exploresissues related to value capture through various organizational andstrategic processes. The final part provides a synthesis of the foregoingthemes as an opportunity to apply these concepts, tools, andtechniques in a real-life project.AMBA 610 The Manager in Organizations and Society (6)(Formerly AMBA 601.) Prerequisite: AMBA 600. An explorationof the responsibilities and influence that 21st-century managershave within their organizations and the global society. Essentialconcepts and theories that provide a foundation for the study ofbusiness administration and management—including systemsthinking, critical thinking, ethical decision making and leadership,legal concepts, corporate social responsibility, and organizationaltheory and design—are examined.AMBA 617 Strategic Action Planning (3)(For students with transfer credit only.) Prerequisite: AMBA 660.An investigation of strategy, value creation, and value capture indifferent business contexts. Focus is on developing frameworks andmodels for understanding the structural characteristics of industriesand how companies can achieve sustainable competitive advantage,taking appropriate action in these different, but concurrent, businesscontexts. An explicitly integrative approach is adopted, buildingon knowledge of the different functional areas of managementgained through previous study.72GRADUATE CATALOG | 2008–2009