Master of Business Administration
Characterized by its emphasis on ethical and socially responsible leadership, the Master of Business Administration program at Mount Mercy University challenges students to think globally and strategically while using a multidisciplinary approach to solve business problems.
The block format allows students to complete the program in less than two years, while maintaining full-time employment. Classes are offered on weeknights and Saturdays. In several classes, students work together, to create solutions to real business problems of non-profit organizations in the community as clients and gain an interdisciplinary approach to leadership development in the tradition of Mercy values.
Courses are offered in both 5 and 10 week blocks. Five week classes meet twice a week or all day Saturday and 10 week classes meet once a week or half days on Saturday.
Upon graduating, MBA students should be able to interpret data and employ quantitative methods to evaluate organizations in economic terms, differentiate between effective and dysfunctional team behaviors, and make strategic decisions based on a systematic approach.
Prerequisite Courses
Students must complete the following prerequisite courses with a grade of C or above (C- does not count) prior to enrolling in MBA courses (the MBA Program Director may make exceptions to this on a case by case basis). The following prerequisites are offered both in the traditional and accelerated format at Mount Mercy:Course List
BK 208 | Principles Of Marketing | 3 |
BN 204 | Principles Of Management | 3 |
EC 252 | Microeconomics | 3 |
BC 265 | Principles Of Accounting I | 3 |
BC 266 | Principles Of Accounting II | 3 |
MA 130 | Finite Mathematics | 3 |
BA 270 | Business Statistics | 3 |
Total Hours | 21 |
Core RequirementsCourse List
EC 580 | Managerial Economics | 3 |
BA 500 | Legal Environment Of Management | 3 |
BK 500 | Managerial Marketing | 3 |
BA 505 | Statistics For Managerial Decision-Making | 3 |
BN 510 | Operations Management | 3 |
BN 500 | Organizational Effectiveness | 4 |
BC 500 | Corporate Financial Reporting | 3 |
BC 600 | Managerial Finance | 3 |
BA 515 | Business Ethics | 3 |
BA 510 | Global Business Environment | 3 |
BN 600 | Strategic Human Resource Management | 3 |
BN 650 | Business Capstone | 3 |
Total Hours | 37 |
Electives
Select three of the following: | 9 | |
Entrepreneurial Endeavors | ||
International Business Strategy & Culture (this course can be substituted for the Business Capstone course) | ||
Quantitative Modeling For Decision Makng | ||
Principles of Project Management | ||
Sustainability & Growth | ||
Systems Theory & Organizational Design Methodology | ||
Methods of Quality Management | ||
Workplace Learning&Development | ||
Employment Law | ||
Labor Economics | ||
Total Hours | 9 |
Additional electives may be added to the schedule – check the current calendar to see all elective offerings.
BA Courses
BA 500 Legal Environment Of Management: 3 semester hours
This course examines the legal and regulatory environment of business, and managerial decision making within the context of laws, regulations, and court decisions. Focus is on analysis of the legal system, including contracts, agencies, and governmental regualtions, torts, corporate and other types of business entities.
BA 505 Statistics For Mngrl Decisions: 3 semester hours
This course provides students with analytical tools and methodologies useful in management. The emphasis is on the use of data for modeling and solving problems in the areas of marketing, finance, human resources, and operations. Topics covered include data analysis and modeling, simple and multiple regression, nonparametric statistics, and statistical quality control.
BA 510 The Global Business Environment: 3 semester hours
This course introduces the students to the economic, political, legal and social dimensions in conducting international business operations. Students will be introduced to basic economic principles of international trade and comparative advantage. The course will address political and legal conditions in different regions and how they impact business operations and will discuss how social and cultural contexts affect business operations and decisions. This course will enable the students to see how a global business operation differs from a domestic one in terms of strategy, management, finance and marketing. The knowledge and the skills that students develop in this class will help them become better strategic planners, managers, communicators and decision makers in an international business context.
BA 515 Business Ethics: 3 semester hours
This course will explore how values shape individual ethical behaviors, and how these behaviors influence leadership and decision making. The course will provide practical knowledge and tools needed to effectively manage the everyday ethical issues that can arise in business. Students will discuss how legal, philosophical, and corporate practices influence ethical behavior for individuals and companies. Students will examine how social, environmental, and stakeholder responsibilities, as well as different values, impact ethical behavior in companies.
BA 610 Entrepreneurial Endeavors: 3 semester hours
Students will be exposed to the "entrepreneurial mindset" of what it takes to start, grow, and maintain a business. Critical to this effort is to understand the vital aspect of "strategic fit..." does the market want or need what I (my business) have to offer? Starting and operating a new venture involves considerable risk in today's fast-paced business environment. In the creation and growth of a new enterprise, the entrepreneur assumes all the risk for development and survival yet stands to receive the ultimate reward, if/when successful. Key to continued success is the entrepreneur's ability to seek partners that insure future growth, vision, and profitiability.
BA 640 International Business Strategy & Culture: 3 semester hours
What does it take to do business with another country? This travel course will examine international business strategies, foreign exchange, tariffs and trade, economic conditions and culture of destination countries. We will have a firsthand look at international businesses in operation as well as lectures from in-country experts. Students will utilize all of their MBA skills and knowledge as they examine business strategies and operations for successful sustainable growth in foreign countries. Prerequisite: BA 510 - The Global Business Environment. BA 640 should be taken in the final year of the MBA program.
BA 650 International Business Strategy & Culture: 3 semester hours
What does it take to do business with another country? This travel course will examine international business strategies, foreign exchange, tariffs adn trade, economic conditions and culture of destination countries. We will have a firsthand look at international businesses in operation as well as lectures from in-country experts. Students will utilize all of their MBA skills and knowledge as they examine business strategies and operations for successful sustainable growth in foreign countries.
BC Courses
BC 500 Corporate Financial Reporting: 3 semester hours
This course will be taught from a financial statement user's perspective, as opposed to a preparer's perspective. Students will learn to read, interpret and analyze the information contained in the financial statements of public companies, prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, to aid in effective management decision making.
BC 600 Managerial Finance: 3 semester hours
This course builds on the basic concepts introduced in the Corporate Finance Reporting course. The course will equip students with a solid grounding in the core financial concepts and the necessary tools they need to make good decisions. Along with the core concepts of finance, the course will focus on the various methods of financial analysis. Prerequisite: BC 500 Corporate Financial Reporting.
BC 620 International Financial Reporting Standards: 3 semester hours
The course is proposed to be offered as an elective in the MBA Program. The course's focus is to develop advanced skills for the students when applying the International Financial Reporting Standards. The course will enable students to gain a fundamental understanding of how the key elements of financial statements are derived, to implement the most frequently used accounting standards and translate these to specific international standards, to apply and demonstrate a high level of technical knowledge of international accounting standards, to apply a number of key standards in practical situations, and to formulate insights as to the likely future developments in the process of setting standards. Prerequisite: BC 500 - Corporate Financial Reporting.
BK Courses
BK 500 Managerial Marketing: 3 semester hours
Students will use a managerial approach to solving advanced topics in marketing with a heavy emphasis on case analysis. Students will use research data to make strategic marketing recommendations. Topics will include: market analysis, strategic planning, and implementation of marketing strategy.
BN Courses
BN 500 Organizational Effectiveness: 4 semester hours
This course introduces students to the basic principles of human behavior and how these principles apply to the mangement of individuals and groups in organizations. Topics include: individual differences in abilities and attitudes, attribution, motivation, group dynamics, power and politics, leadership, conflict resolution, organizational culture, and organizational structure and design.
BN 510 Operations Management: 3 semester hours
This course focuses on managerial issues in manufacturing including project management, PERT, critical path analysis, and time-cost models. The major operations management issues are quality management and control, capacity management, plant location, layout and design, production planning and scheduling, supply chain management, and inventory management. Prerequisite: BA 505 Statistics for Managerial Decision Making.
BN 575 Supply Chain Management: 3 semester hours
This course as an elective will focus on developing sustainable supply chain solutions that provide the best TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) in the industrial, consumer and service business sectors. This course will introduce students to the principles of Supply Chain Management and will equip them to analyze and evaluate the quality of supply chain management in any organization, as well as, develop critical thinking skills to assure that the management of the supply chain is deeply integrated into every aspect of business. Prerequisite: BN 510 - Operations Management.
BN 600 Strategic Human Resource Management: 3 semester hours
Global competition comined with the transition to a knowledge-based economy requires organizations to take an integrated, strategic approach to preparing a workforce that can meet the business demands of the future. This course focuses on the history and changes in human resources, understanding business strategies and devising HR practices to support them, identifying how organizaitons gain sustainable competative advantage through effective human resource strategies, and how workforce diversity and globalization is capable of enhancing an organization's human talent to drive successful business results. Particular focus will be given to measuring human resource outcomes and the integration with overall business strategy.
BN 601 Workplace Learning&Development: 3 semester hours
The course's foucs is to develop advanced skills in identifying and measuring employee performance and determining what training opportunities are best for the workplace. The course will instruct individuals how to apply a systematic process of discovering and analyzing human performance gaps, plans for future improvements in performance, design and devlop cost-effective and ethical solutions to close the gaps.
BN 602 Employment Law: 3 semester hours
The course's focus is to develop advanced skills and understanding aspects of the law that impact human capital in the workplace. This is an ever changing topic and will be imperative for businesses to stay abreat on the legal aspects of managing people.
BN 610 Quantitative Modeling For Decision Makng: 3 semester hours
This course is a survey of statistical and mathematical programming models and their applications in business and management. These techniques include statistical distributions, mulitple regression, linear and Integer Programming, Network Models, and transportation and assignment method, Game Theory, Decision Theory, Queuing and Goal Programming.
BN 620 Principles of Project Management: 3 semester hours
Effective management of a project is a skill many (if not all) MBA students will need to have at some time during their professional career. The goal of this course is to give students the effective tools and knowledge to accomplish this successfully. Students will learn how projects get started, how to successfully manage a project and its resources, and how organizations select the "right" project to work on.
BN 625 Sustainability & Growth: 3 semester hours
A survey of environmental economics and mangagement. The course covers economic theories and management practices that balance short and medium term commercial gain against the long term goals of preserving natural resources and productive capacity. Economic topics include externality theory, regulation economics and the evaluation of public policy. Management topics include sustainable growth policies and practices, product and process design and the impact of corporate practices on consumers and communities. The course will address local, national and global impacts of governement public policy and corporate environmental practices.
BN 630 Methods of Quality Management: 3 semester hours
This course as an elective will provide the historical context of quality management and introduce the student to a number of quality management systems including Total Quality Management (TQM), ISO, the National Baldrige Award, Lean and Six Sigma that are currently being implemented in today's organizations. The course will host several guest lecturers from the community who are specialists in quality management.
BN 640 Systems Theory & Organizational Design Methodology: 3 semester hours
This course provides an introduction to social systems theory and its applicatoin to organizational leadership and practice. Emphasis is placed on the role of the manager/leader as designer, steward, teacher, and participant in building and sustaining effective organizations.
BN 650 Business Capstone: 3 semester hours
The Business Capstone course will give students the opportunity as individuals to conduct an organizational assessment of an organization utilizing the criteria of the National Baldrige Award. The students will also work in small teams to specifically frame and analyze an area of concern suggested by an organization utilizing their learning from the MBA curriculum. Prerequisites: 9 of core classes must be complete before enrolling in this course.
EC Courses
EC 580 Managerial Economics: 3 semester hours
Students will apply the principles of economics to managerial decision making. Topics will include: interest rates, inflation, international trade, business cycles and supply and demand. Case studies will be used to demonstrate the impact of pricing policies, and the relationship between market structure and strategy.
EC 590 Labor Economics: 3 semester hours
This course addresses the theory and practice of labor markets. From the firm's perspective, it will cover the Economic efficiency of human resource policies and decisions - that is Micro level decisions. The Macro perspective deals with government policies and labor regulations: costs and benefits, the impact on productivity, employment and unemployment. As necessary components of labor economics, we will discuss the economics of human capital, gender and racial equality, discrimination, compensation and immigration as part of the international labor markets. Included is the study labor market institutions: like government, unions, the impact of culture and work ethics. Applications will be provided from manufacturing, financial, healthcare and other service industries. Prerequisite:EC 580 - Managerial Economics.