Business Administration - SC (BASC)

A study of the management process, including planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling. Emphasis is placed on executive leadership, organizational behavior, and management theory.

An introduction to financial accounting and the accounting profession, with an emphasis on the decision-usefulness of accounting information. The course stresses the relation of accounting to economic activity, organizing information for decision-making, the resource acquisition decision, the uses of cash and noncash resources, the accounting for selling and manufacturing activities, and the information needs of multiple owners, lenders and equity holders. A prerequisite of all accountancy and finance courses. Ordinarily taken by business sophomores in the Fall. Also offered to nonbusiness students. This course cannot be taken Pass/Fail.

The course provides an in-depth and quantitative examination of the principles of financial decision-making. Students learn the concept of value maximization, mathematics of finance, valuation of financial securities, capital investment evaluation, the estimation of required rates of return, and the theory of capital structure. Students with a major in finance must earn a grade of "C" or higher to continue in the major. This course cannot be taken Pass/Fail.

A study of the management process, including planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling. Emphasis is placed on executive leadership, organizational behavior, and management theory.

A study of markets, institutions, and the environment in which business firms operate with attention to the effect these facets, forces, and issues have on the firm's overall marketing strategy.

Strategic management deals with the organization, management, and strategic positioning of the firm so as to gain long-term competitive advantage. Many of your business courses emphasize a specialized, functional perspective of business situations (e.g., marketing, human resources, accounting, finance, operations management). In this course, we integrate these acquired skills by taking the perspective of a general manager (or, equivalently, a management consultant). General managers are responsible for setting the goals, objectives, and strategies of the organizations they lead as well as the implementation and execution of such plans. To do this, managers must be capable of understanding and utilizing the knowledge from each of the organization's functional areas to develop a cohesive and effective competitive strategy. In addition, they must be able to analyze competitive situations within industries in order to understand the sources of the firm's competitive advantage. In today's business environment, whether you are a new hire, consultant, or the CEO, you must be capable of thinking strategically.

This course is designed to introduce the central questions of ethics and morality, with a focus on skill-building and ethical leadership. The course includes discussion of theories and concepts that illuminate ethical awareness, knowledge and action to inform problem solving and enhance effectiveness in business. Ethical dilemmas faced by business people are integrated into the class for discussion and analysis, and both philosophical and behavioral approaches to ethical reasoning, decision making and leadership are explored.

Marketing is everywhere. It is built on the premise that organisational, business, and even personal success comes through understanding the needs and perspectives of others, and through communicating with others based on this understanding. In organisations, commercial and non-commercial, large and small, marketing is the function that links the organisation to the external environment. First, marketing is responsible for gathering and analysing data from many sources, such as social media. Then, based on this market research, marketing is responsible for developing products and services for many different customers, and then promoting these offerings in many ways, such as search engines. All organisations carry out marketing. You even have to market yourself! In this unit, students are introduced to a range of marketing topics, hopefully creating an interest to learn more in the specific marketing major units in following years.

What is the role of business in a just and humane society? Many of you are about to dedicate your lives to business, and the rest of you will work, in one way or another, with business. Yet many people believe that business is a morally suspicious activity, a suspicion evident in the common belief that business people need to "give back" to society. Is business an activity for which one must atone? Are people right to be suspicious of business? This course is designed to engage ideas from the Catholic tradition with perspectives drawn from moral philosophy, business, and economics. We will engage issues of faith and normativity both critically and constructively. Students will consider competing positions on faith and normative questions, will reflect on (or discover elements of) their own faith or non-faith, and will describe the extent to which they believe various claims are supported by faith or reason. This course responds to Pope John Paul II's Centesimus Annus (1991) and Pope Francis's Laudato Si (2015), which called on Catholic education to "safeguard the moral conditions for an authentic 'human ecology'" (Centesimus Annus, 38).

What is the role of business in a just and humane society? Many of you are about to dedicate your lives to business, and the rest of you will work, in one way or another, with business. Yet many people believe that business is a morally suspicious activity, a suspicion evident in the common belief that business people need to "give back" to society. Is business an activity for which one must atone? Are people right to be suspicious of business? This course is designed to engage ideas from the Catholic tradition with perspectives drawn from moral philosophy, business, and economics. We will engage issues of faith and normativity both critically and constructively. Students will consider competing positions on faith and normative questions, will reflect on (or discover elements of) their own faith or non-faith, and will describe the extent to which they believe various claims are supported by faith or reason. This course responds to Pope John Paul II's Centesimus Annus (1991) and Pope Francis's Laudato Si (2015), which called on Catholic education to "safeguard the moral conditions for an authentic 'human ecology'" (Centesimus Annus, 38).