Master of Business Administration
CURRICULUM
36 CREDITS TOTAL
(3 – ENTRY, 6 – TOOLS, 21 – CORE, 1.5 – CAPSTONE ANALYSIS, 4.5 – ELECTIVES)
ENTRY COURSE (3 CREDITS)
BUS 791 The Strategic Context of the Organization (3 cr.)
TOOLS COURSES (6 CREDITS)
BUS 700 Financial Reporting for Executives (1.5 cr.)
ECON 704 Managerial Economics (1.5 cr.)
BUS 798 Business Communications (1.5 cr.)
BUS 712 Data-Driven Decision Making (1.5 cr.)
CORE COURSES (21 CREDITS)
BUS 731 Financial Management (3 cr.)
BUS 741 Operations & Process Management (3 cr.)
BUS 752 Cost Management (3 cr.)
BUS 754 Information Systems in Organizations (3 cr.)
BUS 761 Human Resource Management (3 cr.)
BUS 771 Marketing Strategy (3 cr.)
BUS 794 Strategic Management (3 cr.)
CAPSTONE ANALYSIS (1.5 CREDITS)
BUS 799 Capstone Analysis of Organizations (1.5 cr.)
ELECTIVE COURSES (4.5 CREDITS)
Elective credits allow you to customize your education by selecting from a variety of available courses. Contact the College of Business Graduate Programs Office at cobgrad@uwosh.edu for a full list of electives.
OPTIONAL – EMPHASES (9 CREDITS)
Emphases options are available in Health Care Management, Human Resource Management, International Business (currently unavailable), Marketing and Project Management.
Nine total credits are required to earn an emphasis. *Elective coursework (4.5 cr.) may be applied to the emphasis requirement.
Course Descriptions
Entry and Tools Course Descriptions
Below you will find brief descriptions for MBA courses. Please email cobgrad@uwosh.edu if you need a copy of a syllabus.
- BUS 700 Financial Reporting – 1.5 credits
Strategic decision-making is an ongoing process that involves creating strategies to achieve goals and altering strategies based on observed outcomes. This course is designed to facilitate an understanding of financial accounting concepts through their application in financial statement analysis and the strategic decision-making process. - BUS 712 Data-Driven Decision Making – 1.5 credits
An accelerated exposure to the fundamental statistical techniques essential to management decision-making, including descriptive statistics, basic probability, frequency distributions, inference, estimation, confidence intervals, basic hypothesis testing and introduction to forecasting.
- BUS 791 The Strategic Context of the Organization – 3 credits
- Too often managers think of organizations as consisting of a series of independent silos. Each silo optimizing their performance, often at the cost of overall organizational performance. Using strategic planning as the context, the objective of this course is to help you understand: how each functional area contributes to planning, to plan implementation, why all functional areas are interdependent and why thinking at the organizational level- in addition to the functional level – is essential to maximize organization performance and to the enhancement of your career. Learn to appreciate and utilize, not be frustrated by the diversity in perspectives associated with the functional areas in business.
BUS 798 Business Communications – 1.5 credits
This course introduces students to best practices in business communication to help them learn and develop skills to communicate more effectively and persuasively in both written and spoken business communication. This includes learning to organize and write informative and persuasive business messages, to construct effective arguments using accurate and compelling rhetorical relationships, to understand and use style techniques to structure efficient prose and presentations, and to incorporate elements of logic, character, and emotions to enhance credibility and efficiency in all forms of business communication. This course emphasizes and provides opportunities to practice these communication skills in a variety of common business settings including when negotiating, working within or managing work teams, working with others in different cultures, writing formal and informal documents, and giving formal presentations.
ECON 704 Managerial Economics – 1.5 credits- This course is designed to teach you the underlying philosophy of business. Economics is a way of strategic thinking. Applying economic analysis to a wide array of business problems and decisions can be used to increase your company’s profitability. Our presentation of economic concepts provides a language and a system of logic for organizing ideas relevant to the business world. The economic way of thinking and organizing information underlies all of the other business disciplines, from finance to marketing to HR. Success or failure in business depends on the position of the firm and the management of its resources. Economics teaches us to think systematically and strategically about achieving competitive advantage through the management of firm resources. This includes decision making under uncertainty, costs, pricing, market analysis, and strategic interactions with competitors.
Core & Capstone Course Descriptions
- Below you will find brief descriptions for MBA courses. Please email cobgrad@uwosh.edu if you need a copy of a syllabus.
- BUS 731 Financial Management – 3 credits
A financial approach to business management with an emphasis on decision-making within the firm. The course examines the financial theory and techniques of analysis underlying the management of assets and financing a business unit.
BUS 741 Operations & Process Management – 3 credits
The operations (production) function of organizations is studied for both manufacturing and non-manufacturing systems (services). The primary focus is on the management of processes used to provide quality goods and services. Topics include the following: operations planning and scheduling; supply chain management; determining and classifying core processes; managing processes; material requirements planning (MPR) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP); forecasting; inventory management; just-in-time (JIT); project management; product, service and process design; quality improvement; manufacturing strategies; and location decisions. - BUS 752 Cost Management – 3 credits
Cost Management focuses on the use of quantitative methods to access costs and benefits to support strategic decision making. The quantitative toolkit includes concepts of capacity and utilization, traditional and modern methods of cost assignment, present value analysis of relevant cash flows, and real options. Students integrate the results of quantitative analyses with considerations of strategic fit, employee relations, community relations, and supplier/customer relations to develop action plans and recommendations.
BUS 754 Information Systems in Organizations – 3 credits
In this course, we will explore the intersection of business and information systems – how are business decisions and strategies influenced by our increasingly digital and interconnected world? How do new and emerging technologies influence the competitive landscapes in various industries? The course has two objectives: first, to understand the relationship between information technology and business strategy and second, to understand effective management of the IT function within the organization.
BUS 761 Human Resources Management – 3 credits - This course is designed to provide non-human resources managers with the skills necessary to successfully manage human resources. The course recognizes the growing need for managers, supervisors, team leaders and the typical employee to understand the core competencies of human resources. The course emphasizes the relationship between human resources strategy and business strategy with a focus on the role human resources management plays in supporting the implementation of business objectives.
BUS 771 Marketing Strategy – 3 credits - Integrated approaches to planning and implementing marketing strategies and tactics. Emphasis is on use of marketing information systems, modeling and quantitative techniques in the identification and exploitation of environmental opportunities and on formulation of strategies in product development, physical distribution and channel management, marketing communication and pricing.
BUS 794 Strategic Management – 3 credits- This course is intended to be a capstone experience which provides students the opportunity to apply the concepts and techniques they have learned throughout the MBA program. It is also intended to expose students to new thinking on strategy and special contexts for strategic choice and implementation. There will be a heavy emphasis on experiential activities. The need to effectively integrate material from a variety of courses will be critical to success in this course.
BUS 799 Capstone Analysis of Organizations – 1.5 credits
Through written and oral case analysis, you will demonstrate your mastery of the UW Oshkosh MBA Program Learning Objectives. You will also revisit work from throughout the program and form connections among the various functional disciplines to develop integrated solutions to organizational dilemmas.
Elective Offerings
Below is a summary of electives offerings. Please contact cobgrad@uwosh.edu if you would like additional information about a listed course. Most electives are 1, 1.5 or 2 credits.
BUS 694: International Business Study Tour
BUS 735: Financial Statement Analysis
BUS 735: Mutual Fund Investing
BUS 758: Project Management
BUS 759: Advanced Topics in Project Management
BUS 760: Project Execution and Control
BUS 764: Agile Project Management
BUS 766: Project Portfolio Management
BUS 767: Employee Training and Development
BUS 769 Seminar in Management Topics
BUS 769: Business and Ethics
BUS 769: Introduction to Financial Fraud
BUS 769: The Role of the CEO: Conversations with CEOs
BUS 769: Corporate Venturing
BUS 769: E-Business Fundamentals for Managers
BUS 769: Fundamental Methods of Forecasting
BUS 769: Fundamentals of Health Information Technology Management
BUS 769: Health Care Finance and Economics
BUS 769: Managing Technology in Turbulent Times
BUS 769: Selling Ideas at Work
BUS 769: Work-Family Issues in Contemporary Times
BUS 769: Managing Stress in the Workplace
BUS 769: Communicating for Success: Writing For Results
BUS 769: Sustainability and Organizational Management
BUS 769: Contract Law for Managers
BUS 769: Health Care Organization and Delivery
BUS 769: Intro to the Law, Management and Marketing of Nonprofits and NGOs
BUS 769: Supply Chain Management
BUS 769: Quantitative Business Analysis
BUS 769: Leading the Healthcare Workforce
BUS 769: Informing Healthcare Decisions with Data Analytics
BUS 769: Addressing Contemporary Issues and Trends in Healthcare
BUS 774: Strategies and Tactics of Pricing
BUS 777: Consumer Behavior
BUS 790: Organizational Leadership and Change
BUS 796: Independent Study in Business Administration
Offered on rotation starting in fall 2024
BUS 800: Organizational Perspectives on Leadership
BUS 801: Leadership Professional Development Lab
BUS 802: Team Leadership Lessons from the Field
BUS 803: Ethical and Socially Responsible Leadership
BUS 804: Leadership CEO Conversations
BUS 805: Leading Organizational Change
Info Sys 501: Python for Data Analytics
Info Sys 502: Data Visualization
Info Sys 503: Data Modeling with Python
Info Sys 515: Database Systems in Business
Emphases (optional)
Emphases currently available in the MBA Program include: Health Care Management, Human Resource Management, International Business (currently unavailable), Marketing and Project Management.
Characteristics of the emphases include:
- Emphases consist of nine elective credits. *Elective coursework (4.5 cr.) may be applied to the emphasis requirement.
- The nine credits of electives comprising an emphasis will be offered in a three-year period of time in-person or online in order to satisfy student needs for timely offerings.
- The UW Oshkosh MBA Program collaborates with two MBA programs in the UW System forming the UW System MBA Consortium, a fully online MBA program: UW-Eau Claire and UW-LaCrosse. Most of the online electives offered are taught by the MBA Consortium.
- The emphasis in healthcare management was developed in cooperation with the UW Oshkosh Master in Public Administration Program.
- An emphasis will be recognized on the student’s transcript.
- Emphases can be completed either before or after graduation. Please talk to your advisor about timeline requirements.
Emphasis in Health Care Management
Take nine credits from the following courses:
- BUS 769 Health Information Technology Management (2)
- BUS 769 Health Care Finance & Economics (2)
- BUS 769 Health Care Organization & Delivery (2)
- BUS 793 Law, Regulations & Ethics (1.5)
- MPA 729 Health Care Agency Organization and Management (3)
- MPA 762 Health Care Administration Law (3)
- MPA 773 Health Care Policy (3)
Emphasis in Human Resource Management
Take nine credits from the following courses:
- BUS 767 Advanced Human Resources Topics (1-3)
- BUS 767 Employee Training and Organizational Development (2)
- BUS 769 Business & Ethics (1.5)
- BUS 769 Work-Family Issues in Contemporary Times (1)
- BUS 769 Health Care Organization and Delivery (2)
- BUS 769 Conversations with CEOs (1.5)
- BUS 694 International Business Study Tour (project must be HR-related) (1.5 or 3)
- BUS 793 Law, Regulations & Ethics (1.5)
- MPA 742 Human Resource Management in the Public Sector (3)
Emphasis in International Business
Currently unavailable
Take nine credits from the following courses:
- BUS 769 Business and Ethics (1.5)
- BUS 694 International Study Tour (1-3) [can be taken multiple times as long as destinations are different]
- BUS 774 Strategies & Tactics of Pricing (2)
Note: If you do not go on an international study tour it is difficult to earn an emphasis in International Business.
Emphasis in Marketing
Take nine credits from the following courses:
- BUS 774 Seminar in Marketing Topics (1.5 – 3)
- BUS 774 Strategies & Tactics of Pricing (2)
- BUS 777 Consumer Behavior (1.5)
- BUS 769 Corporate Venturing (project/paper must be marketing-related) (1.5)
- BUS 769 Business & Ethics (1.5)
- BUS 769 Selling Ideas at Work (project/paper must be marketing-related) (1.5)
- BUS 758 Project Management (project/paper must be marketing-related) (1.5)
- BUS 759 Advanced Project Management (project/paper must be marketing-related) (1.5)
- BUS 694 International Business Study Tour (project must be marketing-related) (1.5 or 3)
Emphasis in Project Management
In today’s world of shrinking timelines and increasing complexity, projects are playing a key role across industries, professions and settings. The project management emphasis provides students with the knowledge and tools to successfully manage those projects. Through the courses in the emphasis students will learn how to effectively define, evaluate, guide and lead projects from ideation to implementation.
Required (3 cr):
- BUS 758 Project Management (1.5)
- BUS 760 Project Execution and Control (1.5)
Take at least 3 cr from the following:
- BUS 759 Advanced Topics in Project Management (1.5)
- BUS 764 Agile Project Management (1.5)
- BUS 766 Project Portfolio Management (1.5)
- BUS 769 Quantitative Business Analysis (1.5)
Take at least 3 credits from the following:
- BUS 769 Corporate Venturing (1.5)
- BUS 769 Managing Technology in Turbulent Times (2)
- BUS 790 Organizational Leadership & Change (1.5)
- BUS 769 Fundamentals of Health Information Technology Management (2)
- BUS 769 Contract Law for Managers (2)
- BUS 759 Advanced Topics in Project Management (1.5) *
- BUS 764 Agile Project Management (1.5) *
- BUS 766 Project Portfolio Management (1.5) *
- BUS 769 Quantitative Business Analysis (1.5) *
*Can be taken if not taken above