Welcome to MNG - 1101, a Doctorate Level course in the curriculum
for the Degree, Doctorate in Business Administration. I am pleased
to offer you this course, which will be a foundational course
for the remainder of your studies in the doctorate program. The
course draws on management and policy to cover topics that rather
than being static, like an encyclopedia, this base is dynamic
through time.
This program underlines the importance of basing knowledge-management
practice on the needs of both individuals and groups in an organization.
Exploiting knowledge, as opposed to just managing it, is a key
component in this course. The course divides knowledge into different
buckets, ranging from the tangible to the abstract: explicit knowledge
(such as scientific data or technical blueprints), endemic knowledge
(market-research data and customer-service know-how), experiential
knowledge (professional skills and technical expertise) and what
it calls “existential knowledge” (collective learning
and cultural assumptions). Leveraging knowledge involves learning
how these varieties interact, and how to turn them into thorough
strategies and policies.
In impeccably clear prose, the first book, “What Management
Is” will help you define the domain in which many people
spend their daylight hours.
This course portrays an optimistic discipline whose principles
can be applied just as effectively to the scheduling of cataract
operations at the Aravind Eye Hospital in India as they were before
the First World War to the manufacture of Henry Ford's Model T
cars. With the support of this book, this course will help managers
see the wood as well as the trees in their everyday work, and
help them to explore the wider management literature, with guidance
on which of it is useless (a comfortable majority) and where the
nuggets of wisdom lie.
This course conveys the heartening message that together we are
more than the sum of our parts. Strategic Management and Policy
is about making organizations work, making teams of skilled people
create more value than they could, working alone.
Management theories come and go, and Policies need
to keep refreshed, keeping in mind that there is no one best way
to organize. Currently, there is a loss of faith in numbers. Shenanigans
at World Com, Andersen and elsewhere have given the impression
that management is about pulling targets out of a hat and then
pulling numbers out of another hat to prove that you have achieved
the targets when in fact you haven't. Not so. Management is about
understanding people, defining clear Policies construed under
impeccable Strategy.
Failures of Strategy are often failures to face reality. This
echoes some of the most original current writing about management,
where the findings of psychology and sociology are applied to
the building of organizations.
As a Ph.D Student, you are required to look beyond the obvious.
Not simply accept information as is, but go to the core of things,
getting a hands-on on the raw material rather than its interpretation.
This is why this course is supported also by the reading of an
entertaining and enlightening book about Alexander the Great,
whose leadership and strategic genius made him one of history’s
greatest empire builders, and who has since influenced and inspired
a great number of people from different fields - business, politics,
and military.
Alexander the Great (356-323BC) is arguably the
greatest military strategist, tactician and ruler in world history.
He reigned over Greece, conquered the Persians, and marched as
far as India. His achievements have influenced and inspired a
great number of past and current business leaders. Many of the
business ideas and concepts associated with decision-making and
strategy used today by managers and executives have their origins
in Alexander the Great.
On top of his strategic and tactical acumen, Alexander’s
sensitivity towards people and cultures, and his ability to motivate
others, has made him one of the greatest figures in history whose
influence has shaped business and other key contemporary fields.
This
is a six-semester hour course. This course is allotted ten weeks
of time. You must complete all of the requirements for the course
successfully by the end of the ten-week period. The first day
of week one will begin the day that you register for the course,
or the day which you notify me that your text book(s) have arrived
and you are ready to begin your studies. Please be cognizant of
the time frame. It is rare that extensions of time are permitted,
unless you have good justification. Upon successful completion
of this course, you will be awarded six semester hours of credit.
There are two (2)
required textbooks for this course.
Book 1: What Management Is? By Joan Magretta. Publisher: Profile
Books. Hardback ISBN: 1861975597.
Book 2: Alexander the Great's Art of Strategy, by Bose Partha.
Publisher: Profile Books. ISBN: 1861974329.
There is a single
final examination for this course in the shape of a thesis. The
exam covers the material in the books “Alexander the Great's
Art of Strategy” and “What Management Is?”
You are required to have completed your thesis three days after
the end of the tenth week in the course.
The grading scale for
this course is as follows:
90-100% = A
80-89% = B
70-79% = C
Below 70% = Fail
I am available as a teacher, coach, and
mentor to assist you in meeting your goals for this course. Communication
is through email. Please keep my email address handy so that you
can contact me. If during your time in this course you change
your email address, please be sure to notify me right away.
Please write an essay on the following topic:
“Have ancient strategies influenced today’s strategic management thinking and policy making? If so, how?”
This should be laid out as a 25-page, single-spaced essay on an A4 page format.
Upon completion
of this course, you will be able to:
1). Understand the core of business strategy and policies.
2). Know when to ask personalized questions.
3). Understand how to develop and train professionals.
4). Know when to think about basic issues in strategy.
5). Know when and how to compete.
6). Know how do leaders assert their authority in their “First
Hundred Days."
7). Know what are the many styles of leadership a single person
can possess.
8). Know when and where must one choose a particular style?
9). Know what role does strategic deception play in competitive
situations?
10). Be able to act on a vision.
11). Reflect on the importance of training.
12). Understand and discuss trust in business and management.
13). Analyze strategic planning and tactics in business.
14). Learn ancient business strategies and understand how they
are reflected today.
15). Understand core business principles.
16). Seek the fundamental importance of good management and the
strategies they draw upon.
If you have any questions regarding this program, you may address
them to
admassistant@breyerstate.com.
An administrative faculty member will respond to all questions.
