This course integrates, through theory and its application, the various topics, concepts, and modalities that make up the Management discipline. Its purpose is twofold: 1) to provide all business students with a strong grounding in how individuals and organizations function to support the strategic goals of business, and 2) to provide a foundation for further study by management majors and minors. The course introduces students to team/group work; the relationship of business to local, national, and global communities; the ethical implications of business decisions and models; organizational behavior; human resource management; leadership and organizational culture.

Students may take two semesters of internship, approved by the department. Students must be matriculated in the Dolan School of Business and have a GPA of 2.5 or higher. Enrollment by permission only.

This course introduces students to how effective management of people can contribute to firm performance and competitive advantage. The course explores human resource management activities: human resource planning, recruiting, selection, training, performance appraisal, compensation, and labor relations. Through extensive use of cases, simulations, and exercises, students actively learn to implement various human resource management strategies to better serve organizational and employee interests.

This course prepares students for the task of leading and managing people. The purpose of the course is to address advanced organizational behavior topics as well as to illuminate the research and practice associated with effective leadership. The first segment of the course reviews the leadership literature, including trait theory, aspects of leadership style, leader emergence, contingency theories, and charismatic/transformational leadership practices. The second segment involves skill practice in managing people in the areas of communication, conflict resolution, empowerment, delegation, influence, teamwork, problem solving, and diversity issues. The third and final segment explores strategic leadership from the CEO perspective, and addresses how leaders create change and transform organizations.

Students may take two semesters of internship, approved by the department. Students must be matriculated in the Dolan School of Business and have a GPA of 2.5 or higher. Enrollment by permission only.

This capstone course, required for senior level students in the Dolan School of Business, integrates the business core through the concept of strategic management. It offers an opportunity for students to put together all they have learned in their discipline and to see the "big picture" of how business organizations function. The primary goal is to prepare students to think like top managers and to understand that strategic decision-making encompasses all parts of the organization, internal and external, bringing together all disciplines of management. The course includes lectures, readings, cases, and a capstone group project. Open to matriculated business majors only.

This course allows questions to be framed, and answers sought, with regard to the challenge of diversity in the work environment. The course uses readings, exercises, and real-world projects to formulate the following: a definition of diversity; an awareness of its impact on businesses and their managers; the identification of the challenges that diversity presents and the opportunities it allows for even more productive workplace interactions; and the necessary skills, attitudes, and patterns of critical thinking needed for effective leadership in this important area. The course presents issues in the specific real-life context of ethnic, racial, gender, and class groups.

This course prepares students for the job search while exploring theoretical issues in career development over the life span. Theories of career development covered include: life stage and career stage models, aspects of politics that shape careers, issues of derailment, technical career paths, gender issues in careers, mentoring, and new career models, such as the boundaryless career, the protean career, and the kaleidoscope career. Students undertake a resume revision process, develop a sample cover letter, participate in workshops on Internet job searching techniques, and practice mock interviews. An in-class session with members of the Career Planning Center is included. Students may also receive credit for a job shadowing assignment, attendance at Career Fairs, and other career-related activities. Open to management majors and minors only.

This course provides a deep dive into several key HR areas important for those entering this field: Equal Employment Opportunity legislation/regulation, Strategic Staffing (strategies, recruiting and selection practices), HR Analytics, and Performance Appraisal approaches and trends. The course will also cover a few critical entry-level competencies needed for the HR professional, as well as review how HR models, roles, and functions operate in various types of organizations. We will seek to cover career paths and roles within various companies, from small start-ups to global Fortune 100 firms. Course outcomes should help students in determining specific interest in certain HR paths, gaining skills in this course to help differentiate themselves in competing for jobs in the marketplace.

This course explores Talent Acquisition (TA) strategies and methods, equipping students with the knowledge to understand how to source, recruit, assess, select, and onboard both internal and external talent, which best align with organizational goals and drive competitive advantage. In today’s evolving talent landscape, the ability to attract and retain high-performing candidates is crucial for sustaining business success. Emphasizing strategic staffing models and competency frameworks, this course guides students through the entire TA lifecycle—from talent identification and assessment to onboarding and development. Students will also examine how technology, data analytics, and Artificial Intelligence have reshaped recruitment and evaluation practices.

This course is a practical introduction to the problems, practices, and opportunities that exist for early stage startups which are examined from conception of the opportunity through customer discovery and customer validation utilizing an experiential learning approach. Participants will explore business model possibilities for a venture of their own devising. Emphasis will be placed on clear statement of hypotheses, effective testing of the problem the venture aims to address, and appropriate testing of the product/service developed to address the problem in order to develop suitable product-market fit. Student teams will assess and iterate upon business model elements including value propositions, customer segments and customer relationships, in addition to channels that may be used to interact with or deliver products/services to customers. Although the course will not cover the launch of a scalable business, student teams will undertake real-world investigation and testing to discover customer wants and needs and to validate their conception of the problems and product/service solutions that their ventures would use to address those problems. Students will also gain experience with crafting business pitches and delivering those pitches via regular in-class presentations as they hone their ventures’ business models.

This course examines the tremendous opportunities that exist for creating value in the social sector. Using entrepreneurial frameworks and business metrics, social entrepreneurs are effecting change in domains that markets have failed to address. The objective of this course is to sensitize students to ways that firms can influence societal outcomes while continuing to be revenue generating, self-sustaining enterprises. The primary learning strategy will be through case presentations and discussions of current social entrepreneurs and their organizations. During the term, students will develop a business plan to support a viable social enterprise.

Building upon the Business Model Canvas of Osterwalder and Pigneur and the Lean Launchpad framework of Blank, Engel, and Dorf, this course provides students the skill sets necessary to progress from basic entrepreneurial ideation and validation to formalized product development with the concomitant required business models. Mechanisms are developed for identifying markets, assessing competition in those markets, and the associated market entry strategies. Included is the identification of key resources: financial, human, and intellectual capital; as well as the associated acquisition strategies. Key partnerships are identified in the categories of strategic alliances, "coopetition," joint new business development efforts, and key supplier relationships. Associated with this is the investigation of the choice between physical and web/mobile channels in getting products from company to customers, and the associated strategies of customer retention and growth. Revenue and pricing models, both in the business-to-customer and business-to-business contexts are discussed in detail.

This course provides a foundation for understanding family businesses, which represent over 80% of the world's free economies. The dynamics of first generation start-ups or multi-generational family businesses are often unique, yet tenuous to manage. Regardless of whether you are a member of the managing family or assuming a position within the firm, comprehension of the idiosyncrasies of successfully managing their complex operations is imperative. Through class discussions, case studies, articles, role plays and your research project based on auditing a locally-based family enterprise, this course will enable you to analyze and consider participating in a family business. Guest lectures from local family businesses will provide real-world application of the theories and concepts discussed in class.

The provinces of Italy offer a fascinating setting for the study of the family business model that forms the heart of large and small-scale businesses in Europe. This course will present an understanding of family businesses through the lens of large- and small-scale family-owned Italian businesses. Students will study generational issues in the family-driven wine-making regions of Tuscany, explore the fashion district of Milan, examine the small-scale family-run craft businesses in Florence, and contemplate the global challenges associated with this business model. The course will offer a rare opportunity to observe the nexus between entrepreneurship, family, and business, and will provide lessons in the notion of "tempo giusto." This faculty-led study abroad elective will begin online at Fairfield University and then move to Florence, Italy, for seven days during Spring Break. Over the course of six weeks, students will read material and take an exam on family business concepts online prior to venturing abroad, where they will examine firsthand the nature of Italian family businesses. The course will conclude with a group project paper upon our return that highlights a family business case in a particular industry.

This course provides an overview of topics related to environmental and social sustainability with a focus on how strategy and innovation at the business level help to create sustainable societies and infrastructures. This course has three major objectives: to increase students’ knowledge of key global sustainability related trends; to teach students to think strategically on environmental and social challenges; to help students understand the promises and limits of modern business approaches to sustainability.

This course examines the fundamentals of technology entrepreneurship, a global phenomenon that has driven vital changes in society by empowering individuals to seek opportunity in technological and business solutions when presented with what others see as insurmountable problems. Technology entrepreneurship, whether in a startup or established company, is a spirited approach to business leadership that involves identifying high-potential, technology-intensive commercial opportunities, gathering resources such as talent and capital, and managing rapid growth and significant risks using principled decision-making skills. This course is designed to be approachable for students from all majors who seek to understand the entrepreneurial process. Topics introduced in this course are not only relevant to future managers, marketers, and investors, but to the future engineer and scientist.

This course is a study of international laws, legal institutions, and the societal and cultural institutions that impact and regulate business activity throughout the world. The student is introduced to the risks of international business and how those risks differ from doing business domestically; the function and importance of public international law; the international commercial transaction and its potential problems; and the basic structure and principles of international trade law and negotiations for trade. Also discussed are the legal and ethical problems facing multinationals operating in a number of countries, including licensing and protection of international property rights, and a comparative analysis of host country employment laws. Special emphasis is placed on the developing countries and emerging markets, such as China, Russia, India, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and the Caribbean, with a comparative legal and cross-cultural perspective.

This course builds skills in negotiating and managing disputes and explores various theories concerning negotiation styles, strategy and tactics, alternative dispute resolution, and the major legal and ethical issues in the field. The course strengthens negotiation skills, introduces the many formal and informal processes available for dispute resolution, and develops managers' ability to resolve and prevent disputes. The heart of the course is a series of experiential exercises that create opportunities to practice and develop the principles learned in the course.

Negotiation is both an art and a science—a dynamic process of securing agreements between two or more interdependent parties who are seeking to maximize their outcomes. While negotiation can be challenging in any context, cross-cultural negotiation adds a distinctive layer of complexity. Cultural differences shape not only the strategic approaches parties bring to the table but also the underlying assumptions, communication styles, and expectations about what constitutes fairness, trust, and success. A negotiator who fails to account for these cultural dimensions risks misunderstanding or suboptimal agreements. Conversely, a culturally sensitive negotiator can leverage these differences to create innovative and mutually beneficial outcomes. This course immerses students in the practice of negotiation through weekly simulations, role-plays, and case discussions. Students will learn by doing—testing strategies in live exercises, experimenting with different approaches, and reflecting on outcomes in structured debriefs.

This course provides students with an understanding of the nonprofit sector and exposure to fundamentals in managing nonprofit organizations. It explores a broad range of topics including: the role of nonprofits in society, executive leadership and governance relationships in nonprofit organizations, the legal framework of nonprofits, human resource management of staff and volunteers, marketing and public relations, fundraising, budgeting and financial management, and strategic planning in the nonprofit sector. Special emphasis will be placed on leadership and the unique challenges that nonprofit leaders face in local, national, and global environments.

This course examines effective and efficient management within the culture of sports organizations. It distinguishes the management requirements in sports organizations. Current issues in the various sports industries are analyzed and the actions of the industries' management are reviewed and critiqued. Different types of organizational structures are studied and their method for motivating, managing, and evaluating the performance of employees, individually and in teams, is discussed. This course also identifies effective management styles and places emphasis on the importance of sound communication skills and goal setting. The fundamental purpose of this class is to provide students with an understanding of how to apply the principles of business and/or the elements of organization to sport. Over the semester, students will have the opportunity to explore basic theories of management, human resource management, politics, finance, marketing, resource acquisition (fundraising and corporate support), sports law, broadcast properties, media and publicity, future trends in facilities as well as philosophical, sociological, and culture considerations of sport. Open to sports leadership and management minors only.

This course covers theories and practices for effective compensation management. Topics include strategic perspectives of compensation systems, determining pay structure, job analysis, and job evaluation, design and administration, external pay competitiveness, designing pay levels, employee contributions and individual pay, subjective performance evaluation and merit pay, alternative reward systems, employee benefits, government's role and compliance, pay discrimination, budgets and pay administration, and union role in wages and salary administration.

This course explores the complexities of managing people in the global business arena. Globalization, through international alliances, mergers, joint ventures, and offshoring, is part of strategic management of the firm. A major challenge posed by global business is the need to respond to cultural and historical institutions and social justice issues in human resource management across countries. A broader and deeper understanding is called for in order to manage people in this globalized world. Strategic international human resource management (SIHRM) entails recruiting the best, motivating them to perform their best, and providing them with a rewarding and fulfilling career globally across countries. The HRM activities take on new meaning when applied in the global business arena where people from different social and historical institutional setup work. As the firm operates in global markets, hires foreign employees, or outsource work to foreign countries, SIHRM practices like global recruitment, training, compensation and benefits, performance management, and employee relations become more complex. In this course, students will analyze these complexities from the cultural, social, and organizational justice perspective and discuss SIHRM issues for global companies. Open to management majors only.

Globalization, the internationalization of markets and corporations, has changed the way modern corporations do business. This course examines major themes and issues in the area of cross-cultural management. It focuses on three perspectives: the values, attitudes, and behaviors that are common to a cluster of countries, specific to one country, or specific to a major cultural subgroup or subgroups within one country. It explores what happens when cultures clash, and the need to understand different approaches to doing business in a diverse world. Open to management majors only.

This course gives students an in-depth understanding of current issues and topics in management. The focus is on the application and analysis of managerial principles in contemporary problem solving. The faculty member teaching this course constructs course content around current developments in their research area. Topics may include decision-making in a chaotic environment, change management, organizational structure and design, health care, social justice, the political and social context of organizations, the consequences of the free market logic, leadership, the environment, diversity and gender, e-business, and managing virtual teams and organizations.

This special program involving independent study and research under faculty guidance is also intended for students accepted in an approved internship. Open only to seniors majoring in management and approved by the department chair. Students must have a GPA of 2.5 or higher.