Module 100:  General Management and Leadership

 

100.1        Corporate Strategies
100.1.1     Define competitive advantage and discuss the criteria that lead to competitive advantage
100.1.2     Understand the strategic management process in terms of setting directions
100.1.3     Understand the strategic management process in terms of formulating a strategy
100.1.4     Understand the strategic management process in terms of strategy implementation

100.2        Forms of Business Organizations
100.2.1     Compare and contrast the three major ownership forms of business, such as proprietorship, partnership, and corporations
100.2.2     Explain sole proprietorships and discuss their advantages and disadvantages
100.2.3     Explain partnerships and discuss their advantages and disadvantages
100.2.4     Explain the cooperative form of ownership
100.2.5     Explain corporations and discuss their advantages and disadvantages
100.2.6     Identify the different kinds of corporations with their distinguishing features

100.3        The History of Management
100.3.1     Discuss the origins of managerial thought
100.3.2     Discuss the scientific approach to management
100.3.3     Discuss the classical management theory
100.3.4     Discuss the neoclassical management theory
100.3.5     Discuss the behavioral approach to management
100.3.6     Discuss the decision-making approach to management
100.3.7     Discuss the integrative approach to management

100.4        The Nature of Management
100.4.1     Define the term management
100.4.2     Explain the major challenges facing managers
100.4.3     Identify and discuss the primary managerial functions
100.4.4     Explain the types of managerial roles
100.4.5     Discuss the dimensions of managerial jobs
100.4.6     Discuss the primary skills required to be an effective manager

100.5        Planning Skills
100.5.1     Define planning with its objectives and levels
100.5.2     Differentiate between strategic, tactical, and operational plans
100.5.3     Explain the planning process
100.5.4     Discuss the planning tools such as budgets and goals

 

100.6        Leading Skills
100.6.1     Define leadership and differentiate between leading and managing
100.6.2     Analyze a leader's sources of power and issues in using the power effectively
100.6.3     Compare and contrast the roles of the leaders, followers, and the situations in the overall leadership process

 

100.7        Controlling Skills
100.7.1     Define the control function of management
100.7.2     Describe the basic elements of the control process
100.7.3     Explain the concept of scope of control and differentiate among the strategic, tactical, and operational controls
100.7.4     Discuss the key factors in determining the effectiveness of controls

 

100.8        Motivating Skills
100.8.1     Define motivation and identify sources of motivation
100.8.2     Discuss motivational theories applicable to work situations, such as content theories and process theories
100.8.3     Compare and contrast the various approaches to reinforcement and describe their advantages and disadvantages of each approach
100.8.4     Learn how the situation influences motivation
100.8.5     Describe how values and attitudes toward work can influence motivation

 

100.9        Decision-Making Skills
100.9.1     Describe the models used in individual decision making
100.9.2     Identify issues in group decision making
100.9.3     Describe the contingency model of participative decision making
100.9.4     Discuss the strategies for improving decision making, including speed and quality

 

100.10      Communication and Negotiation Skills
100.10.1   Describe the basic model of communication, including its modes and media
100.10.2   Analyze the impact of the organizational context on communications
100.10.3   Identify key barriers to effective communication and know the approaches to overcome and improve them
100.10.4   Describe the basic process of negotiation

 

100.11      Groups, Teams, and Group Conflict
100.11.1   Describe the similarities and differences between groups and teams
100.11.2   Identify and compare the basic types of groups
100.11.3   Describe the factors that influence the group and team formation and development
100.11.4   Analyze the various behavioral and structural characteristics of groups and teams
100.11.5   Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different types of emerging groups and teams
100.11.6   Learn how to build and manage team competencies, handle group conflict, and improve the effectiveness of groups and teams

 

100.12      Managerial Ethics
100.12.1   Understand how the ethics of individuals develop, including ethical dilemmas and lapses
100.12.2   Discuss the basic approaches to ethical decision making
100.12.3   Discuss the various factors of moral intensity
100.12.4   Learn how individuals and firms can make better ethical decisions

 

100.13      The Business Environment
100.13.1    Describe the technological environment and its role in business
100.13.2    Describe the political and legal environment and its role in business
100.13.3    Describe the sociocultural environment and its role in business
100.13.4    Identify emerging challenges and opportunities in the business environment

 

100.14       Business Law
100.14.1    Understand the U.S. contract law with the elements required for the formation of contract along with the purpose of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC)
100.14.2    Explain common contract concepts including the statutes of frauds, the parol evidence rule, quasi contract, and promissory estoppel
100.14.3    Understand the requirements for performance of contracts and assignment of contract rights along with remedies for breach of contract
100.14.4    Understand the nature of intellectual property in terms of copyrights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets
100.14.5    Understand the nature of employment law in terms of rights and obligations of employees and employers
100.14.6    Understand the U.S. tort laws in general and specifically intentional torts such as personal, business, and property torts along with defenses available
100.14.7    Discuss product liability and strict liability along with defenses available
100.14.8    Describe the U.S. workers' compensation law
100.14.9    Describe the U.S. environmental law
100.14.10  Describe the U.S. security regulations both federal and state
100.14.11  Describe the U.S. bankruptcy law
 

100.15       Business Economics
100.15.1    Understand the key principles of economics
100.15.2    Understand a perfectly competitive market in terms of demand and supply curves, market equilibrium, and the market effects of changes in demand and supply
100.15.3    Understand price elasticity of demand and supply and know how to use elasticities to predict changes in equilibrium price, quantity, and revenue
100.15.4    Define the concept of economic cost and economic profit
100.15.5    Understand the short-run and long-run production and costs to decide whether to enter a market and how much output to produce
100.15.6    Understand the major characteristics of the four market strategies, such as perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly
100.15.7    Understand the concept of circular flow of production and income
100.15.8    Learn how to measure a nation's macroeconomic activity using the gross domestic product (GDP) approach
100.15.9    Learn how to measure a nation's macroeconomic activity using the national income approach
100.15.10  Learn how to measure a nation's real GDP and nominal GDP, including fluctuations in GDP and shortcomings of GDP
100.15.11  Learn how to define and measure unemployment, including its categories and costs
100.15.12  Define inflation and deflation, including the costs of inflation
100.15.13  Compute the inflation rate, the consumer price index, and the cost-of-living adjustments
100.15.14  Understand the role of U.S. fiscal policy and the federal budget
100.15.15  Define money and learn how banks create money, including the role of the Federal Reserve system
100.15.16  Understand the role of the money market and challenges in the monetary policy
100.15.17  Discuss the demand and supply model of the money market

 

100.16       Organizational Structure, Design, Change, and Development
100.16.1    Explain the concepts of organizational structure and design
100.16.2    Explain the concepts of differentiation and integration and their role in organizational structure and design
100.16.3    Describe the concepts of formalization, informalization, centralization, and decentralization, and discuss their interrelationships
100.16.4    Identify the common organizational structures and describe the strengths and weaknesses of each of these structures
100.16.5    Understand how network organizational structures increase the value chain activities and contribute to achieving a competitive advantage
100.16.6    Describe how environmental factors and the organization's strategy influence organizational structure
100.16.7    Understand what causes organizations to change, including internal and external forces
100.16.8    Discuss the focus of organizational changes, including technology, shared values and culture, strategy, structure, systems, and staff
100.16.9    Learn how to evaluate the need for change and describe the change process
100.16.10  Discuss the key approaches to overcome resistance to change
100.16.11  Outline the choices available in managing change
100.16.12  Describe the specific approaches to planned change, including organizational development, reengineering, and organizational learning

 

100.17       Project Management
100.17.1    Define a project and discuss its growing importance
100.17.2    Describe the project phases to complete a successful project work
100.17.3    Describe the project management tools such as Gantt charts and network diagrams
100.17.4    Learn how to construct a network diagram showing its activities and timeframes
100.17.5    Learn how to crash a project to reduce the time to perform certain activities
100.17.6    Learn the key formulas in a project

 

100.18       Quantitative Techniques in Business
100.18.1    Understand the roles, uses, and models of quantitative techniques in business
100.18.2    Understand the different methods of data presentation to management
100.18.3    Understand the need for management statistics and calculate the common types of statistics, such as mean, median, range, standard deviation, and index numbers
100.18.4    Understand the basic principles, terminology, and rules of probability, including how to use the Binomial and Normal distributions
100.18.5    Learn how to make decisions under uncertainty, including calculating expected value, using decision trees, and assessing the value of perfect information
100.18.6    Understand how to use statistics in conducting market research with different populations and samples
100.18.7    Learn how to use forecasting techniques with moving averages and time series models and methods
100.18.8    Learn how to use forecasting techniques with linear and nonlinear and with simple and multiple regression models
100.18.9    Understand how to formulate and solve a linear programming problem in business
100.18.10  Describe the principles, features, and development of simulation models