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Learning Goals

Business Program Learning Goals

Bachelor of Arts Learning Goals

Critical thinking/analysis goals:
- View social and business problems from multiple perspectives. (circumspection)
- Model and simplify problems to facilitate understanding and solution. (modeling)
- Use graphs and numbers to describe and clarify business problems. (numeracy-expository)
- Interpret numerical data and statistical information and explain their managerial implications. (numeracy-interpretive)
- Develop hypotheses about business problems and issues and conduct systematic and discriminating research to test those hypotheses. (systematic research)
- Employ ethical reasoning when engaging in decision-making (ethical reasoning)
- Develop the ability to recognize information needs and to locate, evaluate and effectively use information. (information literacy)

Communication/writing goals:
- Writing
  - Mobilize and organize evidence and logical arguments to persuasively support a position or recommendation. (ideas and arguments)
  - Write clearly organized papers with coherent, well developed paragraphs, logical transitions and little redundancy. (rhetorical control)
  - Construct persuasive, grammatically correct sentences which are easily understood by the target audience. (language control)Critically review and edit the written work of colleagues. (editing)
- Oral Presentation
  - Make concise, persuasive presentations to critical audiences. (presentation)
  - Engage thoughtful extemporaneous dialog. This requires both active listening and "thinking on your feet". (active listening/dialog)

Business Theory and Practice
- Understand information presented in corporate financial statements, prospectuses, investment surveys, business plans, and the financial press. (financial information)
- Apply principles of economic analysis to model and solve management problems. (Economic principles)
- Use quantitative methods to model management problems: inferential statistics, optimization, constrained optimization. (quantitative methods)
- Apply social and behavioral theories to understand the management of individuals and organizations. (social/behavioral theories)
- Understand the management and measurement of value creation processes within the organization and allocation of the created value across owners, other investors, and stakeholders. (value creation)
- Appreciate how owners, customers, employees, competitors and governments are stakeholders in an organization's success, and how such stakeholders influence business decisions across national boundaries. (stakeholder perspective)

MBA Learning Goals

General Knowledge Goals
- Critical Thinking -- Evaluate the quality of ideas and arguments and view problems and issues from multiple perspectives. (10)
- Interdisciplinary Focus -- Analyze and solve problems by integrating concepts from multiple disciplines. (5)
- Communication -- Communicate ideas both orally and in written form in a clear, concise, persuasive manner and understand and convey complex arguments using both quantitative and qualitative sources of information. (12)
- Ethical Reasoning -- Employ ethical reasoning when engaging in decision-making. (4)
- Self-Awareness -- Develop personal and social competencies to enhance management of oneself and of one's interpersonal relationships in organizational settings. (2)
Business Knowledge Goals
- Business Theory -- Understand and apply the most current theories that affect business, including theories relating to legal issues; financial models; social, behavioral & economic systems; marketing frameworks; and strategic developments. (7)
- Business Research -- Conduct and evaluate research using appropriate methods and tools and gather relevant information from both primary (e.g., interviews, surveys, etc.) and secondary (e.g., theoretical and empirical scholarly work, databases, etc.) sources. (4)
- Quantitative Analysis -- Use statistical and mathematical models and techniques in conducting research to inform business decisions. (8)
- Global Perspective -- Understand how trade theory and policy, international institutions (e.g., WTO, EU, and regional trade agreements) and national differences in culture and economic/legal/political systems affect business strategy, operations, and performance. (3)
- Value-creation Perspective -- Analyze and evaluate opportunities for the creation, delivery, and retention of value-added activities in the organization. (3)
- Stakeholder Perspective -- Understand how stakeholders such as customers, competitors, employees, shareholders and governments influence business decisions, globally and locally, and how managers influence these groups. (3)
- Technology Perspective -- Understand how to manage innovation, analyze new and emerging technologies, and integrate existing technologies with corporate strategy, structure, processes, and human capital. (9)
- Information & Decision-making Perspective -- Understand the dynamics of human information processing & effective decision-making (i.e., perceptions, sources of bias, framing, individual style, etc.) and apply appropriate tools in making decisions. (2)
- Leadership & Teamwork Perspective -- Apply psychological and sociological theory to develop and lead individuals, teams and organizations and to be an effective member of a team or organization. (5)
- Entrepreneur's Perspective -- Understand the process of creating new businesses and new ventures within existing firms. (2)