Master of Science in Management
The Master of Science in Management (MSM) curriculum is uniquely designed to provide a foundation of essential business knowledge in just one year. The ten courses cover the most important concepts that you need to know in order to contribute to strategic business decisions in your organization or take on a managerial role. These management courses can be completed on campus, online or through a hybrid approach.
MSM Courses
30 credits total
All courses are 3 credits unless otherwise noted
Foundation courses (3 courses/9 credits)
This course is designed to help the entering MSM students to acquire a good intuitive grasp of statistics — what it is, how and when to apply statistical techniques to managerial situations, and how to interpret results. Various statistical and mathematical techniques will be presented to assist in solving problems encountered by corporate managers. Students need to demonstrate knowledge of the course concepts by knowing which decisions, comparisons and inferences to make in the presence of uncertainty.
This course provides the groundwork for a general understanding of economics. It deals with both aspects of the study of economics (micro and macroeconomics). Microeconomics explains economic decision making by the individual economic agents, and macroeconomics describes the working of an economic system and its behavior as a whole. In order to help students to get a better grasp of the pertinent discussions and follow them in a systematic order, the course is divided into five segments. 1) Introduction to Economics; 2) Market, Its Concept and Working, Comparative Statics, Market Failure and Discussion of Efficiency; 3) Product & Factor Markets and Their Structure; 4) Macroeconomic Measurement, Models and Fiscal Policy; 5) Money, Banking and Monetary Policy.
Prerequisite: Foundations of Business Statistics.
As organizations look for ways to leverage data to create value, analytics has become an important source of competitive advantage for businesses. This course provides a hands-on introduction to the collections of predictive modeling techniques used to extract patterns and trends from data, enabling informed business decisions. The topics covered include data preparation, data visualization, predictive analytics and decision-making under uncertainty. The course consists of hands-on work with data and the SAS JMP Pro statistical software package.
By the end of the course, you will be able to identify opportunities for creating value using predictive modeling techniques, employ these techniques to derive results, interpret the results and comprehend the limitations of the results.
Core courses (6 courses/18 credits)
Managers are called upon to make important choices that require a well-informed understanding of how organizations are designed and operate. Toward that end, they must be knowledgeable of all of an organization’s functions (including accounting, finance, human resources, marketing, operations, etc.) and how these activities must be coordinated. Further, to achieve firm goals, managers are required to have a profound understanding of the industry and professional environment. This course introduces the functional areas of an organization, seeks to develop external environmental analytical skills and proposes theoretical and practical paradigms to effectively manage in an increasingly competitive global environment.
In today's dynamic and competitive economy, the ability of an organization to effectively leverage their existing and emerging information technologies is a critical success factor in gaining and sustaining a strategic advantage. This course introduces students to important concepts and techniques needed to understand and leverage information technology within an organizational context. Students will learn the fundamentals of design and implementation of information systems in the modern organization, business process improvement through the use of information technology, organizational data modeling, project management concepts, data governance mechanisms, technology-enabled change management among others.
Investigation and consideration of individual and group behavior within an organizational context is explored. Focus is on the understanding and application of knowledge issues including motivation, group process, leadership, communication, performance enhancement, power and influence, creativity, conflict management, change, diversity and global issues. Integration of theory and practice from a managerial perspective are considered.
Law provides a set of rules for behavior in society. Ethics presents a menu of options for social actors. Law concerns what we are obligated to do; ethics concerns what we should do. This course presents the disciplines of law and ethics as complementary strategic tools to guide business leaders in making sound decisions as well as exercising moral judgment.
With more and more products and services chasing fewer dollars, marketing strategy and plan execution is more important than ever. The goal of marketing is to plan, build, manage and grow ethical and profitable customer relationships over time.
Marketing Management introduces students to the great variety of functions that must be managed in a marketing organization. Activities and issues addressed include product marketing and management, customer satisfaction, pricing, product launches, digital marketing, marketing information systems, channel management, marketing administration, industry marketing, marketing communications, lead management, event marketing and marketing campaign strategy.
This course will first address the structure and content of the four general purpose external financial reports: Statement of Income, Statement of Retained Earnings, Balance Sheet and Statement of Cash Flows. Key metrics from these four reports will be discussed as they relate to both investor and management decisions. Cost analysis will be performed by classifying costs according to: function, behavior and relevance to managerial decision making. Some specific quantitative finance models studied in this part of the course will include but not be limited to: cost-volume- profit, CVP analysis, ABC overhead models, capital budgeting, time value of money analysis, net present value analysis, payback period, internal rate of return, degree of operating leverage, margin of safety, incremental analysis for decision making and other techniques to help management plan, direct and control operations. This course will balance the financial reporting concepts that underlie GAAP for external reporting with managerial accounting concepts that are essential to internal reports and executive decision-making.
Capstone (1 course/3 credits)
Internship
Supervised internship in a company of the student’s choice.
International Travel
International Travel courses are organized by the School of Management in collaboration with the relevant university office.
The Business Plan
In this course, students will have a chance to complete a comprehensive business plan for a new venture. All arrangements for providing companies for the above project are made through the Cal Lutheran MSM program office.
Executive Roundtable
This course intends to serve both as an elective for the Management and Finance emphasis areas in the MSM program or as an optional capstone for Finance majors. Of course, all emphasis areas are welcome to take the course for credit, and all students (including undergraduates) are invited to attend the presentation and subsequent discussion for each executive speaker.
Consulting to Business
This course is a study of unique characteristics of closely held business and techniques of the consulting process. Students will apply academic theory to business operations by completing actual consulting assignments for local businesses through the Small Business Institute.
MSM Project
Identified and supervised by a School of Management faculty member.
Additional foundation course
The foundation course may be required for individuals whose academic records reflect the need for preparation. This course is in addition to the 30 credits required for program completion.
This course provides the student with knowledge, skills and abilities to academic and professional practices that are needed in order to succeed in the Cal Lutheran School of Management's graduate programs. The course focuses on the development of written and oral communication skills, computer skills and creative and critical thinking. Students will learn how to plan, research, organize, prepare and professionally present major academic reports using current presentation technologies for individual assignments.
Request Information
To learn more about the Graduate Degree Programs offered by the Cal Lutheran School of Management and download a brochure, please fill out the form. You can also get in touch with an enrollment specialist directly by calling us at 805-521-9856.
