Course of Studies

Course Descriptions

Management Challenges and Organizational Behavior

This subject provides an overview of various ideas, theories and concepts necessary to understand the complex nature of today's organizations and management systems in a global network economy. Its purpose is to raise questions and stimulate interest, not to deliver ready-made answers and unequivocal solutions. Main issues discussed during the classes include: contemporary mega-trends and their consequences for the economy, complexity and change, crisis within bases of the industrial revolution, new management methods in a network economy, virtual organizations, human aspects of new (virtual) businesses.

A knowledge indispensable for a good manager exceeds by far the limits of a narrowly understood management. Stanley M. Davis, author of a breakthrough Future Perfect, states that in order to understand management and organizations it is necessary to understand dimensions of the universe and the manner they shape the future. “That is not a philosophical statement ─ he writes ─ I only tried to show the importance of such orientation in management.” During the classes we will follow this way of thinking.

Human Resource Management

The subject presents human resources management issues from the point of view of a manager. Organizations to a very large extent are interested in performance and effectiveness of their employees. While creating and implementing employment strategies, numerous various factors such as business external environment, characteristics of employees, organizational culture, general business operating strategy, production technology and work organization should be taken into account.

During the classes students will learn to think about human resource management in a strategic context.

Macroeconomic Business Environment

This course constitutes an introduction to basic macroeconomics. The purpose is to present key macroeconomic concepts and propositions. Subject matter of the classes includes: tools of an economist (e.g. indexes, nominal and real variables, interest rates, compound interest); measurement of nation.s income and measurement of welfare (among others: Gross Domestic Product, Human Development Index); Keynesian model of economy (among others: short-term equilibrium in closed and open economy, multiplier); monetary system (among others: functions of money, functioning of money market); labor market (among others: causes of unemployment, consequences of unemployment), economic fluctuations in closed economy (among others: AD/AS model, business cycle); inflation (among others: causes of inflation, consequences of inflation); open economy (among others: gains from international trade, exchange rates); economic growth (among others: measurement of economic growth, determinants of economic growth).

Managerial Economics

The course equips students with a set of tools and basic principals of economics aimed to provide a general view of competition and cooperation in different environments. The classes focus on practical applications of these principles.

The course is divided into four main areas: (i) market microstructure, (ii) industrial structure and competitive strategy, (iii) uncertainty and information, and (iv) incentives.

Seven major economic concepts are introduced: (1) Pricing decisions, with emphasis on marginal revenue and marginal cost conditions. (2) Competitive strategy, with emphasis on entry decisions and repeated interactions. (3) Property rights, with emphasis on solutions to the “free-riding” problem. (4) Bargaining, with emphasis on backwards induction, common knowledge, and reciprocity. (5) Risk sharing, with emphasis on efficiency gains. (6) Information, with emphasis on incorporating information and revising beliefs. (7) Incentives, with emphasis on asymmetric information and incentive contracting.

Business Law

The purpose of the course is to give the students a firm grasp of the following key areas of business law: terms and conditions of the commencement and conducting of business activity in Poland; concepts common for entrepreneurs (National Court Register, enterprise, business name, commercial power of attorney); Corporate Law; selected problems regarding Bankruptcy and Arrangement Law; selected concepts of the Banking and Insurance Law.

Business Ethics

The subject pertains to ethical aspects of a decision-making process in a market economy and constitutes an attempt to answer the following questions: Does an ethical conduct mean more than a lawful conduct? Are managers charged with a responsibility before entities other than shareholders? How may managers balance possibly conflicting obligations? Is there any logical (or empirical) connection between an ethical conduct and profitability?

The aforementioned issues will be described in course of discussions on ethical dilemmas emerging in many various every day business situations.

Data Analysis and Reasoning in Business

The aim of this course is to acquaint students with exploratory data analysis, basic statistical inference procedures, regression analysis and analysis of time series in a business environment.

The classes will start from an overview of graphical and numerical data presentation methods. A remaining part of the classes will be dedicated mainly to statistical inference, with a particular focus on sample statistics distribution. After explaining statistical distribution, a distribution of average sample will be discussed in detail. Then basic statistical procedures such as estimation of confidence intervals and testing hypotheses will be presented. They constitute the bases for understanding subsequent issues discussed in further parts of the course: linear regression, multiple regression and analysis of time series. All of these techniques will be presented in the context of their practical business exploitation.

Management Information Systems

Knowledge of information systems is crucial for creating and managing a successful, competitive firm in the current networked world. The classes aim to provide managers of various specialties and functions with knowledge of information technologies and information systems. A major topic involves a discussion of information technology and system issues that are transforming the current business environment. Main issues include: managing the Digital Firm, using IT to create the firm.s strategy, business process reengineering, Digital Markets and Electronic Commerce.

Effective Decisions

The subject is dedicated to an enumeration and investigation of barriers existing in a process of adopting effective business decisions. Main accents are put on forms specific to business decision-making processes and approaches to overcome and cope with practical difficulties.

Purposes of the course: introduction of most important concepts within a decision theory and placing them in the context of business activities and explanation of basic decision-making mechanisms; shaping skills in the scope of selecting appropriate computer techniques, methods and tools supporting decision-making processes; development of teamwork skills through a supervised participation in a group decision-making process.

Financial Accounting

This course constitutes an introduction to the information system of accounting used by companies to measure and report on their performance and economic potential. Taking into account information needs of various external entities such as shareholders, creditors and potential investors operating nowadays in the global economy, the course initially covers the main rules for building financial statements which makes it possible to compare them internationally.

The scope of the course includes the following issues: the concept of accounting policy, presentation of a balance sheet method, presentation of current and balance sheet valuation of assets, equity and liabilities, and provisions of the law referring to them, information capacity of balance sheets, profit and loss accounts, cash flow statements and equity changes statements.

The purpose of the course is to present a globally harmonized terminology and methodology used in the information system of accounting and to explain that as a result of accounting databases the performance of various enterprises can be diagnosed and evaluated, even if they are different in terms of scope, range and geographical area of operations.

Managerial Accounting

This course examines management accounting and related analytical techniques for decision making and control in organizations. Management accounting is concerned with the provisions and use of information to managers. The course focuses on how managers use accounting information to make informed business decisions and to monitor the performance of an organization.

The course discusses and applies both conventional and innovative management accounting techniques to practical problems and scenarios. It also defines profit management and performance evaluation systems from a strategic perspective, in light of dramatic changes within the business environment including deregulation, globalization, reducing product life cycles, continuous improvement objectives and increasing customer awareness. Topics covered by the course include accessing product and customer profitability, activity-based management, strategic cost management, transfer pricing within organization and the balanced scorecard.

Financial Management

The subject constitutes an introduction to a theory and practice of financial management. During the classes the following topics will be discussed: value of money in time, valuation of bonds and shares, risk and income, optimal investment decisions, financial analysis, financial planning, capital cost, capital structure, valuation of goodwill, mergers and acquisitions.

Strategic Marketing Management

The main purpose of the subject is to acquaint students with strategic marketing concepts and to present fundamental principles of marketing analysis, creation and implementation of strategies and planning in various market conditions. The lectures will be enriched by case studies.

Subject matter of the classes includes: marketing management process; company marketing environment; behaviors of individual and institutional buyers; marketing researches; segmentation, targeting and market positioning; marketing programs: product shaping, developing a new product, pricing, establishing distribution channels, preparing promotional activities (advertisement, personal selling etc.); market strategies referring to entry to new markets, strategies on mature markets and innovative approaches and tools in marketing.

Operations and Logistics Management

The key purpose of this course is to provide students with knowledge on operations and logistics management and to determine relations between logistics - operations and other functional areas in an enterprise, particularly marketing and finance.

After completing that course students should understand issues connected with the physical movement of goods and its influence on company marketing and operating activities as well as the company.s financial position. They should also be able to analyze compromises between different functions and activities within an enterprise as well as relations with other participants of a distribution channel and should learn to use analytical techniques to solve the aforementioned problems within the area of operations and logistics management.

Managing in an International Environment

Course starts with basic interpretations and explanations of foreign direct investment seen as the dominant factor of business internationalization and globalization. Different motivations of international expansion and various mentalities in cross-border management are discussed.

The next part of the course focuses on international strategy and organization. Students are offered a set of frameworks to help them understand why and how firms go overseas and how they organize for international business. Cultural, personal and career challenges faced by international managers are identified and analyzed.

Then the discussion turns to current trends in the global, highly integrated economy. The impact of regional integration, trade barriers reduction and technological development on economic agents at micro, mezo and macro levels is presented. Special attention is paid to the .right choice. of economic policy direction and policy instruments which make the agents internationally competitive.

The course ends with a day-long business-government negotiations simulation.

Strategic Management

Strategic Management is the study of the functions and responsibilities of senior management in the firm. It focuses on the decisions and processes that determine the direction of the organization and shape its future. The central themes of strategic management include definition of corporate vision, setting of goals, designing action plans consistent with broad corporate aims and execution of them.

The purpose of that course is to create informed participants in the creation and implementation of corporate & business strategy. The course assumes that the participants will broaden their understanding of the strategic management process. This will be achieved through a strategic analysis of a macro- and competitive environment of companies, evaluation of such companies. strategic resources and potential, shaping strategic development directions through appropriate strategic selections and planning the process of strategic changes.

Abilities to conduct a strategic analysis and creative synthesis of various factors into one consistent concept, individual and team work, searching for information, formulating problems and making decisions under time pressure, uncertainty, ambiguity and risk should strengthen inborn leader skills of participants and help them to beat their competition. Participants of a computer simulation game will also share emotions accompanying strategic management decisions on the real market.