Graduate Certificate in Business Management

Being an effective leader is essential in business and demands that an individual has a strong set of competencies including the ability to understand one's self, motivate others, understand organizational culture, and manage ambiguity. In this course, students begin their personal and professional transformation by closely examining their current strengths and weaknesses, values, decision-making processes, and approaches to dealing with difficult problems. Students also explore leadership in turbulent times by examining how effective leaders think as well as how various management styles impact situations and relationships within an organization.

Contemporary business environments are increasingly competitive, global, fast paced, and knowledge intensive. In these environments, effective use of human capital is vital to an enterprise's success and survival. In this course, students will explore practical issues related to developing individuals and managing collaboration and will examine the skills and strategies necessary to address them effectively. Students will examine ethical and legal implications of managing a diverse workforce including issues that arise from cross-cultural differences and virtual work settings. The importance of communication as a tool to manage internal and external relationships is emphasized as it relates to the effectiveness of managing people to achieve organizational goals.

In today's complex and uncertain environment, innovation is important to achieving business success. In this course, students will examine how to be an effective creative leader who can readily apply imagination to resolve complex problems. Additionally, students explore methods to establish a work environment conducive to creative thinking. Students will gain a set of proven methods, skills, and strategies that enable innovative breakthroughs to occur in a much more deliberate and predictable manner.

The need for information and dependence on information systems and enabling technologies are ubiquitous in business. Businesses use information systems to collect, process, store, and manage data, which can be aggregated and disseminated in the form of information to support effective decision making. Students in this course explore how to realize optimum benefit from information systems and technology to support and improve business decisions, processes, and services at all levels of business in alignment with business goals to achieve competitive advantage and sustainable business performance.