Curriculum

Global Environment [2 credits]: As world citizens we are increasingly aware of the globalization of markets, economies, strategies and structures. A key to success in these changing times is to learn how to develop the capability to respond to changing environments. This class offers an overview of the issues encountered in transnational enterprises, with a concentration on understanding the nature of international business, and the development of cultural awareness. Students will understand the functional differences in transnational organizations and be able to identify key issues to be resolved in internationalizing, recognizing that these processes result in both positive and negative results.This course explores the strategic and operational issues confronting managers in SMEs engaged in international or cross-cultural operations where health issues and projects are relevant.  Fundamental concepts will be integrated with events and issues currently emerging in the global economy. The course will slso address the knowledge and skills needed to manage effectively in cross-cultural environments.

Project: Cultural/Organizational profile of major international city for pending project

Tools: Cultural Intelligence survey, library management databases, Economist, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal

Communications [2 credits]: Functioning across sectors, cultures and disciplines in global economies where health is now a major factor, managers must communicate to be effective. This course explores major theories and concepts in communicating, especially in areas related to change and diversity in the global context.  Special attention is given to conflict resolution, negotiation, community problem-solving and the role of sustainable relationships in management effectiveness. Both oral and written communication are covered, as well as email and technology issues, cross-cultural implications, and visual/multi-mode illustration techniques.

Project: Long-term communications plan for introduction of HIV/AIDS strategy in an African urban neighborhood.

Tools: PowerPoint, video, elevator speech techniques, time-distance cultural understanding.

Marketing [3 credits]: Drucker claimed that a business only had two areas in which to focus: marketing and innovation. This course emphasizes the marketing and communications process from the  perspective of a manager in a small to medium-sized enterprise [SME] and clarifies its unique applicability in multi-sector health management. Marketing concepts will be addressed from both for-profit and social sector paradigms, and frameworks for analyzing complex opportunities and challenges will be developed for products and services. Specific topics include finding strategic market segments, differentiation through value networks, value  propositions, channel innovation, global and local branding, marketing organization, targeting, positioning, differentiation, products, brands, pricing, distribution, and promotion. Coursework examines the difference between marketing strategy and tactics, and discusses how a manager can move an organization to implement a marketing strategy in a total health community context. e-Marketing, use of technology and locally-appropriate marketing and communications approaches are also covered.

Project: a complete marketing concept, plan and initial advertising strategy for a new public health agency in a Canadian city of 250,000 is created.

Tools: marketing research, surveymonkey.com, focus groups

Managing Information [2 credits]: this course provides an overview of health informatics, data management, networking, computer hardware, database and software design, as well as the management and administration of entire systems. Approaches to knowledge management - the range of practices used in an organisation to identify, create, represent, distribute and enable adoption of what it knows, and how it knows it - are also connected to organizational objectives such as improved performance, competitive advantage, innovation, developmental processes, lessons learned transfer (for example between projects) and the general development of collaborative practices. Knowledge management is also related to learning organizations, lifelong learning, communities of practice and continuous improvement. The future of Web 2.0, data and knowledge management  in the health professions is specifically addressed.

Project: create a contextually-appropriate wiki for collecting project learning.

Tools: databases, e-learning, web conferencing, collaborative software, content management systems, corporate 'Yellow pages' directories, email lists, wikis, blogs.

Managing Organizations [3 credits]:  Human beings, with rare exceptions, live in a world of organizations. This course examines management and leadership with emphasis on effective design of an organization creating mission and organizing to achieve strategic objectives. Emphasis is placed on creating alignment among people, culture, structure and reward systems of an organization to assure high performance. New organizational forms are explored that link sectors in communities, mobilize disparate groups, and integrate community diversity and complexity. Team development and management, diversity and complexity, synthetic organizations, power and movements are also covered, with special emphasis on organizations that build capacity as a primary function.

Project: Design a temporary, integrated change management organization to lower infection rate in a large hospital.

Tools: Organizational Achieving Styles Inventory [OASI]

International Operations [3 credits]: Managing operations well requires both strategic and tactical skills. This course will examine characteristics, problems, techniques and methods of international operations, especially in situations faced by multi-sector health managers, and a consideration of managerial decision-making in organizations using Program Evaluation and Review Techniques (""PERT""), Critical Path Method (""CPM""), etc. Computer models and practices will be used to solve practical problems in buisness and social sector organizations.  Other topics covered are:  process analysis, workforce issues, quality and productivity, technology, capacity planning, procurement and logistics  planning, and strategic planning, together with relevant analytical techniques.

Project: create a Gantt Chart for your team project

Tools: CPM, PERT, Gantt, Flow Charts, Queuing Theory

Finance [3 credits]:  This course focuses on theories, concepts, instruments and principles of financial analysis and reporting, including the analysis of policy and structural problems involved in financing the for-profit or social sector enterprise, the time value of money, asset valuation models, risk management, financial statement analysis, management of working capital, cash flow, currencies, earnings determination, and reorganizations. Examines analysis of SMEs including investment and financing strategies in international environments, valuation,  acquisitions, raising capital, and contemporary financial instruments. Healthcare and health finance issues are introduced, with special attention is given to the future funding of community wellness, as well as communicating financial information in non-traditional settings such as community meetings, board meetings of charitable organizations, and for grant-giving organizations.

Project: Create a financial start-up plan for a five-person medical practice, emphasizing raising capital, cash flow and profitability for presentation to a potential investor.

Tools: NPV, Texas Instruments BA II Plus Professional calculator, asset-backed securities, securitization, swaps.

Accounting [3 credits]: This course introduces reporting systems used by businesses and organizations to convey financial information to external parties, as well as tools for internal management of financial resources. Primary emphasis is placed on understanding the financial reports that are the end product of this system - what they do and do not tell the user about an enterprise. Students will learn to prepare, read, comprehend, and perform basic analyses of financial statements, as well as the development, presentation, and interpretation of cost information for management decision-making, planning, and control. Basic accounting systems that can be used in for-profit or social sector SMEs will be introduced.

Project: Create an accounting system for a small community health agency with a usable chart of accounts that meets initial payroll requirements.

Tools: Monopoly accounting, QuickBooks

Strategic Management [3 credits]: This course examines how organizations formulate strategies in competitive environments and considers different frameworks and analytical techniques for effective strategic decision-making. The unique strategic implications of operating in health-related contexts and across sectors are explored. Students apply their learning through case discussions, exercises, simulations, and in-depth strategic analysis of their own organization or a startup venture.  Additionally, participants examine how managers implement strategy, including the portfolio management approach to select initiatives that drive an organization toward strategy fulfillment. Explores techniques to visualize and measure relationships between strategy and operational level actions. A significant focus considers the art and practice of execution rather than the formulation of the plan.

Project: prepare a strategic plan for your team project

Tools: Porter's Five Forces, Seven S Model, Growth/Share Matrix, Multi-Factor Analysis

Decision Making [3 credits]: Managers are continually barraged with information that may be reliable or not. We must regularly choose courses of action in the face of many uncertainties, often rapidly. Do we make optimal decisions? And how should we assess what is ""optimal""? This course provides quantitative and qualitative decision-making tools useful in analyzing organizational data and covers process analysis, data collection, regression, statistical control, grounded theory, case analysis, ethnography and forecasting. An additional purpose is to assist participants to think critically about how we interpret data and make decisions and then to learn how to avoid common decision errors that occur because of faulty mental models.

Project: Using data provided, determine the statistical validity of a community health intervention in a Bolivian village connecting construction strategies with Chagas disease.

Tools: Multiple regression, correlation, chi square and trend analysis; Pareto Analysis, Comparison Analysis, Grid Analysis, Decision Trees, PMI, Force Field Analysis, Cost/Benefit Analysis.

Management & Leadership Effectiveness [3 credits]: Performance and results are central to management effectiveness, claimed Peter Drucker. This course will begin with this assumption and then focus on essential elements of motivation and leadership as they affect management decision-making and problem-solving in order to deliver performance and results. Total health management will be introduced and the role of mission and vision in organizations and their practical development will be explored. Complexity and flow as they relate to the everyday practice of management are addressed. Students will participate in assessments such as the Emotional and Social Competency Inventory [ESCI] in order to develop individual motivation and leadership growth  plans. This first residency is on the Grenada campus and also includes an overview of the program, alumni  presentations, team building activities. The residency session provides  a foundation for success in the program and accelerates  the formation of a supportive, positive learning environment.

Project: students create their own Leadership Development Plan.

Tools: Emotional Intelligence and Achieving Styles Inventories for each student.

Innovation & Entrepreneurship [3 credits]: Applying Peter Drucker's seven sources of innovation - the unexpected, incongruities, process need, industry and market structures, demographics, changes in perception, and new knowledge, to multi-sector health management, this course will provide students with a solid foundation for understanding creativity and innovation as it applies to leadership within new ventures and in existing organizations.  This will require a need to have a deeper understanding of what sparks personal creativity, how creativity is applied to solving problems in real world situations and how creativity can be established as a value in building new ventures. Through readings, case studies, lectures and guest visits from practitioners, students will study how successful enterprises use innovation to achieve a competitive advantage. Entrepreneurship within both established  organizations and start-ups will also be discussed. Company formation and basic contracts are also covered from a legal perspective.

Project: research the market for the product or service, prepare a detailed plan, and present it to an online panel of experts.

Tools: Business plan, search conference

Responsibility [3 credits]: This course is designed to increase our understanding of the legal and ethical responsibilities in organizations and society. It will integrate an understanding of legal issues, personal ethical values and day-to-day activities in the workplace, especially in health-related organizations and contexts, incorporating the UN Principles for Responsible Management Education [PRME]. The course will provide a sketch of the legal issues facing managers such as contracts, human resource matters, intellectual property, competition and sales, the judicial system, white-collar crime, forms of organization and appropriate communications, but will focus upon the broader responsibilities of individuals and organizations in these arenas. In addition, the course will focus upon the strategic advantage of planning for and effectively managing legal risk.

Project:  create a short learning case, with teaching note, applying lessons of a real situation for a functional management curriculum.

Tools: case studies, credos, organizational values statements, corporate responsibility efforts.

Managing People [2 credits]: International human resource issues include employment law, selection and staffing, motivation, compensation, union relationships, evaluation and grievances. The broader implications of diversity,  complexity, global teams, and volunteers vs. knowledge workers, will be incorporated into a tool kit for managing in cross-cultural environments.

Project: HR policy manual for team project.

Tools: Manuals from international NGOs, professional associations

Managing Turbulence [3 credits]: Change and crisis are givens in any organizational context dealing with health vulnerabilities, community fragility, or medical and public health practice. And, crisis management is change management. The tools are the same, but events may move more quickly and transaction costs may be higher. Terrorism, of course, has our attention currently riveted, but technology, political unrest, competitive advantage, cash flow, questionable accounting practices, media embarrassment and industrial sabotage as well as natural disasters can all translate quickly into organizational or community crisis, with obviously varying impacts.This course will examine both contemporary theories and practice in preventing, mitigating and managing crisis. Several conceptual frameworks for analyzing the character, impact, and consequences of crises will be presented and applied to case studies.

Project: organizational crisis plan for team project.

Tools: One-Hour Crisis Plan, HAVUC, Functional Matrix, ICS

Managerial Economics [3 credits]: This course examines economic concepts for solving major managerial problems of the organization or community. It covers basic price theory and its application to real world situations.  The concepts  of cost in different market structures, demand, rivalry, and competitive advantage.  It would also provide an overview of monetary and fiscal policies and how they can impact organizations. Some attention is paid to emerging economies, the financial system and financial intermediation, especially in businesses or organizations involved in wide-ranging health issues. Areas such as the economics of future health challenges, an aging population, pandemics or the ""bottom billion"" are explored at local and global levels.

Project: Conduct an economic analysis of the factors influencing the demand and supply of health care in your country.

Tools: Marginal Cost/Marginal Revenue, Opportunity Cost, Sunk Cost and Choice, Production Possibilities Frontier

Project Laboratory [2 credits]: The capstone project completes the MBA  experience. Student teams will develop, research and analyze a new enterprise opportunity for an organization or business somewhere in the world. It serves as an integrative, hands-on learning  experience that can take the form of a business plan or a feasibility study, and covers both strategy formulation and  strategic implementation issues. The project is developed throughout the program and is coached by an individual faculty advisor. The final residency week in Grenada features the presentation of these projects.

Project Management [2 credits]: Much of organizational work these days is project based. Projects are unique, reach across departments, organizations, communities and sectors, are temporary and close-ended, involve teams (with all the relational complexities that result), and consume vast amounts of energy. In multi-sector health environments, they encompass research, issue response, community crises and adminstrative task forces. Every professional will create, maintain, manage or shut down projects during much of their careers.This course examines project management roles and environments, the project life cycle and various techniques of work planning, and control and evaluation to achieve project objectives.The tools currently available to project managers are discussed throughout this course.

Project: team project plan

Tools: collaboration software, Google, MicroSoft Project, MindMap