Your Third Year
Y
ear Three – The Management Core
In their third year, Management students begin the second phase of their undergraduate education. Years one and two provide Management students with the opportunity to gain a broad exposure to subjects of personal interest, as well as a set of key prerequisites to the study of management. Third year consists of a fixed curriculum of required courses and is referred to as the management core. Third year is also an intensive experience for Management students since it consists of a total of 33 credits.
The third year of the undergraduate curriculum at UBCO is distinctive and has been designed to be responsive to some of the unique challenges and opportunities of the Okanagan business and economic environment. In order to achieve this objective the third year of the Management program at UBCO has two major components. The first major component exposes students to the content of the key functional areas of business while the second major component provides students with an understanding of the challenges and issues associated with building sustainable competitive organizations, including self-development.
The courses in third year that expose students to the key functional areas of business include the following:
- Financial Accounting
- Managerial Accounting
- Finance
- Marketing
- Organizational Behaviour
- Operations Management
- Information Technology & Information Systems
The courses in the component of third year that focus on the challenges and issues associated with building sustainable competitive organizations consist of:
- Business Conditions Analysis
- Sustainability & Business
- Management Communications
- Industry Analysis Project
Each of these major components of the third year curriculum is described in more detail below.
The Key Functional Areas of Business (7 courses – 21 credits)
This component of the third year curriculum consists of a set of seven courses exposing students to the key functional areas of business and management.
Financial Accounting
The major objectives of this course are to develop an understanding of the concepts, principles and conventions upon which financial accounting is based, and more importantly to provide an analytical basis upon which to intelligently interpret financial statements. While consideration is given to accounting techniques and the formulation of financial reports, the course focuses on understanding accounting policies, their rationale and the implications for users of financial accounting information.
Managerial Accounting
Managerial accounting is concerned with how accounting information can be used intelligently to make effective managerial decisions in a complex business environment. The course provides an introduction to traditional concepts and techniques in management accounting and provides opportunities to learn how to apply these techniques to solve many decision-making problems. The course covers the application of strategic cost management principles for organizations as well as the important role that management accounting plays in developing and presenting the information essential for effective strategic decision making within the firm.
Finance
This course provides an introduction to the theory, methods and concerns of corporate finance. The course develops a framework for analyzing a firm’s investment and financing decisions and provides students with a firm foundation in the basic concepts underlying modern corporate finance. Key topics covered include present value techniques (time value of money), capital budgeting, pricing of stocks and bonds, capital markets, corporate financing and options and futures for risk management.
Marketing
This course introduces students to the concepts, analyses, and activities that comprise marketing management. The course is designed to provide students with an understanding of the key elements of the “Marketing Mix”, sometimes also referred to as the 4 P’s of marketing: Product, Place, Price and Promotion. It also provides students with the opportunity to practice assessing and solving marketing problems.
Organizational Behaviour
This course examines theories, concepts, and research aimed at understanding the behaviour of individuals and groups in organizations. The course provides students with the opportunity to develop a variety of analytic and behavioural skills for understanding and managing people in modern organizations. Among the topics covered are motivation, leadership, teamwork, negotiation and decision making.
Operations Management
This course introduces students to the design and management of the transformation processes and technology used in the production of goods and services. The course focuses on understanding process and technology tradeoffs as they support the firm's strategic objectives as well as the resulting implications for production efficiency and effectiveness. Topics covered include process technology choice, lean production systems, layout and flow management, inventory control, capacity planning and quality management and control.
Information Technology Management
This course introduces students to information technology (IT) and its management. The course focuses on IT managerial issues and their impact on small and medium enterprises and their people. The course helps students to understand the roles of management, users and information technology professionals in the management of information technology. The course also examines some key issues linked with IT, including ethics, security, telecommunications and distributed systems for small and medium size enterprises.
Understanding & Building Sustainable Competitive Organizations (4 courses – 12 credits)
The second component of the third year is filled out with a set of four courses that give students a unique perspective on issues responsive to their needs and reflective of the environment of the Okanagan and the BC interior more generally.
Management Communications
Managerial Communication provides students with the opportunity to improve their abilities to communicate effectively, regardless of the particular medium or situation. Effective communication is at the core of the abilities required for managerial success. The course also provides students with opportunities to enhance their understanding of factors contributing to group effectiveness, and to develop skills in working effectively as a member of a group or project team.
Business Conditions Analysis
The goal of business conditions analysis is to provide students with an appreciation of the impact of key external environmental factors on the functioning and performance of a business. The first half of the course focuses on the state of the economic environment at a broad macro level, helping students understand how the overall state of the economy impacts the environment for business. The second half of the course looks at non-economic or nonmarket factors which impact businesses and which managers must be aware of and respond to. These factors include government institutions, regulatory and legal factors, and the ethical standards and expectations that apply to businesses and their leaders. Each of the topics and issues discussed is illustrated with examples regarding the forces in play for businesses operating within British Columbia in general and the Okanagan in particular and with an eye for market opportunities that could be exploited. Topics covered also include opportunity recognition and screening, market and competitive assessment, business plan development, financing start-ups and growth opportunities.
Sustainability & Business
Environmental issues regarding sustainability are becoming increasingly salient and important for all businesses as concerns increase regarding the environment in general and global warming in particular. This course is designed to expose students to current thinking regarding sustainability and its implications for businesses and their managers. The course also covers the key issues of sustainable development in both the public sector and the private sector. Students are given the opportunity to explore a sustainable development issue of interest to them as a group project.
Industry Analysis Project
The Industry Analysis Project is a project-based course. The project provides students with the opportunity to integrate and apply a great deal of their learning from the entire third-year program. The focus of the course is the design and execution of a project to study the nature and dynamics of an industry active in the Okanagan or more widely in BC. The project involves the application of a systematic analytic framework for the competitive analysis of industries and permits students to develop their skills in data collection and analysis, as well as to gain experience in working effectively as a team.
Structure of the Third Year
The courses in the third year of the Management curriculum are taken by all students in the same sequence to achieve balance between quantitative and non-quantitative materials, workloads and to ensure appropriate pre-requisite knowledge.
| Fall Term | Spring Term |
|---|---|
| Financial Accounting | Managerial Accounting |
| Organizational Behaviour | Introduction to Finance |
| Information Technology & Management | Industry Analysis Project |
| Business Conditions Analysis | Operations Management |
| Introduction to Marketing | Sustainability & Business |
|
Management Communications
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Last reviewed 
4/14/2010 3:00:27 PM
