Business Management

This is a full-time (42h/week) and fully online minor designed for students with no prior knowledge in management. The minor consists of specialized modules in which students learn the fundamentals of different management areas. At the end of the minor, students will be able to understand and apply up to date management theories and practices.

Businesses are in dire need of innovative minds who can design and implement high-performance work practices, processes, and strategies. These minds will also help businesses discover opportunities for sustainable social and economic growth.

To propel you into becoming one of such minds, the fully onlineminor in Business Management will help you wield knowledge on up-to-date fundamental theories and practices in different management fields. The study contents of the minor are related, but not necessarily limited, to decision-making processes of strategic, tactical, and operational nature, and the factors that support those processes.

Students participating in the minor can expect to learn about and perform analysis at individual, team and organizational levels. Key to these analyses and the overall work in the minor is the study of customers and competitors and of how organizations (and their members) can leverage their resources (e.g., human capital, financial, value offering) to achieve high levels of performance.

• Understand the fundamentals of business management.
• Evaluate management practices within organizations.
• Apply up to date theories and practices in management.

The minor offers online and synchronous interactive discussion sessions.

The minor is exclusive for students with no prior knowledge in management. It is available to students from all research-based universities as well as EUR who are not enrolled in any other program offered by RSM or ESE.

The minor is a full-time and fully online course. Without exception, students are required to devote an average of 42 hours/week to minor activities. All of the activities of the minor will take place online. Students should be prepared to join synchronous discussion sessions and take or deliver assignments online.

No prior knowledge of specific quantitative or qualitative analytical approaches is required. English is the language of the minor. Good command of document and spreadsheet programs is required for the assignments.

Teaching methods
The minor offers online and synchronous interactive discussion sessions.

The study content of each module and the schedule of the activities will be made available to students via the minor manual, prior to the beginning of the program. Students, however, can expect the contents of the activities of the minor to relate to those described in the Minor content section of this page.
The specificities of each management area call for employing different work approaches to ensure that students acquire, understand and are able to apply knowledge. Students enrolled in the minor, however, can expect having to devote, each week, an average of 42 hours on the contents of one, or those of multiple of the following activities:

• Preparing and attending (online) discussion sessions.
• Developing analysis or exercises.
• Writing reports and assignments to be submitted using the university’s online learning platform.

Modules have the same workload requirements, and, jointly, throughout the 10 weeks duration of the minor, will contribute to the 420 hours / 15 EC minor total load.
A short description of the assignments which, unless stated differently, will take place online at the end of each module.

Teaching materials
At the beginning of the course, the students will receive information about required and optional self-study reading and video material on the university’s learning platform.

In addition, students will receive, during each module, information and additional readings, tools and exercises meant to support the development of knowledge about the application of the different studied management practices.

Method of examination
Students are expected to prepare for and actively contribute to each session’s discussion. Preparing for the discussions is supported by self-study material (e.g. readings and videos) made available in advance. Discussions are meant to develop knowledge beyond the content of the self-study material. Contributing to the discussions implies students actively raising questions and sharing insights to collaborative advance their understanding of the topics.

Students are expected to demonstrate their learning, by means of multiple assignments. These assignments will assess the extent to which the students have acquired, understood and are able to apply knowledge about the fundamental theories and practices of the management areas, covered in the minor.
The assignments may include but are not limited to quizzes, open question written exams, case analyses and improvement proposal reports.
The contents of the assignments may include any of the topics covered during the different modules, in the self-study material, or during the discussions of the sessions of each module.

Assignments, unless stated differently, will be open-book and include questions about theory and applications. The grading of the assignments will correspond to the weighted average of the score of all the elements of the assignment, as defined by each module’s instructor.

Composition final grade
The final grade of the minor will correspond to the weighted average of the grades of the assignments used to assess the student’s acquisition, understanding and ability to apply the knowledge related to each of the management area covered in the program. The assignments of the three modules will count approximately for the equal percentage of the final grade.