Business & Organizational Studies (BUSOR-UH)

Why do some organizations succeed while others flounder? Whether it be as an employee within a traditional for-profit business, or within one of the wide spectrum of alternative career paths, all of us will ultimately be a part of organizations. This course will help illuminate the key processes and factors that determine why organizations function as they do, drawing upon the fields of management, strategy, sociology, and psychology in the process. Specific topics covered include: Corporate strategy and achieving competitive advantage, Organizational structure and design, Organizational and national culture, Leadership, Motivation and incentives, Groups dynamics, Power & politics within organizations, including a discussion of persuasion & influence and social networks, Judgment and decision-making.

This course is an introduction to the key concepts and principles of strategy formulation, implementation, and analysis. It will focus on the decisions and actions taken by managers, and how these factors impact the performance and survival of firms. Taking a general management perspective, we will examine the knowledge, tools, and skills that managers need to effectively make decisions that align their objectives with organization mission and vision, precisely define firm boundaries, and improve operations and processes. The course will also emphasize devising competitive strategies that position firms to maximize profit (competitive advantage), within the context of uncertainty (e.g., social, political, economic) and competition.

Entrepreneurship can be considered a process of economic or social value creation. Entrepreneurs pursue new business opportunities in an innovative and path-breaking way making entrepreneurship one of the most powerful and influential forces of change in the world. Especially during times of crises and constraints, outdated business models and industries are being disrupted by startups with new and better ideas on how to provide customer value. The course provides a broad understanding of entrepreneurship and its underlying theoretical foundations (lectures) combined with more applied elements (case studies and design sprint). It introduces students to tools and techniques for generating, developing and evaluating ideas for new products, services, and the business models and how to execute these ideas. Using a variety of readings, examples, discussions, and experiential exercises, this course teaches a range of transferable skills required to become an entrepreneur, and raises the students' awareness of the legal, business, managerial, creative, analytical and interpersonal skills relevant to setting up and running an innovative organization.

The goal of the course is to build an understanding of the theoretical and practical aspects of "doing development". It starts with an introduction to the current development landscape by familiarizing participants with key actors in the global development sector as well as with the Sustainable Development Goals. The course then moves on to cover what is involved in planning, funding and managing development projects. It also provides an overview of issues related to understanding and measuring development impact.

This course is an introduction to leadership theory and practice. Students will examine several aspects of the literature, and apply historical and contemporary theories and concepts to advance their knowledge and develop skills. These tools are necessary for analyzing complex issues facing organizations and society, and developing effective courses of action. Students will be able to identify key principles, develop understanding of the behaviors, as well as characteristics of leaders through the lenses of various models. Students will engage in self-reflection, understand various perspectives of leadership, translate theory into practice, and examine the role of leadership in effecting social change. The culmination of these activities will build a foundation for learning and practices that facilitate leadership.

This is an introductory research methods course intended for students with little or no prior knowledge and experience of qualitative and quantitative methods. The course addresses aspects of research useful for academic and professional investigation, including: problem definition, framing research questions, formulating hypothesis, choosing a research design, research ethics, and evaluating a variety of research methods. We will consider issues in the context of qualitative (e.g., interviews, focus groups, participant observation), and quantitative (e.g., surveys, experiments) research. In addition, students will be introduced to some approaches to analysis of quantitative and qualitative data (Please note that this course will not examine data analysis techniques in detail, as that content is covered in other courses). The main aim of this course is to equip students with the tools, imagination and independence to develop their own ideas and abilities for conducting research.

This course aims to equip students with in-depth, up-to-date knowledge on key concepts in the study of organizations as well as with key analytical skills to support their assessment and evaluation of organizational functioning. The range of concepts, principles, and theories explored within the scope of this course refer to human performance and ability, including better understanding what drives-or hinders-people from excelling in their organization. Specifically, we will examine dyadic relationships in organizational contexts, group formation and structure, group dynamics, as well as individual behavior in groups. We will also investigate organizational structure and governance, work-and job design, and the notion of organizational justice. Through an evidence-based exploration, students will describe, illustrate, analyze, evaluate, and apply concepts, strategies, and theories developed and utilized by scholars and practitioners to maximize the potential and resolve problems associated with an organization’s most significant and valuable asset-its people.

As knowledge and technology are becoming the core source of competitive advantage of firms, effective management of the most valuable asset - human resources - has become more important than ever. Managing Human Capital, also known as Human Resource Management (HRM), deals with the wide range of activities by which organizations attract (staffing, selection), retain and develop (reward, train, and develop), and manage (performance and compensation) their workforce. This course provides an overview of different functional areas of HRM, emphasizing the role of HRM as a strategic partner for organizations. Special topics related to the future of work are also discussed. The knowledge and attitude students will acquire from this course will become a valuable personal asset, whether they end up in HR or not. The student's goal is to be able to discuss the knowledge and systematically utilize and apply the tools and skills to improve and enhance management expertise and adapt to the changing business environments.

As the world of business has become more globalized and diverse, managing diversity effectively and enhancing inclusion is increasingly essential for organizational success. However, diversity and inclusion can be a double-edged sword. When managed effectively, they can be the source of innovation and team and organizational learning and effectiveness. Still, when mismanaged, they can challenge employees' values and undermine performance, workplace relationships, and team effectiveness. This course is designed to help students navigate diverse settings more effectively and improve their ability to work within and lead diverse teams and global organizations. It also offers students the opportunity to develop their critical thinking on topics such as identity, relationships across differences and bias, and equality of opportunity in organizations around the world and the UAE.

In today’s fast-paced and dynamic world, leadership demands resilience, adaptability, and inclusivity. This course delves into the complex landscape of women in leadership, examining the unique challenges and opportunities they face while highlighting the critical role of gender diversity in driving organizational and societal progress. Grounded in both historical and contemporary perspectives, students will explore gender disparities, tools for increasing visibility, and strategies for empowering women leaders and entrepreneurs. Featuring experiential learning and insights from renowned leaders the course fosters critical awareness, effective decision-making, and the development of personal leadership strategies to help students become confident, impactful leaders.

Professional Responsibility is a theory, discussion, and reflection-based course that aims to help students: Gain an understanding of the purpose, roles, and impact of business in society; Develop a positive vision of what business can be and a realistic understanding of what it is; and Enhance the intellectual capital to recognize and navigate the ambiguities, hazards, and opportunities they will face in their careers.

Ethical considerations and notions to social responsibility are increasingly becoming central to the way global businesses operate and are viewed by relevant stakeholders. This course introduces students to key issues, debates and perspectives on Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). In this course, students will learn key perspectives on moral standards and their application to contemporary organizations through which modern societies produce and distribute goods and services, and to the activities of the people who work within these organizations. Students will also learn about the critical importance of Corporate Social Responsibility and will be exposed to key challenges facing businesses looking to develop CSR programs. In the second half of the course, students will learn about the application of ethical and social responsibility perspectives in key areas of business management like marketing, competition, globalization and media. They will also learn about the relevance of ethics and CSR perspectives to issues like job discrimination, whistleblowing and workplace safety.

"Impact investing" refers to investments aiming to generate financial returns while at the same time improving social and environmental conditions for the public. Impact investing is also referred to as "blended value" combining the best aspects of traditional investing and philanthropy. This emerging investment strategy is developing rapidly worldwide supporting nonprofit and for-profit ventures in improving the lives of millions of people on issues such as energy, water, climate change, health or education. The promise of "doing well by doing good" has garnered significant attention and many large asset managers (for example, Blackrock, Goldman Sachs, KKR) are establishing impact investing practices as well as products to meet the demands of asset owners (pension funds, endowments, foundation or family offices). This course provides a comprehensive overview of the impact investing market covering key concepts and practical knowledge needed to engage in this space. Students will examine the developing marketplace, actors as well as financial products. Case studies and guests will explore challenges and best practices in creating successful fund and deal structures.

This course provides an in-depth understanding of accounting concepts and generally accepted accounting principles used in recording, summarizing, and reporting financial transactions of business entities. The relevant financial information is communicated to different external parties, such as investors, creditors, . This fundamental course is designed to equip students with the knowledge and skills necessary to interpret, analyze, and communicate financial information effectively. You will engage in practical exercises and real-world examples to reinforce your understanding of financial accounting. For example, companies you may be familiar with, such as Netflix, Duolingo, or Amazon are required to disclose their financial results following the principles we study in this course. Thus, throughout the course, we will emphasize a balance between theory and practical application. By the end of the course, you will proficiently analyze financial data and interpret financial statements. This solid foundation in financial accounting, will enable you to make effective financial decisions and will enhance your critical thinking abilities toward understanding the financial state of an accounting entity.

Managerial accounting includes a broad array of tools necessary to measure, analyze, and report financial and non-financial information that helps managers make decisions and fulfill organizational goals. Managerial information is key input to coordinate product design, production, marketing and sales decisions, and evaluate a company's performance. Managerial accounting tools are fundamental for motivating, evaluating, and rewarding employees. In contemporary business environments, fast paced and increasingly uncertain, managerial accounting is vital to develop and promote viable business initiatives, innovation, and change. Today's economy, characterized by hyper-connectivity, information overload, and highly competitive markets, requires effective cost accounting systems to sustain organizations in making better and timely decisions - with the goal of enhancing revenues and profits. Hence, this course equips students with a comprehensive framework and the technical knowledge to understand, prepare, and analyze managerial accounting reports. It also emphasizes interesting aspects of costing and pricing decisions and enrich class discussions with real-world business examples.

This course introduces students to the fundamental statistical and data-analytic tools. Students learn to manage and analyze data and to deploy statistical techniques, with an emphasis on how to translate business and related societal questions into empirical research. Topics include review of regression analysis, building multivariate analytical models, and data visualization and presentation. The course will emphasize structured quantitative analysis and application of statistics to decision making.

Contemporary business environments contain challenges that demand an increasing pace, volume and complexity of organizational change. Most organizations - independent of size, age, structure, or purpose - find that they must change or wither. This course is geared toward deepening students' understanding of the challenges, the techniques, and the burdens associated with initiating and implementing major change in an organization. The course concentrates on process - or how change can be most effectively implemented - focusing on the exploration and classroom discussion of cases illustrating different change efforts in a variety of organizations across a diverse range of business contexts. By the end of the course, students are expected to be more knowledgeable about the science and art of managing change and how leaders and organizations engage in effective deployment of change programs.

Managers are responsible for directing resources to achieve a stated goal and this involves making countless decisions. At what price should the firm sell its goods? What wages should the workers be paid? How many units should be produced every month? What contract should be offered to the CEO? Should intermediary inputs be bought on the market or manufactured in house? Is it worth investing in an advertising campaign? How to respond to a rival's new product launch? Is it profitable to enter a new market? Will the business be affected by the government's monetary policy? Managerial economics is the study of how to direct scarce resources in the management of a business (or other organizations) in a way that most efficiently achieves their managerial goals. This course introduces the economic concepts and tools most relevant to managers in their decision-making process and examines their application to businesses from various countries. The goal is to develop students' skills to analyze the choices to be made by managers, taking into account the economic environment and the constraints they face, in order to make decisions that optimally fulfil their managerial objectives.

The most consistent threats to businesses today are the emerging business models that try to nibble on, bite at, or gobble up the parts of the value chain of the incumbent firm. In the past two decades, business model innovation has been the major source of industry disruption. With both successful and less successful disruptions, business models increasingly have become the major source of innovation. Crises, e.g., pandemics, further fundamentally shift the already challenging business environment, and necessitate the emergence of newer business models. This course examines how managers can sharpen their wider, deeper, and stronger understanding of the relationship between crises and the need to re-valuate, re-configure, and re-engineer business models, and more importantly, apply it.

The course surveys the challenges and skills required to operate a successful small business. The objective of this course is to understand the design, monitoring, and control of small businesses that are personally fulfilling as well as financially fruitful. The class aims to develop a realistic perspective of the strategic, financial, and marketing skills, as well as resources necessary to realize the entrepreneurial aspirations of small business owners. The class aims to provide several hands-on tools small business owners can apply to their businesses and aims to take a practical perspective to challenges in managing small businesses.

The class aims to help students develop and understand "how to socially innovate." Aligning social mission is more challenging than economic mission, and balancing the economic and non-economic motives of the stakeholders is an important challenge for social entrepreneurs. Though knowledge of social entrepreneurship is critical, those engaging in social innovation get a list of dos and don'ts on each step of the process. However, seldom does the context meets with the toolbox of tasks, relationships, and tactics that are central to devising social entrepreneurship solutions. Instead of relying on best practices and advice, the course aims to help students grapple with uncertainty and the messiness that is informed by practice and evidence. This course, based on Paul Light's framework focuses on: (1) five goals for creating creative disruption in the prevailing social equilibrium, (2) five tools for reaching the goals, and (3) ten associated tasks. Moving from the notion of "value capture" to creating "shared value," the class aims to scale topics on how students can engage, advocate, and pursue a variety of stakeholders to engage in social innovation.

This course applies strategies and methods used by early-stage companies to acquire and galvanize customers, with a focus on customer acquisition cost and lifetime value analysis. This course will focus mainly on digital marketing channels, with an emphasis on Business-to-Customer (B2C). The course leverages key frameworks and conceptual tools to help students explore new venture opportunities, understand the business model of startups, and analyze problems to develop the optimal marketing strategy for products and services. The core focus of the class is on experimenting with digital marketing and customer management through growth hacking using the modern set of marketing techniques. Students are strongly encouraged to have exposure to marketing principles and theories through other courses, prior to enrolling in this course.

Managing people and teams is an important part of all jobs, whether you plan to work in finance, in fashion, in a NGO, to be an entrepreneur, a high-tech CEO, or a management consultant. Research and practice have shown that our success in the workplace will depend on our ability to work in and lead teams. This course is an accessible and lively introduction to the world of people and teams' management, focusing on models for managing groups and teams that complement traditional/historical models of management; the effects of technology on managing people in teams; and the behavioral skills required to implement a conceptual understanding of management strategies. Topics will be placed within the wider structural and cultural context and will be viewed mostly from the perspective of teamwork. Throughout the course we are going to discuss key topics and issues surrounding people's behavior at work and people's management in organizations.

Design Thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation and problem-solving that can be applied to any discipline. Thinking like a designer is believed to rapidly develop concepts, products, services, strategies, and systems. This course will examine the origins and spread of Design Thinking and show how it is used to solve problems and create solutions that improve organizations. This course is split into two parts. The first part of this course introduces students to the theory of Design Thinking. The aim is to equip students with the mindset and thorough understanding of the human-centered approach. The second part of this course is practice based. Students will be introduced to a series of scenarios from local organizations that highlight a central problem that they are facing, i.e., case studies, and are required to address these whilst applying the theory taught in Part I of the course. By the end of the course, students will develop the basic competencies of a design thinker which includes but is not limited to the ability to ask better questions, create experiments, and curate the ideas of others when tackling problems across organizations.

Global strategy refers to an integrated set of decisions and activities performed by multinational corporations (MNCs), which operate in more than two countries. This course is an introduction to the key concepts and principles of global strategy. It will focus on the decisions and actions taken by managers, and how these factors impact the performance and survival of MNCs. Taking a general management and strategy perspective, we will examine the knowledge, tools, and skills that managers and other decision makers need to effectively run MNCs and their subsidiaries in foreign countries.

From aspiring director refining their cinematic worlds to visionary chefs crafting novel dishes, creativity permeates everywhere, continuously reshaping industries. This course delves into the intricate facets of creativity, its evaluation, and the underlying mechanisms that drive both soaring success and imbalanced distributions within creative sectors. In this course, students will endeavor to understand the diverse interpretations of creativity, its valuation, and the interplay of factors, such as market dynamics, networks, strategies, entrepreneurship, and technology. Open to all students with an interest in studying creativity and creative industries, offering contemporary insights into these subjects in management and organization, sociology, and entrepreneurship. The course unfolds in two phases: firstly, mastering theoretical foundations and analytical tools, followed by industry-specific topics and applications in domains like arts, fashion, music, cuisine, film and TV series, and NFTs. Students culminate their journey by contemplating the evolution of creativity in the age of big data and AI.

Negotiation is the art and science of securing agreements between two or more interdependent parties. The primary goal of this course is to help you become a better negotiator, enabling you to recognize, understand, analyze, and use essential concepts in negotiations to effectively reach agreements. Our focus will be on both understanding the science of negotiations and sharpening your competency. You will get more from the course if you are willing to grapple intellectually with complex ideas and problems; to engage your whole self in the exercises and discussions; and to learn from others' feedback and your own experience. The course will be largely experiential, allowing you to explore your own talents, skills, and shortcomings as a negotiator.

To be successful, private and public organizations increasingly need to achieve (and demonstrate) sustainability in their economic as well as social and environmental performance. Sustainability Management and Reporting aims at developing knowledge, analytical skills and a sustainability mindset that will help students to implement concepts and tools of sustainability in every organization they will create or work in the future. The starting point is to understand what a "Sustainability Mindset" is, and contrast it with the dominant story about business - namely, the view centered on Shareholder Value Maximization. The course will critically discuss key sustainability concepts (such as Triple Bottom Line and materiality) and learn how to implement them by applying international standards (GRI, AA1000, SDGs). The seminar will provide participants with a set of conceptual and analytical tools (including a methodology to assess the quality of existing sustainability reports) enabling them to critically reflect on how to start developing a Sustainability Management and Reporting approach for immediate or prospective use in their organizations.

In today's business landscape, corporations are expected to understand how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues impact their financial performance and how their actions affect the environment and society. Sustainable Finance for Business discusses how investor attitudes are shaping corporate sustainability and how ESG reporting, third-party verification, and ESG ratings play a crucial role in securing access to capital. Moreover, the course examines different financial instruments for raising capital, such as sustainability-linked loans and green bonds. The discussions are enriched with real-world examples of ESG controversies and dilemmas. By the end of this course, students will have a solid grasp of the key concepts and guiding principles of sustainable finance from a business perspective, enabling them to connect corporate sustainability strategies with investor expectations and anticipate future trends in this rapidly evolving field. Equipped with this knowledge, students will be well-prepared to apply these insights in their roles within a company, driving sustainable initiatives and effectively communicating the value of ESG practices in a globalized world.

Investors, corporate managers, and entrepreneurs confront two main types of financial decisions. The first is whether to invest in a new stock, company, or project. The second is how to fund that investment. These are complex decisions that can result in significant value creation or destruction. To make these decisions it is critical decision makers understand how to value companies and projects alike. To achieve these goals, Valuation adopts a decision-oriented approach. Although we will cover the main learning topics through intermittent lectures, the core of this course will be taught through case studies. Rather than passively learning through lectures, students will actively learn the fundamentals of Valuation by evaluating and improving upon real world business decisions: Should we purchase Peloton stock or not? Should Tottenham Hotspur football club borrow to fund a new stadium? What is the appropriate cost of capital for the firm given its risks and the location of its revenue sources?

The capstone seminar allows students to demonstrate their expertise in their major and areas of study, as well as further their knowledge, and develop new skills. Students will apply the multidisciplinary theories and concepts learned during the course of their studies to questions and strategic problems that have captured the interests of scholars of business and management. Students will work under the direction of faculty, and engage with peers through discussion of ideas and reviews, to form the core of their capstone project.

Following completion of BUSOR-UH 4000, students will continue to work with faculty to execute their project, which should culminate in an applied or theoretical research report on a business or management topic.