MGMT-UB.1 Management and Organizations
Why do some organizations succeed while others flounder? Why do some employees rise in the ranks and others stagnate (or fall)? Why do some people love their jobs while for others work is sheer misery? As students of business, it is critically important for you to understand the key factors that contribute to both organizational success and the role that managers play in helping their organizations succeed and employees thrive.
The primary objective of the course is to help students understand the elements that contribute to organizational and employee success, as well as some of the common impediments to high performance. We will focus on how organizations position themselves for success within their external environment, and how they organize and motivate their people. More specifically, the course will explore how organizational leaders develop winning strategies, and then design their organization in a way that aligns structures, social relationships, tasks, and people to achieve those strategies. In exploring these issues, we will identify the challenges that organizational leaders and managers face as they try to make good decisions in the face of a constantly evolving industry environment, competing goals and agendas, and an increasingly diverse and global workforce.
A second objective of the course is to strengthen students’ managerial and leadership potential. Regardless of your major or your future career plans, such an understanding will enable you to work more effectively within an organizational context, whether that context is a small start-up company, a family business, a not-for-profit organization, or a large financial institution. In other words, the course will provide you with tools and skills that you can use to increase your own personal career success.
The structure of the course encourages learning in multiple ways: through lecture, readings, in-class discussions, exercises, case analyses, and a team project. These approaches provide opportunities for students to enhance their analytic and interpersonal skills, both of which are essential to effective management and to success in the workplace.
POL 337 Business Influence in American Politics
Do Trump and other business executives as politicians deliver on their promise to "run government like a business?" When do corporations speak out against such threats to democracy as the Capitol insurrection, and does it matter? Can activist campaigns successfully pressure social media companies to de-platform disinformation? Business shapes contemporary American politics in more ways than many appreciate. In this course, we will explore business power in American democracy, how it leads to policy change (or doesn't), and how it may be harnessed for good.
POL 420 Money in American Politics
Did lobbying corrupt the implementation of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), intended to provide financial relief to small businesses during the COVID-19 crisis? Did campaign contributions from the real estate industry to members of Congress skew government policies in favor of subprime mortgage credit expansion in the early 2000s, leading to the eventual housing market crash and mortgage default crisis in 2008-09?
People often point to the thorough involvement of money in elections and policymaking as prima facie evidence of the corrosive effect of money on American politics. However, the reasons why and mechanisms through which campaign finance, lobbying, and other forms of money in politics influence political outcomes remain poorly understood.
This course will help students critically assess claims made about the role of money in American politics in public discourse and policy debates. Students will learn about cutting-edge social science research, and interact with guest speakers in government, non-profits, and the private sector where feasible.
WWS/SPI 403/404 Money and Influence in Policymaking
This course examines the role of money and interest groups’ influence in U.S. policymaking. The two main goals of this class are to: 1) introduce students to contemporary research on how money in politics, specifically campaign finance and lobbying, shapes political representation and policymaking in the United States; and 2) help students make an original contribution to this body of knowledge through their independent junior papers.