Introduction to Business - DSU-102

Course Description: This introductory, six-week online course explores the nature, form and function of business. It provides the big picture while introducing students to topics ranging from entrepreneurship, management, the global environment of business, ethics and law, leadership and communication, organizational structure, IT, marketing, sales, distribution systems, human resource management, and accounting and finance.

Prerequisite: None

Course Credit: 3 Credit Hours

Major Course Topics & Course Outcomes

As a result of the group and individual activities included in this course, the student will acquire the following knowledge and skills that can be applied to the workplace:

What is Business?

• Differentiate between the three meanings of business as commerce, business as an occupation, and business as an organization, and identify the four main kinds of productive resources.
• Understand how the forces of supply and demand determine fair, or market, prices.
• Appreciate how a company’s business model is the source of its competitive advantage and can mean the difference between merely making a profit and profitability.
• Recognize the way specialization and the division of labor lead to increasing profits and wealth via the market’s invisible hand.
• Assess the reasons why business organizations are created and how they facilitate commerce and lower transaction costs.

The Evolution of Business

• Understand how property rights affect the way productive resources are used in society.
• Define the system of feudalism and how combining land and labor speeds up the accumulation of capital.
• Evaluate the functions of money in business and how the development of money promoted the rapid development of capital and enterprise.
• Describe the system of mercantilism and appreciate how merchants and bankers hastened the development of global trade.
• Explain the causes of the industrial revolution and the development of capitalism, unionization, and the class system as we know it today.
• Explain how and why the form of business organization used to manage business commerce has changed over time.

Entrepreneurs, Managers and Employees

• Describe the nature of entrepreneurship and the kinds of entrepreneurial opportunities that can increase the profitability of business commerce, occupations, and organizations.
• Identify how the process of creative destruction leads to the emergence of new companies, the decline of established companies, and raises a society’s standard of living.
• Analyze the problems involved in aligning the interests of managers with those of the company’s owners.
• Distinguish between the three different levels of managers and understand the different roles they perform to increase efficiency, effectiveness, and profitability.
• Differentiate between two main approaches employees can take to performing their roles in a company and the way their performance affects their long-term career prospects.

Multinationals and the Global Environment of Business

• Recognize the role of multinational companies in global production and trade today and the way they affect the countries in which they operate.
• Discuss how multinationals are affected by the political systems of the countries in which they operate, and especially by the desire of countries around the world to pursue free trade and reduce or abolish tariff boundaries.
• Describe the nature of the specific forces in the global environment and appreciate why they present so many challenges for multinational companies today.
• Describe the nature of the general forces in the global environment that affect all companies as they compete in industries and countries around the world.
• Identify the main challenges facing multinationals in terms of managing global business commerce and business occupations and choosing a method of global organizing.

Business Ethics and the Legal Environment of Business

• Understand the relationship between ethics and the law and appreciate why it is important to behave ethically.
• Differentiate between the claims of the different stakeholder groups affected by a company’s actions.
• Identify the four main sources of business ethics, and describe four rules that can be used to help companies and their employees behave ethically.
• Describe some methods companies can use to strengthen their ethical rules and positions.
• Review the important ways in which a nation’s business laws and regulations affect business commerce, occupations and organizations.

Leadership, Influence, and Communication in Business

• Recognize the way a manager’s ability to effectively lead, influence and persuade other people influences a company’s efficiency, effectiveness, and profitability.
• Identify the five sources of a leader’s power and understand how leadership involves the effective use of power to influence other people.
• Differentiate between four main approaches to leadership and recognize that effective leadership involves matching a leadership approach to the characteristics of employees and the work situation.
• Identify five characteristics of effective leaders.
• Understand the vital role communication plays in influencing others in a business organization and describe the model of persuasive communication.
• Define organizational politics and understand how political tactics are used to influence and persuade others.

Motivating and Managing People and Groups in Business Organizations

• Understand the nature and sources of work motivation and appreciate the way motivation is under the voluntary control of an employee.
• Assess five different theories of work motivation and identify how they work together to determine work motivation.
• Identify the characteristics of groups and teams and distinguish between important types of groups and teams.
• Identify the sources of organizational conflict and understand how bargaining and negotiation are used to resolve conflicts between people and groups.

The Structure and Culture of Business Organizations

• Discuss why organizational structure and culture are important determinants of a company’s ability to pursue a profitable business model.
• Identify the relationship between organizational design, structure, culture and the environment.
• Identify the main types of organizational structures companies can choose from to group their activities, employees and resources.
• Explain why the need to coordinate functions and divisions is an important element in organizational design, and list the main methods companies use to coordinate their activities.
• Identify the nature and sources of organizational culture and understand the way it influences and shapes employee behavior and attitudes.

Information Technology and E-Commerce

• Distinguish between data, information, and knowledge and identify the characteristics of useful information.
• Explain the relationship between IT, competitive advantage and profitability.
• Discuss five major IT applications used by companies to build competitive advantage.
• Identify the major hardware and software components of IT and e-commerce and describe how they have evolved over time.

Marketing and Product Development

• Explain how marketing, product development and sales must coordinate their activities to align a company’s products with customer needs.
• Describe how marketing research can identify customer needs.
• Identify the four main elements of the marketing mix and discuss how the marketing mix is used to differentiate a company’s products.
• Describe how marketing research can identify the needs of different customer groups and market segments.
• Differentiate between the three main approaches to market segmentation.

Sales, Distribution and Customer Relationship Management

• Comprehend the relationship between marketing, distribution, sales and personal selling.
• Discuss the main distribution channels a company can use to reach customers and the factors that determine distribution channel choices.
• Differentiate between different approaches to personal selling and explain why the nature of a company’s products determine the selling approach.
• Outline the major issues and problems that arise during each stage of the personal selling process.
• Explain how customer relationship management can improve the profitability of the sales and distribution process.

Operations and Materials Management

• Describe the nature of the operations and materials management process and explain how it can create a competitive advantage for a company.
• Identify the give main components of operations and materials management costs and the methods companies use to reduce them.
• Differentiate between the three major kinds of operating systems companies use to produce goods and services.
• Assess the way total quality management can significantly improve both quality and productivity.
• Describe three materials management methods companies use to improve the flow of resources into and out of production and increase operations efficiency.

Human Resource Management

• Describe the five components of a human resource management system and the way they work together to help a company obtain a competitive advantage.
• Identify the issues involved in the process of recruiting qualified people to join a company and the steps involved in the selection process.
• Explain how training and development activities help to build the abilities, skills and knowledge of a company’s employees.
• Understand why the process of appraising employees’ performance is a major factor influencing the way they wish to contribute to achieving a company’s goals and objectives.
• Explain why linking pay to performance in a fair and equitable manner is an important source of employee motivation and commitment to a company.
• Assess the importance of good labor relations and the importance of collective bargaining in aligning the goals of employees and companies.

Accounting

• Explain how the success of a company’s business model can be measured by financial accounts, and describe the various kinds of activities that accountants perform.
• Analyze a company’s balance sheet and describe how it balances the assets a company owns against the capital owed to its creditors and stockholders.
• Explain how the income statement is used to measure a company’s bottom-line profit and the various costs and expenses that must be deducted to arrive at this total.
• Understand why the need for cash, as well as profit, affects a company’s business model and how the cash flow statement measures the cash that flows into and out of a company.
• Evaluate how financial ratios can be used to analyze the information in a company’s financial statements and how they help both managers and investors evaluate a company’s current and future profitability.

Finance

• Review the crucial relationship between risk and return and the way it affects all business finance decisions.
• Evaluate short-term capital management and the tools managers use to increase the rate of return on capital.
• Understand long-term capital management and the tools used to manage it, like net present value and breakeven analysis.
• Describe four different methods companies can use to finance capital investments.
• Differentiate between the roles debt and equity securities play in financial decision making.

 

Course Texts:

There is one textbook required for this course. You can obtain it through your favorite bookstore.

Jones, Gareth R. “Introduction to Business: How Companies Create Value for People” McGraw Hill 2007 (ISBN: 0-07-352456-5)

Additional reading materials will be provided in the classroom.

 

Please note that textbooks are subject to change. Please contact your advisor before purchasing the textbook for your class to confirm.