MBA Online

Faculty of Business and Accountancy University of Malaya

Faculty : Business and Accountancy
Department : Business Policy and Strategy
Programme of Study : Bachelor of Business Administration
Bachelor of Accounting
Course Code : CBEB1104
Course Title : Human Resource Management
Credit Hours : 3
Course Pre-requisite(s) /
Minimum Requirement(s) : None
Learning Outcomes : At the end of this course, students should be able to:
1. Demonstrate their understanding of the basic human resource
management concepts by defining, describing and applying these
concepts.
2. Explain the principles and techniques of human resource management.
3. Analyse effective ways of dealing with problems in performance
appraisal, discipline, selection, and compensation administration.
4. Illustrate the development of HR systems for real-world situations.
5. Apply the HR laws for workers in Malaysian organisations, including
the Employment Act.
Course Synopsis This course introduces students to the concepts, principles and functions
involved in developing human resource systems. These systems include
staffing, training and development, performance appraisal, compensation
as well as benefits and services.
Assessment : Continuous Assessment: 50%
Final Examination : 50%

Faculty of Business and Accountancy University of Malaya

Faculty : Business and Accountancy
Department : Finance and Banking
Programme of Study : Bachelor of Business Administration
Bachelor of Accounting
Course Code : CBEB 1110
Course Title : Quantitative Analysis for Business
Credit Hours : 3
Course Pre-requisite(s) /
Minimum Requirement(s) : None
Learning Outcomes : At the end of this course, students should be able to:
1. Relate basic concepts, theories, approaches and mathematical
techniques relevant to business, accounting, economics and
management.
2. Utilize skills in evaluating and interpreting daily problems in
mathematical form and proceed to solve these problems using the
approaches taught in the course.
3. Employ various quantitative methods used in business and appreciate
the potential value creation of it and able to recognise opportunities
for utilizing these tools in real situations.
4. Demonstrate awareness and depth of understanding through the
identification of limitation of approaches adopted and suggest future
action to improve its suitability.
5. Choose and compare the range of quantitative tools in dealing with
complex problems and decide upon its appropriateness.
Synopsis of Course Contents : This course aims to provide students an exposure to the importance of
developing logical and critical thinking especially when faced with
business-related problems. Among topics that will be discussed includes
introduction to algebra, linear and non-linear functions, exponential
functions, differentiation and integration and matrix algebra.
Assessment : Continuous Assessment: 50%
Final Examination : 50%

Strategic Management
This course introduces the fundamentals of strategic management, both at the business and corporate levels. While exposing students to the host of conventional analytical tools for strategy design, this course takes the position that strategy design is not separable from strategy implementation. Consequently, it places an emphasis on understanding and enhancement of the process of strategy formation, i.e., the process in which deliberate and emergent strategies dynamically interact and eventually give rise to realized strategies. This course aims to help students:

(1) Acquire a body of concepts and frameworks for analyzing and facilitating strategy design and implementation.

(2) Develop the capability to exercise and integrative perspective of the general manager, utilizing their functional knowledge and experiences

(3) Appreciate the shared sense of corporate “ontology” (reasons for the firm’s existence) and the role of leadership in cultivating the effective dynamics of strategy formation.

Organizational Behavior
The purpose of this course is to help you think about events occurring in organizations from human behavior perspectives and management perspectives, and to help you understand and manage these events. The course applies knowledge from the field of organizational behavior and management to provide you with the understanding and skills you need to be an effective manager of people in organizations. This field is important for you as a manager because successful management involves direction, motivation, communication, and working with people to get things done. This course will focus on both the micro and macro dimensions of organizations, allowing you to develop the skills and knowledge you need to manage individuals, groups, and larger organizational systems.

Economics for Management
Managers at every level- firm, industry, national and international, are endowed with many opportunities and challenges as well. In order to become an effective manager, to exploit opportunities and over come challenges, one should prepare and implement practical management strategies aiming at competing, succeeding and achieving goals. This course on �gEconomics for Management�h provides a solid foundation with rational economic thinking and analysis required for strategic decision-making process.

This course is also designed to provide general understanding of four sectors and three markets of an economy which cover central elements of macroeconomics. These four sectors include firms, business, government and foreign while the three markets include commodity, factor, and financial. Essential theories and current economic issues with real world application will be discussed in order to provide learning partners with theoretical understanding and empirical evidence. The participants are encouraged to familiarise with their own countries economic policies and to examine the effects of those policies on managing firms and industries. No prior knowledge in economics is required for this course but strong desire and genuine effort to learn are prerequisites.

Corporate Finance
The objective of this course is to provide a thorough introduction to the fundamental principles of asset valuation and financing in competitive financial markets. The course examines the important issues in corporate finance from a perspective of financial managers who need to make significant investment and financing decisions. We start with the NPV rule, which leads us to the valuation of debt and equity. We then investigate the efficient market hypothesis and examine the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and the portfolio theories in such a market. We also learn to use the NPV rule to justify capital investment decisions. Option pricing will be the last step in our venture into the world of corporate finance. While this course is not designed to teach an abstract mathematical theory of modern financial economics, a basic theoretical understanding of various topics is essential to competent analysis and intellectual discussion. Furthermore, in examining issues in portfolio diversification, knowledge of basic statistics and spreadsheets will be essential and assumed. Prerequisite: Statistics. Co-requisite: Financial Accounting and/or Managerial Economics.

1401: Economic History
Winter Onozuka & Tanimoto
Intorductory class on Economic History, which aims at better understanding of the economic system of the modern society. It covers the following topics; I.Introduction, II.Pre-modern society, III.Early modern society, IV.Modern society, and V.Early modern and modern society of Japan.

ICS , Graduate Schl f Internatinal Crprate Strategy

[Term 4] Change Management (K. Ichij) (2009/Term 3&4 (Spring&Summer))

This curse is abut rganizatinal change management, in which a firm seeks t successfully mbilize peple fr change t imprve its business perfrmance.

Business leaders face varius challenges. Challenges f launching new grwth strategies, challenges f implementing new business mdels, and challenges f accmplishing crprate transfrmatin, t name a few. Business leaders have t implement change initiatives and mbilize the entire rganizatin fr change s that they can vercme the challenges facing them.

Change, hwever, is nt easy. ld habits die hard. Peple are afraid f change. Every change initiative faces resistance; therefre, business leaders shuld be gd at managing change. Successful change management aims t manage change prcesses successfully s that the challenges identified can be effectively and efficiently vercme within a shrter perid f time.

In this curse, students will study leadership, prcesses, and key enablers fr successful change management.
Curse Structure

ICS , Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy
The curse is structured s that the students will have a better understanding f the successful executin f change initiatives. Effective change management is required when business leaders launch new initiatives t vercme the challenges facing them. Therefre, in this curse, several key leadership challenges such as the executin f a new grwth strategy, a new business mdel, a new rganizatin, and crprate transfrmatin will be studied. In this study, the fllwing key prcesses fr change management will be examined.
Assessing change necessity.
Shaping a visin fr a change initiative.
Mbilizing cmmitment: Spnsring frm abve; repeating small wins; and caching and guiding.
Making change last: embedding new culture; and establishing scial netwrk.
Teaching Methd

This curse will be taught using the Harvard Business Schl type f case methd. Students will be asked t prepare a case and discuss questins designated by the instructr fr each sessin. Mst learning will take place in class primarily frm cmments made by fellw students. The rle f the instructr will be t facilitate stimulating discussin.

ICS , Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy

[Term 2] Organizational Capability (K. Kusunoki) (2008/Term 1&2 (Fall&Winter))

Organizational Capability is positioned as an extension of the Competitive Strategy course with an aim to provide students with an integrative understanding of how to gain and sustain competitive advantage. Organizational Capability is well paired with Competitive Strategy as they are two sides of the same coin. Both courses are concerned with gaining and sustaining competitive advantage. The two courses, however, differ in perspective. Competitive Strategy is fundamentally a matter of effective positioning that differentiates a firm from competitors, and is based on a sophisticated understanding of external factors, such as industrial structure.

On the other hand, the perspective of Organizational Capability focuses on internal contexts of competitive advantage. Effective positioning alone is not sufficient to gain and sustain competitive advantage. There are two main routes to competitive advantage: SP (Strategic Positioning) and OC (Organizational Capability), and this course focuses on the latter route.

With these issues in mind, the course will push you to understand how a firm can fully exploit the potential advantage of differentiated strategic positioning. Theoretical aspects of the course are based on recent developments in the capability- (or resource)-based view of the firm. Since knowledge is the crucial ingredient for firm-specific, costly-to-imitate organizational capabilities, the course has substantial linkage to Knowledge Management.

Students who will take this elective course should recognize that this course is not about specific skills and tools for strategy formulation and implementation, but about a perspective to deepen understanding of strategy and competitive advantage. The capability side of competitive strategy is a new and emerging arena of strategy thinking, relative to the positioning-based strategy taught in Competitive Strategy. Different from positioning-based strategy, there are no common, well-developed concepts and frameworks for analyzing organizational capability like Five Force, Value Chain, and so forth. Furthermore, the idea of organizational capability mainly focuses on intangible aspects of competitive advantage, which are difficult to express as fully explicit knowledge. Nevertheless, I believe that Organizational Capability will provide tangible power as a useful heuristic to cultivate more comprehensive understanding of how and why a company can gain and sustain competitive advantage.
Teaching Method

The sessions are primarily case-based. Some cases will be discussed in the traditional manner of case discussion. Given the emerging nature of capability-based strategy, however, some sessions will use cases as supplements or illustrations for interactive lectures. The course will include one presentation session from groups of students.

Since there are no “standard” textbooks on capability-based strategy, this course will not use a particular textbook. Instead, the course uses some chapters from the following book as reading materials:

Saloner, G., Shepard A., & Podolny, J. (2001). Strategic management. New York: John Wiley
& Sons.

Since the course will directly touch only some chapters from the book, copies of the selected chapters to be used in the class will be included in the course binder. However, I strongly recommend that students buy this book because it is very good at creating a bridge between the capability view and positioning view of strategy. In addition, I will deliver some readings in the classroom that will be helpful as supplements to the topics and issues covered in this course.

ICS , Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy

[Term 2] Innovation & Competition (E. Osono) (2008/Term 1&2 (Fall&Winter))

As successful innovation results in growth and better profitability, it is on the top of corporate executives’ most important agendas. However, there are some popular misunderstandings about innovation. The first is to consider only product innovation such as the iPod as an innovation opportunity. The reality is that you can innovate in various areas such as product, process, organizational design, and strategy. Hence, innovation is relevant not only to those companies in technology intensive industries, but to most of all companies. The second is to consider that when innovation happens, it is unpredictable whether it sells or not. Yes, we hear many stories about wrong sales projections of innovative products such as personal computers. However, there are several factors that scholars identified and if you apply them to your own innovation, you can improve the likelihood of success. The third is to believe that innovative attackers suddenly appear and you can not do anything about it. This is not true either. Scholars have found that there are several typologies of innovation and certain types of innovation benefit certain types of companies. Learning those lessons from history will help you to be more effective attackers, as well as being better incumbents in fighting against them.

This course builds on Module 3 (Competitive Dynamics) of the Competitive Strategy Course offered in Term 1 and broadens your understanding of the dynamics of competitive strategy brought about by innovation, where market, technology, and the rules of the game emerge or change. It tries to answer such questions as “which innovations are more likely successful?” “how can a firm win the competition with innovation?”; more particularly, “how can a firm make a profit with innovation?” “why do certain types of companies lose the competition when faced with certain types of innovation?,” and “how should I plan and make decisions within the context of the uncertainties of innovation?” To answer these questions such frameworks as diffusion of innovation, disruptive innovation, architectural innovation, de facto standard war, discovery driven planning, and scenario planning will be introduced.

The course investigates management issues in large, established companies as well as in small, start-up companies, in other words, from the view point of incumbent firms as well as that of new entrants and attackers. This course will take a general manager’s perspective. It does NOT require students to have an engineering background. Indeed, we will focus on issues beyond engineering expertise.

The two innovation management courses in Term 2 (Innovation & Competition) and Term 4 (Innovation & Organization) are complementary since the Term 2 course focuses on strategy and Term 4 on organization. However, they are independent enough so that those students who take only one of the two courses will still learn effectively.
Course Structure

The course consists of three modules.
Module 1: Innovation’s impact on competition
Module 2: Strategic planning under uncertainty
Module 3: Integration

The first module will explain innovation’s impact on competition and possible strategies to take advantage of innovation and organizational resources. The second module will prepare you to develop strategy under uncertainty. The third module will ask you to develop your own strategy and action plans by using the lessons learned in the three modules.
Teaching Method

The course is case-oriented. Learning will take place from your own effort to apply concepts and frameworks to cases as well as comments from your fellow students. Also, student groups will choose their industry at the beginning of the course and will be asked to apply concepts and frameworks you learn in the course to analyze the industry and develop a strategy and action plan for one of the companies in that particular industry as a final paper. Concepts and frameworks will be introduced to you by short pre-readings and/or short lectures.