Syllabus 494 Section4 Spring2015 1 
ISENBERG SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST
SCH-MGMT 494BI, Section 2
Business Policy and Strategy
This course meets the University requirements for an Integrated Experience
Spring 2015 Syllabus
Monday & Wednesday 2:30 – 3:45
Room SOM 118
Instructor:
Email:
Office:
Office Hours:
Erim Ergene eergene@som.umass.edu SOM 231
Monday 1:30 – 2:30 or by appointment.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Business Policy and Strategy is the capstone course requirement for all BBA majors (Accounting,
Finance, Operations Management, Management, and Marketing). The course is designed to be highly integrative in that students use knowledge and tools from all functional areas of business to develop a
"whole organization" perspective in order to understand and resolve major issues that confront firms.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
As befits a senior level seminar course, SCH-MGMT 494BI has multiple objectives. At a general level, this course is designed to expose you to issues that influence the competitive behavior and performance of entire organizations. So far in your coursework you have primarily studied business functions (e.g., accounting, finance, marketing) one at a time. Consequently, there is a tendency for such incremental emphasis to lead to narrow functional thinking. This course will help you broaden your perspective so that you consider business functions from the perspective of the overall organization.
Additionally, some fields present well-defined problems with “right” and “wrong” answers. This is not true of management in general and strategic management in particular. Strategic decision-makers generally deal with complex situations characterized by considerable uncertainty. The “problem” or
“opportunity” is rarely obvious. Many interrelated problems and opportunities are usually involved. This course will help you develop skills and knowledge for dealing with such situations and assist you in identifying and evaluating alternative courses of action.
More specifically,
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST
SCH-MGMT 494BI, Section 2
Business Policy and Strategy
This course meets the University requirements for an Integrated Experience
Spring 2015 Syllabus
Monday & Wednesday 2:30 – 3:45
Room SOM 118
Instructor:
Email:
Office:
Office Hours:
Erim Ergene eergene@som.umass.edu SOM 231
Monday 1:30 – 2:30 or by appointment.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Business Policy and Strategy is the capstone course requirement for all BBA majors (Accounting,
Finance, Operations Management, Management, and Marketing). The course is designed to be highly integrative in that students use knowledge and tools from all functional areas of business to develop a
"whole organization" perspective in order to understand and resolve major issues that confront firms.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
As befits a senior level seminar course, SCH-MGMT 494BI has multiple objectives. At a general level, this course is designed to expose you to issues that influence the competitive behavior and performance of entire organizations. So far in your coursework you have primarily studied business functions (e.g., accounting, finance, marketing) one at a time. Consequently, there is a tendency for such incremental emphasis to lead to narrow functional thinking. This course will help you broaden your perspective so that you consider business functions from the perspective of the overall organization.
Additionally, some fields present well-defined problems with “right” and “wrong” answers. This is not true of management in general and strategic management in particular. Strategic decision-makers generally deal with complex situations characterized by considerable uncertainty. The “problem” or
“opportunity” is rarely obvious. Many interrelated problems and opportunities are usually involved. This course will help you develop skills and knowledge for dealing with such situations and assist you in identifying and evaluating alternative courses of action.
More specifically,