Concordia University – Portland - School of Management

Online MBA Program
Concordia University - Portland's 38-credit online MBA curriculum takes two years to complete and plays an important role in implementing the university's mission of preparing leaders for the transformation of society - an increasingly globalized society in need of ethical and effective leaders for business and management.

Concordia - Portland's online MBA program prepares students for fulfilling management careers in business, government, and non-profit sectors. The program also stresses the critical importance of servant and ethical leadership, organizational change through constant innovation, global awareness, critical thinking, decision-making, financial modeling, and project management. The program places particular emphasis on functions such as general management, international business and finance, and in fast expanding fields such as healthcare and environmental management.

Curriculum
The first sequence of Concordia's online MBA program is a lock-step 20-credit sequence in which all students go through a core curriculum in a cohort structure. After completing these core courses, students focus on one of five concentrations; each concentration track is a nine-credit sequence to complete the MBA program. Second-year concentrations are based on the candidate's specific career goals. Students can choose to follow a traditional concentration in General Management, Finance, Global Business Management, Healthcare Administration or Environmental Management.

The Concordia MBA curriculum emphasizes case-based learning and simulates on-the-job experience as closely as possible. Case studies and course materials developed by Harvard Business School for Concordia are a centerpiece of this program. Case-based instruction is an intense process where students and faculty interact and learn from each other. The cases themselves are first-hand accounts of actual management situations. Problems span such areas as operating policies, accounting methods, marketing techniques, and management styles. Students are asked to take the positions of managers, perform analyses, and recommend courses of action.

However, instruction is not limited to the exclusive use of cases. Faculty members use a broad array of teaching tools, techniques and methodologies in ensuring attainment of course and program outcomes.

MBA Concentrations
Through the specific concentrations available in the Concordia MBA program, students are encouraged to appreciate diversity and develop a multicultural management perspective. They are challenged to find and follow their passion, forge meaningful connections, and apply their talents to benefit their organizations, their communities, and the natural environment.

General Management Program Objectives
- Elevate critical thinking and develop analytical and decision making skills
- Refine each student's management and leadership skills
- Develop the ability to drive and foster change and innovation
- Hone each student's sense of ethical standards, and develop a desire to live a life of service

Finance Program Objectives
- Develop each student's financial analytical skills
- Provide real-world opportunities to learn how to apply capital budgeting techniques
- Learn about the function of financial markets and the role of ethics in their function
- Equip students with the tools to build and establish skills in innovative financial techniques
- Prepare each online MBA candidate with the ability to grasp the financial implications of organizational change

Global Business Management Program Objectives
- Through foreign travel, field research, and interaction with foreign nationals, students learn to integrate theory and practices
- Conduct primary and secondary international business research
- Develop the ability to foster diversity and multicultural perspective in business
- Acquire skills to identify factors associated with the economic decline or development of foreign markets
- Gain levels of international awareness, and demonstrate a strong understanding of the factors affecting globalization, international trade, and global citizenry

Healthcare Administration Program Objectives
- Identify the role of the financial manager in strategic planning for healthcare facilities
- Help students learn and master theories of various healthcare financing and reimbursement mechanisms
- Create an environment where students can demonstrate an understanding of ways of financing working capital such as collections and receivables management, inventory management, productivity management, and short-term financing
- Prepare MBA candidates to analyze and evaluate ways of financing capital expenditures, including the certificate of need process
- Identify and discuss the questions of basic values and their ethical implications in providing healthcare, and explore how these questions interface with Christian as well as other religious and philosophic traditions

Environmental Management Program Objectives
- Create environments in which students learn the ability to drive and foster change and innovation
- Help students learn about the impact of environmental and natural resource financial and economic factors affecting businesses and their ability to comply with environmental regulations
- Explore major schools of leadership thought, translating an understanding of multiple approaches into a synthesis of organizational leadership theory
- Acquire skills in alternatives-based problem solving. This should be beneficial with cost-benefit analysis and natural resource valuation
- Develop skills to analyze situations from a moral, ethical, and faith-based perspective