Managerial roles and responsibilities are becoming increasingly global in nature. In many companies, the ability to manage in a global environment has become an important criteria (if not the most important criterion) for both promotion to top management levels and concomitant business success in the corporate world. This course begins with an orientation on global management, and ends with perspectives on career pursuits for global managers. In between, the course will focus on important conditional topics like the understanding of cultural differences, cross-cultural ethics, business communication in a global context, skills for avoidance/dealing with conflict, and personnel negotiations; topics relevant to the key subject of “global collaborative teams.”

The world is changing in two fundamental ways. First, the development of a truly global market in products, services, capital, and even certain types of labor is changing the basic terms of competition for an array of different firms and industries. Second, the rules and institutions governing the new international economic order are still in flux. National regulations are no longer adequate yet international accords over trade, intellectual property, labor standards, and a host of other issues are fiercely and frequently contested by competing interests. The final results of these debates will determine who wins and who loses in the new global economy. Understanding the interaction between environment and business around the world is the key to understanding both the possibilities for and constraints on either managing an existing or starting a new business in today's fast-changing global economy.

This contemporary topic of study lends an important level of understanding the challenges; and, in developing the strategy skills that are important for business leaders and managers facing the pressures to meet higher accountability levels of social and environmental responsibilities in their operational policies and practices.

1. This course will provide students with the opportunity to assemble "briefing materials" that can make the case for sustainability in a business organizational perspective.

2. This course will strengthen skills in the management of strategic program planning processes.

3. This course will contribute to an objective understanding of contemporary needs and responsive methodologies that stakeholders in business communities must consider within the context of their corporate responsibilities.