"Leadership, unlike any other skill, cannot be broken down into a series of repeatable maneuvers. The creative process
involved in a reaching a goal is infinitely complex."
-Warren Bennis (1925-)
The purpose of this web page is to provide background information for students intending to enroll in my MGT 665 course. Occasionally, it is useful for motivated students to have general resources regarding various courses. This can occur, for example, during the enrollment period or if the textbooks are not ready for purchase by the time class starts.
This course is offered by the Department of Management in the College of Business and Economics at California State University,
Northridge (CSUN). CSU Northridge is one of 23 campuses in the California State University system. The PDF files below require the free Acrobat Reader.
My email address is wayne.smith@csun.edu. For email
sent to me by students, the Subject line should start with "[CSUN Mgt665]" (without the quotes) [ example ].
Interested students may learn more about me by reviewing my personal web page.
This is an elective course in the Management of Technology and Innovation. Chronologically, we will survey the following major topics on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Drucker, 1985)-- Knowledge Economy, Strategic Management, Globalization, Decision-making, Motivation, and Leadership. In parallel, we will survey the following major topics on Strategy and Technology (Pearlson and Saunders, 2006)-- Management Information Systems, Strategic Information Systems, Organizations, Information Technology, Business Process Reengineering, Enterprise Architecture, E-Commerce, Project Management, Knowledge Management, and Business Ethics.
This course builds upon the mastery of the foundational material acquired in the GBUS 600 course. Of particular importance are the theory and practice perspectives from Microeconomics (the "quantitative" aspects of strategy) and Strategic Management (the "qualitative" aspects of strategy).
While some topics in the MBA program indeed overlap more than one course, each unique course in the MBA provides distinctive topical content. Moreover, these topics tend to be non-trivial and require extended learning effort. For this course, such topics include Business Technology Management, Diffusion of Innovation and Creativity.
Given my academic and professional/managerial background, I tend to augment the curriculum with more advanced topics such as Emotional Intelligence, Systems Thinking, Knowledge Management and Social Networks.
Since this course is being offered under the provenance of a Business School, we will focus on (For-Profit) Business organizations. However, we will also discuss the management issues involved in Not-for-Profit organizations and Government institutions as well.
In terms of course deliverables, the student's oral and written communication will emphasize Evidence over Anecdote. Or more germane to a college-course specifically, the student's approach will emphasize Scientific Evidence over Anecdotal Evidence. In terms of classroom interaction, the student's attitude and approach will, at all times, emphasize Active Listening and Constructive Criticism. One perspective of this course is that successful managers blend the best effective characteristics of Engineering with the best of affective characteristics of Art. Given the nature of the MBA program, students will engender to master both Synthesis and Analysis. Given the value-proposition of the Department of Management within the College of Business and Economics, this course will tend to augment the Quantitative with the Qualitative.
In addition to my own first-person management experiences, I tend to draw many of my management examples from Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and various trade publications.
And finally, I tend to relay some insights and wisdom from the many teachings of the (late) father of modern management, Peter Drucker.
