Online MBA Concentrations

Digital marketing has transformed how businesses and other organizations communicate with their consumers. Digital marketing offers powerful tools to reach, interact with, convert and engage online audiences by raising awareness, encouraging conversion to sale, and improving customer retention. This class will give students a theoretical understanding of the internet marketplace necessary to adapt to its many changes while equipping them with digital marketing techniques needed for successful marketing campaigns in a digital economy. Topics will include website marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), email marketing, social media and community marketing, and mobile marketing. 

Prerequisite: Mkt 5410 Marketing Management.

As social media has moved to the forefront, many companies are looking to capitalize on the use of this tool to increase consumer engagement and strengthen their marketing strategy. Consumers often pay attention to news and information about the company, products, and promotions, and are willing to offer feedback and suggestions. Since consumers now have louder voices than before and are more socially connected than they have ever been, their expectations and opinions toward brands, products, and services shared widely on social media become key drivers to affect companies’ performances in the marketplace.

In light of these shifts in the marketplace and with consumer behavior, this course is designed to focus on how social media can be constructed and implemented for effective branding and promotional campaigns. With a balance of essential theory and practical application, the main goal of this course is to expand students’ knowledge and understanding of various social media tools and user characteristics to enable the creation of practical social marketing strategies to help marketers effectively achieve their business goals. Students will take a deep dive into advanced features of diverse social media strategies, the constraints they present, and gain practical application on how to effectively manage and assess the effectiveness of such strategies in real business situations. 

Prerequisite: Mkt 5410 Marketing Management.

This course focuses on developing strategies for implementing effective advertising campaigns as part of integrated marketing communications (IMC). IMC provides balanced coverage of many communication tools - advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, sponsorship, direct marketing, point-of-purchase, public relations, and internet communications. The goal of marketing communications is to convey meanings to the relevant consumer audience in order to build a strong brand. Both a theoretical and managerial approach to advertising components will be examined. Students in this class are expected to shift their perceptual focus. You can no longer think as if you are part of the audience (as you do when you watch television commercials or surf the internet), but instead, as if you are the creators of communication strategies. This is realistic: in business, people preparing advertising, public relations, and sales promotion strategies are seldom members of the target audience; and strategy desirability must be judged in terms of what a target audience might like, dislike or understand. The aim of this course is to: (1) increase your understanding of the important issues in strategically planning and evaluating marketing communication campaigns; (2) introduce you to appropriate theories, models, and other tools for understanding marketing communications (including exposing you to current relevant academic research); (3) provide you with a managerial perspective on making marketing communications decisions; and, (4) highlight the interplay between traditional and non-traditional components of integrated marketing communications campaigns. 

Prerequisite: Mkt 5410 Marketing Management.

The focus is on how to make strategic HR management decisions. Covers a history of HR management; identification and analysis of strategic trends; HR systems design; financial acumen for HR professionals; mergers and acquisitions strategy from an HR perspective; HR metrics, outcomes and ROI of HR; strategic impact of HR on organizational culture, diversity, ethical issues, leadership & succession planning; and managing workplace safety issues.
Prerequisite: Mgt 5310 Business Organization, Theory & Behavior.

Overview of the design and administration of effective compensation and benefits systems. The course presents strategies relating to compensation design, choosing employee benefits, positioning total compensation within competitive labor markets, compliance, and compensation design within both unionized and non-unionized and profit, nonprofit, and government organizations.
Prerequisite: Mgt 5310 Business Organization, Theory & Behavior.

This course is designed to address two critical aspects of HR systems: 1) HRIS and 2) people analytics. HRIS provides an understanding of how human resource information systems are used in organizations to support organizational strategy. People analytics are the state-of-the-art techniques used in HR predictive analysis. Students will learn how to conduct analysis and explain data with the aim in understanding how hard data can influence strategic human resources management. The focus will be on merging computer technology with a strategic human resource management perspective. This course provides students with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to identify, assess, develop, and implement an effective system for managing human resources information.
Prerequisite: Mgt 5310 Business Organization, Theory & Behavior.

This course will focus on staffing models, strategy, and methods including: planning, job analysis, recruitment, measurement, selection, retention management, training and development of human resources to achieve organizational effectiveness. Major EEO laws as they pertain to recruitment, selection, and promotion and workplace behavior will be included.
Prerequisite: Mgt 5310 Business Organization, Theory & Behavior.

This course will focus on collective bargaining issues and process; grievances and unfair labor practices; managing union organizing; strikes, boycotts and work stoppages; union-related and labor relations law; union/management relations; union decertification and deauthorization; and negotiation skills.
Prerequisite: Mgt 5310 Business Organization, Theory & Behavior.

Course provides an introduction to data analytics for business professionals. The fundamental principles and techniques of data analytics learned in this course will help students understand the roll of data in areas such as management, information systems, accounting, finance, marketing, operations and human resources. Students will build a fundamental data literacy and develop analytic skills to make data driven strategic decisions.

Prerequisite: Math 1610 Statistics for Decision Making.

OM 5040 Operations Analytics - 3 Units