Our Curriculum

The theme of sustainability is woven throughout the Marlboro MBA curriculum, whether the course is Values-based Quantitative Analysis or Managerial Accounting. Much of the class work during monthly residencies will consist of faculty leading students in action learning exercises, developing a practical understanding of business issues by addressing real-world questions. Courses will be supplemented by guest speakers and field trips to some of New England’s renowned socially responsible businesses.

Central to the curriculum will be exploring the connections between subjects and understanding entire systems and their impact on other systems.

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Low-intensity Vertical Courses (Running throughout the program)

MBAS603 Climate Change: Understanding, Measurement and Mitigation – 3 credits
This low-intensity course runs through the entire curriculum for the purpose of thoroughly familiarizing students with the scientific, political, economic, and business dimensions of the rapidly evolving debate about climate change and energy policy.  Includes measurement and reporting of personal carbon accounts, development of personal carbon mitigation plans, and simulation of offset and cap & trade systems.

MBAS604 Exploring Sustainability – 5 credits
Low-intensity, continuous discussion and analysis of readings, film, and other media marking the emergence and development of the concept of sustainability and its relation to business and industry, combining “classic” works with the state of the art.  Includes guest speakers and short written assignments. 

MBAS602 Personal Leadership Development – 4 credits
This low-intensity, continuous course explores ideas and approaches for the development of personal leadership, from personal mastery to the leadership of teams and larger organizations.  In the context of reflecting and learning with peers and mentors, the course is organized around the creation of a personal leadership development plan, including goal and objective setting, progress monitoring, introspection, self-honesty, justice and empowerment, and feedback skills.  Students will be encouraged to seek mentoring from individuals in sectors, industries, or roles they aspire to be part of or assume.

TRIMESTER 1 - Fall
MBAS600 Foundations of Sustainable Business - 3 credits
As an introductory business management course, this looks at both the business case for sustainability and the sustainability case for business. Overview of key concepts, historical perspectives and state-of-the-art tools and practices within CSR, environmental management, social enterprise and the broader debates about the relationship between private firms, modern industry and ecological and social sustainability.

MBAS601 Organizational Management I: People & Teams - 3 credits
Theory and practice of how individuals and groups act and interact in an organizational context, spanning the range from functionalist to critical and postmodern views. Attempts to answer the questions of: 1. What interpersonal and team practices can facilitate the greatest possible mix of equity, justice, practical effectiveness and sustainability in today’s world? 2. What must we unlearn about people and teams if we are to make our organizations and communities truly sustainable?

MBAS602 Communication, Persuasion, & Negotiation – 2 credits
Practical spoken, non-verbal and written communication concepts and skills, with an emphasis on clear and correct writing; presentation skills; how to persuade andnegotiate effectively and respectfully; a critical exploration of communication’s role in social relations and justice, with an emphasis on corporate stakeholder communication in the sustainability context.

MBAS605 Personal Leadership Development - 4 credits
This low-intensity, continuous course explores ideas and approaches for the development of personal leadership, from personal mastery to the leadership of teams and larger organizations. In the context of reflecting and learning with peers and mentors, the course is organized around the creation of a personal leadership development plan, including goal and objective setting, progress monitoring, introspection, self-honesty, justice and empowerment and feedback skills. Students will be encouraged to seek mentoring from individuals in sectors, industries or roles they aspire to be part of or assume.

TRIMESTER 2 - Winter
MBAS606 Economics I: Managerial Economics - 3 credits
An introduction to the fundamentals of managerial economics, focusing on microeconomics, with three primary objectives: providing an understanding of the conventional (neoclassical) microeconomic model and how this model relates to business decision-making; providing a critique of the neoclassical model and presenting a more heterodox view of economics; and exercising a variety of analytical skills that are useful for economic analysis as well as managerial decision-making. The course
will cover basic economic relationships, focusing on analysis at the margin; supply and demand theory; production theory; capital theory; profit maximization and cost minimization; firm structure; and types of markets. The critical aspect of the class will both consider how the neoclassical model becomes unrealistic, and therefore of limited value, and how the model is problematic in terms of sustainability. Substantially different economic paradigms will be explored.


MBAS608 Quantitative Methods for Enterprise - 2 credits
The purpose of the course is to ensure that all students are fully grounded in the quantitative skills they need to thrive in subsequent MBA program courses and gain confidence using the tools they will need in their future careers. The course, therefore, examines in detail basic business computation, statistics and inventory and enterprise resource planning models. Regarding the former, many accounting and finance concepts will be identified and defined (e.g., fixed cost, variable cost, break-even volume and financial ratios). Operations research, decision theory and game theory will also be touched upon. The use of Excel will be thoroughly exercised, and assignments will be carried out in Excel. On a methodological note, the course will also examine the appropriate uses and limits of quantification, and consider post-positivist critiques of inappropriate quantification and reductionism. This course is a prerequisite for later
accounting and finance courses.

MBAS610 Needs and Wants: Marketing in a Sustainable Society - 3 credits
Defining needs and wants broadly – to include but not remain limited within a conventional marketing perspective – this course examines and works with the practical dimensions of designing, pricing, distributing and informing/persuading stakeholders about a product or service. Includes marketing management and strategy, brands, cause-related marketing, social marketing and critical perspectives on marketing and the consumer society in ecological and globalization contexts, including the life-cycle (LCA) view of products, the bottom-of-pyramid perspective and the notion of sustainable consumption.

TRIMESTER 3 - Spring
MBAS607 Organizational Management II: Sustainable People Practices
- 2 credits
This course begins with a review of conventional and transitional human resource management concepts, tools and practices. After examining, modeling and analyzing the typical role of HRM in firms and other organizations today, the emphasis will shift to designing effective, efficient and empowering work environments and roles for human,
community and ecological sustainability. A basic premise of this course is that most organizations today are structured and managed in a fashion that necessarily leads to abuse of humans, other species and ecosystems, but that alternatives exist in practice, and that it is possible to transcend current organizational modes.

MBAS611 Systems Thinking I: Ecology of Food, Water Energy and Human Welfare - 2 credits
The first of three “systems thinking” courses, this course grounds students in the physical material and energy systems of modern human societies, and uses basic systems concepts and ecological economics to describe and analyze their sustainability. An assumption is that it is in areas of essential resource systems – water, food and energy (and their connections to heating, lighting, transportation and human health) –
where the preponderance of sustainability problems are arising, and that here is where the most urgent crises and greatest opportunities for entrepreneurs and innovators lie. Set in an ecological context that considers both nature and human welfare. Emphasis on real-world understanding, acquiring factual general knowledge and modeling of regional food systems and local/regional/global energy regimes. Includes systems modeling using STELLA.

MBAS612 Finance I: Accounting for Sustainable Management - 3 credits
Mixing financial and managerial accounting, with an emphasis on the latter, this course examines the theory and practice of identifying and analyzing managerial and financial accounting information, including the application of triple-bottom-line criteria, for internal use by managers for decision-making. Topics include the preparation and interpretation of financial information, bookkeeping, financial ratio analysis, management of assets and liabilities, liquidity, long-term capital, rate of return and net
present value. The focus then moves to developing the necessary skills to be an effective financial manager of a project, program or organization – or work with those who are. These skills include analysis of cash flow, financial planning and forecasting and risk assessment. Students will construct and utilize pro forma financial statements and assess the feasibility of projects and capital budgets. Socially responsible investment (SRI) models and the relationship among human, natural and financial
capital will be examined.

TRIMESTER 4 - Fall
MBAS613 Economics II: Macroeconomics and Political Economy - 3 credits
In this course, the economics of individuals, households, firms and other actors are considered in the context of regional, national and global economies. The uses and limitations of conventional macroeconomic theory in these larger contexts are examined. Business cycles, monetary and fiscal conditions, trade, economic globalization and long-term sustainability are analyzed from both a practical standpoint (i.e., one of pragmatic relevance to investors, managers and entrepreneurs) and a
critical standpoint, using such alternative frames as political economy, critiques of globalization and social and economic justice.

MBAS614 Systems Thinking II: Human Systems - 2 credits
This course undertakes to foster critical and systems thinking about norms, cultures, organizations, institutions, ethical principles and theories, moral and symbolic leadership and framing. A social constructivist approach is used. Luhmann’s “ecological communication”/autopoiesis will form one theoretical leg. Key skills imparted are:
1. Epistemological sophistication – not taking asserted constructs literally – understanding intentional/traditional framing and power – tolerance of multiple, incommensurable narratives;
2. Appreciation of the diversity of social constructs, their origins, their future and their relation to sustainability.
3. Ability to use rhetoric responsibly, to frame and persuade in a manner consistent with social justice and sustainability.

MBAS615 Finance II: Corporate Finance and Sustainable Capital Management - 3 credits
This course builds on the foundation established in Finance I. The capital management of ongoing ventures and the start-up financing of new ventures are both explored. Topics include debt and equity financing, with specific emphasis on capital investment decisions, capital structure, initial public stock offerings, dividend decisions, working capital management, financial risk management and the interface with capital markets. The relationship among sustainable performance, triple-bottom-line criteria and investor and other stakeholder expectations is thoroughly examined, with particular reference to financing alternatives, including entrepreneurial financing opportunities and their investment and return criteria. Throughout, the similarities and contrasts among financial, human, social and natural capital will be explored.

TRIMESTER 5 - Winter
MBAS616 Operations, Logistics and Supply Chains: Industrial
Ecosystems in Transition - 3 credits
This course brings together a variety of concepts and practices from manufacturing, services, IT and natural resource and waste industries to cultivate in students an operations perspective with sustainability as its overarching benchmark. Operations management is defined, and the roles of plant managers, industrial engineers, quality experts, line supervisors and supply chain managers are explored. Special emphasis is placed on modern knowledge-intensive operations, and on the use of teams, outsourcing, flexible production, just-in-time MRP, kaizen, Six Sigma and other currently relevant practices. This course also includes a close look at management systems/standards of relevance to sustainability strategies, including ISO 9000, ISO 14001, EMAS and ISO 26000. Other topics include the value chain and industrial ecology.

MBAS617 Systems Thinking III: Law, Formal Regulation and Civil Governance - 2 credits
The final course in the “systems thinking” series, this explores formal systems created by humans to govern society, especially its economic and resource dimensions. Law, civil governance and international agreements are studied and analyzed in relation to private property, public goods and the commons, business and market efficiency, social justice and sustainability. Basic concepts of business law, environmental and natural
resources law, and tort law are surveyed. The emerging global civil governance regime pertaining to environmental, CSR and sustainability objectives is explored and its power analyzed in relation to binding state laws and regulations.

MBAS618 Finance III: Equity, Ownership and Control - 3 credits
Bringing together finance, law and management, this course examines the legal forms available to organizations, including for-profit and non-profit entities, with particular emphasis on the effects of corporate form choices on access to capital, organizational control, social mission, legal issues and stakeholder interests. Ramifications of the organizational form, decisions for start-ups, organizations pursuing growth, and
organizations that require re-structuring will be examined. Other ownership forms, such as employee ownership, cooperatives and collectives, will be analyzed in the context of workplace democracy and a contemporary social critique of the corporation in an age of globalization and concentrating wealth. Students will be required to develop a conceptual new venture project that thoroughly justifies an organizational form choice in relation to location, expected capital requirements, ownership goals and attainment of its mission. The course will make use of guest experts (online and in person) actively engaged in private start-ups and social enterprises.

TRIMESTER 6 - Spring
MBAS609 Capstone Project - 5 credits
The content and structure of this independent study assignment is largely up to the student. Advising and mentoring is provided as needed. Projects could involve business plans, consulting assignments for realworld clients or projects of a more academic nature, albeit of practical relevance. To fill in knowledge gaps for students completing their capstones, the MBA program will provide short modules on such topics as research methods, project management and entrepreneurship, as needed. This part of the program is intended to bring many threads together depending on student desires and needs. Individual projects are preferred, although permission may be granted for pair or group projects if warranted. Each capstone project will result in a significant document (e.g., plan, report) and will be presented in a seminar before students, faculty, invited guests and the greater Marlboro Graduate Center community.

MBAS620 Strategic Synthesis: General Management for Sustainable Enterprise - 3 credits
Seeking to integrate knowledge and experience from throughout the MBA curriculum, this course combines strategic analysis and management, organization design and development and the functional areas of management to explore how and why key strategic decisions are made and implemented in organizations, placing them in both conventional and sustainability contexts. A thorough application of the strategy “toolkit,” especially strategy maps, is combined with development of consulting skills, mentors/advisors who are experienced practitioners, and engagements with real organizations to generate insights and useful recommendations.

The program will also feature Short Modules - either provided wholly online or during intensives, for both remedial and overview purposes:

• Research Methods
• Project Management
• Overview of Human Resource Management

ACADEMIC CALENDAR

SPRING 2008
May 2 Spring 2008 Trimester begins
May 9-11 Intensive #1
June 6-8 Intensive #2
June 20-22 Intensive #3
Aug. 9 Spring 2008 Trimester ends; grades due

Term begin and end dates match the other Grad Center programs.

FALL 2008
Sept. 5 Fall 2008 Trimester begins
Sept. 10-14 Orientation & Intensive #1
Oct. 10-12 Intensive #2
Nov. 7-9 Intensive #3
Dec. 12-14 Intensive #4

WINTER 2009
Jan. 9 Winter 2009 Trimester begins
Jan. 16-18 Intensive #1
Feb. 27 - March 1 Intensive #2
March 27-29 Intensive #3
April 18 Winter 2009 Trimester ends; grades due

SPRING 2009
May 8 Spring 2009 Trimester begins
May 15-17 Intensive #1
June 12-14 Intensive #2
June 26-28 Intensive #3
Aug. 15 Spring 2009 Trimester ends; grades due

FALL 2009
Sept. 4 Fall 2009 Trimester begins
Sept. 9-13 Orientation & Intensive #1
Oct. 9-11 Intensive #2
Nov. 20-22 Intensive #3
Dec. 11-13 Intensive #4
Dec. 12 Fall 2009 Trimester ends; grades due

International Intensive. To be completed either during the first or second year, linked to course and capstone credit: A group trip to 1-2 countries over 2 weeks, with a focus on business-based sustainability models and “whole-system problems & opportunities analysis”

• 2008: Sweden & Lithuania or Latvia (tentative)
• 2009: UK & Ireland (tentative)
• 2010: Costa Rica & Mexico (tentative)

Accreditation
The Marlboro MBA, and all programs at the Marlboro College Graduate Center, are accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc. (NEASC), which accredits schools and colleges in the six New England states.

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