Curriculum

This first-term course helps students understand the context within which business and government operate and what is unsustainable about our practices, policies and mental models. The context includes understanding current events and trends in public policy, the myriad of complex social, environmental and economic issues facing society as well as some of the historical context of all of this. Students apply all of these concepts to a particular issue of their choice and do a deep study of that issue and the system within which it resides. As part of this process students develop and apply research methods, data analysis, stakeholder engagement strategies, systems thinking and presentation skills. Lectures and readings provide an overview of the critical literacies in economic, financial, environmental and social justice issues, the history of the sustainability movement, including the various social and economic movements from which the current practices of sustainability in business and society grew, and the key actors and the basic literature in the field. The course culminates in the exploration of business’ responsibility in embracing the quadruple bottom line and embedding the principles of sustainability, environmental stewardship and social justice in strategic operations.

The principles and tools of accounting are fundamental to understanding the financial reporting that leaders, investors and stakeholders rely on to make decisions. This course explores the challenges and structure of traditional, GAAP, accounting through translating day to day business operations and more complex exchanges to accounting transactions and then to the financial statements that tell the organization’s economic story. But what is being counted and what is left out of this counting? What are social justice and environmental implications of what is not being counted? Accounting information is used by decision makers within the organization, as well as by external decision makers. We will work with frameworks to extract useful information, analyze performance and align organizational resources. To envision change, we will assess quantitative and qualitative aspects of the benefits and costs of engaging initiatives. Through case study analysis and discussions, we will frame issues and ground decisions with financial particulars and risks within the organization’s context.

We live in a world where huge volumes of data are collected and used every day. These data and associated analyses help us understand and assess the state of the world and our environment. Given these valuable resources, how can we find information we need, and how can we make use of the data? This course challenges students to discover, evaluate, and learn to use this information and data to promote social justice and sustainability. We will learn where and how to search for valuable data and how to critically analyze the information in the analyses. Data do not just inform, but also serve as a basis for action. With that in mind, we will also learn the analytical tools that we can use to analyze choices and risks in order to make more socially effective decisions. These tools include probabilistic reasoning and statistical analysis. Finally, not only is data powerful because of its ability to help us learn to make better decisions, but also because of its ability to tell stories. We will learn how to use quantitative data to create compelling narratives and tell the stories we need to bring about the changes we want to see in the world.

This is the first of two courses exploring leadership capacities for complex change and transformation for self, teams, and organizations. This course will focus on leadership as a collaborative process and ongoing practice, guided by anti-racist, community, and feminist interventions that center justice, and honor our interdependence in relationship to each other and the environment. Embracing the leadership as practice paradigm where we respect process as much as outcome, the course will provide opportunities to build and refine leadership skills in service of developing strategies for sustainable engagement and complex change across sectors and among diverse stakeholders. By examining the political and social structures that contribute to our understanding of leadership, this course will encourage critical reflexivity and a willingness to sit in discomfort in service of reimagining leadership beyond the confines of neoliberalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy. We will explore how to transform systems of power and privilege, cultivate dialectical humanism and the generosity mindset consisting of trust, empathy, hope, and resilience that will define what kind of change is possible.

This course is a one-semester introduction to the fundamentals of managerial economics and macroeconomics. The first part of this course will cover basic economic tools, focusing on analysis at the margin, supply and demand theory, production theory, capital theory, profit maximization, pricing strategy, game theory, cost minimization, firm structure, and behavioral economics. We will then consider GDP, money supply, unemployment, interest rates, inflation. Throughout the course we will be viewing economic frameworks and theories through a critical lens, and will incorporate issues of sustainability, climate change, and social justice.

This course explores how organizations can thrive in a changing marketing communication landscape. Students develop the mindset of a marketer and learn the concepts and techniques that comprise a successful marketing strategy for a business, product, or idea. The semester progresses through learning how to analyze social and economic forces and context, understand customers, position, and apply marketing communication frameworks and tools. Students practice effectively communicating marketing recommendations for action. Most importantly, students will gain the mindset of a marketer—an ability to inquire into the real needs of the individual and society, create sustainable value, and to build programs for relevant, meaningful engagement. This course has an Experiential Learning component. In the Experiential Learning Project students work in teams to develop a marketing plan for a partner organization. Teams consult with their partners to define the scope and objectives of the project. Next, they research the marketing situation faced by their partner, develop customer profiles, and create a marketing plan to build measurable engagement and influence. At the end of the semester, teams present the research findings and marketing plan to their partner to get backing for the implementation of their recommendations.

Students learn how to navigate their way in the strategic, tactical, and operational decision-making environments of operations and supply chain management of service and manufacturing companies. Major topics are process analysis, cost and quality management, service systems management, inventory optimization, industrial ecology, life cycle assessment (LCA), and greenhouse gas emissions minimization, and the circular economy. Students learn how to apply concepts of probability, statistics, and optimization via the use of a number of quantitative operations management tools. They learn how to apply corporate codes of conduct to enforce high standards of social justice throughout a company’s supply chain. Experiential Learning Project: Students apply the arc of inquiry based on principles of pragmatism to fine-tune their skills with applied learning. They do this on a semester-long team project in which they work closely with a partner company or nonprofit organization. The focus of the project is evaluating alternative operations approaches using concepts and tools learned in-class. From this analysis, students recommend the best approach and build operations plans to execute it.

This course frames organizations as complex adaptive systems with purpose, structures, boundaries, and dynamics, whether for-profit, non-profit, and community-based. It explores the influence of leadership in the overall dynamics of these complex systems and their emergent properties of organizational culture, employee engagement, people development, and environmental and social impact. Team dynamics are studied in the context of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the development of higher levels of psychological safety, collaboration, innovation, learning, wellbeing, and performance. Change in organizations is explored as an ongoing and iterative process emphasizing fairness in change equity, decision-making, and communication. Students have the opportunity to practice Agile as a team project management process and Action Inquiry as a method for personal and team change. Students also get to design an organizational operating system aimed to put people and the planet first and address the complexity needed to drive lasting social change.

This course introduces core concepts, metrics and tools of financial management and corporate finance and applies them to conventional (for-profit) and complex (e.g., impact-mandated) enterprise settings. Students will use financial statements and data to develop analysis, valuation and capital budgeting of investment projects and enterprises, and risk management of financial flows and investments. Risk management component will focus on traditional risk assessment and modelling, and will extend to cover applications to Environmental, Social and Governance risk. We will also extend risk management frameworks to account for a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) environment as consistent with modern enterprise strategy development and operations. The course will take an entrepreneurial approach to developing key tools of financial management. Students will encounter and work with case problems designed to apply theoretical fundamentals of financial management to real-world live cases of a new venture finance.

This course is designed to help students define the strategic questions/issue, analyze the context, and develop strategies for any organization—including either overall organizational strategy or sustainability strategy—and become proactive and more holistic strategic-thinkers. We will introduce a diverse set of frameworks for analyzing, developing, and implementing effective strategies. We’ll use various concepts and thought experiments that define strategy as an integrated set of choices that position the business/organization in its complex contextual environment. We will combine insights from classic strategic frameworks with the new tools of emergent strategies to harness new opportunities and deliver impacts in the context of environmental and social systems. The course provides conceptual tools and practical methodologies for catalyzing organizational transformation based on a strategic, systemic, and sustainable appreciation of change. This course will integrate traditional business concepts with sustainability as a platform for creativity, innovation, and competitive advantage for both new and established organizations. It also includes a mini-course on design thinking and scenario planning.

The objective of the course is for the student to demonstrate an understanding and mastery of the mindset, practical skills, knowledge, and attributes needed for creating a convincing business case, whether in the creation of a new enterprise or a new initiative in an existing organization. The course integrates business strategy, leadership, and decision science, with the functional areas of business (accounting, finance, marketing, and operations). We will examine the principles, frameworks, and techniques central to understanding markets, competitive positioning, launching new ventures or strategic initiatives, and the evolution of ventures/initiatives within broad social, economic, ecological, and political systems. Students may choose the track of start-up or social entrepreneur, “intrapreneur,” consultant, nonprofit leader, etc. As part of the leadership mindset development, students will be asked to provide collaborative expertise and constructive feedback to support classmates. Problem definition, context analysis, solution concepts ideation, prototyping, and hypothesis-based prototype testing to solicit feedback and advisor inputs are critical elements of this process. Prerequisite: Must be taken in final term.

This course focuses on the use of social science research methods, ethics, and evaluation theories to assess public/nonprofit outcomes. Students will use quantitative and qualitative research methods and program evaluation tools to answer important organizational questions related to process, resources, outputs, and outcomes; several research evaluation tools will be introduced. Students will also investigate best practices in research ethics, protections, and confidentiality. Finally, students will learn to apply (and possibly modify) assessment tools used in sustainable development.

To see where to intervene, you have to see the system. To find the best solution, you have to see the alternatives. This course is designed to help sustainability managers, whether MBA or MPA students, think across sectors, and consider the entire institutional playing field when seeking new sustainability solutions.

Business, government, and civil society are human institutions in a dynamic and interdependent system. One way to model this system is as a series of exchanges called markets. While markets are a good means to provide optimal allocation of desired goods and services, predictably, markets sometimes fail. When this happens, government regulation or civil society organizations step in to repair or prevent market failure. However, regulation and civil society also sometimes fail. Sustainability challenges often reside where markets, civil society, and regulation have all failed to prevent a normatively undesirable result.

This course will examine market failure as a framework for defining and articulating sustainability challenges. Students will receive a survey of the American regulatory system and its complementary balancing role in curing or preventing market failure. Specific areas of regulation to be examined will include fiduciary, corporate formation, securities, environmental, antitrust, torts, intellectual property, and contract law. Based on this understanding of the interdependent market and regulatory environments, students will practice and enhance their ability to innovate new solutions to complex and seemingly intractable problems—i.e., be social entrepreneurs. Students will consider the pros and cons of delivering their solutions through business, governmental, civil societal, or hybrid organizations. After successful completion of this course, students will also have a good sense of when it is time to call a good lawyer.

This course considers the rights, roles, and interrelationships of community members, government, interest groups, nonprofits, and private organizations to drive social, economic, and environmental change. To foster coalition-building skills among burgeoning practitioners, the course introduces systems and leadership theories; democratic decision-making tools; and citizen engagement and inclusion models. Students apply course material within experiential learning assignments that necessitate direct civic engagement and civic leadership, issue identification, needs analysis and research methods, stakeholder, economic, and policy analysis, prototyping, and evaluative research. Students develop a skill set for civic leadership in their workplace, neighborhood, city, or elsewhere. The course provides a foundation for future applied coursework in leadership for sustainable management; sustainable urban development, economics and policy; and the integrative capstone plan.

This course is taught using practitioner role-play. Students are expected to perform as though they are senior project staff/project managers in a public, private, or nonprofit organization. Considerable emphasis is placed upon completing work assignments in workgroups and as part of practitioner teams. Students are expected to conduct themselves as they would in real-world workplace situations where deliverables are relied upon by other organizational systems. Late assignments will not be accepted; work teams are expected to develop and practice professional approaches to teamwork that allow deliverables to proceed according to professional timelines, despite resource constraints and intervening priorities.

This course focuses on the systemic aspects of planning, economics, and policy driving sustainable development and, ultimately, community resilience. It explores global issues in the context of social equity, environmental health and economic development of urban and rural communities. The course introduces students to theoretical and practical or foundational perspectives useful for community planning, development, coalition building, environmental politics, local government leadership, and sustainable urban and rural development, with students being exposed to literature from sustainable economic development, policy design, and land use and transportation planning to deepen their theoretical knowledge. This course also covers master planning, strategic planning, policy process and evaluation, civic education and leadership, and citizen participation in government. In addition, this course encourages students to explore areas of sustainable development of particular interest to them. Course lecturers and class guest speakers will be used to build dialogue with community planning leaders and to provide translation from theory to practice. The course is designed for mid-level to advanced-level practitioners
of public administration and public-private partnerships.

This interactive seminar course examines public administration principles and practices, as well as the influence of devolution, diversity, globalization, privatization, and technology. Module 1 reviews the ethics and fundamentals of public administration. Module 2 explores the functions and structures of governments, interconnectedness, and policy transfer. Module 3 compares global practices in defense, law and order, finance, taxation, trade, energy management, planning, zoning, healthcare, education, and social security. Module 4 examines public administration’s role in environmental, economic, and social equity. Finally, Module 5 contemplates the future of nation-states, emerging trends in public administration, and the influence of mega-regions. The team project leverages technology to encourage public policy support of common good through the lens of United Nations Global Goal #17.

This course will help you develop the foundations for understanding and working in multisector partnerships (MSPs) focused on transforming systems in the U.S., with an emphasis on building relationships with systems actors and designing and facilitating processes that lead to positive and equitable change. The course focuses on four themes in the work: 1) the purpose of MSPs as well as what motivates and limits sectors, organizations, and people who participate in them; 2) designing and facilitating structures and strategy in MSPs; 3) funding MSPs and case-making for systemic change work; 4) using learning and accountability tools to understand the system and evolve a strategy. You’ll build your practice through reading, discussing, and applying frameworks and examples that exist, trying on skills and methodologies in class, learning from a wide range of guest speakers who are multisector partnership leaders, and applying content to a semester-long group project focused on developing the strategy for an MSP aiming to address a complex social, economic, or environmental problem.