Course description
Antioch University New England's Green MBA is the ideal way to prepare yourself for working in the new green economy. The skills help you navigate the changes in business, the economy, the environment, and the global marketplace. Whether you work in nonprofits, small to large corporations, NGOs, government, education or health care, the Antioch University New England MBA will prepare you for the emerging field of sustainability.
Measure success with a triple bottom line.
Profit is only one measure of an organization's success. The Green MBA recognizes that a company's success is measured by a triple bottom line—people, planet, and profit. The Antioch MBA emphasizes balancing a company's financial health as well as environmental sustainability, quality of work life, ethical practices, and corporate social responsibility. Our students become business leaders and managers guided by meaningful purpose and clear values.
AUNE's Green MBA is a forward-thinking business curriculum that integrates sustainability throughout the program. AUNE's MBA features an interdisciplinary approach that better equips you to guide a business to a triple bottom line. Sustainability is woven throughout your courses focusing on environmental science, leadership, finance, economics, team development, and marketing. Working together with a cohort group, you will develop the knowledge and skills you need to lead and manage in complex and changing environments.
Intro to Sustainability
Competency Area: Natural Systems
This survey course focuses on developing an understanding of sustainability through the lenses of organizational and environmental sustainability. In this course, students will explore complex ecological systems to develop a foundational understanding of environmental sustainability. In addition, students will explore the theory and ethical applications of organizational sustainability. Students will ultimately merge the theories of environmental and organizational sustainability to begin analyzing their own leadership development opportunities.
Credits: 3
Teams in Diverse Workplaces
Competency Area: Collaboration & Group Dynamics
The course introduces students to group dynamics and the opportunities and challenges of developing teams in a diverse workplace. Successfully working with the group dynamics of diverse populations requires skills, personal assessment and reflection, leadership and a spirit of open-mindedness and acceptance. This course intends to help students develop their leadership skills and cultural competencies while preparing to manage and work effectively in the global work force.
Credits: 3
Finance I
Competency: Finance & Economics
Prerequisite: Students need to show evidence of competency in Managerial Accounting and Excel. Students have three options: 1) completion of an accounting and excel course in the last three years, 2) completion of Antioch's online Financial Accounting and Excel course, or 3) Proven competency on a pre-course , accounting & Excel assessment test.
Managers in organizations need a variety of financial and other sources of information for design, decision-making, implementing, and assessing the success of their operations. This course expands upon the standard notions of a single bottom line to include alternative measures, assessment, and information that provide a broader contextual understanding to managerial controls and success. Students begin writing a business plan.
Credits: 3
Earth Systems in Organizations
Competency Area: Natural Systems
Prerequisite: Intro to Sustainability
This course employs a systems approach to understanding the intersections of business and earth systems, also known as the evolutionary corporation. The Earth systems of atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, lithosphere, and pedosphere are analyzed through field trips to local organizations, readings, and discussions. Students work closely with one organization to research and problem solve an organization's earth system challenge.
Credits: 3
Developing Human Resources
Competency Area: Management & Decision Making
Human beings and the organizations they work in depend on one another. Effective managers know how to foster workplace culture, practices, and relationships that support learning, satisfaction, and strong performance among employees, who in turn commit their knowledge, skills, and energy to the organization's success. This course provides an overview of principles for effective and sustainable human resource practice for managers. We then focus on specific aspects of that practice, including hiring, onboarding, performance development, dealing with unsatisfactory performance and knowledge management. Students will also conduct independent research projects on relevant human resource topics, policies, and issues.
Credits: 3
Finance II
Competency: Finance & Economics
Prerequisite: Finance I and Excel Proficiency
This course provides students with a solid understanding of basic finance concepts including business organization and taxes, the global financial environment and time value techniques and applications. The course will then turn its focus to financial analysis and planning, capital budgeting, capital leveraging, and structures. Students will have the opportunity to assess short and long-term impact of financial decision-making by comparing and contrasting traditional and sustainable models. Students will complete business plan that was started in Finance I.
Credits: 3
Ecological Economics
Competency Area: Finance & Economics
Prerequisite: Students need to show evidence of competency in Micro Economics. Students have three options: 1) completion of a microeconomics course in the last three years, 2) completion of Antioch's online Micro Economics course or 3)Proven Competency on a pre-course online, micro economics test.
Ecological economics addresses the complexity inherent in the process of determining how we decide, utilize, and prioritize resources in a way that does not jeopardize the future well-being of the natural and human systems. The course will survey the breadth of current application tools for measuring impacts on sustainability. Within this context, historical neo-classical tools will be viewed for their ability to measure a sustainable direction. Growth, development, and commerce take on new meaning when examined through the lens of sustainable economic models. Given that new meaning, the challenges inherent to measuring change provide students with the opportunity to deepen their applied understanding of sustainability theory.
Credits: 3
Marketing in the Global Economy
Competency Area: Systems & Strategic Thinking
This course is designed to provide an in-depth introduction to the key concepts, tools, and applications of modern marketing analysis within a wide variety of organizations, both corporate and not-for-profit, local and global. The course combines both theoretical and practical elements and is intended to help students understand the critical nature of the marketing function, and the distinctions in a "green marketing" perspective. Case studies will be used to explore E-commerce, values based marketing, social networking, and sustainable marketing. Each student will evaluate a corporation with a global marketing plan and develop a marketing plan.
Credits: 3
Practicum
Competency Area: Purposeful Systemic Change
The practicum is a facilitated, independent project. Students identify a focus, conduct research, identify a project and implement project management tools to create and meet the goals of the project. Activities include: brainstorming possible learning goals, conducting a review of the relevant literature, creating a reference list, specifying goals and expectations for a project, and preparing a strategic plan for the implementation of the project. Students complete this course by implementing their strategic plan and conducting the project or activity.
Credits: 3
Supply Chain and Green IT Operations
Competency Area: Management & Decision Making
This course provides an enhanced understanding of key concepts in supply chain management. The systems approach and a process orientation are explored at the individual-firm level and from the perspective of collaborative relationships among participants in logistics supply chains. Case studies are used to explore the impact supply chain and operations management has on businesses today. The course provides opportunities to investigate individual supply chain topics such as approaches to planning and managing inventory across supply chains, value creation through alignment and realignment of supply chain capabilities, the distinction of supply and value chain in sustainable businesses, integration of technology and supply chain performance metrics. The course will introduce student s to a variety of operations management techniques as they relate to "green" business practices and green technology.
Credits: 3
Integrative Strategic Management
Competency Area: Systems & Strategic Thinking and
Competency Area: Natural Systems
In this capstone course, students will merge ecological and organizational theory to develop strategic systems thinking management approaches. Students will develop skills to evaluate sustainability procedures and policies in a variety of complex systems - biological, ecological, environmental, organizational, social, political, and/or economic. Students will explore the field of Human Ecology as way to advance their strategies for solving complex organizational and environmental challenges. Case studies in managing IT resources, market competition, board development, social entrepreneurship and others will be used to demonstrate integrative strategic management approaches and solutions.
Credits: 3
Leading Change in Entrepreneurial Organizations
Competency Area: Leadership & Self Development
For organizations to thrive in today's complex environment, business leaders and managers increasingly need knowledge in leadership theory and how to engage organizational members in systemic change directed toward the fulfillment of clear and meaningful objectives. In this course, students will develop skills as adaptive, entrepreneurial leaders. Students will explore models of leading change in entrepreneurial corporations, nonprofits, social ventures, and ecopreneurial organizations.
Credits: 3
Total Credits: 36
