Business Management
Code
10423
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia
Department
Departamento de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas
Credits
3.0
Teacher in charge
Célia Maria Castanheira de Moura da Costa Cabral, Joaquim Amaro Graça Pires Faia e Pina Catalão Lopes
Weekly hours
3
Total hours
42
Teaching language
Português
Objectives
This course should make students familiar with the set of issues faced by every working person in his job assignment. More specifically, students are required to understand the basic principles and issues involved in the business world, namely in each functional area in a firm and the cross-relations among areas. This approach is built on the analysis of cases for specific real world firms. Then, teaching is conducted by means of interaction, in theory-practice lectures, where various management problems related with the different functional areas in a firm, along with many examples and exercises.
For the grading of the course under continuous evaluation method, it is actually considered compulsory to conduct a group practice work where a real world firm is analyzed in major areas. For these set of works there should be handed in a written version (and a snapshot page for the classroom mates) to be presented and discussed in class.
Prerequisites
There is not any prerequisite.
Subject matter
1. Introduction: organizations, the firm and the manager''''''''s role. Breifly: Production Management, Quality and Stocks.
2. Strategy&Marketing: Mission, Targeting and Positioning; SWOT Analysis, Marketing Mix.
3. Human resource management: planning, analysis and job description. Performance Evaluation. Motivation.
4. Organization, main aspects. Organizational structures, their determinants and characterization. Notes on behavior and leadership.
5. Accounting: the Balance Sheet, the Income Statement and Cash Flow Map. Ratios and their interpretation.
6. Financial Calculus. Time value of money: present and future; simple and compound interest rate regime; proportional and equivalent interest rates; discounted cash-flows -constant/variable, temporary / perpetual, full / fractional, normal / in advance / deferred.
7. Analysis of Investment Projects: Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Return and Payback Period; Annual Worth.
Bibliography
References for the course should be found in the slides provided in the course homepage in CLIP
Basic Readings:
Lisboa, João et al. "Introdução à Gestão de Organizações", Grupo Editorial Vida Económica, 2004;
Sousa, Antonio de. "Introdução à Gestão: uma abordagem sistémica", Editora Verbo, 1990;
Material available in CLIP page.
Additional useful textbooks: Freire, A., 1995, Estratégia, Verbo; Campos e Cunha, R., 1992, A Gestão de Recursos Humanos na Estratégia da Empresa, Instituto do Emprego e Formação Profisisonal ;Lindon, D., Lendrevie, J., Rodrigues, J. E Dionísio, P., 2000, Mercator, Publicações D. Quixote; Pires, A., 1991, Marketing, Verbo; Soares, J., Viana Fernandes, André Março e Pires Marques, 1999, Avaliação de Projectos de Investimento na Óptica Empresarial, Edições Sílabo; Geraldes, F., 2001, Manual do Empreendedor, Bertrand Editora; Libby, R., Libby, P. and Short, D., 2008, Financial accounting, McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Teaching method
Theory-practice lectures involving theory with some applications and exercises and, importantly, the analysis of cases (i.e., specific real world firms and their management problems).
Evaluation method
TWO ALTERNATIVE SCHEMES ARE AVAILABLE:
1. Assignments and Midterms: this grading scheme comprises one group practical assignmentsand two midterms. To pass the course the student needs at least an average of 9.5 points (=0.4*assignments´ grade+0.6*mideterms), out of 20 points. Specifically, the the first midterm weights 20% and the second 40% on the final grade.
Deadline for the group practical assignments: October 28, 2016
1st midterm - November 19, 2016, 10h (duration of about 45m)
2nd midterm - December 17, 2016, 10h (duration of about 1.30h).
2. Exam: in this case, the exam grade counts with 100 per cent for the final grade; the minimum pass grade is 9.5 points (out of 20 points).
ATTENTION: Improving the final grade is done through the respective exam.
Additionally, may add (score/best score)*1.5 points to the final note, if approved, by participation in a business simulation game.