Being an informed global citizen requires an understanding of the global business environment. Organizations critical to the development of the global business environment include for-profit businesses, non-profits, governmental, non-governmental, and supranational agencies. This course introduces students to the interdependent relationships between organizations and the global business environment. A holistic approach is used to examine the diverse economic, political, legal, cultural, and financial systems that influence both organizations and the global business environment.

This course exposes students to the concepts, tools and techniques necessary to develop an understanding of the challenging area of future foresight, where the focus is on anticipating and initiating future ideas, plans, trends, and issues. The course will cover topics that are relevant and important to today’s leaders, decision makers, entrepreneurs, strategists and others Topics include the future foresight approach with analysis of practice and theory, discussion and analysis of pertinent issues raised by future foresight design and application, future foresight developments and relevant issues, and the impact of future foresight on organizational planning and development. The use of future foresight approaches and tools in the UAE will be benchmarked with international, regional and local settings where lessons will be drawn.

This course focuses on the introduction and use of leading-edge systems thinking and modelling tools that are necessary to diagnose and solve complex business and social problems. Students will learn how to implement a flexible and powerful approach to structuring managerial problems and visualizing the interconnectedness of business, social and environmental systems. The development of skills to conceptualize and build simulation models of an enterprise, enabling the exploration of the dynamic consequences of different strategy/policy decisions and the identification of key leverage points in the system, is a central goal of this course. Systems thinking in business and public policy as it pertains to firm growth and stagnation, competitive strategy, capability development and human resource policies, environmental sustainability, and the boom and bust dynamics of start-up businesses will be explored. Successful Industrial applications of applied systems thinking and business dynamics will be reviewed.

Special topics are experimental courses announced as offered. Variable credit.

This is an introductory-level survey course on the dynamics of innovation. The course focuses on individual, team and organization-human and systems dynamics that impact organizational innovation. Students gain awareness in, understanding of and important skills in fostering multi-level organizational human ecologies conducive to the creation of innovation. Issues and challenges important to leaders at all levels in an organization, entrepreneurs and talent management practitioners will be examined and explored. There is a required fee for the class to pay for the administration of the ISPI and Meyers Briggs evaluation instruments. Students will develop in their understanding of innovation, their own personal innovation capabilities, preferences, and the human dynamics unique to innovation applied in an organizational context. This background is becoming increasingly critical to developing innovation capabilities in and across organizations in our increasingly competitive and complex world. This course will build awareness and improve competency in the application of overall course content and design principles particular to developing innovation-competent individuals, teams, and organizations.