Select Mission of the University:

Washburn University shall prepare qualified individuals for careers, further study and life long learning through excellence in teaching and scholarly work.  Washburn University shall make a special effort to help individuals reach their full academic potential.  Washburn University Board of Regents, 1999

School of Business Mission Statement:

We provide a high quality business education, supported by research and service activities, that enhances the economic vitality of the region.

Washburn MBA Vision Statement and Related Learning Outcomes

The MBA Program’s vision statement and its associated student learning outcomes are as follows:

“Washburn MBA graduates will be able to identify, gather, and analyze relevant information, in order to make effective decisions and improve organizational processes.”

A student who has completed the MBA Program will be able to:

• Construct and explain effective business strategy to stakeholders, which include employees, customers, suppliers, financial markets, investors, etc.,
• Demonstrate effective business communication and presentation skills, both orally and in written correspondence,
• Demonstrate an understanding of the components of a good IT/IS system and how to use the system for effective management,
• Perform analysis and interpretation of accounting statements for effective decision-making,
• Demonstrate knowledge of financial analysis, modeling and forecasting,
• Model other business processes and decisions such as production, supply chain, etc.,
• Demonstrate an understanding of modern human resource management issues
• Demonstrate proficiency in identifying marketing issues for a variety of firms and utilize current marketing literature and thought in creating theoretically and practically sound business solutions
• Identify if an organization is "ethical" and how an employee charts a smart course of action when he or she suspects unethical behavior

 william.roach@washburn.edu william.roach@gmail.com Your Washburn University e-mail address will be the official address used by the University for relaying important messages regarding academic and financial information.  It may also be used by your instructors to provide specific course information.  E-mail messages sent to your Washburn University e-mail address will be considered your official notification for important information.  If you prefer to use an alternate e-mail address to receive official University notices, you can access your mywashburn.edu e-mail account, choose the "Options" tab, and select "Settings", scroll to the bottom of the screen and enter the e-mail address you would like your Washburn emails forwarded to in the “mail forwarding” area.  Click on save changes.  This will complete the process of forwarding your Washburn e-mail.  It is suggested that you provide the instructor with an alternative e-mail address.

Course Description: Management of integrated production and marketing systems. [This course is intended to be interdisciplinary. Students work with models from management, marketing, accounting, and systems to solve business problems. Currently, the course uses the issue of supply chain management as its integrating principle.]

Objectives:  Students will  be able to:

1. use the vocabulary of supply chain management and supply chain management information systems
2. assess the current condition of a firm with respect to supply chain issues
3. plan for a supply chain management system
4. identify strategic issues related to supply chain management
5. use the basic tools of supply chain management
6. present these issues in the context of a particular firm.

Assessment:

The student’s achievement of the objectives will be assesses through

• participation in class
• weekly postings to project wiki
• midterm exam (two out of five questions will be model oriented)
• final exam (two out of five questions will be model oriented)
• peer evaluations
• term project

Withdrawal Policy:

During fall and spring semesters, students may withdraw from full semester courses through the second week of class with no recorded grade.  From the third through the eleventh week a “W” is recorded for any dropped course.  Beginning with the start of the twelfth week, there are NO withdrawals, and a grade will be assigned for the course.  For short-term or summer course deadlines, please check the appropriate Semester/Session Course Bulletin Web Site http://www.washburn.edu/schedule/spring/sp2010cal.html)

Academic Misconduct Policy:

All students are expected to conduct themselves appropriately and ethically in their academic work.  Inappropriate and unethical behavior includes (but is not limited to) giving or receiving unauthorized aid on examinations or in the preparation of papers or other assignments, or knowingly misrepresenting the source of academic work.  Washburn University’s Academic Impropriety Policy describes academically unethical behavior in greater detail and explains the actions that may be taken when such behavior occurs.  For guidelines regarding protection of copyright, consult

www.washburn.edu/copyright/students. For a complete copy of the Academic Impropriety Policy, contact the office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, BTC , or go on-line to:  

www.washburn.edu/admin/vpaa/fachdbk/FHsec7.html#VIII 

 Disability Services:

 The Student Services Office is responsible for assisting in arranging accommodations and for identifying resources on campus for persons with disabilities.  Qualified students with disabilities must register with the office to be eligible for services.  The office MUST have appropriate documentation on file in order to provide services.  Accommodations may include in-class note takers, test readers and/or scribes, adaptive computer technology, brailled materials.  Requests for accommodations should be submitted at least two months before services should begin; however, if you need an accommodation this semester, please contact the Student Services Office immediately.

Location:  Student Services, Morgan Hall Room 150

Phone:  785-670-1629 or TDD 785-670-1025

E-Mail:  student-services@washburn.edu

Students may voluntarily identify themselves to the instructor for a referral to the Student Services Office.

Advising Services:

As a Washburn student, you may experience difficulty with issues such as studying, personal problems, time management, or choice of major, classes, or employment.  The Center for Learning and Student Success or CLASS (counseling, testing, learning assistance, career services, academic advising) is available to help students.  If you need someone with whom to discuss an issue confidentially and free of charge, contact:

Location: Morgan 122

Phone: 231-1010, ext. 1299,

Web:  www.washburn.edu/services/class

Dress and Demeanor

Students should dress and conduct themselves in a manner consistent with the diversity of the Washburn environment. Remarks that show disrespect for the "race, color, religion, age, national origin, ancestry, disability, sex, marital or parental status or sexual orientation" of other class members will not be tolerated. If the instructor determines that an article of clothing is offensive, the student will be asked to leave class and adjust the clothing so that the offensive logo is no longer visible before rejoining the class.

Examinations:

There will be two examinations:  a midterm and a final.  The exams will consist of seven  essay questions / problems; the student must answer five of these question.  Two  questions with analytic content will be required of all students.  The exams will focus on vocabulary and the learning objectives of each chapter.  Students should use a pen (black or blue/black ink) to write their answers to exam questions;  the instructor will make these pens available at the time of the exam. 

Makeups:

If possible, the instructor will provide the opportunity to take a make up midterm.  The timing and the availability of the makeup will be dictated by the instructor’s schedule.  In the event that a makeup midterm is not possible, the student will be required to take a cumulative final exam.  If the student has a good reason for missing the final, s/he will receive an incomplete in the course and an appropriate time for a makeup will be arranged.

Grades

This grade distribution produces an average g.p.a. of 3.50 if there are no C, D, F, W grades.

Grade Appeal Process:

The Washburn University grade appeal process can be found on page 62 of the  Washburn University Catalog  AY2009-2010

Early Final Grades:

·        Access my.washburn.edu

·        Select the “Self-Service Main Menu”

·        Select “Student Services and Financial Aid”

·        Select “Student Resources Menu”

·        Select “View Final Grades”

·        Select the “Spring 2010 term”

·        Select “submit”

Print the screen for a hard copy.

Chapter  / Problem Discussion / Participation

Each project group will create a wiki with the pbwiki website.  (http://pbworks.com/content/edu+overview).  Project groups must use pbwiki, and each group must designate the instructor as a member of the project group.  The group’s wiki should have the following format:  1) an annotated bibliography for each chapter, 2) a list of Excel models implemented  for the chapter, 3) a project outline, 4) a project draft, and 5) a project bibliography in APA format.  Normally the final bibliography will  include significantly fewer  citations than the chapter bibliographies.  A project draft need not appear for several weeks.  Project outlines should start to appear immediately.  Excel models need not come from the chapter. But they should be consistent with the material in the chapter.  As soon a project draft, someone in the group should assume the role of plagiarism cop.  Identify unusual phrases, spelling, etc. that are not cited.  Google them.  Revise the text if necessary. 

Every week, groups members will post to the project wiki.    To obtain a starting outline for the term project, look at the fashion marketing text posted on the class website (my.washburn.edu).    The groups should have substantially completed posting to the wiki by Monday evening  .  The instructor will post excerpts from the project wiki posting by  4:00 p.m. on Wednesday before the Thursday on which the chapter will be discussed.  Students should download these excerpts and and be prepared to discuss them in class on Thursday. 

Every week, each student should be adding to a diary or log which chronicles the contributions of himself / herself and the other members of the project group the student belongs to.  At the end of the semester, each student will submit this log along with a peer evaluation.  Note that this log will be a separately graded item. 

The instructor will post chapter outlines to the class website.  Students can use these outlines to identify topics to include in their annotated bibliographies and project outlines.  These outlines are also useful for studying for the midterm and the final.  From time to time, the instructor will also post Excel models based on the textbook. 

Each week, the instructor will rank order the bibliographies submitted that week.  Assuming that all of the bibliographies are satisfactory, half will receive an A grade, and half will receive a B grade. 

Peer Evaluation

At the end of the term, each student will submit an evaluation of the contributions of their fellow group members.   To be credible, the evaluation must be specific about the contributions of each group member.  For example, the form should enumerate the contributions of each individual in the student’s group to:

1.      annotated bibliographies submitted each week,

2.      updated project outlines submitted each week,

3.        interviews conducted by individuals

4.        role in writing / rewriting the group paper

5.        development of resources for the group paper

6.        role in group meetings

7.        facilitation of electronic communication (email, wiki, blog, etc)

8.       sharing of problem resources (Excel worksheets)

Failure to submit a peer evaluation or the submission of an evaluation that does not evaluate the student’s  peers in the explicit fashion required above  will negatively impact the letter grade assigned to the student’s participation in the term paper / project and participation / chapter  analysis.  The peer evaluation is also a separately grade item in the syllabus.   Each member of student group will supply a numerical rating to himself/herself and every other member of the group.  If a student did not participate in the group project,  he or she should be assigned a 0.0.  Otherwise the student should be assigned a number between .8 and 1.2.  The ratings of the participating students should average to 1.0.  The instructor intends to take the average of the peer evaluations and multiply it by the overall project grade to calculate the student’s grade for the project. 

Participation - Attendance:

Students should participate in the class discussion. Everyone in the class benefits when a student points out how her/his company implements the concept of supply chain management. The instructor records attendance twice every day. Recording attendance twice allows for students who have work or family obligations to get credit for the portion of the class they were able to attend.  Absences can have a negative impact on the student's grade. If the student does not make appropriate arrangements, five or more absences can result in an administrative withdrawal or failure in the course.  Use of chat rooms and other electronic exchange of information is encouraged.

Supply Chain Management

Students should write a paper discussing supply chain management in the context of a particular firm. The firm selected should not be the employer of any of the students in the group.  The group should rely on published sources, but interviews of company personnel are acceptable.    The topics to be addressed in this paper may include: the chapter headings of the 17 chapters in our text.     Groups should submit the paper in hard copy and machine readable formats.  Each week the groups will submit a report on their company (annotated bibliography, revised project outline)  in the context of a particular chapter.  It is anticipated that those weekly reports will be the basis for the semester project although the project should be more focused.  The project need not include every topic in the book.    Students are encouraged to use a wiki to start writing the group project immediately.  Students are encouraged to allow the instructor access to the groups wiki or alternatively, the current project draft.   

Project for Spring 2010

Project firms for the spring semester of 2010 will be publicly traded firms in the fashion merchandising market that are listed on the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange, or the OTC market.  The firm’s being publicly traded should assure that the student groups will readily be able to find information on the firms. Students with language skills may be able to choose firms that are listed on some of the international stock exchanges. 

The reason for selecting fashion merchandising is to allow the student groups to discuss the issues of diversion and counterfeiting.  Diversion is the appearance of brand name goods in unauthorized channels, perhaps damaging the value of the brand.  Counterfeits are goods that carry the brand name but were not manufactured in the authorized fashion.  The syllabus attempts to list the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems used by the various companies.  Verify this information for the firm you are interested in.  The project will be simpler if you focus on a single ERP.  

Disclaimer: 

The class will normally cover the list of topics in the syllabus.  Sometimes current events, weather, or personal exigencies will result in the addition or deletion of topics. 

Schedule