Doctor of Business Admin (DBA) in Management

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Management Concentration

Influence tomorrow’s organizations by building up future managers

Business organizations need managers who are fearless, full of grit and equipped to strategically lead in an uncertain future.

Whether you have years of industry experience and are ready to pass on that wisdom to the next generation in a higher education setting, or you’re ready to upskill your own leadership capacity in your professional role, the management concentration of our Doctor of Business Administration degree is ideal for your next career move. This major will expose you to relevant leadership and organizational theory that you can use to lead better and help your organization solve some of their most pressing problems.

Management Concentration: Who It’s For

The management concentration is for seasoned industry leaders who are ready to teach at the collegiate level or move into consulting work or for those who desire advancement in their career in management and leadership.

Two business men in suits have a conversation outside

Outcomes

Upon completion of the management concentration, you will be able to:

Consult with industry leaders through change management, strategic planning, strategic change, and human resource development
Teach in higher education across a breadth of business-related disciplines, but particularly management
Confidently pinpoint organizational problems and lead with design-thinking toward long-lasting solutions

Courses

The curriculum includes 6 credit hours that cover management principles:

Organizational Theory and Behavior (3 credits)
Human Resource Development (3 credits)

Curriculum Sequence

View Management Concentration Courses View All DBA Courses

Management Concentration Requirements

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Management (6 credit hours)

Complete the following:

BUSD 730 Organizational Theory and Behavior 3 credit hours +

This course surveys major theoretical perspectives required for understanding, researching, and developing organizations. Topics will include classical management theories, and organizational culture studies. Emphasis placed on understanding theories for the purpose of improving the design, culture, and effectiveness of modern organizations. Includes a residency period.

BUSD 732 Human Resource Development 3 credit hours +

This course focuses on aspects of human resources, human resource management, strategic human resource management, and specifically human resource development. Activities relating to these functions, including training and developing, organizational change, performance management, and organizational learning, will be researched and studied. Further, the implications of human resource development, such as leader/follower dyadic relationships, motivation, and variances in localization and globalization as they relate to high performance organizations, will also be investigated.

Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) Requirements

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Core Business Courses (23 credit hours) +

Complete the following:

BUSD 701 Faith and Spirituality in Business 4 credit hours +

This course enhances understanding of the relationship between Christian faith, spirituality and the study and teaching of business disciplines. Special focus on the integration of faith and learning, the relationship between religion and spirituality, vocation, and the application of theological and spiritual principles and practices in the workplace and classroom.

BUSD 702 Leading in Organizations 4 credit hours +

This course prepares students to teach and research management and leadership. Participants will survey the historical and theoretical foundations of these related fields and identify emerging trends in management and leadership studies and practice as well as apply the knowledge to their leadership positions.

BUSD 703 Foundations of Marketing 3 credit hours +

This course provides students with a foundation in the concepts and theories of marketing and marketing management. Participants will study marketing theory, market analysis, marketing mix strategy, strategic marketing, digital marketing, and measuring market performance.

BUSD 704 Conceptual Foundations of Economics 3 credit hours +

This course provides a conceptual framework for the study and teaching of economics through a critical review of historical and current research. Analysis of the underlying philosophies that motivate and guide resource allocation decisions in different political and social systems.

BUSD 705 Conceptual Foundations of Finance 3 credit hours +

This course provides students with a conceptual framework for the study and teaching of finance through a critical review and analysis of historical and current research. Examination of philosophies that underlie profitability and corporate health.

BUSD 706 Global Strategy 3 credit hours +

This course focuses on strategy as a process; from market analysis, to strategy formulation, to strategy implementation, and change. Theories, frameworks, models, and tools will be used to understand the foundation of a strategy. Students will use multi-disciplinary methods to study industry trends and global implications to discover how organizations develop and sustain competitive advantage in increasingly dynamic conditions, markets, and expectations.

BUSD 708 Business Analytics: Analytic Thinking and Decisions 3 credit hours +

During this course, we will explore the various uses of Business Analytics. Students will have the opportunity to learn about various tools and techniques used in business environments. Specific focus is given to ways of making decisions and thinking about business decisions utilizing analytics and other forms of research. This class focuses on how we can use business analytics to give organizations a decided advantage.

Education and Teaching Courses (6 credit hours) +

Complete the following:

BUSD 721 Business Consulting and Teaching Strategies 3 credit hours +

This course analyzes and investigates current research in effective teaching in the college and university environment, as well as leading learning or consulting efforts in organizations. This course is designed to enable each student to identify through research, observation and interview, the best practices in teaching and consulting. It will also explore critical issue topics that surface either during the online discussion or through questions posed by the students. Analysis and investigation of current research in effective consulting and teaching methods and current trends in higher education and organizational consulting settings will be applied.

Choose one of the following:

BUSD 723 Business Teaching Practicum 3 credit hours +

Teaching experience supervised by a faculty member as well as an on-site supervisor. Students will integrate content and skills from the doctoral program into a teaching setting. Possible practicum locations include a college, university, or community college. Practicum can be completed at the student鈥檚 work location and taken over more than one semester with Coordinator approval. Graded on a pass fail basis.

BUSD 724 Business Consulting Practicum 3 credit hours +

Consulting experience supervised by a faculty member as well as an on-site supervisor. Students will integrate content and skills from the doctoral program into a consulting setting. Possible practicum locations include corporations, non-profits, or client-based companies. Practicum can be completed at the student鈥檚 work location and taken over more than one semester with Coordinator approval. Graded on a pass/fail basis.

Doctoral Research and Dissertation Courses (21 credit hours) +

Complete the following:

4 3-credit research courses (12 hours), two dissertation courses (3 hours and 1 hour = 4 hours), and 5 ongoing dissertation credits to finish the dissertation.

BUSD 710 Introduction to Doctoral Research & Writing 4 credit hours +

This course is designed to orient students to the DBA program and to the basics of research writing for scholarly conferences, articles, studies, and dissertations. Specifically, the course serves as an introduction and anchoring point for the dissertation journey, and core topics will be revisited throughout the doctoral program. Course activities will include exercises in selecting research topics, writing literature reviews, developing hypotheses and propositions, and writing using APA style. This course is conducted fully online.

BUSD 714 Qualitative Research Methods 4 credit hours +

This course introduces the basic issues of theory and method in qualitative research and provides a structured, supportive environment for learning the essential skills of qualitative research. These skills include negotiating a research relationship with those studied, developing research questions, conducting observations and/or interviews, confronting ethical issues, analyzing data, and communicating the results of research.

BUSD 716 Quantitative Research Methods 4 credit hours +

This course helps beginning researchers balance the competing demands of formal experimental and survey design principles with the ever-present practical constraints of the real world so that they can conduct quantitative research. Emphasis will be placed on formulating research questions, identifying relevant target populations, selecting respondents for study, and selecting appropriate measures.

BUSD 801 Doctoral Dissertation I- Comprehensive Exams 1 credit hour +

Students will take their comprehensive examination and/or start the process of conducting and extended examination of a significant research question in the student鈥檚 area of concentration. The dissertation proposal includes an introduction, literature review, and methodology. The Committee Application form must be submitted as well as a Research Outline approved by College of Business faculty. Prerequisite: All 700 level coursework must be completed (or by Department Permission)

BUSD 802 Doctoral Dissertation II - Proposal 3 credit hours +

The purpose of the course is to assist students starting the proposal and dissertation writing processes. This course focuses on the theoretical and practical aspects of designing the dissertation proposal. Topic examples of the course are: literature review, research questions and basic methodologic design which directly answers the researcher's proposal questions. A final paper which can be given to the prospective chair of the student鈥檚 dissertation will be the final deliverable.

BUSD 803 Doctoral Dissertation III 1 credit hour +

An extended examination and analysis of a significant research question in the student's area of concentration. The dissertation includes an introduction, literature review, methodology, discussion, and conclusion with recommendations. College of Business faculty must approve all dissertation proposals. Includes an oral defense before the student's faculty dissertation committee. Prerequisite: Successful completion of BUSD 801 & BUSD 802

BUSD 804 Doctoral Dissertation IV 1 credit hour +

BUSD 805 Doctoral Dissertation V 1 credit hour +

BUSD 806 Doctoral Dissertation VI 1 credit hour +

BUSD 807 Doctoral Dissertation VII 1 credit hour +

An extended examination and analysis of a significant research question in the student's area of concentration. The dissertation includes an introduction, literature review, methodology, discussion, and conclusion with recommendations. School of Business faculty must approve all dissertation proposals. Includes an oral defense before the student's faculty dissertation committee

Students must maintain continuous enrollment in doctoral dissertation until completion. BUSD 815 is required for students who do not finish their dissertation research within the minimum 8 hours. BUSD 815 is repeatable until the dissertation is finished.

BUSD 815 Doctoral Dissertation Continuation 1 credit hour +

Designed as a continuing course for those who did not complete the doctoral dissertation in BUSD 801-808. Students are required to remain continuously enrolled through the dissertation process and register for a minimum of eight total hours of dissertation credit. Students who fail to complete their dissertations within the eight hours allotted will need to register for additional credit. Registration for this course is necessary to maintain continuous enrollment until the doctoral dissertation is complete.

This initial course for the analytics concentration provides students with the opportunity to use various methods of analytics to identify trends, predictions and optimize business and organizational work. Focus of the course is on finding and making sense of data to help drive business decisions.

BUSD 763 Business Analytics: Data Based Decisions and Strategy 3 credit hours +

For this second course of the doctoral analytics concentration, students will turn their attention to how firms and organizations can maximize the usage of data in order to make operational and strategic decisions. Data governance, ethical data usage and other topics are also included in this seminar style course. This course is predicated on BUSD 760 which gives students the opportunity to see various methods used in analytics while this course focuses on how leaders can use the output of these methods.

Executive Leadership (6 credit hours) +

Complete the following:

BUSD 751 Aligning Resources to Competing Priorities 3 credit hours +

Most executive leaders have boundless ideas. Every executive leader is, however, bound by the reality of constrained resources, competing priorities, and the complexity of constant change. These conditions make decision-making very tough. Knowing how to navigate such conditions separate average executives from exceptional ones. This course exposes the current complexity of an executive鈥檚 landscape and provides insights, best practices, and tools that the most accomplished executives use to succeed.

BUSD 752 Designing a High-Performance Organization 3 credit hours +

Every group of individuals has the potential of high performance. Such performance, however, requires more than wearing the same uniform, patch, logo, or insignia. High performance is a decision made by a group of individuals followed by intense discipline, decision making, follow up, and follow through. This course goes beyond the simple framework of team development to explain the uniqueness and process of high performance and the executive's role in sustaining that performance