Overview

The field of management encompasses all of the processes, skills and techniques necessary to accomplish organizational goals with and through other people. These include such primary functions as planning, organizing, leading, staffing and controlling. The manager’s responsibility is to carry out these functions effectively and efficiently while balancing the needs of all his or her constituencies, including customers, employees, owners and other organizational stakeholders. For these reasons, the role and responsibilities of managers are often complex and challenging, requiring a broad understanding of the organization’s internal and external environment.

All organizations, whether private or public, manufacturing or service, for-profit or social sector, are increasingly in need of effective managers and leaders at all levels. With the rise of professionalism and the decline of traditional hierarchical structures, the responsibilities for management and leadership are increasingly being shared by all organizational members. This need will only increase with the advances in technology that are progressively eliminating routine work and requiring each individual to add value to the organization of which they are a part and to society as a whole.

Program Requirements

Business Majors

A Business major is any student majoring in Accountancy; Finance; Information Systems; Management; Marketing; or Business Administration with an option in either Business Law, Global Supply Chain Management, Insurance and Financial Services, Real Estate or Systems and Operations Management. Accountancy, Finance, and Insurance and Financial Services are impacted majors with additional admission requirements. All Business majors share 27 units of common Lower Division core courses and 19 units of common Upper Division core courses.

Double Major Requirements

Students seeking a double major in the David Nazarian College of Business and Economics must have at least a 3.0 overall GPA and be able to complete both majors within a maximum of 140 units.

Transfer Course Requirements

Students should be aware that no grade lower than “C” will be accepted on transfer from another institution to satisfy Department or David Nazarian College of Business and Economics requirements.

Residency Requirement

At least 50 percent of the business and economics course credit units and 50 percent of the specialized major credit units required for the Bachelor of Science degrees in Accountancy, Business Administration, Finance, Information Systems, Management, Marketing and the Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics must be completed in residence at CSUN.

Prerequisites

Prerequisites must be completed prior to enrolling in each course; please check course descriptions for prerequisite courses. It is especially important to understand and manage the following key sequence of interdependent courses:

1. Students must complete all Lower Division required business courses before taking BUS 302/L: Gateway Experience and Laboratory.
2. Students must pass BUS 302/L or be enrolled in BUS 302/L to take MGT 360.
3. Students must pass BUS 302/L (including all the lab tests), MGT 360 with a grade of “C” or higher and the Upper Division Writing Proficiency Exam (UDWPE) with a score of 8 or higher to take 400-level management courses.
4. In addition to the above requirements, students also must pass FIN 303 and MKT 304 to take BUS 497.

It is vital that students plan ahead to satisfy these requirements in a timely sequence.

1. Common Lower Division Business Core (27 units)

ACCT 220 Introduction to Financial Accounting (3)
ACCT 230 Introduction to Managerial Accounting (3)
BLAW 280 Business Law I (3)
COMP 100 Computers: Their Impact and Use (3)
ECON 160 Principles of Microeconomics (3)
ECON 161 Principles of Macroeconomics (3)
ENGL 205 Business Communication in its Rhetorical Contexts (3)
MATH 103 Mathematical Methods for Business (3)*
SOM 120 Basic Business Statistics (3)**

*MATH 103 or MATH 150A or MATH 255A (Calculus) must be completed with a grade of “C” or better.
**The 4-unit MATH 140 course also satisfies this requirement.

2. Common Upper Division Business Core (19 units)

BUS 302 Gateway Experience (3)
BUS 302L Gateway Experience Laboratory (1)
FIN 303 Financial Management (3)
MGT 360 Management and Organizational Behavior (3)
MKT 304 Marketing Management (3)
SOM 306 Operations Management (3)
BUS 497 Capstone (3)

3. Upper Division Required Courses for the Major in Management (24 units)

Common Required Courses for the Major in Management (12 units)

BLAW 308 Business Law II (3)
MGT 370 Management Skills Development (3)
MGT 380 Employment Practices (3)

Communication Course, select one of the following:

COMS 323 Group Communication (3)
COMS 443 Rhetoric of Business (3)
ENGL 305 Intermediate Expository Writing (3)
ENGL 306 Report Writing (3)
ENGL 407 Composition and the Professions (3)
PHIL 305 Business Ethics and Public Policy (3)

Note: In addition to the courses shown above, students must complete an
additional 12 units of required courses.

4. Required Courses for Management Major (12 units)

ECON 308 Economics for Managers (3)
MGT 498C Internship—Management (3)

Select 6 units of Management electives from the following:

MGT 450 Organization Change and Development (3)
MGT 454 Leadership, Power and Politics (3)
MGT 456 Negotiation and Conflict Management (3)
MGT 458 Decision Making and Creativity (3)
MGT 460 Strategic Human Resource Management (3)
MGT 462 Business and Society (3)
MGT 464 International Business Management (3)
MGT 466 Strategic Leadership of Sustainability: Organizational Challenges and Opportunities (3)
MGT 468 Crisis Management (3)
MGT 491 Executive Leadership (3)***
MGT 496 Experimental Topics Course—Management (3)
MGT 499 Independent Study (3)

*** MGT 491 can substitute for the Internship Requirement.

5. General Education (29-32 units)

Of the 48 units of the General Education requirement, 13 units are satisfied by the following courses: MATH 103 satisfies 3 units of the Basic Skills mathematics requirement; ECON 160 and 161 satisfy 6 units of Social Sciences; BLAW 280 satisfies 3 units of Lifelong Learning; and COMP 100 satisfies 1 additional unit. In addition, COMS 323 or PHIL 305, if taken to satisfy the 3-unit communications requirement, can satisfy 3 more units of Upper Division general education. Further, ECON 308 may be able to satisfy 3 units of Upper Division GE in some programs.

The Department of Management strongly recommends the following General Education electives for its majors. Elements of these general education courses are integrated into the management curriculum:
ANTH 152 Culture and Human Behavior (3)
ENGL 300 Contemporary Literature (3)
PHIL 200 Critical Reasoning (3)
R S 205 Contemporary Ethical Issues (3)