Universidade Nova de Lisboa

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Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia

Business Administration

Code

3741

Academic unit

Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia

Department

Departamento de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas

Credits

6.0

Teacher in charge

Joaquim Amaro Graça Pires Faia e Pina Catalão Lopes

Weekly hours

4

Total hours

63

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 it is actually considered compulsory to conduct a group practice work where a real world firm is analyzed in its 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

Syllabus
 

Part 0 - Overview.

 Part 1 - Marketing: Understanding the Principles of Marketing. The four Marketing Policies: Product Development, Pricing, Promotion and Distribution. The Product Life Cycle.  Environmental Context. SWOT Analysis. Market Segmentation and Competitive Product Positioning. The Consumer Buying Process and the Marketing- Mix.

Part 2 – Introductory notions of production, quality and stock management.
 Organization: Organizational Structure. The Chain of Command. Basic Forms of Organizational Structure. Authority and Responsability. Delegation and Accountability. Centralization and Decentralization. More complex Forms of  Organizational Structure.

 

Part 3 – Human Resources: Understanding Employee Motivation. Theories of Motivation Compensations and Benefits. Satisfaction in the Workplace. Leadership. Staffing the Organization: Planing, function analysis and person-job matching. Trainning and Development Performance Appraisal.

 

Part  4 – Accounting and Finance: Understanding Principles of Accounting. The Balance Sheet. Income Statements. Financial Ratios. Interest Rates and The Time Value of Money. Compounding and Discounting. Present Value and Accumulated Value. Some notions of Project Analysis (Net Present Value, the Internal Rate of Return, etc.)

Part 5 - Entrepreneurship.

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

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;Timmons, J. and Spinelli, S., 2003, New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century, McGraw-Hill/Irwin;  Geraldes, F., 2001, Manual do Empreendedor, Bertrand Editora; Libby, R., Libby, P. and Short, D., 2008, Financial accounting, McGraw-Hill/Irwin; Sarkar, S., 2007, Empreendedorismo e Inovação, Livraria Escolar Editora

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

The grading scheme comprises three group practical assignments and a Final Exam. To pass the course the student needs at least an average of 9.5 points (=0.6*assignments´ grade+0.4*Exam) and at least 7.5 points (out of 20) on both the set of assignments and the Final Exam.

Note also that obtaining sufficient grade in the homeworks (i.e., "Frequência") in a given year ensures, in the case of not passing the Exam, for the subsequent year (only) it is still valid. Everyone must have obtained "Frequência" in the above conditions, and that is the only case of waving "Frequência". Those who did not pass but have "Frequência" under the above mentioned conditions, may choose to improve one or more of the assignments, but over a different firm and respecting the calendar for hand in and discussion.

Note also that assisgnments´grade will count with 60 per cent of final grade in every exam of the present academic year and, in case you fail, also for next academic year exams.

Finally, notr that improving the final grade still entails the same weighting as for passing, i.e., 0.60*assignments´ grade+0.4 Exame grade, keeping the grade of the homeworks. If you wish to improve the grade for the homeworks, please hand in a new version (preferably on a new firm) at the scheduled exame.

 Depending on time availability, a business management simulation game may be introduced and played by teams. The winning team earns a bonus of 1.5 points in the final grade for each member and the remaining teams will earn their relative score (to the winner) times 1.5 points per respective member. 

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