Typical MBA Curriculum

Overview of a Common MBA Program

An MBA, or Master of Business Administration program, provides a combination of required core classes and electives. MBA programs usually take two years to complete. Online MBA programs are also widely available and take between 18 months and 3 years.

Descriptions of Common Core Courses

Accounting

Accounting classes teach students to control and manage costs. Students might learn how to use cost information for future planning or measure a business's performance. Advanced accounting courses might teach about the accounting impacts of mergers and acquisitions. As a helpful supplement to your MBA program, Study.com offers lessons in the following topics:

• Accounting basics can get you familiar with common accounting tools and their uses in business.
• Lessons on financial management in business explain the role of financial managers, business financing and financial planning.
• Money and financial institutions lessons cover the influences of finance on the global economy and introduce you to world banking services and organizations that commonly affect business.

Finance

Managers and executives must be able to read and understand corporate financial statements. A course in finance teaches students how businesses produce and use financial accounting information. In addition to these skills, students might learn standard analysis techniques, such as capital budgeting and discounted cash flow valuation. Study.com offers the following lessons on financial principles so you can get a handle on the subject:

• Financial statement basics will familiarize you with key terms and concepts.
• Introduction to valuation methods lessons teach you different formulas for placing a current and future value on an investment.

Marketing

Marketing is an art and a science. In marketing courses, students learn about analyzing buyer behavior and figure out how to fulfill customers' needs. Students learn the four Ps: product strategy, pricing, promotion and placement. You can complement your marketing classes with these lessons:

• Marketing philosophies and ethics lessons offer an introduction to marketing, define important terms and explain how advertising reaches your customers.
• Lessons on understanding the consumer decision-making process explain how consumers choose products and services.
• Find out how businesses set prices with lessons on selling and pricing strategy.

Human Resources

Human resources classes teach you how to manage your business's personnel. These classes might pull together a number of other disciplines, like psychology and organizational sociology, and show you methods for hiring, promoting and disciplining employees. These Study.com lessons can increase your understanding of important topics in human resources:

• Lessons on staffing in organizations walk you through the hiring process, including recruiting and interviewing potential hires.
• Employment law and employee rights lessons introduce you to laws that apply to human resources decisions, such as the Equal Pay Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Operations

Any business that creates or distributes a product will need managers well-versed in operations. These courses might discuss common problems that operations managers deal with and teach analytical techniques to confront those problems. Students may also learn about inventory management and control, quality management and product design. Study.com offers lessons that delve into operations, like:

• Introduction to operations and supply chain management lessons cover some of the processes and decision-making tools used to manage production and distribution.
• Instruction on lean systems can help you take your operations know-how to the next level by understanding Kaizen methods and Just In Time inventory management.

Microeconomics

Microeconomics is the study of how the decisions of individuals and companies affect supply and demand. In this class, you might learn how to analyze market conditions to set a price for the product your company makes or the services it provides. Study.com has lessons on:

• Introductory microeconomics lessons explain the difference between microeconomics and macroeconomics and define essential terms.
• Lessons covering government issues in microeconomics discuss how government regulation, such as taxes and anti-trust legislation, affects the economy.

Leadership and Ethics

Leadership and ethics are two courses that might be taught separately, even though the two topics often overlap. A stand-alone leadership class might focus on managing the performance of subordinates, communicating effectively and creating a vision for the company. A student can also learn to hone his or her management style. Ethics courses teach students to analyze whether different courses of action a business might take are responsible and ethical. Classes that combine these two subjects might cover the ways in which a manager can use his or her position at a company to spread personal values. To help you learn more about either of these subjects, Study.com offers the following:

• For an overview of leadership theory, workplace communication and diversity issues, check out the leadership study guide.
• Corporate social responsibility and citizenship lessons cover the history and nature of corporate social responsibility and the five stages of corporate citizenship.
• Lessons on ethics in advertising discuss unethical target marketing and the abuses of advertising.

Electives

Electives can cover a multitude of subject areas. They might include international business courses, courses that crossover with a school's law or health care curriculum and advanced classes in any of the subjects above.

The following business courses can supplement your MBA electives, depending on your program focus:

• Principles of Management: management theory, motivating people and managerial decision making
• Introductory Business Law: legal issues, contract law, securities and antitrust law
• Intro to Computing: computer hardware, software and the internet
• Organizational Behavior: human behavior and employee performance
• Principles of Supervision: management planning and leadership
• Business Math: math principles common to business
• Labor Relations: union organization, collective bargaining and dispute resolution
• Business Communication: written and verbal group, interpersonal, manager-employee and other business communications
• Quantitative Analysis: data uses for inventory, project scheduling and more
• Information Systems and Computer Applications: common business technologies, including hardware, software and networking