These documents describe course descriptions for various Masters of Business Administration (MBA) and related programs. The courses cover topics such as basic statistics, principles of economics, academic writing, accounting, management, organizational behavior, business statistics, contemporary management thought, managerial economics, financial reporting, financial management, marketing, human resources management, operations management, information systems, and strategic management. Several courses focus on more specialized topics like quality management, strategic human resources management, organization development, training and development, and labor relations.

1. MBAPR 520 - Basic Statistics
The objective of this course is to familiarize the students with the basic mathematical and statistical
techniques. This course is designed for those who do not have a sufficient background in statistics and
mathematics.
MBAPR 521 - Principles of Economics
The main purpose of this course is to provide basic understanding on economic concepts, principles,
elementary theories and their applications. This course is designed for those who do not have
background knowledge in economics.
MBAPR 522 - Academic Writing
The objective of this course is to familiarize the students with academic documentation, standard
practices in academic documentation and ethical conduct in academic writing. The course covers
topics such as writing term papers and executive reports, referencing and standard practices in
referencing and plagiarism.
MBAPR 523 - Fundamentals of Accounting
The objective of this course is to familiarize students who have not been exposed to accounting as a
course in their higher education. The main topics discussed in this course are accounting concepts,
principles and accounting standards. It also covers preparation of profit and loss account, balance
sheet, cash flow statement and ratio analysis.
MBA 530 - Management Process & Practice
This course introduces concepts, functions, techniques and practices of managing organizations and
provides awareness on issues in managing Sri Lankan organizations. The course covers an
introduction to management and the organization, planning, decision-making, organizing, motivation,
leadership, communication, controlling and global management.
MBA 531 - Organizational Behaviour
The objective of this course is to provide a conceptual and practical knowledge in understanding,
predicting and controlling human behaviour in organizations with a view to achieving organizational
goals effectively and efficiently. It also aims at developing inter-personal skills among participants so
that student's will benefit from these skills in future in their day-to-day managerial lives.
MBA 532 - Business Statistics
The objective of this course is to provide students with the use of statistical concepts, tools and
techniques for day-to-day management decisions and for their research work in forthcoming
semesters. The course covers probability distributions, sampling and sampling distributions,
estimation and hypothesis testing.

2. MBA 533 - Contemporary Management Thought
This course provides a broad understanding of the evolving themes related to organizational theory
and their implications in understanding issues in Sri Lankan organizations. With a brief appreciation
of the historical development of organization theory, the course approaches the organization and the
practice of management from the classical, modem and post modem perspectives. With this
foundation, the course addresses contemporary organizational and managerial issues in Sri Lankan
organizations.
MBA 534 - Managerial Economic
The objective of this course is to introduce economic theory and quantitative methods as they relate to
managerial decision making and the relation between the firm and society. This covers topics such as
introduction to managerial economics, economic optimization, demand analysis, demand estimation
and forecasting, production and cost analysis, market structure analysis, pricing practices, investment
decision making, government regulations and capital budgeting, and Sri Lankan and world economic
environment.
MBA 539 - Financial Reporting & Management Control Systems
The objective of this course is to introduce students to concepts, frameworks and issues in financial
reporting and management control systems. The topics covered are financial reporting framework,
financial regulations and accountability, accounting for governance, analysis of financial reports,
issues and problems of financial reporting in Sri Lanka, control systems in the classical school of
management, Harvard management control systems, strategic management control systems, control
systems in the public sector and nonprofits organizations and issues and problems of management
control systems in Sri Lanka.
MBA 535 - Financial Management
The objective of this course is to provide students with an understanding of techniques and concepts
in finance and their applications. This course examines the firm's capital budgeting decisions,
dividend policy and its capital structure decisions. Since it is foundation course in Finance knowledge
of capital markets, interest rates, time value of money, ratio analysis, fund flow analysis, valuation
concepts, and financing alternatives.
MBA 536 - Marketing
The objectives of this course are to familiarize students with the basic concepts and principles of
marketing and to develop their conceptual and analytical skills enabling them to appreciate the role of
marketing as a philosophy and as a function in modern/post-modern business organizations. The
course covers both strategic marketing aspects and operational marketing aspects. Further, specialized
marketing areas such as service marketing and international marketing will also be discussed.
MBA 537 - Human Resources Management
This course provides students with a platform for understanding the facilitative and front-end role of
human resource management function and how it can add value to business. The course covers basic
human resource functions including job analysis, organizational design, performance management,

3. training and development, compensation management, organization development, human resource
information systems and employee relations. A critical emphasis is placed on developing in
participants competencies required for becoming high-performing human resources practitioners
whilst gaining an exposure to current "best practices" in the field.
MBA 538 - Operations Management
This course presents a general management perspective on the operations functions of a business. It is
concerned with how operational activities in a business can best be designed and managed to support
the overall objectives of a business. It covers all the basic areas of managerial decision making in
operations, including process choice, capacity and inventory management, production planning,
material control, quality management, workforce management and organization.
MBA 540 - Managing Information Systems
The course aims to provide students with the knowledge and skills required to be effective end-users
whilst using IS strategically with sufficient sensitivity towards issues specific to the Sri Lankan
context. This course covers topics such as approaches to studying information system management,
the basic frameworks of IS in organizations, end-users' role in system development and management,
organization for information systems, integrating information systems for knowledge management,
redesigning organizations with IS, integrating IS into business strategies and issues of managing IS in
Sri Lankan organizations.
MBA 541 - Strategic Management
This course examines how the organization finds and enacts its strategic intentions with a view to
optimizing the positioning and performance of the firm within its business environment. Main areas
covered in this course are the determination of strategic direction and the management of the strategic
decision making process. It emphasizes .the .multifaceted nature of the strategic management
discipline which deals with the analytical, behavioural and creative aspects of business
simultaneously. The course also discusses the contemporary paradigms and emerging trends of
strategic management.
MBAGM 615 - Managing for Quality
The objective of this course is to provide the knowledge on the methods/techniques adopted in
managing quality in both manufacturing and service industries. However, the course may be intended
to introduce not only the quality systems such as ISO 9000 but also to critically assess the
applicability of those systems in Sri Lankan organizations. Thus, the students may study the issues of
managing quality in Sri Lankan organizations and the strategies to address those issues.
MBAHR 600 - Strategic Human Resources Management
This course focuses on linking human resources strategies and planning to organizational strategic
planning. A broad range of organizational, business and human resources strategies are examined.
Through a variety of conceptual materials and case studies, students develop an understanding of
formulation and implementation of strategies. Various planning and development topics are
presented, including needs forecasting, environmental analysis, succession planning, career and
management development, and support of human resources information systems. The emphasis will

4. be on policy and strategic perspectives, providing a conceptual and business overview in thinking
about major HR decisions.
MBAHR 601 - Organization Development
The course provides students with the discipline's defining conceptual frameworks and technologies
used in the practice of organizational development. A major emphasis is on understanding the
relationship between the OD practitioner's role and key players in the client system as the OD cycle
unfolds. The practitioner's 'mind set' is experienced as students are challenged to frame
organizational issues and identify how to enter and intervene in dynamic organizational settings.
MBAHR 602 - Seminar in HRM
In this course, students will critically review seminal articles in HRM and write term papers on
chosen topics.
MBAHR 610 - Training and Development in Organizations
The need to accomplish more with fewer demand that organizations give paramount consideration to
the training and development of their current and future employees. Such topics as adult learning
processes, identifying training needs, developing effective training programs, and evaluating the
training effort are discussed from the point of view of the training specialist, the manager, and the
employee.
MBAHR 611 - Human Resources Information Systems
This course deals with the issues involved in designing, implementing, and operating database
systems to facilitate the achievement of human resources objectives within an organization. Emphasis
is on organizational, legal, and political issues, such as centralization vs. decentralization, reporting
structures, computer hardware and software, systems applications, and communications. The uses of
time-sharing and PCs, as well as large mainframes, are also considered.
MBAHR 612 - International Human Resources Management
The multinational organization can be viewed as an open system operating in a complex international
environment. The purpose of this course is for students to develop an understanding of this
environment and its effects on the interactions among structural patterns, administrative policies and
practices, decision-making modes, and the special problems faced in the management and utilization
of human resources in multinational organizations.
MBAHR 613 - Financial Impact of Human Resources Management
One of the major challenges facing human resources managers and organizational change agents is
the need to link programs and policies to the overall effectiveness of the organization. They must
demonstrate their contributions quantitatively as well as qualitatively to establish the most effective
alternative or approach. This course will explore measurement and evaluative methodologies
appropriate to HRM and OCM as a way to demonstrate cost effectiveness.

5. MBAHR 615 - Career Assessment
This course will focus on conceptualizing the role of assessment in career counselling. The process of
client self-exploration will be discussed and major standardized and self-assessment instruments will
be reviewed. We will review the goals of assessment in career counselling and discuss issue
including job/person fit, career compatibility, career identity, and the interview as a basic assessment
tool. This course is designed for students to begin to develop an understanding of, and experience in
the interpretation and use of assessment results in career counselling. Students will take various career
assessments themselves, analyze the results, and develop a self/career identity profile.
MBAHR 616 - Counselling in Organizations
An introduction to the nature and dynamics of the counselling process in multicultural workplace
settings, this course focuses on surveying contemporary counselling theories and approaches,
identifying and practicing competencies of effective counsellors, and exploring the stages of the
counselling process. Students will learn how to structure the counselling session, develop basic and
advanced listening and influencing skills that facilitate client change and development, diagnose
typical problems of clients in work settings, decide when to use counselling versus coaching, and
examine multicultural and gender issues in the helping process (including barriers to effective
counselling, cross-cultural communication/counselling styles, and special counselling needs of women
versus men).
MBAHR 617 - Labour Relations
This course focuses on the personal skills needed to help employees do productive work, with
particular attention given to important employee relations issues that arise in the workplace. Topics
discussed include appraisal, employee support systems, safety and health programs, human resources
communication, and legislation affecting employer/employee relations.