Programs

Undergraduate MajorMBA ProgramPhD Program

There are four areas of study for students in the Management & Organization department at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Entrepreneurship

The mission of the entrepreneurship faculty is to research entrepreneurial activity in all of its many forms, and to use the knowledge gained from that research to teach people to become better entrepreneurs. We focus our research and teaching on understanding the identification, evaluation, and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities by both new and established companies. To achieve our goals, we employ research faculty drawn from a variety of different academic disciplines that have chosen to focus their research attention on entrepreneurship, and former and current entrepreneurs and investors who use their personal experience to provide detailed knowledge of the phenomenon.

Competitions always provide a stimulating way to learn about the business world. The University of Maryland sponsors two student-based business plan competitions. One of these, the University of Maryland Business Plan Competition, is the largest in the Greater Washington area, and is open to all University of Maryland students and recent alumni, and may include faculty and outside advisers. The Undergraduate Business Plan Competition is limited to Maryland undergraduates only. No faculty or outside advisers are permitted.

There are several campus programs to help and encourage budding entrepreneurs. The Mentoring Program is open to all students. The program utilizes a mentoring program database that contains contact and expertise data for volunteer mentors. In the Hinman CEO's Program, participants live with like-minded students from a variety of academic disciplines and learn the skills to help them start a company once they graduate. (Students use state-of-the-art technology and work with experts while they build their idea.)

Organizations and Centers round out the education of those beginning a career in entrepreneurship. There are two student clubs that offer stimulating programs, career-related speakers, and tours and outreach events. The Collegiate Entrepreneurship Network is the undergraduate club and eClub: Maryland Entrepreneurs Club is the graduate club. The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship is dedicated to facilitating, supporting, and encouraging new enterprise growth. It is one of the oldest original entrepreneur centers in the country and has established itself as a national catalyst for entrepreneurship in the twenty-first century.

Human Resource Management

M&O professors in Human Resources (HRM) study the effective management of human resources for the dual purposes of creating value for the employing organization and enhancing the motivation, performance and job satisfaction of individual employees and employee groups. HR faculty are well known for their research on reward systems, retention, gender issues, and information technology (IT) implications for organizations, procedural justice at work and employee-organization exchange relationship, organizational staffing, and the relationships between human resource management practices, employee attitudes, and firm performance.

Their papers have been published in Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Executive, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Applied Psychology, Organization Science, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Personnel Psychology, and other top tier academic journals. They have served on the editorial boards of virtually all top tier academic journals and have been repeatedly elected to high level professional offices such as Chair of the HR Division, National Academy of Management, Member of the Board of Governors, National Academy of Management and President of the National Academy of Management. Several HR faculty are elected Fellows of the American Psychological Association, National Academy of Management and the Society of Industrial/Organizational Psychology. Professors actively collaborate with Ph.D. students, and these productive relationships have resulted in result in a variety of innovative working papers, award winning conference presentations, and publications in major journals. Graduates have accepted positions at the University of Arizona, Cornell University, Notre Dame University, Michigan State University, University of Cincinnati, University of Texas at Austin, and Vanderbilt University, as well as a number of other schools.

Human Resource Management majors are available only at the graduate level. Courses cover recruitment and selection, performance management, human resource planning, employee development, career development, labor relations, compensation administration, quality of work life, workforce diversity, and strategic human resource management. Employment relationships are analyzed at the individual, group, organizational, societal, and cross-cultural levels of analysis. The focus of this curriculum is on pinpointing ways of enhancing the positive effects of HR practices on the motivation, performance and satisfaction of individual employees and employee groups while also creating value for the organization in return for ongoing investment in its most important resource, its employees.

Organizational Behavior

M&O Organizational Behavior researchers are interested studying the human side of organizations and consider issues that integrate organization, group/team, and individual levels. Research in organizational behavior is interdisciplinary in nature, as it draws on contributions from sociology, psychology, communications, industrial organization economics, political science, anthropology, and decision theory. Major areas of research and teaching include: leadership; work motivation; decision making; team processes, dynamics and performance; organizational culture and climate; innovation and creativity, job and work design; work attitudes; career development; knowledge management and information sharing in organizations; negotiations; conflict management; global and cross-cultural management; organizational change; and organizational justice and fairness.

The organizational behavior faculty is composed of a group of very active researchers, scholars and teachers. We contribute to the training of students and managers who seek to learn about the behavioral and management issues that have important implications for organizations and the people in them. Our curriculum helps students understand how to effectively manage the behavior of individuals and groups within organizations and incorporates the latest in both theory and practice.

M&O Organizational Behavior faculty consistently publish their research in the best journals in the field, hold senior positions in our professional associations, and are on the editorial boards of top-rated management journals. Our faculty are consistently recognized as among the best teachers in the Business School and are widely sought for their expertise on a broad range of organizational behavior issues.

The Organizational Behavior area has a strong and vibrant Ph.D. program that prepares its students to take positions as research faculty in the world's best universities. Our recent graduates have gone on to positions at universities such as Cornell, University of Texas at Austin, Vanderbilt, among others, and have continued our long tradition of excellence in research and teaching in organizational behavior.

Strategy

M&O strategy researchers are interested in the roles and problems of general managers and those who manage multi-business firms or multi-functional business units. Major areas of research and teaching include: strategy decision making, resource allocation, value chain configuration,; strategic control and reward systems; innovation; technology; diversification and portfolio strategies; competitive dynamics; dynamic capabilities; value creation strategies; competitive strategy; cooperative strategy; management of the global enterprise; creation and mobilization of knowledge; managing intangible assets; and the composition and processes of top management teams and decision makers.

Current research in the department is split between corporate strategy, which focuses on industry selection; business strategy, which is targeted at how firms should compete within industries; and firm organization, which looks at how the organization and management of firms affects their ability to compete within and across markets. Across these domains, faculty explore cognitions and decisions of CEOs and other top level managers, governance issues related to strategy and organizational structure, strategy formulation and implementation in the global context, and the dynamics of managing strategy and firm resources in complex changing environments.

The strategy faculty is composed of a group of very active researchers, scholars and teachers. We contribute to the training of students and managers who seek to learn about the strategy and the entire organization. Our courses in strategic management help students and managers improve their understanding of strategy and the total performance of firms. Our courses combine state of the art scholarship on strategy with a careful attention to the real behavior of firms.

M&O Strategy faculty are leaders in the field regularly publishing in the best journals and sitting on the editorial boards of elite journals. The strategy faculty are very proud to contribute to the Smith's Schools mission of becoming the top Business school in the country. The Strategy faculty are widely sought for their expertise on a broad range of business issues and Smith students always rank the strategy faculty as one the best teachers in the School

Our curriculum helps students understand the role of the general manager and more specifically to think about and comprehend the strategic direction of large complex organizations. Our electives include focus on strategy formulation, strategy implementation, managing strategy in the global context, and understanding industries and competitive dynamics.

Strategy faculty are actively involved in doctoral student education. For example, they regular publish and research with their doctoral students. Former doctoral students are now active research faculty at Berkeley, Cornell, Instituto de Empressa (Spain), Kentucky, Minnesota, Virginia, and other universities around the world.