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Management

Management is the art of motivating people to better performance and leading organizations to greater prosperity. Pursuing this career begins with selecting an area of focus and then obtaining the right education, credentials, and experience to move into the management ranks. Our graduates are well prepared for this ascent with a deep understanding of organizational dynamics and decisive leadership.

About the Department

Open and supportive, the department focuses on creating a student-centered learning environment. Innovative and forward thinking, the curriculum reflects the strong academic research profile of our faculty. Small classes encourage discussion as well as simulations and team-based projects that mirror actual management practice. The key strength of the program is the integration of a core business foundation with the specialized skill-set and knowledge of managerial leadership.

Management is one of the four specializations students may pursue in earning a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA).

Faculty Thought Leaders

Faculty Thought Leaders

Learn from scholars whose influential research and professional certifications attest to their expertise.

Showcase Your Skills

Showcase Your Skills

Our students reach the top tiers of national competitions, with close guidance from faculty advisers.

Business Study Abroad

Business Study Abroad

Get insights on management trends in Germany, Spain, France, and more, for a few weeks to a full year.

Programs of Study

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration

The management specialization within the BSBA program provides both breadth across core business disciplines and depth within the specialized area of management. All students in the BSBA program, regardless of specialization, acquire a Common Body of Knowledge through required courses in economics, accounting, finance, and other business topics. Course work in the management specialization builds on this business core, preparing students to lead people and organizations.

Students master the skills and knowledge needed to motivate employees and develop their individual potential. They learn to devise the right organizational contexts—in structure, culture, and process—to ensure that people and organizations excel. And they develop strategies that enable the organization to compete in the global economy while balancing the interests of multiple diverse stakeholders in a complex legal, political, and ethical environment.

Students in the management specialization can pursue a broad course of study, rounding out the management curriculum with free electives that reflect their academic and professional interests. Or they can follow one of two tracks within the specialization:

Human resources management track prepares students for careers as human resources managers, compensation specialists, training and development professionals, recruiters, and more.

General management track is well suited to students seeking a solid foundation in the managerial knowledge and skills needed to become high-performing managers, change agents, consultants, or entrepreneurs in profit and nonprofit organizations.

Supply chain management track prepares students for a range of highly sought careers such as supply chain analyst, procurement manager, inventory manager, demand planner, and logistics coordinator. Students graduating from this program will be ready to manage the supply chain functions necessary to achieve competitive advantage in large modern domestic and international firms.

Minors

Minors are a valuable way to focus free electives into an area of interest, extending the value of your major and opening additional career options. Our department offers two minors to TCNJ students of any major:

The Business Studies Minor is designed to provide non-business majors with general business knowledge and practical skills that are useful for students who will be working in for profit and not-for profit organizations, regardless of the student’s major.

Management delivers a broad understanding of business and the general skills and knowledge needed to manage people and organizations.

Human resources management prepares students for managerial and human resources careers, providing a foundation in key areas such as selection, training and development, and compensation, among others.

The Leadership minor uses a multidisciplinary approach that connects and integrates insights from a variety of disciplines, furthering students’ development as leaders through curricular work, both conceptual and analytical foundations in the nature and practice of leadership.

Supply chain management minor is ideal for students who are willing to strengthen their knowledge and expertise in SCM for future professional growth in the dynamic workplace. The minor course offerings are a strong complement to business programs including marketing, accounting, finance, economics, and information systems. The minor degree will offer students a competitive advantage in the job market due to the ample needs for SCM skills.

Program Requirements

Innovative and Comprehensive Curriculum

The essence of the management specialization is an understanding of organizational dynamics and managerial leadership. The curriculum includes organization-wide topics such as organizational design, entrepreneurship, and corporate social responsibility; policy courses such as strategic human resource management; and skill-building courses such as negotiation, leadership, cross-cultural management, and decision-making.

Our students develop core skill-sets that are essential to success as a manager of people and organizations. In this toolkit are intellectual skills, for example, the ability to understand a given situation and use critical thinking and analysis to resolve it. Other skills are technical, from database management to spreadsheet analysis. Yet others—like knowing how to motivate, recruit, and retain employees—are people-oriented. Our students also learn to differentiate between management and leadership and between leadership and intimidation.

Our curriculum is oriented toward the future, incorporating courses in hot topics in business, including innovation, ethics, and business law. Exposure to these areas is highly valued by employers, who are eager to hire management hopefuls who are forward-thinking and have the intellectual skills to adapt to change and challenges.

The innovative character of our curriculum reflects the strong academic research profile of our faculty. Their work is published in books and peer-reviewed journals and is presented at national and international conferences. Our faculty members also hold many professional certifications recognizing their expertise in fields such as human resources and certified benefits.

Emphasis on Experiential Learning

The management curriculum is hands-on and practice-based, with courses that include simulations and team-based projects that mirror actual management scenarios in human resources and employee relations. Many of our courses directly engage students with the local business community. Students might interview business leaders for a class project, or analyze a specific management problem and present recommendations for its resolution to the company’s leaders.

Our student organizations connect students with local professional organizations and management leaders through a slate of educational events, including guest lectures, panel discussions, and networking events. A team from TCNJ’s student chapter of the Society of Human Resource Management reached the national semifinals of the HRGames, an annual competition showcasing the knowledge required of the human resources professional.

Students interested in research will find enthusiastic mentors among our faculty of respected scholars and widely published researchers. The work of these student researchers is showcased each year in the campus-wide Celebration of Student Achievement. Our students also participate in the annual Mayo Business Plan Competition, vying against other TCNJ teams for a shot at $50,000 in prize money, and in study abroad, gaining international management perspectives in Germany, Spain, France, Australia, England, Ireland, and dozens of other countries around the world.

Outstanding Internship Opportunities

Internships are strongly encouraged. Not only do they provide valuable on-the-job experience and training, but internships also show potential employers that you are a self-starter prepared to be responsible for your own success. The majority of management majors complete at least one internship, with companies actively seeking out our students.

Each year, for example, Johnson & Johnson recruits 15 or more TCNJ business students for its internship program in supply chain management. Other companies providing internships to management students in recent years include Merrill Lynch, New Jersey Special Olympics, Trenton Thunder minor league baseball, New Jersey Bureau of Pensions and Benefits, Rue Insurance, and Sodexo, among others.

Careers and Graduate Programs

Every industry and organization needs managers, and each demands its own special set of management skills and knowledge. Our management majors have succeeded across all sectors of business, including commercial, industrial, financial, nonprofit, and public management. New graduates often find their first jobs as professionals in the finance, retail, marketing, and sales fields. A major in management is also an excellent foundation for those with entrepreneurial instincts who would like to head their own companies.

Graduates of the management program have found success with such companies as Johnson & Johnson, Merrill Lynch, UPS, the FBI, Cintas Corporation, Sherwin-Williams Company, Covance, Enterprise Holdings, MSSL Inc, Management Planning Inc, Sage Hospitality, Towers Perrin, and the New Jersey Bureau of Pensions and Benefits, among others.

Most management majors who go on to advanced study do so after first launching their careers, both to build a management portfolio and to identify a specific area or industry of interest. Students in human resources, however, often choose to obtain a graduate degree before seeking employment, going directly from TCNJ into such programs as the Master of Human Resource Management at Rutgers University. Our graduates have earned acceptance into many other prestigious graduate programs, including, most recently, the Master of Health Services Administration at George Washington University, the Executive Master of Public Administration at CUNY, and the Executive Management Program at the Kellogg School of Management of Northwestern University, Miami Campus.

Active Alumni Network

The close bonds we form with our students extend beyond graduation. Our alumni are enthusiastic supporters of the program, visiting classes as guest lecturers and sharing their insights and experiences in on-campus panel discussions. By connecting with alumni, our students begin to build professional networks while learning about the wide opportunities open to management professionals.

Contact Information

Chair
Brenda Ghitulescu
609-771-2944
ghitules@tcnj.edu

Program Assistant
Quiana Starr
609-771-2566
starrq@tcnj.edu