Beyond Grey Pinstripes

     

Seattle Pacific U. School of Business and Econ.

All Participating Schools

     
Seattle Pacific U. School of Business and Econ. 3307 Third Avenue West, Suite 201
Seattle, WA, 98119-1950
United States
View A School Profile: Compare to Another School

Demographic Information

Number of full-time MBA students (2011): 

14

Number of part-time MBA students (2011): 

25

Total duration of full-time MBA program: 

24 months

MBA faculty (Fall 2010): 

28

Females as percent of student body: 

44%


Description of MBA Program: 

The mission of Seattle Pacific University is to graduate students of competence and character, who are prepared to engage the culture and change the world.

 

SBE’s stated mission is to “prepare students for service and leadership in business and society by developing their professional competence and integrity in the context of Christian faith and values.” Within this broader framework, the School of Business and Economics is dedicated to promoting a stewardship model of business, i.e., a model that understands the principal purpose of business as service to customers, to employees and to the broader community. In this model, profit is understood as a means to an end rather than as an end in and of itself; profit attracts the capital that enables a business to serve.

 

Its graduate programs emphasize high quality business education built on a foundation of ethics and values. SBE’s graduates are not only well prepared to compete effectively in the marketplace but are also trained to be socially responsible and ethically sensitive members of their communities. SBE's graduate students are required to take two ethics courses, Christian Values, Ethics and the Marketplace, and Business Ethics: Issues and Moral Leadership, 20% of the "required advanced MBA courses." In addition to these two required courses, faculty are expected to incorporate questions of ethics and values in every class and students are asked to assess their professor’s effectiveness in responding to this charge at the end of each quarter. Orientation sessions and a regular speaker series are also designed to continually emphasize the theme of "business as service."

 

All of SBE's full-time faculty members have terminal degrees in relevant disciplines. Many have also combined this training with significant formal or informal education in theology and philosophy. SBE has worked with a number of "consulting theologians" to assist in the development of what its publications characterize as "another way of doing business" and its faculty regularly engages in scholarship around themes of ethics, values and stewardship.

 

SBE was the first school in the Pacific Northwest to adopt the United Nation’s Principles for Responsible Education (PRME). SBE and its Center for Applied Learning annually hosts a Social Venture Plan Competition in which student teams (undergraduate and graduate) develop detailed plans for business enterprises that address multiple bottom lines: financial and social. In addition, during spring 2009 SBE’s Center for Integrity in Business hosted a regional/national conference on micro-finance and will host a conference on business and global poverty in the spring of 2011.



Academic Department

Course Name: Advanced Negotiations
Instructor: Jim Rand, Ph.D.

This highly interactive symposium explores the ways that people negotiate to create value and resolve disputes. Designed both to improve understanding of the negotiation process and to build negotiation skills, the curriculum integrates negotiation research from several academic fields with experiential learning exercises. Participants engage in a series of hands-on simulations set in operational contexts, building from simple two-party encounters to complex multiparty scenarios. Some of the exercises emphasize psychological aspects of bargaining, value creation and distribution, coalition dynamics, and intra-team negotiation, with a special focus on organized preparation and process analysis. Participants should finish the class as more effective and reflective negotiators.

In the past 2 years we have expanded the ethical issues inherent in negotiations. The instructor spends approximately 25%-30% of the negotiations exercise dealing with ethical issues. The course offers one role play that includes an environmental issue and reduction in force situation which combines social responsibility, environmental impact and ethical dilemmas.

Course Name: Advanced Problems in Finance
Instructor: Herb Kierullf, D.B.A.

Advanced Problems in Finance explores the cost of capital, and mergers and acquisitions. Cases, case discussions, and lectures/Q&A on theory and practice are used. Cost of capital development is mostly technical with little opportunity for covering wider issues. Most of the M&A part of the class is spent on technical issues of corporate valuation. Some discussion of fairness in the market is periodically included.

Course Name: Business and Stewardship: Global Sustainability
Instructor: Randal Franz, Ph.D.

In a world of finite natural resources, rapidly expanding human population, increasing industrialization and growing evidence of man-made impact on the natural environment (e.g., climate change, habitat destruction, species extinction, etc.) what role does business play? What role ought business to play? This seminar will explore how we as a society have built our economic system upon a particular understanding of how humans relate to the natural world. How would business look if we adopted a different approach to how we relate to nature? How can we design products, organizations and economic systems in ways that complement natural systems rather than destroy them? What things are companies doing to become more “sustainable?” To what extent are “green” issues of concern to customers? How can we change consumer behavior? What role does government play? Along the way, we’ll consider Christian teaching on humanity’s relationship to creation. Sustainability is about more than the environment; it’s about flourishing human systems, too. This is the wave of the future; get ready today!

Course Name: Business as a Community of Work
Instructor: Denise Daniels, Ph.D.

This course explores the role of business and sustainable business strategies for providing meaningful and creative work. Informed by Christian theological understandings of work, vocation, Sabbath, community, and restoration, we examine topics such as work as vocation, job and organizational design, organizational culture, managing employees, and strategies for community formation in organizations. While much of the sustainability movement in business is focused on environmental resources, this course examines the impact of sustainable human resources on business.

Course Name: Business Ethics: Issues and Moral Leadership
Instructor: Bruce Baker, Ph.D., Kenman Wong, Ph.D.

This course addresses two questions: First, how will we live through our work/comportment in business? Second, what are the responsibilities of business organizations in society today? In this particular course our approach is to immerse students in management situations, as much as possible, using the analysis of business cases, a thought-provoking personal position paper, classroom discussion, and a team project that examines the values of a real-life organization. This course challenges students not only to master the assigned materials, but also probe their beliefs concerning ethics, personal responsibility, commerce, and society.

The course covers ethical reasoning as it applies to business situations. Specific topics include corporate social responsibility, affirmative action, dispute resolution, consumer protection, employee rights, advertising ethics, economic justice, and issues arising from the use of technology.

Course Name: Christian Values, Ethics and the Marketplace
Instructor: Kenman Wong, Ph.D., Jeff Horton

This course surveys basic biblical and Christian concepts of morality with application to issues of the business community. The course analyzes the elements of moral development and ethical decision making and their application to current moral dilemmas.

Course Name: Compensation and Benefits
Instructor: Jim Rand, Ph.D.

Total compensation provides a significant amount of power to the employer, while it instills in the employee a sense of powerlessness. To create a degree of balance between these two sensitive, emotional views, those involved in designing, approving, and implementing compensation schemes must handle with care this potentially explosive process.

The major challenge facing compensation professionals is aligning an organization's pay system with their organization’s strategic direction. The focus of this course is to identify the choices to be made, in order to develop and implement a strategically designed reward system.

This course spends 15-20% of the reading, discussion and exercises on ethical issues. The following areas are addressed from an ethical dilemma standpoint: Compensation philosophy; designing a compensation structure; implementing the compensation system; communicating the organization's compensation philosophy, industry standards, and the role of pay in job negotiations from the standpoint of both the employer as well as the employee or candidates. Is it ethical to misrepresent your current salary in the hopes of obtaining a higher starting salary?

Course Name: Cultural Diversity
Instructor: Donald B. Summer, Ed.D.

Builds awareness and appreciation of cultural diversity in the workforce. Examines strategies for encouraging, accommodating and utilizing diversity as a competitive advantage domestically and globally. Introduces a model of change processes and applies it to diversity issues. The utilization of a broad range of employees, with a variety of backgrounds, has become the norm in organizations, but, of course, this has not entirely eliminated impediments, such as glass ceilings, racial bias, and other barriers, especially cultural, that hold employees back from being used to their fullest. This course exams how to draw on the talents of employees in alignment with the vision, mission, and strategies of organizations. This course helps students think critically about situations that they face or will face as leaders/managers of complex organizations.

Course Name: Designing Organizations
Instructor: Randall Franz, Ph.D.

This organizational theory course considers the range of internal and external factors that shape organizational structure and strategy. Included in this are social, environmental and ethical issues. Specifically, the disparate demands across the spectrum of stakeholders raise many facets of corporate social responsibility. Beyond crafting a workable coalition of stakeholders, CSR concerns influence the shape of the institutional pressures felt by organizations.

The recent, and on-going corporate scandals make considerations of ethical codes, structures and personnel pertinent topics for discussion. How do companies establish and nurture corporate cultures supportive of strong ethics? What innovative practices are companies employing toward this end? How much of the recent activity done in the name of ethics is mere “window-dressing” designed to send the expected ethical signal? Environmental concerns and costs are becoming increasingly “front-burner” issues for senior managers. Therefore we discuss how cradle-to-cradle manufacturing and design principles are impacting the operational and supply-chain structure of firms. How does being “green” confer competitive advantages and what structures are required to deliver on this objective?

Course Name: Enterprise Analysis and Integration (Cross Referenced with ISM 6213)
Instructor: Albert Erisman, Ph.D.

This is a graduate-level ISM class that is cross-listed for the MBA program. While this class is technical in nature (putting an enterprise system into a company, connecting all of their processes and data), there is a strong flavor of ethics. For example, in one class the instructor spends an hour on seven factors related to the failure of most large scale systems projects, and most these are not technical issues. Rather, they deal with helping people work through change, valuing and supporting people, ethical strategies for reducing staff due to the cost savings that result from the enterprise system, etc. Ethical leadership is the one big factor in the success of such systems and these issues are explored in detail.

Pages

Type of Offering

Faith in the Marketplace
Date: 2010

SBE hosts a quarterly speaker series on Faith in the Marketplace. The focus of these events is to highlight to our graduate student community examples of business leaders who have integrated their Christian faith into the practice of business. Topics such as transparency, environmental sustainability, personal and institutional ethics, corporate philanthropy, global impact and economic development are discussed. Faith in the Marketplace speakers included Bruno Dyke, David Grieger, Chief Marketing Officer for Russell Investments; Steve Brock, CEO of High Point Solutions; and Pete Hammond, former VP, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship.

KIROs Speaker Series
Date: 2010

SBE sponsors the Seattle monthly gathering of KIROs. The mission of KIROs is to connect, encourage, and equip Christian business people in the marketplace. It holds monthly breakfast meetings on the SPU campus involving students, alumni and other members of the community. The meetings regularly feature leaders who speak about their experiences in business. Typically the talks focus on faith integration, ethical decision making and operating businesses in a manner that is sustainable across a host of different dimensions.

Social Venture Plan Competition
Type: Social Venture Plan Competition
Date: April, 2010

The Social Venture Plan Competition (SVPC) is hosted annually by the SBE's Center for Applied Learning. Activities to support the SVPC include a seven-session course on the basics of business planning; submission and evaluation of written plans (31 faculty and community partners participated this past year), a coaching session for teams with a business or non-profit executive (19 community partners participated), and a showcase of the team projects. Thirty-one teams made up of 131 students participated in the final showcase round in 2010, where 65 community partners from the business, government, academic and non-profit sectors judged the best proposals.

The AWB Distinguished Speakers Series
Date: November, 2010

SBE recognizes the importance of role models and encourages faculty to include professionals as guest speakers in class. Last year, for example, more than 80 business leaders were guests in classes. Outside of class, SBE offers several speaker series. The highlight of these efforts is the AWB Luncheon, most often held during Fall Quarter. AWB speakers are high profile leaders who address a host of leadership/management topics, typically focusing on issues of business ethics, social impact, and sustainable enterprise. Examples of recent speakers include Sally Jewell, CEO of REI, Jim Sinegal, CEO of Costco, Inc and John Stanton, Chairman of Trilogy International Partners.

Business as Calling
Date: February, 2010

Seattle Pacific University hosts regular events and conferences exploring the intersection of Christian faith and business practice. Our most recent conference of this kind took place during February 2010. Events included a keynote talk by Bill Pollard (past CEO of ServiceMaster), followed by panel discussions, presentations and reflection on various aspects of business related to “calling.”

These conferences are open to students and incorporate special sessions to encourage student-conferee interaction.

Dean's Speaker Series
Date: 2010

SBE has established the Dean's Speaker Series, which invites prominent regional leaders to the school each quarter. Dean’s Speakers for the last two years have included: Craig Nakagawa, CFO and Director of Social Business, Village Reach; Ada Healey, Vice President, Real Estate, Vulcan, Inc.; Elisabeth James, General Manager, The Westin Seattle hotel; Ray Davis, CEO of Umpqua Bank; and Karen Lee, President and CEO of Pioneer Human Services. Dean's Speakers address a wide range of leadership topics, including issues related to environmental sustainability, business ethics and responsible management, transparency, and corporate philanthropy.

Bottom Billions/Bottom Line: The Role of Business in Ending Global Poverty
Date: April, 2011

Seattle Pacific University will play host to a regional/national conference on global poverty and the role business plays in promoting human flourishing. Whether addressing issues of clean-water rights, environmental and food sustainability, bottom-of-the-pyramid markets, ethical supply chains, new and creative linkages in microfinance (including micro-insurance, micro-land, etc.), social venture, values-based investing, or corporate social responsibility, we all have crucial roles to play — as customers, investors, suppliers, entrepreneurs, and change agents within traditional structures.

Career Services

SBE, through the Center for Career Development, assists MBA students in the various stages of career planning and placement. As an institution, SPU places a high priority on social impact and environmental management issues, and the greater Seattle area offers a myriad of companies committed to such values. Consequently, some of our resident career resources and counselors offer unique strengths and capabilities in these areas. A selection of services offered by the Center for Career Development include career counseling, resume preparation, CareerBeam, a virtual career success center, and Drake Beam Morrin Career Resources.

MBA-MA in Theology
Center for Applied Learning
Business School Housing? Yes
Number of Faculty: 2
Contact Name: Mark Oppenlander
Contact Email: marko@spu.edu

The School of Business and Economics (SBE) at Seattle Pacific University is committed to graduating students of competence and character. SBE delivers a first-class business education infused with ethics and values and a nearly unparalleled emphasis on real-time, applied learning.

Strong ties to the Puget Sound business community are fostered through the Center for Applied Learning's (CAL's) Mentor, Service Learning, Internship, and Entrepreneurship programs. Students have access to real-world marketplace experience and the insight of lifelong applied and academic learning from top-level executives. Through CAL's experiential learning programs, including the annual Social Venture Plan Competition, students are equipped with skills needed to make a positive impact in the marketplace.

Center for Integrity in Business
Business School Housing? No
Number of Faculty: 2
Contact Name: John Terrill
Contact Email: jterrill@spu.edu

The mission of the Center for Integrity in Business (CIB) includes research and advocacy around a philosophy that understands the purpose of business to include service to the community. Specifically, the CIB coordinates research into alternate models of ethical and theologically-grounded business practices, and engages with the business, non-profit, and academic communities in shared work around these models and other aspects of ethical, values-based business leadership. The overarching mission of the Center is as follows:

1) To engage business, non-profit and academic communities (Christian and non-Christian, alike) in a serious dialogue about the implications of a Christian worldview of business;

2) To encourage individuals and organizations to implement ethical, values-based strategies, structures and practices; and 3) To promote research about organizations and leadership rooted in a Christian vision of leadership and stewardship

Corporate spiritual disciplines and the quest for organizational virtue
Author(s): Kenman Wong

The burgeoning literature in organizational ethics points to the need for a better understanding of how to enable virtues in organizational settings. Moreover, there has been an increasing call to replace conventional management theory and practice with new approaches to managing based on virtues. We draw on a classical spiritual disciplines literature to develop a four-phase process model that facilitates organizational virtue and moral agency. We illustrate the model, and buttress support for the sequential nature of its constituent parts, by using a four-step “friendly disentangling” approach associated with servant leadership. We contend that practicing the four corporate spiritual disciplines serves to change the character of organizational culture and individuals in positive directions. We conclude with a discussion of how the four corporate spiritual disciplines correspond to Management 2.0 and Multistream management, and to the four classic functions of management.

Journal Title: Journal of Management, Spirituality & Religion Volume: 7 Edition: 1 Page Numbers: 7-29
Limiting Laissez-faire Profits: The Financial Implications
Author(s): Herbert Kierulff; Grant Learned

Traditional corporate finance endorses the principle of stockholder wealth maximization as the purpose of business. In light of recent scandals and legislation, businesses are increasingly expected to use financial resources in a manner which benefits society and not just the owners of the firm. This imputation of a corporate soul will necessarily reduce investor returns, which has at least two major financial implications for the firm and the economy. The first is that it may cause investors to change their required rates of return and thereby change the amount of capital available to firms (in particular), and the economy (in general). The second is that it may implicitly replace equity with debt in the capital structure of firms, with all that implies for financing and corporate governance. The purpose of this article is to examine these implications and evaluate their sometimes counterintuitive consequences.

Journal Title: Journal of Business Ethics Volume: 90 Edition: 3 Page Numbers: 425-436