MGMT 4213 SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT Summer 2010 SCHOOL: DIVISION: CREDIT HOURS/NUMBER/TITLE: INSTRUCTOR: School of Professional Studies Business 3 Hours, MGMT 4213, Small Business Mgmt Dr. Steven C. Palmer NWOSU Office: Jesse Dunn 214 NWOSU Phone: (580) 327-8507 NWOSU E-Mail: scpalmer@nwosu.edu Office Hours: By email TEXTBOOK/REQUIRED MATERIAL: The textbook below is required for the class: Joel Corman, Lori Pennel and Robert Lussier, Small Business Management: A Planning Approach, 3 rd edition, McGraw-Hill/Atomic Dog 2009. ISBN: 978-14266-3056-9 In addition to the textbook, student, for the two required chats described below, must have access to a webcam, high-speed Internet access, microphone, and speakers (a headset with a microphone is optimal but not required). Students may meet with the professor in person in Alva in lieu having the webcam and other technology. COURSE DESCRIPTION AND PREREQUISITES: An examination of the environment and management of the small enterprise. Pre: MGMT 3063 or permission of the instructor. COURSE OBJECTIVES At the conclusion of the course, student should be able to: Understand important events, developments and trends in the history of business. Understand business organizational structures, organizational design and their implications. Analyze legal issues related to business. Understand principles of business management and their applications in the decision making process. Apply procedures for managing human resources. Analyze issues related to economic and social responsibilities in business. Analyze factors affecting business marketing decisions. Apply basic principles of consumer economics and finance. Produce an appropriate business plan.
PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT Assessment will be based on: (1) Chapter Summaries; (2) Business Plan; (3) Discussion Board; and (4) Chats. Such assessment will focus on the Course Objectives of the class. Chapter Summaries: Business Plan: Discussion Board: Chats: Students are required to prepare and submit a DETAILED chapter summary for each chapter being covered in class. The summaries, prepared in MS Word (.doc/.docx) format, are to be submitted through turnitin.com by 12:00 noon on the Monday of the week the chapter is assigned. See Appendix A on Chapter Summaries for more details. Collectively, chapter summaries are 25% of the course grade. Each student will be required prepare a detailed business plan for a business that he/she would like to start. The Business Plan will be worth 25% of the overall grade in this class. See Appendix B for more information about the Business Plan. Each week the instructor will have new topics for consideration on the Discussion Boards on Blackboard. Four comments, on at least two different days (at least 24 hours apart), with the initial comment being made by Tuesday, is the MINIMUM acceptable performance per discussion board. By Tuesday of each week, students should contribute their comments, initially setting forth their opinions and positions. Then later in the week, students should comment on the postings made by other students. These responses should be meaningful and contribute to the discussion. Discussion boards collectively are worth 25% of the final grade. Minimum acceptable work results in minimum passing grade. Less than minimum acceptable performance will result in a less than acceptable grade. Students cannot make up missed discussion boards. Read Appendix C for important information on Discussion Boards in this class. [NOTE: There may be more than one discussion board in any given week. Students are required to participate in each discussion board.] During the session each student must schedule two one-on-one chats with the professor, as indicated on the class schedule in this syllabus. These chats may be done in person or by videoconference. The chats will usually last 30-45 minutes. The student should contact the professor by e-mail (indicating three or four time periods the student will be available to chat) the week before to schedule the chat. Do not wait until the last minute to schedule your chat. The professor is under no obligation to rearrange his schedule to accommodate the student. Collectively the chats will be 25% of the grade. See Appendix D on Chats for more information.
EVALUATION AND GRADING ITEM % of Grade (No Final) Chapter Summaries 25 Business Plan 25 Discussion Boards 25 Chats 25 Total 100 Grading Scale: A=90%-100% B=80%-89% C=70%-79% D=60%-69% F=Below 60% DISABLED STUDENT SERVICES: Any student needing academic accommodations for a physical, mental or learning disability should contact the Coordinator of Services for Students with Disabilities, or faculty member personally, within the first two weeks of the semester so that appropriate accommodations may be arranged. The Alva location for ADA assistance is the Fine Arts building room 126. The location for ADA assistance on the Enid campus is Room 102 and the contact is Lori Coonrod. The location for ADA assistance on the Woodward campus is the Main Office and the contact is Dr. Deena Fisher. ADDITIONAL COURSE REQUIREMENTS Academic Integrity: Communication: Blackboard: Late Work: Academic integrity is vital. The professor has a zero tolerance policy regarding academic dishonesty. Any acts of dishonesty will be penalized severely. See Appendix E for a discussion of academic honesty. The professor will use NWOSU email as the primary means of communicating with students, Students are responsible for e-mail messages sent to their NWOSU email account; thus, students are responsible to check their NWOSU email accounts. It is the duty of the student to check Blackboard on a regular basis because students are responsible for any information or material posted to Blackboard during the semester. NO LATE WORK WILL BE ACCEPTED IN THIS CLASS. FAILURE TO TIMELY TAKE CHAT, QUIZ OR TEST OR TIMELY COMPLETE ASSIGNMENTS OR DISCUSSION BOARDS WILL RESULT IN A ZERO ON THAT ITEM. Syllabus -3
Make-Up Policy: Student Opinions: Deadlines: Turnitin.com NO MAKE-UP WORK WILL BE ACCEPTED IN THIS CLASS. Students should plan in advance so work is completed prior to a scheduled absence. Likewise, students should complete work far enough in advance that it is completed in case of an unexpected event. Tests may not be taken in advance. As with all classes taught by Dr. Palmer, students well-supported opinions are an important element of this class. Students should express their personal opinions in all discussion boards, classroom discussions, assignments, papers, etc. However, it is important that students support their views and opinions with facts and logic. An unsupported opinion is of no value in this class. Students are urged not to wait until the last minute to submit any test, quiz, discussion board, paper etc. Blackboard being down, computer problems, Internet access problems, turnitin.com unavailability, illness or other reasons will not be acceptable reasons for missing a deadline. Students have plenty of notice of all deadlines and therefore should plan accordingly. Unless specifically instructed otherwise by the professor, all assignments will be submitted through www.turnitin.com. No hard copy of the assignment will be required or accepted unless the student is directed to turn in a hard copy. Turnitin.com is a plagiarism detection program. Papers must be created in MS Word format (.doc or.docx). In order to register for turnitin.com you will need the class id and enrolment password listed below: Class id = 3247001 Password = Bluejays Style Guide: The professor has created a style guide for the written assignments in this class. The style guide is posted on Blackboard. Students must follow the requirements of the style guide unless there are specific directions to the contrary in the assignment. If you have a question about the style guide, ask the professor. Syllabus -4
COURSE OUTLINE AND TENTATIVE SCHEDULE Week # Topic 1 (6/1) Introduction to class 2 (6/6) Chapter 1 Small Business Management: A Planning Approach Chapter 2 Legal Forms of Ownership Chapter 3 Business Ownership Options 3 (6/13) Chapter 4 The Legal Environment and Social Responsibility Chapter 5 The Business Plan Chapter 6 Introduction and Strategy Formulation Sections of the Business Plan 4 (6/20) Chapter 7 The Marketing Function Chapter 8 Location and Layout Chapter 9 The Production/Operations Function Schedule Chat 1 5 (6/27) Chat 1 (Conducted on 6/30 and 7/1) 6 (7/4) Chapter 10 The Human Resources Function Chapter 11 The Accounting Function Chapter 12 The Financial Function 7 (7/11) Chapter 13 Financial Analysis and Taxation Chapter 14 Controlling Assets, Risk and Computer Applications Chapter 15 Taking the Small Business Global 8 (7/18) Business Plan (Due by 11:55 p.m. on 7/21) Schedule Chat 2 9 (7/25) Chat 2 (Conducted on 7/25 and 7/26) Syllabus -5
APPENDIX A CHAPTER SUMMARIES For all chapters covered in the text, students are required to prepare and submit a DETAILED chapter summary covering all of the important material in the chapter. This document is to be prepared individually by each student without collaboration with others. The summary for each chapter is to be submitted through www.turnitin.com by 12:00 noon on Monday of the week that the chapter is scheduled to be covered in class. As stated in the syllabus, no late chapter summaries will be accepted and there is no make-up possible. I would suggest not waiting until the last minute to complete the assignment. The deadline is firm and computer problems or turnitin.com being unavailable is not an acceptable reason for missing the deadline or not using turnitin.com. Chapter summaries collectively are 25% of the final grade. The file name should be name (last-first) class chapter #. Below is an example of the file name that you MUST use when uploading the file to turnitin.com. Failure to use this format will result in a zero on the summary. An example file name if John Doe were turning in a summary of chapter 1 would be: Doe-John MGMT 4213 Chapter 1 In preparing the DETAILED chapter summary the student must follow the guidelines provided in the style guide posted on Blackboard. However, the following exceptions to the style guide requirements apply to the chapter summaries: There are no formal sections required in the summary. This includes that there is no need for an introduction or conclusion to the summary. There should not be a title page. Instead the student should provide his/her name, class (MGMT 4213), date chapter covered and number of chapter being summarized at the top, right corner of the first page. There will be no re-writes. Any paper that exceeds the allowable number of errors will have 15 points (out of 100) deducted from the score. Chapter summaries are to be singled-spaced within paragraphs and double-spaced between paragraphs. As the source for the information in the chapter summaries will be the textbook chapter, there is no requirement to cite the source. However, if you use a direct quote you must indicate that it is a direct quote (quotation marks or block format) and properly cite the direct quote. [NOTE: As this is a summary, THERE IS NO REASON TO HAVE ANY DIRECT QUOTES.] The assignment is to summarize all the important points in the chapter in detail. This is to be done using complete sentences and paragraphs. In my estimation, fifteen pages of text should be able to be summarized in approximately two pages of the summary. Be sure to include the information you will need to assist you in discussing the chapter during the chat, drafting your Business Plan and participating on discussion boards.. A chapter summary should not contain any quotes from the textbook. You are to put the material into your own words. APPENDIX - 6
Chapter summaries, like all other papers in this class, will be graded on content, style, form, grammar and spelling. In regard to content, the professor is looking for a detailed summary of the major points raised in the text. Also the professor is looking to see if the summary explains these points in the student s words (not quotations from the text) in a way that shows the student grasps the point. If the student does not grasp the concept, then the student should indicate so in the summary and then explain what the student believes the point means and what questions the student has about the point/concept. The coin flip method, very popular with students, will be used in grading chapter summaries. I will flip a coin before grading the summaries for each chapter. If the class wins the toss, then everyone who turned in a good-faith assignment will receive a 100 for that summary. If a student does not turn in a summary or it is one that is not in good faith, the student receives a zero for the summary. If the class loses the coin flip, I grade all of the summaries for that chapter. Good faith means that the student has summarized the entire chapter as would be required to achieve at least a C if the paper was graded. APPENDIX - 7
APPENDIX B MGMT 4213 BUSINESS PLAN Each student in MGMT 4213 will write a detailed Business Plan. The plan is to be thorough and in-depth. Chapter 5 of the textbook explains the Business Plan in great detail. The textbook Appendix also discusses the Business Plan. (WARNING: This is to be a detailed or full business plan DO NOT use a short business plan format). Here are URL addresses for other explanations of what should be in a business plan: http://asbdc.ualr.edu/business-information/1004-business-plan-outline.asp http://ohioline.osu.edu/cd-fact/1101.html http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwsbp/busplan_outline.pdf http://www.odu.edu/bpa/boaectr/businessplan.htm http://www.bradley.edu/turnercenter/start_up_business/business_planning/business_plan_outline.html The Business Plan should be for a business that you would like to start someday. Gateway Computers was started based on the business plan its founder wrote while in college. So maybe you will be able to create a successful business using your business plan. This is to be a DETAILED business plan that you would use to secure a loan or other funding for your new company. The research is to be done using a real business idea, the real industry, a real location, etc. DO NOT USE a software package that writes the plan for you. This would be considered academic dishonesty for this assignment. Likewise, do not use forms as the basis of your business plan. Either act will result in failing the class. Remember, you need to follow the style guide posted on Blackboard. The plan must be completed in MS Word (.doc or.docx) format. You must submit the paper through www.turnitin.com by 11:55 p.m. on July 21, 2010. The Business Plan is worth 25% of your grade in this class. WARNING: This assignment will take considerable time to research and complete. Do not wait until the last minute to get started. You need to begin work soon after the term begins and work on the plan throughout the session. The textbook will help walk you through the process APPENDIX - 8
APPENDIX C MGMT 4213 Small Business Management Discussion Boards WARNING: MOST STUDENTS WHO DO POORLY IN THIS CLASS HAVE LOW DISCUSSION BOARD SCORES FOR NOT PARTICIPATING AT THE MINIMUM ACCEPTABLE LEVEL. It is an important element of the educational experience in this class that all students participate in the discussion boards. If possible, students should check the board daily, read the postings and make responses. There are no make-ups and once a discussion board is closed, no more postings can be made. Discussion boards will be open until at least 11:55 p.m. on the Sunday of the weekend after the discussion board is opened. In the discussions do not be afraid to disagree with the professor or your classmates. However, do so in a respectful manner. Do not make the comments personal, i.e. You stupid idiot! How can you think that? Rather give your opinion and support for your thoughts. Do not be offended if someone disagrees with you, as long as it is not a personal attack. True discussions require people to be free to express their thoughts, whether or not they are in agreement with others. Each week there will be new topic(s) for consideration on the Discussion Boards on Blackboard. Four comments, on two different days and with at least 24 hours in between at least two of the postings, is a MINIMUM for each discussion board. Students must contribute their comments, initially setting forth their opinions and positions by Tuesday. Scores will be negatively impacted if their initial posting is later than Tuesday night. Then later in the week, students should comment on the postings made by other students. These responses should be meaningful and contribute to the discussion. Do not expect maximum points for minimum acceptable effort. In fact a student who does minimal satisfactory work will receive a minimal passing score. Remember, there may be multiple discussion boards each week. Your initial comments are to be your thoughts on the question without reference to anything any of your classmates have said. In fact, unless the instructions (my first posting in the particular board) specifically says not to repeat something a classmate said, I would suggest making your initial posting before looking at any of the responses that are already posted. You should always start a new thread with your initial comments on a discussion board. Respond to other postings within the thread containing the posting to which you are commenting. Your initial comments must be posted by Tuesday night or there may be a penalty assessed. Then later in the week (Wednesday or later), you should comment on the postings made by other students. These responses should be meaningful and contribute to the discussion. Do not simply add comments like I agree or Good point or repeat what was said in another posting. Postings that add nothing to the discussion receive no credit. If you agree, you should indicate why you agree. If you think another student made a good point, then explain why the point was good. Postings should be detailed and specific. Show your critical thinking abilities in the postings. APPENDIX - 9
Remember the initial posting should be a new thread. Then responses to all other postings should be done in the same thread as the comment to which the student is responding. Students may be assigned to discussion groups. Topics may be posted for groups to discuss among themselves. The same rules regarding contribution as discussed herein apply to each topic on the group discussion boards, if any. SSECOND WARNIING:: MOSST SSTUDENTSS WHO DO POORLY IIN CLASSSS HAVE LOW DIISSCUSSSSIION BOARD SSCORESS FOR NOT PARTIICIIPATIING AT THE MIINIIMUM ACCEPTABLE LEVEL.. To get a good grade on discussion boards requires discipline, effort and for the most part a routine. Students should plan to read and post their initial comments on each discussion board by Tuesday each week. Then on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday students should plan to read the initial postings and subsequent comments and post their own responses. Finally over the weekend students should once again read and post comments. If students make three or four meaningful postings on each board on two subsequent occasions (after the initial posting), then they generally will most likely be performing at a high B or an A level on discussion boards. Remember the minimum number of meaningful postings per board is four. With four meaningful postings on a board, meeting all other requirements, the student will be at a low C level. Not meeting the minimum requirements will result in a score in the less than 70. Remember that opinions are worthless to others unless they are supported by facts and logic. So support your opinions. In my life, I have changed my thoughts on particular issues because the person with whom I was discussing gave very good, logical reasons for their views. They actually swayed me to their side. That is another part of the discussions always have an open mind. You do not have to change your mind but read and consider what others say. Opposing views may actually be logical and valid. Students are encouraged to make frequent, meaningful contributions to the discussions. Do not expect maximum points for minimum acceptable effort. Do not hesitate to research before responding to a posting. If you look at outside materials, indicate those sources in your response. You should include a citation or link to your outside sources. Always support your positions and opinions with facts and logic. FINAL WARNING DO NOT SPACE OFF THE DISCUSSION BOARDS! APPENDIX - 10
APPENDIX D MGMT 4213 Small Business Management Chats As indicated on the class schedule, each student must engage in two one-on-one chats with the professor during the term. These chat will be accomplished using videoconferencing or in-person appointment in my office. Chats will be scheduled by e-mail and are subject to the professor s availability. Do not wait until the last minute to schedule your chat, as the professor is under no obligation to make time to chat. Students should contact the professor the week before to schedule the chat. In the email wanting to schedule the chat, the student should include three or four time frames that the student will be available to begin the chat. In setting forth the time frames remember that the chat may last approximately one hour. For example, if you have between 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday open, then the time frame for beginning the chat sent to the professor would be Wednesday 1:00 p.m. 4:00 p.m. The professor is under no obligation to remind students to schedule chats. Failure of the student to schedule a chat the week before the chat sessions are due may result in the student receiving a zero for the chat. The chats are closed book/notes. In the past two formats have been used for online chats. Either format may be used in this class. The formats are: Formal The student is given an essay type question to answer. The response will be graded based on the content. Informal The professor and student will engage in a more free-flowing question and answer session or discussion of topics raised in the course. There are no set questions and the direction of the chat will depend on the interaction between the student and the professor. The best way to prepare for the chat is the same as you would for an essay test. If a student does not know a particular answer, then the student should say so. Just like any test, the student is not always going to know every answer. If you are confused by the way a question is worded, ask the professor for clarification. These chats usually will take about 30-45 minutes, but in the past some have gone longer. The chats collectively are 25% of the course grade. Remember to schedule the chats the week before the chat is to be done. The professor may not warn you to schedule chats. There are no late or make-up chats. The responsibility is yours to schedule the chat. Remember, failure of the student to schedule a chat the week before the chat sessions are due may result in the student receiving a zero for the chat. APPENDIX - 11
APPENDIX E ACADEMIC INTEGRITY ACADEMIC DISHONESTY: Students who are found by the professor to have engaged in academic dishonesty are subject to sanctions imposed by the professor and/or university. These sanctions may range from a warning to dismissal from the university. The appropriate penalty for an act of dishonesty will be determined by the professor, with or without consultation with the department chair, dean or University s Executive Vice President. Penalties for academic dishonesty may vary depending on the facts and circumstances of the situation, person involved, the nature of the dishonest act, and such other factors as determined by the professor or university. The penalty structure is not intended to be a progressive disciplinary scheme. The sanction to be applied is in the discretion of the professor. Any student who is penalized for academic dishonesty by the professor has the right to appeal the sanction. The student will be advised of the appeal process should it become necessary. ORIGINAL WORK: The paper should be the original work of the student. Students may not use a paper for two different classes without the express consent, in advance, of both professors involved. To use a paper in two classes without the express consent of both professors is academic dishonesty. Further, students should limit the amount of direct quotations used within a paper. Direct quotations should only be used for emphasis or because it is important for the reader to know the exact wording. Otherwise, student should paraphrase the ideas, thoughts and words of others. [NOTE: The student still must provide a citation to the other person s work or else it is plagiarism.] There is no set limit on the amount of material in the paper that are direct quotations. As a guide, under most circumstances, a student should attempt to have less than 10% of the paper being the words of others (direct quotations). Paper grades will be lowered if there is too much content that is in the words of others. PLAGIARISM: According to Robert Perrin, Pocket Guide to APA Style, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004 (p. 15-16): Plagiarism is the use of someone else s words, ideas, or line of thought without acknowledgement. Even when it is inadvertent the result of careless note-taking, punctuating, or documenting the writer is still at fault for dishonest work. Under the rules of NWOSU, plagiarism is academic dishonesty. The NWOSU Student Handbook provides the following: All forms of academic dishonesty including cheating, plagiarism, unauthorized possession of exams or other materials, forgery, or alteration or misuse of university records, are subject to disciplinary action by the university. The forgery of faculty signatures is prohibited. You must get authentic signatures on all official documents. (Student Handbook, p. 125) APPENDIX - 12
COLLABORATION: Depending on the assignment, students may elect to work together on preliminary matters. If the assignment is such that collaboration is appropriate and the professor has not banned collaboration, students may feel free to help each other. However, unless a group paper is assigned, the end product must be the original work of the individual. Any variation would be academic dishonesty and handled appropriately. What is the difference between collaboration and academic dishonesty? This example may help. As final exams approach a group of students meet to study together. They may discuss the various issues that they believe will be on the test. They may ask each other questions and discuss various points. However, on test day each of the students must take the test by themselves. Likewise, students may discuss various aspects of the paper and issues related thereto, but when it is time to write the paper, each student must write the paper individually. APPENDIX - 13
PENALTIES FOR PLAGIARISM Plagiarism Moderate Plagiarism Description* Plagiarism of a length of 39 words or less which either omits quotation marks but cites the source or includes quotation marks but does not identify the source. Two occurrences of plagiarism of a length of 39 words or less which either omits quotation marks but cites the source or includes quotation marks but does not identify the source. A single instance of plagiarism of a length of 40 or more contiguous words in a paragraph which either omits quotation marks (or block format) but cites the source or includes quotation marks (or block format) but does not identify the source. Penalty** 1 st Offense: 50% penalty off possible points 2 nd Offense: Zero on the assignment 3 rd Offense: F assigned for course 4 th Offense: F assigned for course and referral to Vice President of Student Affairs for additional disciplinary action 1 st Offense: Zero on the assignment 2 nd Offense: F assigned for course 3 rd Offense: F assigned for course and referral to Vice President of Student Affairs for additional disciplinary action Extensive Plagiarism Three or more occurrences of plagiarism of a length of 39 words or less which either omits quotation marks but cites the source or includes quotation marks but does not identify the source. Two or more instances of plagiarism of a length of 40 or more contiguous words in a paragraph which either omits quotation marks (or block format) but cites the source or includes quotation marks (or block format) but does not identify the source. Any occurrence of plagiarism in which there are no quotation marks (or block format) and no citation of a source. Any occurrence of plagiarism longer than 40 contiguous words in more than one paragraph. 1 st Offense: F assigned for course 2 nd Offense: F assigned for course and referral to Vice President of Student Affairs for additional disciplinary action * Plagiarism concerning indirect quotes or adopting the ideas of others without citation may be penalized in a manner similar to plagiarism regarding direct quotations. ** A determination of 1 st offense, 2 nd offense, etc. is based on any incident of plagiarism by the student in any class at NWOSU. For example, a student who committed moderate plagiarism in a class freshman year and the commits plagiarism in this class will be penalized as second offense plagiarism. APPENDIX - 14