Source: Diane Swanson, 785-532-4352, swanson@k-state.edu
http://www.k-state.edu/media/mediaguide/bios/swansonbio.html
News release prepared by: Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, 785-532-6415, ebarcomb@k-state.edu

Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009

SIDEBAR: ASPEN INSTITUTE HIGHLIGHTS K-STATE MASTER'S OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION COURSES THAT INTEGRATE SOCIAL, ENVIRONMENTAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES

MANHATTAN -- When the Aspen Institute recently recognized Kansas State University's master's of business administration program as one of the world's best for integrating ethical, social and environmental issues into the curriculum, it highlighted several of the program's courses.

* Management of legal, ethical and public policy issues, taught by Diane Swanson, von Waaden business administration professor. It is the capstone course and the college's main vehicle for delivering ethics, social and environmental issue coverage in the masters of business administration program. Topics include corporate citizenship, environmental sustainability, ethics in global business, crisis prevention, stakeholder relations, moral reasoning, corporate governance, the role of ethics training programs and whistle-blowing.

* Electronic marketing, taught by Esther Swilley, assistant professor of marketing. Students explore issues like online security, information privacy, intellectual property rights, efforts to control Internet gambling, basic ethical concepts and the Internet's effect on public safety and welfare.

* Management accounting and business problem solving, taught by John Morris, assistant professor of accounting. Students to do a research project that focuses on recent accounting-related scandals. His accounting concepts and analysis class emphasizes the impact of financial reporting for public corporations and compliance with disclosure requirements.

* Advanced business law, taught by Lawrence H. Vogel, adjunct instructor of management. The course includes discussion of real-world situations and ethical considerations like fraud and misrepresentation and the importance of truthfulness.

* Advanced entrepreneurship, taught by Jim Bloodgood, associate professor of management. The course includes discussions of the increasing potential for socially-oriented entrepreneurial ventures and possibilities for environmentally-based ventures.

* Compensation and performance management, taught by Bruce Prince, professor of management, and Valerie Evans, instructor of management, and also by Bill Turnley, professor of management. Prince's and Evans' section addresses the Fair Labor Standards Act and other pertinent laws as they relate to employee benefits. Turnley's section examines topics like diversity, career development, gender issues, and religion and spirituality in the workplace.

* International management, taught by Brian Niehoff, professor of management and interim associate provost. The course tackles subjects like motivating and leading employees from different cultures and career development in international environments.

* Behavioral management theory, taught by Turnley, Niehoff and Thomas A. Wright, professor of management and the Jon Wefald Leadership Chair in Business Administration. Part of the course has students fill out questionnaires to determine their dominant character strengths and offers tactics for students to better view the world through the lens of ethics and virtue.

More information about the courses is available online at http://ow.ly/vN2x