Management

The Curricular Unit is an introduction to the mathematical methods for management. It covers fundamental topics of differential calculus of several variable functions and integral calculus, and also basic themes of linear algebra. Applications to the fields of economics and finance are explored in particular. It provides mathematical background for the study of disciplines as statistics, econometrics, and operational research, and others in the broad areas of economics and finance.

Get students familiarized with the origins of management as a science and its main modern routes. Developing their abilities in terms of debating within a workgroup through classroom assignments, presenting their conclusions to the class around the issues of managerial roles, the craft of managerial life, the managerial cycles, the human and technological dimensions of organizational life and the capabilities to start developing business activities at large.

The Economics course provides students with a set of skills and tools that allows them to look at the world around them and understand individual economic decisions and the performance and structure of national economies. Both Microeconomics and Macroeconomics questions and topics are covered in this introductory economics course. Students are expected to develop critical and creative thinking as they are provided with the tools that help them to understand the multiple dimensions of economic activity and to discuss different proposals and the impacts associated with these proposals.

Financial Accounting is an indispensable tool in any business. In addition to being a legal obligation, it is the basis for taxation. Given this importance, Financial Accounting is distributed for two semesters. In Financial Accounting I are studied the concepts necessary to the introduction in Accounting, allied to the practical component provided by the exercises developed in class. It is the basis for Financial Accounting II.

The Science, Sources and Methods Curricular Unit has been developed with the aim of familiarizing students with the fundamental concepts, methods and techniques of scientific research necessary for their intellectual and academic development. It combines theoretical and conceptual aspects with a highly practical component, with several research tasks being done by the students throughout the semester with the aid of dedicated software.

The objective of this subject is to teach the techniques and methodologies of using spreadsheets as productivity tools and as technological support for management and decision making activities. The skills acquired will enable students to perform calculations using advanced features of Microsoft Excel and then analyze the results by producing indicators that allow the development of management activities, with competence, performing tasks efficiently and correctly.

This course is an introduction to statistics and presents the basic concepts and instruments of descriptive statistics, probability, and inferential statistics. Although the presentation is rigorous, the emphasis is put on operationalising the statistical knowledge. Extensive applications are explored, with the use of the software Microsoft Excel. The unit provides the basic background for future study of the disciplines of econometrics and multivariate statistics.

Business law is approached from a general viewpoint of corporate law. The teaching of this curricular unit aims to achieve the following objectives: to instruct the student with basic notions of law in the business area; teaching of the legal instruments that allow the creation of a company; to approach the forms of society most appropriate to the business objective to be achieved; understand the business dynamics in its internal and external scope; to promote the entrepreneurial initiative of the student, proposing the creation of a company; general perception of business activity that covers contractual forms, securities and electronic commerce; analysis of real case studies. This approach will allow the student, at the end of the study cycle, a theoretical basic legal preparation and a practical perspective of the business activity.

The main aim of Financial Calculus is to provide students the necessary knowledge to analyse and solve of problems involving investment and financing decisions. Students will be exploring a set of concepts and tools that will enable them to carry out financial simulations based on real life examples. Namely, how to calculate present and future values, interest rates conversion and inflation, annuities and perpetuities and bank loans case studies.

Financial Accounting II arises in the sequence of what was taught in the first semester. Having received the basic concepts, it reinforces learning with an even more demanding program. In the case of managers, the preparation and interpretation of the financial statements plays an important role in the objective. The teaching has a faculty connected to the business reality in order to provide the perfect combination of research and practical execution.

The Curricular Unit of Creativity and Critical Thinking is transversal to many knowledge areas. This unit aims to endow students with instruments to understand and assess reality, as well as to find creative solutions for current-day problems. Crucially, throughout the semester, students will learn to argue and assess the arguments of others, considering important issues such as the credibility of the source and the structure of the argument. Furthermore, students develop creative projects in order to answer social, cultural and economic needs or problems, thus altering reality.

The objective of this subject is to teach the techniques and methodologies associated with database management systems (DBMS) as productivity tools, with particular emphasis on the planning and development of relational databases that support management applications. These skills allow the development of professional activities linked to management and technology in general, with great proficiency.

This course provides an introduction to market research as a business decision-making tool. The module is presented as an integrated approach, involving the design and development of a real or virtual market research. It covers both the early stages of exploratory qualitative research and the corresponding quantitative conclusive research. The design and implementation of a survey is used to collect data that is subsequently analysed using the SPSS software package.

What do the best companies to work for have in common? The best practices of Human Resources Management. The Human Resources Management unit aims at preparing students to become outstanding managers by teaching them the necessary theoretical knowledge of people managing and its practical application to real life case studies. Topics to be covered include people resourcing, competence development, performance and reward, among others, adopting an ethical approach and emphasizing the importance of a social responsible management.

In an environment of permanent change and internationalization of markets, timely and correct knowledge of all costs incurred to meet the objectives of competitiveness of the economic unit is increasingly a management need. Thus, the purpose of Cost Accounting is to build a measurement system of different magnitudes of the organization with a view to facilitating decision-making and management control. For this to be possible, the curricular unit focuses on raising student’s awareness to cost concepts, what are the components of production costs, as well as identifying the methods of calculating them. Of equal importance is the understanding of the budgetary management systems, as well as the calculation of the respective deviations.

The Communication Skills Curricular Unit has been designed to help students develop competences and skills that will allow them to confidently deal with communicative situations in professional environments, preparing them for oral presentations, work sessions, and other professional situations. Experiential methodologies, complemented by video recordings, are used to allow them to overcome inhibitions, develop interpersonal skills and individually assimilate different strategies and techniques.

In Project Management, the program content is dedicated to the application of knowledge and techniques in the design and execution of related activities, in order to achieve the defined objectives at the end of the life cycle of a project. Its management processes are organized in five groups (initiation, planning, execution, control and closure) and nine areas of knowledge and management (integration, scope, time, cost, quality, resources, communications, risks and acquisitions).

The Curricular Unit provides an introduction to econometric data analysis. The study aims to provide the student with the ability to read, interpret, and evaluate elementary econometric results. In particular, extensive applications are explored with the use of the SPSS software.

Through the class room discussion, in work groups, of case studies and creative exercises we seek to develop the understanding of the dynamics and key factors that buildup the firm competitive behavior in globalized environments. We, additionally, develop the capabilities to create business strategies in order to promote growth and business expansion through problem solving and responding to real challenges placed by companies.

The aim of this course is to present the main concepts and tools of the modern theory of Finance which are required to analyse corporate financial decisions. The course covers three main topics: * Investment decisions and evaluation methods for the various types of investment; * Risk analysis. * Financing decisions, with emphasis on the choice of capital structure and the effects of financing on investment decisions.

Audit & Taxation intends to equip students with the following fundamental knowledge in the field of business taxation: main features of the Portuguese tax system; main concepts and rules established in the General Tax Law; theoretical-practical aspects of income taxes - IRC and IRS, the latter in the perspective of the tax substitute; principles inherent to the taxation of consumption, with a study of the particular case of VAT. Basic notions about the taxation of assets are also discussed. At the end of the curricular unit students are expected to know the structural aspects of the three main taxes in the tax system: VAT, IRS and IRC and have a basic understanding of taxation of assets. In addition, it is intended that they be able to consult the respective codes, so that they can find a sustained response to the fiscal issues that may arise in the professional sphere. In line with this objective, it is intended that students become aware of the remaining sources of tax information, such as the doctrine of mandatory and circular information, and of the jurisprudence and aware of the permanent changes that characterize the tax law.

Leading and managing teams is a fundamental competency in materializing the business vision. Students will better understand how human behavior affects the functioning of the organization and will come into contact with a set of effective models and tools that will help them to intervene successfully in a team. Students will also discover their leadership style and challenge themselves to integrate competencies of other styles in order to expand their leadership level to the next level.

The Business Intelligence Unit promotes the learning of the main concepts related with that topic, the conceptualization of Business Intelligence (BI) systems and allows students to interact with different commercial solutions of BI. Students develop a BI system in Power BI during the teaching-learning process.

This course consists of providing students with knowledge on the challenges of the relationship between the interests of the managers who lead the company and the shareholders who own the company. It also aims to provide a basis for developing monitoring and control processes for managers' activities. Namely, knowledge about the distinction between governance and management, governance pillars, corporate strategy and the role of board and committees (risk, audit, management human resources, among others), corporate ethics, internal and external social responsibility, reporting and communication mechanisms, contemporary governance challenges, and case studies on governance practices.

This course is designed to provide students with an understanding of the main principles of marketing and of its operational approach. At the end of the course, students will be able to define a marketing strategy, analyze, make decisions and defend their own decisions related to the different variables of the marketing mix. Students will also develop a marketing plan, with a stronger focus on the operational level.

This unit explores issues related to a company's value, how we can evaluate it, and the definition of variables that have a strong impact on its value. The objective of this unit is to provide students with the fundamental concepts and skills necessary to carry out an evaluation of companies and investments. The unit covers the various assessment methods and is case-based, allowing students to put into practice the concepts of business valuation and investments.

Supply chain is an exciting area of management that can provide a major source of competitive advantage. It concerns the management of the network of organisations involved in the different activities that produce value in the form of products and services in the hands of the ultimate consumer. Students will develop a comprehensive understanding of the critical issues and state-of-the-art techniques of SCM, addressed in a realistic, practical manner.

This course aims to allow students developing a critical perspective on the moral content of human action. Through the analysis of case studies and practical codes, it is intended to reflect on the main historical, theoretical and practical dimensions of ethical conduct. The attendance of this course will allow students to identify and propose solutions to ethical controversies within the framework of specific scientific area.

The Management Cases unit allows students to learn the methodology of case study analysis, using fictitious or real cases. Students have the possibility to develop their critical thinking and argumentation skills, in a 360º assessment approach of the teaching-learning process, which involves individual and group learning.

The Curricular Unit of International Business allows students to gain competences in internationalization of companies, brands and products. Students can formulate strategic options for the internationalization of companies; interpret market behavior and actively participate in the assessment of international business opportunities; direct international commercial investment operations; to decide in complex contexts of multilingual and multicultural dialogue, work and negotiation, which are characteristic of internationalization processes; and manage operations characteristic of international management. It should be noted that the Curricular Unit presupposes the involvement with real cases where the target markets for Portuguese companies are studied and worked.

Identify and select the most appropriate techniques and frameworks to meet the needs of management (e.g. Tableaux de Bord or Balanced Scorecard) and understand the importance of Management Control in organizations, as well as the design and implementation of a Management Control System. Emphasise the importance of Management Control to effectively monitor performance and support decision-making in modern organizations, based on accurate strategy implementation and data reporting.

The aim of this course is to introduce students to the structure, operation, and regulation of modern financial markets. The course covers financial intermediaries, financial instruments and the different markets where credit institutions are active players. The student of this course will develop an understanding of the role that financial institutions and markets play in the business environment. Regarding financial markets specifically, this course addresses the topics of money, bonds, stocks, currency and derivatives.

Operations and Logistics is an exciting area of management that has a profound effect on productivity in every business around the world. It concerns the creation of the services and products upon which we all depend. The goal of this unit is to present a broad introduction to the field in a realistic, practical manner. Students will develop a comprehensive understanding of the critical issues and techniques of operations management.

This course is an applied general and strategic management exercise where teams of students operate computer simulated companies acting as the executive committee of a multi-national manufacturing company. Groups of students compete against each other as they try to add value to their companies. The aim of the course is to develop dynamics group management skills and cross-functional management skills. The unstructured nature of the problems allow to train students to solve open-ended problems in creative ways.