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Effective management separates top-performing teams from those in disarray. Motivation, empathy and communication bond together all individuals regardless of duty, allowing everyone to connect, receive direction and work toward an objective. If leadership is your career goal, grow your understanding of the skills needed to engage, guide and build interest across an organization through the University of Missouri-St. Louis’s fully online bachelor of science in business administration degree with an emphasis in management.
The job market, from St. Louis to the world as a whole, requires leaders and managers competent in general business disciplines and ready to inspire others. Maintaining a close relationship with the surrounding business community, UMSL’s College of Business Administration designs this emphasis area for the needs of today’s marketplace. This approach emerges through the research- and practice-emphasizing curriculum, assembled with input from our eight advisory boards, and multiple opportunities for gaining hands-on experience before you graduate.
We strive to drive innovation: in the classroom, faculty recruited from all over the world highlight practical applications while introducing leadership and management theories. Plus, they leave their mark on the industry by orchestrating meaningful research and teaching students how to do the same. We want our students to make a memorable impact: subjects weaving in the latest instructional technology and encouraging entrepreneurship ensure you’ll be prepared from day one, no matter if you find yourself in a nonprofit or a multinational corporation.
We consider ourselves a diverse, inclusive community of problem-solvers and seek to have all online bachelor’s in management students transform the business world from the inside with this outlook. You’ll graduate equipped to make a difference as you learn how to oversee human resources, develop strategic company-wide policies, implement organizational design, facilitate conflict resolution and foster international collaboration.
Supporting our methods and collaboration with business employers, the College of Business Administration continues to rank as one of the nation’s top-rated online bachelor’s programs.
Quick facts
Official name
Bachelor of science in business administration with an emphasis in managementCampus
Program type
Bachelor's degreeAcademic home
College of Business Administration | Department of Global Leadership and ManagementDelivery mode
100% onlineAccreditation
Higher Learning Commission, Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International)Credit hours
120Estimated cost
$64,920.00Transfer credit hours
60Transfer estimated cost
$32,460.00*This cost is for illustrative purposes only. Your hours and costs will differ, depending on your transfer hours, your course choices and your academic progress. See more about tuition and financial aid.
Career prospects
To graduate accomplished, adaptable leaders, the College of Business Administration’s undergraduate programs start with a core covering all general disciplines. You’ll become familiar with accounting principles, information systems, business analytics, statistics, supply chain management, and finance and marketing concepts before specializing your knowledge with an emphasis area.
Building off this foundation, the online bachelor’s in management exposes you to subject areas designed to cultivate your leadership potential, spearhead activities and achieve company objectives:
- Develop interpersonal skills to collaborate with diverse teams and communicate with stakeholders, including locally and globally across a broad spectrum of business professions.
- Understand how to apply management principles, theories and leadership tools to motivate and lead others and influence group processes, decision making, organizational development and job design.
- Explore the role of human resources in the workplace, including the principles and concepts behind attracting, selecting, developing, motivating, evaluating and retaining talent.
- See how leadership principles and theories apply to influencing individual, group and organizational performance.
- Discover the methods for encouraging cross-country collaboration, intercultural competence and diversity management to shape a company’s strategy and operations.
Potential job titles for graduates
Students undertaking this endeavor learn to exhibit skillful, compassionate leadership behaviors and make top-level decisions informed by analysis, business principles and a defined long-term vision. All organizations from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses function optimally through capable, forward-thinking managers committed to guiding teams and conceiving well-formed plans of action.
Reflecting this all-around demand, the Bureau of Labor Statistics identified 5% growth across management occupations through 2029. Job titles falling within this scope include:
- Administrative services and facilities managers;
- Advertising, promotions and marketing managers;
- Compensation and benefits managers;
- Financial managers;
- Human resources managers;
- Public relations and fundraising managers;
- Sales managers;
- Social and community service managers; and
- Training and development managers.
Program structure
All students enrolling in an undergraduate business program at UMSL complete a minimum of 120 credits hours, of which 48 go toward their major. Specializing in management, you’ll explore several business disciplines through your core courses (30 credit hours) before honing your knowledge in this area with at least 18 credit hours of electives.
Through the core courses, you’ll learn to manage people, products, resources and financial assets; tackle common problems in the business world; introduce new solutions; and see how professionals at all levels assist with growing a company. Not limiting you to a single career path, the College of Business Administration views our undergraduate core as broadly applicable across industries and roles.
While progressing through your degree, you’ll receive tailored advising to help you stay on track in terms of selecting courses and accessing internships and study abroad opportunities to kickstart your career.
The online bachelor of science in business administration is fully online and requires no campus visits. Most students take one to two classes per semester and finish the program in two to three years.
Course work includes
Upon starting the emphasis area, you’ll:
- explore the role leadership and management have in group processes, decision making and organizational development;
- gain a stronger understanding of career management techniques, including for interviewing, writing a resume and cover letter and making a presentation;
- learn about human resource management from a contemporary perspective, from employee selection and performance assessment to developing training materials;
- discover the importance of labor relations, focusing on the relationship among management, employees, unions and the government;
- enrich your understanding of industrial and organizational psychology, particularly human behavior theories applicable to work settings and how these concepts factor into leadership, training and job satisfaction;
- acquire techniques for creating and selecting training programs based on needs, management development and learning theory;
- look beyond to international business and management, where you’ll prepare to plan and organize a multinational organization;
- start to define your leadership style through classic and contemporary theories;
- prepare to lead in a small-business environment or as an entrepreneur, delving into topics specific to these organizational structures; and
- synthesize and showcase your understanding of the program’s concepts through an internship or independent study project.
Review all course descriptions for the online BSBA and management emphasis.
Delivery
100% onlineCalendar system
SemesterTypical program length
3 yearsTypical course load
1-2 classes per semesterAccreditation
The University of Missouri-St. Louis is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, one of six regional institutional accreditors in the United States.
The College of Business is accredited by Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International).
Faculty spotlight
Dr. Bindu Arya is an Associate Professor of Strategic Management in the College of Business Administration. Her publications and ongoing research projects focus on enterprise strategy, transformation and collaboration networks. She has a special interest in studying the impact of CSR on organizational and employee outcomes in emerging markets (South Africa and Asia). In addition to regularly presenting her work at international conferences, Dr. Arya’s research has been extensively published in academic journals such as the Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Management, Journal of World Business, Business Ethics Quarterly, among others.