MBA Courses for Postdocs

These MBA courses are offered in the evenings and weekends to fit your busy schedule. Credits successfully completed can be later applied to a business certificate or degree program, pending application and acceptance to the KGSB. The transfer of credits to other schools or universities is subject to institutional policies.

Through the OACD's collaboration with the KGSB, four sections of their MBA courses will be dedicated primarily to postdocs. Other courses and sections can be selected from the KGSB general course schedule for MBA students.

Courses with Dedicated Postdoc Sections:

BOAH 2409: Organizational Behavior

Summary: The effective management of people is a critical component of organizational competitiveness. This course addresses problems and issues concerning leadership, interpersonal effectiveness, and challenges for managers in the 21st century. The student is prepared to manage himself or herself and others in a rapidly-changing global environment. Topics covered include leadership, teamwork, power, politics, and influence.

Description: As organizations continue to emphasize team-based and often cross-functional approaches, learning how to be both an effective leader and team member have  become critical skills needed to be successful organizations today.  The course is designed to introduce students to the theories, concepts and applications of  behavioral sciences to contemporary organizations.  It focuses on understanding  theories of human behavior and their application to strategic and operational problemsin management.  We will be analyzing behavior from three different lenses:  individual  (such as personality and emotional intelligence), group (teamwork, decision making,conflict, leadership), and organizational (culture, creativity and change).  At the completion of this course, you should have acquired an understanding of the many factors and dynamics which influence group behavior.  In essence, this course will provide an overview of group behavior and group dynamics, help develop the skills  needed to be effective in teams and as a leader, and familiarize participants with organizational theories and concepts for application to specific real world situations involving human agency.

The goals of this course are for you to learn about:

• Self and interpersonal interactions: gain a better understanding of the self and learn about interpersonal effectiveness.
• Team dynamics: how to be an effective team member and make better decisions in teams.
• Leadership behaviors: how to enact the skills that contribute to a team’s effective performance.
• Organizational awareness: understanding organizational culture and managing for creativity or change.

Objectives: Several key objectives underlie the structure and content of this class:

• To increase your awareness of the key elements of human behavior that lead to individual and organizational effectiveness
• To enhance your ability to diagnose situations and problems dealing with individual, interpersonal and group behavior at work
• To help develop the skills needed to be effective in teams
• To develop an understanding of the practical challenges faced by managers in guiding effective teams while facilitating employee motivation
• To understand and develop leadership behaviors and skills

BSPP 2409: Strategic Management

"Strategy" in the context of management, focuses on creating a harmonious relationship between separate units within an organization, and between a firm and its environment.  The core strategic management course explores this classic concept of strategy and how it can be adapted to today's changing and turbulent environments.  While the course adopts the perspective of a general manager (e.g. Head of a strategic business unit), it provides critical insight to functional managers who must align their departments' activities with the firm's overall objectives and approach to creating and capturing value (i.e. Its competitive strategy).The strategic management course employs a multi-method pedagogy.  Students learn a set of perspectives, conceptual frameworks, and tools - drawn from industrial organization economics and the behavioral sciences and sociology, with which to understand the opportunities and challenges involved in developing world-class capabilities for competing effectively in globally-linked economies.  Through case studies, we explore how a firm's competitive strategy shapes the way it engages customers, suppliers, competitors, and others comprising its value net.  Through project assignments, we investigate how competitive advantage can be quantified using publicly available data.  Together, the multiple modes of inquiry will provide insight into why competitive advantage is fundamental to a firm's long-term success; how the various activities in a firm's value chain can contribute to competitive advantage; and why, although industries support many competitive strategies, each firm tends to employ only one at a time.

BOAH 2517: Interpersonal Skills for Managers

Explicit training in interpersonal skills; presenting oneself to others, effective verbal and nonverbal communication, persuasion, and the use of interpersonal resources to become an effective manager and leader.

Summary: Explicit training in interpersonal skills; presenting oneself to others, effective verbal and nonverbal communication, persuasion, and the use of interpersonal resources to become an effective manager and leader.

Description: This course is designed to help you achieve success. Specifically, this course is designed to introduce MBA students and, now, for health science trainees to theories, concepts and practical applications that will enhance job effectiveness, career development and general well-being. Many career coaches suggest that initial hiring is due to technical skills, the first promotion into a supervisory position due to managerial skills, and subsequent promotions, including those into executive positions, due to interpersonal skills. This module critically examines those interpersonal skills with the aim of setting Katz graduates-and Pitt trainees-apart from those with whom you will compete for positions in this global economy.

Below is a list of the topics we cover during each module this course.

Module 1 - Self Assessment
Module 2 - Foundations of Social Awareness and Interpersonal Skills
Module 3 - Interpersonal Communication Skills
Module 4 - Applying Interpersonal Skills
Module 5 - Gaining a Competitive Edge Through Interpersonal Skills
Module 6 - Interpersonal Skills in Action Workshop

Course Objectives

By the end of this course you will be able to:

• Identify personal strengths and areas of improvement.
• Diagnose and resolve situations and problems dealing with interpersonal communication and interaction at work.
• Develop a long-term, actionable plan to build on strengths and address weaknesses.
• Apply skills to coach subordinates.
• Discuss the impact of strong interpersonal relationships in the workplace.

BOAH 2528: Strategic Communication

Summary: Students will learn frameworks that enable them to communicate persuasively to influence key strategic stakeholders within and external to the organization. A variety of experiential elements will be incorporated such as presentations, projects, and guest speakers.

Key Course Objectives: Effective professional, strategic communication plays a critical role in individual, group and corporate success.  This course is designed to provide enrollees with an opportunity to develop the critical skills and competencies necessary to strategically utilize communication (written, oral and nonverbal) for individual, group and organization effectiveness.  In this course, we will examine how to develop a communication strategy to support your personal brand by assessing your audience then creating and refining your message.  Specific approaches to other types of professional business communication including the use of persuasive and informative techniques and the difference in sharing good and bad news will be examined with a focus on the strategic role effective communication plays in personal and organizational success.  Participants in the course will be heavily involved in experiential exercises allowing them to examine employment-related communication including resume, cover letter and thank you note development, interviewing via phone, video conference and in-person and initial orientation and socialization in the job.

Specifically, at the end of the term participants will be able to:

• More objectively assess your current competencies and develop employment communications to help you communicate what you offer.
• Understand how to better organize information when communicating good news, bad news or communicating to persuade.
• Write more clearly, concisely, convincingly, and correctly.
• Present more comfortably, confidently, and effectively.

Additional Elective Courses Scheduled through MBA Program

BOAH 2421: Human Resources for Competitive Advantage

This course identifies the key role of human resources management in the organization's effort to create value and explores its link with competitive strategy.

BOAH 2532: Negotiations, Teamwork and Change

We negotiate daily in a variety of contexts: business, family, and social.  Negotiation serves several purposes: (1) establishing new or renewing old relationships; (2) changing behaviors and expectations; and (3) resolving disputes.  A key goal of this course is to learn the techniques of effective negotiating and collaborative problem solving.  Successful negotiations and teamwork reduce costs, improve outcomes, and build constructive relationships.  Negotiations are part of a broader set of exchanges that take place within and across organizational contexts.  This is the first half of a two-part course on negotiations, teamwork, and change.  This course will introduce you to effective techniques for negotiating and collaborative decision making in dyads, as well as in groups.  It will further cover the methods for negotiating, facilitating, and leading change in organizational contexts.  This is an experiential course and you will be involved directly in negotiating, leveraging team dynamics, and facilitating change in a range of contexts.  These experiences will involve a host of tangible and not-so-tangible outcomes, ranging from monetary terms and conditions to matters of goodwill, trust, and information-sharing.

BOAH 2537: Conflict Resolution in the Workplace

This course is designed to build on the skills you learned in the prerequisite negotiation course (BOAH 2532 Negotiations, Teamwork and Change) to improve your skills in analyzing and resolving disputes in a variety of settings. Most of the lessons and principles covered in the course are not necessarily specific or unique to business-related or managerial applications, even though that will be the focal setting of study.  A basic premise of the course is that while analytic skills are needed to discover optimal solutions to problems, a broad array of conflict management skills are often needed to get these solutions accepted and implemented. The course will allow participants the opportunity to develop these skills experientially, where considerable emphasis will be placed on learning from simulations and case analysis.

BSPP 2112: Leading Organizations to Innovate Smarter

This course addresses the critical role of a firm's top management in guiding a firm toward more positive innovation outcomes.  We specifically focus on the role of executive leadership in developing a firm's capability for breakthrough innovation ' a primary source of sustained competitive advantage and economic growth.  We distinguish between what leaders need to do during invention and innovation, and emphasize barriers that hinder established firms' capabilities to produce breakthrough innovations.  We examine how strategic leaders can augment a firm's ability to 'innovate smarter' by better utilizing the diversity of expertise that resides within the organization and within the firm's partnerships.  The concepts we'll discuss are grounded in decades of research on creativity and technological innovation, as well as strategic management, leadership, and teams.  We'll discuss how strategic leaders apply these concepts today.

BSEO 2538: Strategic Leadership

This course covers leadership theory, with a particular emphasis on executive leadership.  Course topics include the following:  leadership skills development, charismatic and transformational leadership, leadership of organizational change, strategic vision, and contingency theories of leadership.  The course involves a combination of theory, case studies, and guest lectures.

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SCHEDULE OF POSTDOC SECTIONS

Fall 2026 SCHEDULE
8-Week Postdoctoral Schedule: September 8 – October 27, 2026

BOAH 2409 Organizational Behavior (Good)	Tuesdays from 6-8PM September 8 – October 27, 2026	Online
BOAH 2528 Strategic Communication (McCarrick)	Thursdays from 6-8PM  September 10 – October 29, 2026	Online

Spring 2027 SCHEDULE
8-Week Postdoctoral Schedule: TBA

BSPP 2409 Strategic Management	TBA	Online
BOAH 2517 Interpersonal Skills for Managers	TBA	Online

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Schedule of Other Electives

In addition to the two dedicated postdocs sections offered each semester, postdoc micro-credential candidates may select from this additional list of MBA course sections that apply to the micro-credential.

Fall 2026 Schedule

BOAH 2532 Negotiations, Teamwork and Change 1 (Pil)	January 30 – February 1, 2026 (One Weekend) Friday 1-5PM Sat. - Sun. 9AM-5PM	104 Mervis Hall
BOAH 2532 Negotiations, Teamwork and Change 1 (Pil)	September 25-27, 2026 (One Weekend) Friday 1-5PM Sat. - Sun. 9AM-5PM	Online
BOAH 2421 Human Resources for Competitive Advantage (Abel)	Thursdays from 6:20-9:20PM October 19 – December 11, 2026	Online
BOAH 2537 Conflict Resolution in the Workplace (Pil)	November 6-8, 2026 (One Weekend) Friday 1-5PM Sat. - Sun. 9AM-5PM	104 Mervis Hall

ELIGIBILITY

Postdoctoral associates, postdoctoral scholars, and research associates university-wide who earned their doctoral degrees at English-speaking institutions are eligible to apply for non-degree student admission.

Others must demonstrate: 

• Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL iBT) score of at least 100
• International English Language Testing System (IELTS) score of at least Band 7
• Duolingo scores are higher than 120
• Completion of University of Pittsburgh English as a Second Language Courses

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DEADLINES

• The application process deadline for Fall 2026 has been extended to Friday, August 28, 2026.

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REGISTRATION

• New students:
  • All new students must complete the online application before registering for this course. Click here to access the application.
    • Postdoctoral trainees at the University of Pittsburgh do not have to submit transcripts due to already possessing a doctoral degree.
    • Additionally, the graduate student application fee is waived for non-degree students. 
  • New applicants will receive a link to register in a confirmation email upon acceptance of their application.
• For returning students, complete the registration form here.
  • You do not need to complete the online application process again.
• Financial responsibility is incurred upon registration.
  • If you choose to audit a course, or complete it with a Satisfactory/No Credit option, you must still register and pay tuitiion. The audit grade does not count towards a GPA. Refer to the complete policy here.
• NOTE: Admission applications are being processed through a special arrangement with the School of Medicine under Plan Code GCD-ND (Graduate Career Development Non-Degree). Graduate credits earned at the University of Pittsburgh as a non-degree student may be later applied to a certificate or degree program; but, admission to the University of Pittsburgh under a non-degree status does not guarantee later matriculation to a certificate or degree program.
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EDUCATION BENEFITS

• Description of Postdoctoral Education Benefits: View Benefits
• Based upon IRS tax code, graduate tuition benefits above $5250 in a calendar year are considered taxable income and these taxes are withheld from your educational benefits. To avoid federal income tax liability:
  • PA Residents* should not enroll in more than 4.0 graduate credits per calendar year
    •  See Recommended Schedule for PA Residents 
  • Out of state residents and foreign nationals should not enroll in more than 2.50 graduate credits per calendar year
    • See Recommended Schedule for Out-of-State Residents
  • * US citizens and permanent residents can be considered PA residents after residing in PA for twelve consecutive months.
• Financial responsibility for a 1.5-credit graduate course after tuition benefits are applied: View PDF
• Postdocs are encouraged to ask their faculty mentors to reimburse their out-of-pocket expenses for graduate credit courses.
• Postdoc Tuition Payment Instructions for Administrators

 
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REQUEST TO CONSULT WITH AN ADVISOR

If you have any questions, email OACDGradCourses@pitt.edu or call (412) 648-8486 to speak with an advisor.

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