Week 7: Financial Accounting, Organizational Behaviour, Management Accounting and Canoeing (Module 3 con't)

Week 7 has come to a close. Just got back from a perfect afternoon of canoeing! Paddling around a beautiful lake with nothing but the sounds of nature is exactly what I needed after this week.

The week started with a half day off on Monday morning, which I had to use to take care of some business at the bank and to do some additional reading for courses. At noon we had a presentation on the international exchange options that are available for Module 9, the module after December, if people want go on one. There are a lot of really good schools and they cover pretty much every continent.

We also had a couple of very long days since we had to stay for an additional 3 hour session with Doug Reid in the evening on Monday and Tuesday until 9:30 PM. The 2 sessions were on how to complete business case studies and they definitely helped me understand this particular method of teaching much better. To top it off Dr. Reid was excellent.

We had our first couple of classes for MBA852 Organizational Behaviour. The course is taught by professor Jana Raver and focuses mainly on human resources. Dr. Raver is interesting and the material seems intriguing, but there is a ton of reading. The course is supposed to cover human resources management, organizational effectiveness, designing high-quality jobs, recruiting and hiring, managing employee engagement and withdrawal, employee stress and well-being, employee motivation and compensation, performance management, employee development and learning organizations, and strategic alignment for HR and organizational culture.

Similarly we had our first couple of classes for MBA812 Management Accounting. The course is taught by professor Clinton Free. Dr. Free is from Australia and was definitely able to get on the students good side when he launched into an unexpected 10 minute presentation on Australia at the beginning of the first class. So far the course seems to be okay, but I'm waiting to see how the next few lectures go before I decided if I like it or not. The course is supposed to cover cost fundamentals, cost-volume profit analysis, costing systems, activity-based costing, budgeting, variance analysis, decision-making with relevant costs, management control systems, capital budgeting, financial modeling, performance measurements, balanced scorecards, financial performance appraisal, transferring pricing, pricing and target costing, management accounting for entrepreneurs, and ethics.

This week also contained our first class of MBA801 Microeconomics with professor Bo Pazderka. As the name of the course suggest we will be learning about all the details surrounding microeconomics.

Furthermore we had more MBA811 Financial Accounting with John Moore. It is interesting, but the main assignment, an analysis and comparison of 2 annual reports, is looking like it is going to take more than a little work.

In addition I had my second appointment with the Business Career Center to work on my online resume. I think I have managed to narrow some stuff down, but it is tough. Nobody wants to shut doors on opportunities, but I am quickly realizing some of the career options just aren't a good fit.

This week's point four gathering went well. It also doubled as a fund raising event to help the 2 teams from our class heading to Montebello, Quebec this weekend to participate in an adventure race. The funds are going to support cancer research and the teams should have a blast as they complete 8 hours of hiking, canoeing, and biking.

Finally, we had the afternoon on Firday off and, for those of us that signed up, we went canoeing. The canoeing trip I just returned from was the perfect activity for an afternoon where one is recovering from "socializing" too much the evening before at the point four gathering. I am feeling rejuvenated as a result and should be able to dive into an intense weekend of assignments and readings.