Management Fundamentals (Coursera)

Management Fundamentals (Coursera)

People are the most valuable asset of any business, but they are also the most unpredictable, and the most difficult asset to manage. And although managing people well is critical to the health of any organization, most managers don't get the training they need to make good management decisions. Now, award-winning authors and renowned management Professors Mike Useem and Peter Cappelli of the Wharton School have designed this course to introduce you to the key elements of managing people.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

Based on their popular course at Wharton, this course will teach you how to motivate individual performance and design reward systems, how to design jobs and organize work for high performance, how to make good and timely management decisions, and how to design and change your organization’s architecture. By the end of this course, you'll have developed the skills you need to start motivating, organizing, and rewarding people in your organization so that you can thrive as a business and as a social organization.
Course 3 of 4 in the The Business of Health Care Specialization.

Syllabus

WEEK 1
Motivation and Reward
In this module, you'll learn how motivation affects an individual's performance and how to use that motivation to drive performance. You'll explore how incentive systems are designed and how psychological concepts such as behavior modification, imitation, conformity, and compliance influence and shape these systems. You’ll also examine the current process of hiring employees using technology, tracking systems, and outsourcing. And you’ll learn how you can provide valuable feedback to your employees, and make performance appraisals productive. By the end of this module, you’ll be able to apply what you've learned to best motivate, hire, and evaluate your employees.

WEEK 2
Task, Jobs, and Systems of Work
This module is designed to teach you the difference between a task and a job. You'll learn how jobs are historically designed, and you'll explore some of the drawbacks related to past work systems. You'll also learn how job design has been influenced by engineering and psychology. Finally, you'll look at real-world examples from the GM and Toyota to compare their respective approaches. By the end of this module, you'll understand how jobs and systems of work have evolved to improve employee performance and productivity.

WEEK 3
Making Good and Timely Management Decisions
In this module, you'll learn how to make good and timely management decisions. Through several real-world examples, you'll see how leaders create and build a decision-making mindset. You'll also learn how leaders can make costly decisions that affect their team or their entire company negatively. By the end of this module, you will be able to apply key concepts to make good and timely management decisions and build a higher performing team.

WEEK 4
Designing and Changing the Organization's Architecture
This module was created to describe the influence of an organizations architecture on management and its team's performance. You'll explore how inequity fosters disparity among employees and can inhibit a company's success. You'll also look at two real-world examples of leaders who tackled problems within their organizational structures to effect change. By the end of this module, you will be able to identify key steps in which you can lead change within your organization.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Organizational Analysis (Coursera) Coursera
Stanford University

Organizational Analysis (Coursera)

In this introductory, self-paced course, you will learn multiple theories of organizational behavior and apply them to actual cases of organizational change. Organizations are groups whose members coordinate their behaviors in order to accomplish a shared goal. They can be found nearly everywhere in today’s society: universities, start-ups, classrooms, hospitals, non-profits, government bureaus, corporations, restaurants, grocery stores, and professional associations are some of many examples of organizations.

Sep 28th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Impact from Digital Transformation: Full course (Coursera) Coursera
EIT Digital

Impact from Digital Transformation: Full course (Coursera)

This course is about what you can do when everything around you seems to be moving due to digital change. It is about how to handle the disruptive process that tends to unfold in industry nowadays due to digitalisation. The way to handle this is what is here referred to as "Digital Transformation" and at the core of it, it is about understanding how the new business landscape is evolving and heading for a new position in that landscape. It is about corporate strategy.

Sep 28th 2026
5-12 Weeks
The Manager's Toolkit: A Practical Guide to Managing People at Work (Coursera) Coursera
University of London,Birkbeck, University of London

The Manager's Toolkit: A Practical Guide to Managing People at Work (Coursera)

The aim of this course is to give you a practical guide to managing people at work. It does not matter whether you are a first time manager in a shop or a middle manager in an office environment; the same skills apply to every work place. In the course you will engage with some HR theories and then see how they translate into every day working life.

Sep 28th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Structure: Building the Frame for Business Growth (Coursera) Coursera
Michigan State University

Structure: Building the Frame for Business Growth (Coursera)

Just like when building a house the foundation for your business provides the framework for success. A business built on weak structure will struggle to succeed. We'll address some of the most pressing issues that you as a business owner must face while constructing the proper framework for your business.

Sep 28th 2026
4 Weeks
Moving to the Cloud (Coursera) Coursera
University of Melbourne

Moving to the Cloud (Coursera)

The cloud is taking business by storm. In fact, due to the extraordinary growth of the cloud, it has been described as a tornado, not a fluffy white floating object! Commercial research analysts consider cloud as one of the most significant trends with a potential to change the whole global IT industry. Governments, including those in the US, Britain, and Australia, have cloud-first policies now in place which mandate cloud over non-cloud services in ICT procurement.

Sep 28th 2026
5-12 Weeks
La gestión en la empresa familiar (Coursera) Coursera
ESADE Business and Law School

La gestión en la empresa familiar (Coursera)

Responsable de más del 50% de la riqueza global, la empresa familiar tiene un rol prominente en la generación de puestos de trabajo, innovación y progreso en todas las sociedades. Pero ¿qué diferencia a una empresa familiar?, ¿En qué medida tiene implicaciones para los profesionales que la componen? A través de este curso, aprenderemos a leer la globalidad de una organización familiar así como a evaluarla.

Sep 28th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Financial Markets (Coursera) Coursera
Yale University

Financial Markets (Coursera)

An overview of the ideas, methods, and institutions that permit human society to manage risks and foster enterprise. Emphasis on financially-savvy leadership skills. Description of practices today and analysis of prospects for the future. Introduction to risk management and behavioral finance principles to understand the real-world functioning of securities, insurance, and banking industries. The ultimate goal of this course is using such industries effectively and towards a better society.

Sep 28th 2026
5-12 Weeks
The Power of Markets I: The Basics of Supply and Demand and Consumer Behavior (Coursera) Coursera
University of Rochester

The Power of Markets I: The Basics of Supply and Demand and Consumer Behavior (Coursera)

This opening module of the Power of Markets course covers the basic assumptions about market participants made by economists, the concept of opportunity cost, and the key determinants of supply and demand. We will then learn how to use the supply-demand framework to explain and predict market outcomes and to show how government policies affect those market outcomes. We will look at how quantity demanded and supplied respond to their key determinants in quantitative (elasticity) as well as qualitative terms. The last two weeks of the first module will investigate consumer behavior more closely and show how consumer choices are driven by the interplay of preferences and budget constraints.

Sep 28th 2026
4 Weeks
The Power of Markets III: Input Markets and Promoting Efficiency (Coursera) Coursera
University of Rochester

The Power of Markets III: Input Markets and Promoting Efficiency (Coursera)

The final module of the Power of Markets course begins by further exploring firm behavior in imperfectly competitive market settings: how firms with monopoly power can increase profits through price discrimination; and the price-output combinations we can expect firms to select in cases of monopolistic competition and oligopoly. We will also analyze monopolies from an efficiency perspective and look at the effects of imperfect information on firm and consumer behavior. We will next turn to exploring input markets and what determines the demand for an input by a firm, an industry, and the overall market.

Sep 28th 2026
4 Weeks
New Technologies for Business Leaders (Coursera) Coursera
Rutgers University

New Technologies for Business Leaders (Coursera)

This introductory course is developed for high-level business people (and those on their way) who want a broad understanding of new Information Technologies and understand their potential for business functions (e.g. marketing, supply change management, finance). This is not a course for people looking for guidance on how to become a deep technical expert or implement these technologies.

Sep 28th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Design and Interpretation of Clinical Trials (Coursera) Coursera
Johns Hopkins University

Design and Interpretation of Clinical Trials (Coursera)

Clinical trials are experiments designed to evaluate new interventions to prevent or treat disease in humans. The interventions evaluated can be drugs, devices (e.g., hearing aid), surgeries, behavioral interventions (e.g., smoking cessation program), community health programs (e.g. cancer screening programs) or health delivery systems (e.g., special care units for hospital admissions). We consider clinical trials experiments because the investigators rather the patients or their doctors select the treatment the patients receive.

Sep 28th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Removing Barriers to Change (Coursera) Coursera
University of Pennsylvania

Removing Barriers to Change (Coursera)

What does it mean to truly change something? How does one persuade others to change? How do we reduce roadblocks to change? In this course, you’ll learn about the barriers to change and how to become more effective in inspiring change within others and your organization.

Sep 28th 2026
4 Weeks