Executive MBA in Occupational Health & Safety (OHS) Leadership

Program Summary

Our visionary Health & Safety Leadership Executive MBA (EMBA) stream was developed with and supported by the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering (CSSE) in response to the growth of organizations’ health and safety units, increasing demand for health and safety professionals.

Program graduates include Occupational Hygienists at major hospitals throughout the country and SSHE Coordinators for oil and gas corporations. Not only do they share the same goal of driving their careers forward, but they have a genuine interest in implementing standards that keep their workplace safe.

By improving education, UFred aims to address the gaps that many in the OHS profession face due to lack of formal knowledge. In addition, learning the business elements of OHS can lead to more leadership opportunities and promotions to management. By using advanced online teaching and learning applications, students are given a custom suite of courses delivered in a focused and flexible schedule. Students learn Operational Planning Processes from the perspective of the Chief Operating Officer and Enterprise Risk Management to analyze the downside of severity outcomes and the uncertainty associated those outcomes.

Timeline

There are fourteen courses: ten foundation courses (7 weeks each), three specialty stream courses (7 weeks each), and one capstone integration project (14 weeks). If courses are taken consecutively, the duration of the EMBA program is two years and five months.

The Online Experience

To maximize the global learning experience, students participate in exclusive vClasses (virtual classes) instructed by accomplished leaders from global organizations and post-secondary institutions. Students work on case studies and projects with colleagues from around the world, allowing them the unique ability to grasp complex concepts from a global perspective.

Admission Requirements

Individuals who wish to apply to the Executive MBA program for Occupational Health & Safety Leaders will preferably have an undergraduate degree, but must have at least five years of work experience, including two years in management. For further information, please visit the requirements section of the University of Fredericton website.

Tuition

Tuition for the Executive Master of Business Administration Degree Program is $29,500 CAD. Students may pay tuition course-at-a-time or by installment.

OHS Leadership Curriculum

Level A - Foundation Courses

EMBA 7000 - Orientation

The purpose of this course is to provide students with an overview of the online collaborative learning environment and course delivery methods.

EMBA 7005 - Leadership Theory and Practice

This course gives students the foundational knowledge they need to critically assess leadership concepts and their utility. Students survey the leadership theories of key thinkers and practitioners in the field, learning about the empirical, theoretical and pragmatic strengths and limitations of each approach. Through case studies and exercises, students develop an understanding of organizational leadership. They will also learn a comprehensive set of leadership practices that will have immediate value for application at work.

EMBA 7010 - Financial and Managerial Accounting

This course offers a comprehensive, graduate level exploration of managerial accounting. The course utilizes case studies and audit reports to focus on the use of appropriate accounting systems and the application of accounting data in the management of an organization. In conjunction, what accounting data are interesting or relevant-to-task, and how such data might be used is dependent upon what the manager is seeking to accomplish and what other information may or may not be available.

EMBA 7015 - Managerial Finance

All managers are required to possess a basic understanding of financial concepts. This course explores the principle role of finance via its concepts, calculative applications, and capital market analyses. In addition, the basic concepts of the time-value of money, rates of return, and valuation are covered. Students will learn how capital markets function, what different securities exist, and how to manage cash flow. Credit, risk, working capital, and analysis of financial statements receive particular attention. Cases are used throughout the course to provide students with hands-on experience in the use of financial tools. Unlike other finance courses, this consists of half concept and half mathematics. Besides providing basic math skills, this course should provide students with an excellent introduction to financial management concepts.

EMBA 7020 - The Global Economic Environment

Systematic understanding of the internal and external economic environments of an organization, and the ability to analyze them as a basis for sound decisions, are core prerequisites of sound leadership. This course reviews basic macro and micro-economic concepts (e.g. supply and demand, elasticity, production function, competitive environments, pricing, etc.), and illustrates their impact on decision making and strategy formulation. Students will learn how to think through economic challenges and opportunities presented to their organization.

EMBA 7025 - Governance, Strategy and Structure

Leading and managing organizations requires knowing something about changing them. This course will assist the learner in understanding the drivers of successful organizational change and development; clarify the components of an effective and healthy organization – the meta-goal for any change effort; and understand the skills to successfully design, launch, nurture, and lead change.

EMBA 7031 - Systems Thinking and Organizational Design

In response to the increasingly complex global environment, this course prepares leaders to think more holistically when analyzing organizational challenges. Effectively using systems thinking, design thinking, and performance excellence concepts, students are able to systemically assess entire organizations. Being able to understand the many functions and systems they will encounter, students will learn that optimizing one part of an organization often sub-optimizes overall organization performance. The learned ability to comprehensively analyze leadership, strategy, operations, and performance will prove invaluable during the Integration Project.

EMBA 7035 - Strategic Marketing Planning

This course focuses on the strategic marketing planning process from the perspective of two key roles in the organization, i.e., the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and the Brand (or Product) Manager. Leaning heavily on external and internal analyses and the CEO's strategic guidance, we examine how these managers refine the company's long-term go-to-market strategy, at both the corporate level and the product level. We also briefly examine which leading edge digital applications are most useful with respect to intelligence gathering, analysis, decision-making and/or implementation.

EMBA 7040 - Strategic Operations Planning

This course focuses on the operational planning process from the perspective of the Chief Operating Officer (COO). Leaning heavily on external and internal analyses and the CEO's strategic guidance, we examine how the COO develops the company's long-term operations strategy, comprising decisions about supply-chain logistics, production, customer service, quality assurance (QA), distribution and field support. We also briefly examine which leading edge digital applications are most useful with respect to intelligence gathering, analysis, decision-making and/or implementation.

EMBA 7045 - Strategic Human Resources Planning

In today's global context the rate of change is accelerating, and personnel have to be world-ready, and organizations have to be change-ready. This course examines the human resource recruiting and development function and the organizational design function within a global and organizational lifecycle perspective, emphasizing how personnel and designs must change as projects and divisions evolve. This dynamic approach to organizational development prepares students to diagnose mismatches between existing personnel and designs versus changing demands, and to develop personnel and designs to accommodate new realities.

EMBA 7050 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

In today's 24/7 global operating environment, the possession of sufficient and correct information about the relevant external and internal environments, obtained and circulated to the right decision-makers in a timely fashion, can spell the difference between success and failure. This course introduces the main concepts of management information systems (MIS), examines how the design of MIS can affect the performance of an organization, and explores the process of Information systems planning from the perspective of the CIO.

Level B - Specialty Stream

HSL 8040 - The Business Case for OHS Change

A business case attempts to answer the question “Why should my organization invest the proposed resources (both time and money) to implement the proposed action or set of actions?” And typically, the answer incorporates the considerations of alignment with the organization’s strategic direction and goals, resource availability, affordability, financial value (i.e., profitability), social value, and acceptability of risk. In this course we attempt to identify which systemic approaches deliver the greatest financial and social value while maximizing alignment with organizational goals, resource availability, and appetite for risk. And to wrap up, we review Communication Strategies for presenting the business case to the Board of Directors / Executive Management to maximize the probability of approval.

HSL 8041 - Enterprise Risk Management

This course begins with the identification and definition of OHS and OHS-relevant risks, including a discussion of how such enterprise-wide risks are interrelated. We then analyze these risks, especially the downside severity of the outcomes, the organization’s short-term and long-term costs, and the variability and/or statistical uncertainty associated with the different outcomes. We follow with a discussion of best practices in risk mitigation, determined by a measurable reduction of frequency and severity of the negative outcomes, and/or measurable increase in organizational performance, illustrated with several case studies. This course lays the foundation for our subsequent discussion of how the entire organization’s risk management efforts can contribute to the creation and protection of the organization’s financial and social value.

HSL 8042 - Essential Communication and Interpersonal Skills for H&S Leaders

In the significant majority of today’s organizations, leaders cannot be effective using an autocratic leadership style. It is widely accepted and endorsed by practitioners and academics alike that a collaborative leadership style has proven to be most effective, which requires leaders to possess and exhibit a very large array of leadership and interpersonal skills that encourage organizations, and the people within them, to want to move forward. In this course we will focus on enhancing the student’s understanding and skill regarding an essential subset comprising communication (verbal, written and physical), conflict management, negotiation, and change management. In addition to classic pedagogical tools, we will engage a wide variety of complementary tools such as videos, case studies, simulations and role plays. Students of the Essential Communication and Interpersonal Skills for Leaders will be able to demonstrate communication and interpersonal skills valued by management and colleagues to motivate self-awareness and growth within an organization’s stakeholders.

Plus one of:

IP 8998 – Global Capstone

The Global Capstone is a 14-week capstone program involving the development of a comprehensive business plan for doing business globally. The focus of the Global Capstone program is to develop capable and ethical business leadership through an experience in global operations, helping students to understand how to meet the demands of an increasingly global, multicultural, and complex world. Working in small teams, students will have the opportunity to focus on global challenges, including market, economic, governmental, cultural and political systems, and their implications for an international business plan.

To maximize the global learning experience, students attend a 9-day session at an international location and participate in in-person seminars and/or conferences with experienced leaders from global organizations.

Drawing on material from the Foundation courses and a multitude of presenters, the team of students will develop a global business plan for a product/service of their choosing.

There will be concept reflection, synchronous vClasses, and during the International Field component students will also experience group workshops and varied executive presentations. The exposure to executives and international topics will provide critical concepts for the global business plan. As a learning experience, these executives are presenting critical concepts to their own business operations, offering insights for the program project.

IP 8999 - Enterprise Integration Project (IP)

The Enterprise Integration Project Capstone is a 14-week capstone course involving student teams and senior executives from a business organization. The required comprehensive analysis of the organization draws from the key concepts that students will have learned in the Foundation courses.

The primary goal of the Enterprise Integration Project Capstone is to integrate and apply the knowledge, skills, and critical insights learned in the program through a comprehensive analysis of an organization’s leadership, strategy, business operations, and performance. The Capstone results in a report and presentation to the organization’s senior leaders, identifying the organization’s strengths, opportunities for improvement, and recommendations. This demanding project brings together the many dimensions of today’s business environment into an understanding of the organization as an integrated system.

Under the supervision of faculty members, each small team of students will approach and establish a formal project relationship with an existing business organization and one of its senior executives. Students will draw on material acquired in the Foundation courses to analyze and make recommendations for strategic adjustments to the organization.