Mark House
Assistant Professor of Organizational Management
- Northwest Campus, Building A-31, Room E
- 352-381-3730
- mark.house@sfcollege.edu
Information
"Knowledge is real knowledge only when it is acquired by the efforts of your intellect, not by memory. Only when we forget what we were taught do we start to have real knowledge." - Henry David Thoreau
I am a graduate of the University of Florida and have worked in both Industry and academia over the past decade. My professional experience and my unique background have given me a valuable perspective on business practices that I try to bring to my classes at Santa Fe College.
My background is in the social sciences, specifically anthropology. However I am also trained in business and have worked in a corporate America as a research consultant. In both environments, I have been fascinated with understanding consumers and consumption. My dissertation examined how consumption patterns changed as immigrants moved from one culture to another. During my time at UF, a professor from the business school co-taught a class in my department which I thoroughly enjoyed. I briefly considered transferring to a business program, but felt that social sciences gave me a broader set of tools and a wider perspective to understand consumer behavior. After graduation, I continued to explore this area with my work in industry as a consumer researcher. In this role I would develop and implement market research projects for Fortune 500 companies that wanted to better understand their customers.
In school, I was well trained on data collection and analysis methods, but I never was taught how to communicate that data. Over the past decade, I’ve tried to understand how research findings can be communicated effectively in a range of environments. In industry, I would have a limited time to summarize the findings of a project that was 6 months or more in the making. The audience was often somewhat disconnected from the project and had a limited interest in the findings. Communication had to be clean, simple and very efficient. Teaching presents a similar challenge. As an instructor I have to take an extensive body of knowledge and refine it to the correct level for the students to understand and appreciate. I certainly have more to learn in this area, and I look forward to the challenge.
In high school, I was allowed to take courses at a junior college in a nearby town. During my senior year I transferred over full time and had some of the best teachers I have encountered across four institutions of higher learning. The instructors at that college were dedicated to helping students and they made a difference in the lives of so many. I am hoping that I can give a similar experience to students at Santa Fe College.
Education
2007 PhD - University of Florida - Anthropology
2004 National Science Foundation Summer Institute for Research Methodology, Duke University Marine Lab
1998 MBA - Mississippi State University - Marketing & Management
1993 BA - Kansas State University - Anthropology
1990 AS - Colby Community College - General Science
Office Hours
Office hours are posted in Canvas course shells.
Courses
MAN 3025 Principles of Supervision and Management
This course is designed to be the gateway course in the Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Organizational Management at Santa Fe College. “Gateway” meaning it intends to set expectations of standards of performance and behavioral norms for students in the degree program. “Applied” means the course is oriented towards the teaching of skills, practices, and understanding that can be put to immediate and direct use in the work environment.
MAN 3504 Risk and Decision Making
We make decisions every day. Some of them are more important than others. But how do we know if we are making the best decision we can? This course examines a framework that will give you the tools to make the critical decisions in both a business and personal setting. This framework will look at how uncertainty and risk impact decisions and how a solid decision making framework can mitigate these issues.
ISM 4480 Principles of Electronic Commerce
This course is a 3 credit hour course designed to familiarize students with management approaches to effectively define and implement e-commerce systems. The course addresses the digital economy, e-commerce strategy, marketing, e-commerce models, and management and regulatory issues.
MAN 4720 Strategic Management
This course integrates the curriculum of the Organizational Management degree into a multi-dimensional analysis and development of the strategic planning concepts and processes common to every organization (for profit, non-profit, governmental). We will be taking an in depth look at an organization to assess its business/organizational performance, policies, and plans that guide the organization into the future.