Class Fundamentals of Economics and Management

This course unit provides civil engineering students with an initial structured introduction to economics and management, areas that are essential to the practice of the profession. Civil engineers make decisions regarding scarce resources, work within organisations, coordinate teams, negotiate, assess partners and justify investments, within an economic and business context that they must understand. The course unit is organised into two modules. Module I introduces the fundamentals of economic reasoning. Module II addresses the organisation and its environment, planning, decision-making, structure, culture, leadership, strategy, management control, social responsibility, and accounting and financial analysis, culminating in the evaluation of an investment decision. The practical component involves a group analysis of a real Portuguese company with published accounts, culminating in a comprehensive report and an oral presentation.

Not applicable

I: Economics Scarcity, choice and opportunity cost. Economic rationality and the cost-benefit analysis. The market: demand, supply and price formation. Business costs: fixed, variable and marginal costs. Break-even point. Market structures: perfect competition, monopoly, monopolistic competition and oligopoly.  II: Management Management and organisations in contemporary societies. Functions and levels of management. The evolution of management thought and theories. The organisational environment. Globalisation of markets and competition. Planning and decision-making. Mission, objectives and types of plan. Organisational structure and contingency factors. Organisational culture and leadership. Business strategy. Management control. Ethics and social responsibility of organisations. Interpreting accounting and financial information: balance sheet, profit and loss account and ratio analysis. Evaluation of investment decisions: payback period and net present value.  

The sessions follow a consistent structure: revision of prior knowledge, presentation of objectives, conceptual explanation, group application to the organisation under study, discussion and consolidation. Learning begins with a few questions about the previous session, encouraging the recall and consolidation of knowledge. Teams are formed by drawing lots and remain the same throughout the semester, promoting cooperative learning and bringing the work closer to real-world project conditions. Problem-based learning takes the form of a progressive portfolio on a real organisation, developed through three interim submissions with feedback, a final report and an oral presentation. Critical literacy in generative AI is developed in a supervised session, following the 'ask, verify, state' protocol, by cross-checking answers against verifiable sources and identifying unconfirmed information.    

Case, K. E., Fair, R. C., & Oster, S. M. (2026). Principles of economics (14th ed.). Pearson.  Mankiw, N. G. (2024). Principles of economics (10th ed.). Cengage Learning. Robbins, S. P., Coulter, M., & De Cenzo, D. A. (2020). Fundamentals of management (11th Global ed.). Pearson. Freire, A. (2020). Estratégia: Criação de valor sustentável em negócios tradicionais e digitais. Bertrand Editora. Lourenço, I. C., Morais, A. I., & Lopes, A. I. (2025). Fundamentos de contabilidade financeira: Teoria e casos (3.ª ed.). Sílabo. Atrill, P., & McLaney, E. (2021). Accounting and finance for non-specialists (12th ed.). Pearson. Nicholas, J. M., & Steyn, H. (2025). Project management for engineering, business and technology (7th ed.). Routledge.