Master of Business Administration: Organizational Leadership Concentration

Leading Individuals and Teams provides the foundations for understanding the behavior of individuals and teams in organizations. The course takes an application-oriented perspective on understanding individuals and groups and managing their performance.

Purposeful Leadership provides an integrative perspective of organizational and societal responsibilities of leaders. The course covers four interwoven dimensions of purposeful leadership: personal, relational, strategic and societal. Drawing upon a wide range of concepts and applications, the primary theme of the course is an examination of the critical role leaders play in ensuring that organizations perform in an effective, meaningful, ethical and socially redeeming manner.

This course explores the ethical dimension of leadership by tapping into the collective wisdom found in disparate fields such as literature, philosophy, history, biography, politics, arts, sports, and business, and applies it to the leadership challenges and dilemmas faced by modern organizations. The basic premise of this course stems from our belief that fundamental challenges of leadership are of a universal nature and that the insights culled from disciplines such as literature, humanities, arts, and history can provide us with a matchless treasure trove for understanding the elusive art and practice of leadership.

This course introduces students to the key emotional intelligence issues related to organizational performance, such as the role of emotions in decision making and thinking strategically about information contained in emotions. We will examine and evaluate existing scientific views on EI and its measuring options. Learning objectives include assimilating emotional intelligence theory components; self-assessing to recognize areas for professional and organizational growth; reporting on the use and validity of emotional intelligence as a means for enhancing professional and organizational success; and gaining skills to apply emotional intelligence strategies to daily workplace situations, relationships, and challenges. These skills can be applied in leadership positions pursued by graduate students.

Contemporary organizations exist in social, political, and economic environments that change rapidly and unpredictably. This course deals with how to manage changes by looking at strategy, organization design, processes, and multi-organizational systems. Theories and practices of change management related to the individual, group, inter-group, and organizational level are discussed. Methods of diagnosing organizations and designing interventions that will increase an organization’s effectiveness are explored. The course examines the complexity in developing a culture of change within the organization as well as in determining the organization's readiness for change. Through a series of experiential lessons, case studies, and activities, students will uncover the reasons for resistance to change and tactics for coping with this resistance and for strategically managing organizational change.

Strategic leadership and management of change provides a macro view of organizations. The course takes a big picture view of organizations and walks a student through strategic thinking about their own organization. The course takes an application-oriented perspective on organizational change, decision making, organizational design, organizational culture and power and politics.

Study and critical analysis of theory and practice of the human resource/personnel function in modern, complex organizations. Includes topics such as personnel policies, workforce diversity, HR practices, employee discipline, health and safety, and collective bargaining. Addresses goals of equity, efficiency, and effectiveness in a diverse environment.