The Master of Organizational Leadership is a 36 credit hour program designed to equip students to tackle key leadership challenges through courses grounded in real-world problem solving and practical application. Students in this program develop the skills necessary to lead teams, drive organizational change, and make strategic decisions in complex environments. A distinctive feature of the program is that courses are taught by industry professionals who are not only experts in their fields but also actively working in them, bringing current, real-life experience directly into the classroom. Graduates will demonstrate competency in critical areas including strategic leadership, ethical decision-making, organizational effectiveness, and the ability to apply leadership theory to practical workplace challenges.
MOL 504 Effective Teams
3 credit hours
The course explores the problems, possibilities, diagnostic techniques, and management strategies associated with the effective development and management of teams in the business environment. The theory that teams learn faster, execute better, implement changes more readily, and deliver quality products and services more quickly and effectively are emphasized throughout the course. Models for transforming business organizations into team-based cultures are explored. Teams’ skills will be built through the utilization of technology-based collaboration tools.
Principles and Practices of Business Leadership
This integrative course focuses on research and models of business leadership relevant to the identification and achievement of goals in diverse business settings. The course explores the historical development of leadership theory and examines multiple leadership models including associated strengths, weaknesses, and cross-cultural implications of each to develop a broad understanding of leadership in an ethical context. The course explores the problems, possibilities, diagnostic techniques, and management strategies associated with the effective development and management of teams in the business environment. Orientation to graduate studies is included at the beginning of this course.
Project Management
This course provides the foundational structure for organizational and project development management. The review and direct application of the models of project management will result in the development of a specific plan for managing a project. This application will incorporate the agile business model and be applied to a project management plan with an integrated use of current research to support design.
Character-Based Servant Leadership
Participants in this course explore the ways in which leaders can develop and integrate competence and character in the context of servant leadership. The course is organized around the seven classic virtues: courage, faith, justice, prudence, temperance, love, and hope identified by Aristotle and embraced as Quaker values. Students examine and learn to apply each of these virtues to common leadership issues that occur at the global, corporate, and individual business levels.
Financial Management for Business Leaders
This business course focuses on understanding financial concepts for achieving operational organizational goals. Students will explore and apply the concepts associated with the cost of capital, working capital management, and cash flow in relationship to analysis, strategic decision making, and goal achievement.
Ethical & Moral Business Leadership
This course explores leadership and ethics in business through the inquiry into the philosophical basis of interpersonal relations and values in business contexts. The application of ethical, regulatory, and legal systems to the responsibilities of people in business organizations toward society and individual employees is explored. Emphasis is placed on the ability of business leaders to recognize and address ethical issues using a grounded decision-making process.
Effective Business Leadership Communication
The primary goal of this course is to provide students with the tools and skills necessary for effective professional leadership communication in today’s business environment. This course is based on the concept that communication is a central leadership skill required in the global workplace of the twenty-first century. Participants in the course explore contemporary concepts of the meaning and functions of communication in business as well as in large private or nonprofit associations, community groups and governments.
Business Leadership Research Methods & Analytics
This is the first of two courses that emphasize the practical applications of concept, theories and practices in a real business environment in a capstone project. The course provides a framework for understanding the value and use of business research, of qualitative and quantitative research, organizational based research, and analytics. Additionally, it will focus on the application of research to the design and/or management of projects.
Systems, Performance, & Organizational Effectiveness
This course focuses on the use of systems thinking and performance management to solve difficult problems and improve the effectiveness of business organizations. Students learn the difference between a traditional approach and a systems approach to analyzing complex problems. Concepts and methods involved in measuring individual and organizational performance are explored.
Human Capital Development & Succession Planning
Participants in the course will explore methods for evaluating, recruiting, developing, and deploying employees to fill key roles to effectively produce desired results and drive the business organization toward its goals. Students will explore strategies for developing key human resources and leverage human capital to transform business organizations and achieve integrated externally focused results.
Leadership and Community
This course provides participants with firsthand knowledge and experience in understanding the process of creating and transforming community through collaboration, empowerment, and dialog. Students learn the principles of individual and group development, collaboration and dialogue, and process-oriented leadership through work in the community setting.
Leading in a Global Business Environment
This course provides participants with firsthand knowledge and experience in understanding the process of creating and transforming community through collaboration and dialogue, and process-oriented leadership through work in the community setting. Models for transforming business organizations into team-based cultures are explored. The theory that teams learn faster, execute better, implement changes more readily, and deliver quality products and services more quickly and effectively is emphasized through the course.
Business Leadership Capstone
The second of two courses that emphasizes the practical applications of concept, theories and practices in a real business environment. Students implement their project plan and then compile and report the results of their research and project experience. Culmination of this course is an extensive written project report presented for review by a panel of readers and a presentation at a symposium before invited faculty, administration, students, local business leaders, and community leaders.