Courses and Descriptions
LEAD 500 The Practice of Leadership 3 Credits
This course allows students to gain an understanding of the practice of leadership and how they can develop as leaders. Students will explore leadership models, creativity in organizations, and approaches to decision making as they begin to form their own leadership philosophy.
LEAD 510 Organizations: Design and Dynamics 3 Credits
This course will provide students with foundational knowledge in the area of organization studies. Students will gain insight into organizational structure and how it affects interdepartmental behaviors, communication and work flow. The course emphasizes how organizational environment and culture generate and reinforce the way organizational systems work and how leaders operate within these organizational contexts.
LEAD 511 Facilitating Culture and Process Change in Organizations 3 Credits
Organizational culture and existing processes can enable productive and effective environments, or they can be barriers to carrying out the central missions of corporations, not-for-profits, governmental or educational institutions. For organizations to thrive and survive in the future they must be able to change and develop rapidly. This course provides a working knowledge of the key theories and practices necessary to be an effective change agent. Students develop skills in diagnosis, design of interventions and strategies for communicating change.
LEAD 512 Forms of Diversity in Organizations 3 Credits
Increasingly, leaders and employees are part of a more diverse, multiethnic and globally influenced workforce. Students will become more conversant with forms of diversity, such as different cultural traditions, as well as differences in generational sensibilities, ableness, gender, and level of adult development. Students will learn about the different “worldviews” which organizational members bring into the organization, and how that affects their ability to work together. The course develops students’ knowledge of and skills in practicing: principles for optimizing human performance in organizations, cultural intelligence, human diversity, and leading multicultural organizations.
LEAD 531 Developing The Human Side of Organizations 3 Credits
This course examines Strategic Human Resources Management (SHRM) within today's organizations, and is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of SHRM practices from a systemic and strategic perspective. Students learn approaches leaders use to recruit, select, evaluate, and develop employees and strategies to create a positive work environment.
LEAD 532 Program Design for Training and Development in Organizations 3 Credits
This course provides a full circle approach to workforce training and development that is applicable to professionals in human resources, organizational development, or other leaders who see themselves as trainers, mentors and coaches. The course is designed for students to explore “real world” applications for programs, services and operations in a training environment, and covers key principles such as adult learning theory, facilitation skills, curriculum development, needs assessment, training methodology and techniques, resources and constraints, as well as learning how to evaluate and improve the efficacy of training programs.
LEAD 533 Conflict and Crisis Resolution in Organizations 3 Credits
Leaders face conflict and crisis in their organizations. Being effective in their resolution is an important leadership attribute. Skills that support positive and integrative outcomes include mediation, negotiation and crisis resolution skills. This course will use multiple case studies and role-playing assignments to engage students in understanding how individuals and teams handle mediation and negotiation scenarios. The course will also use multiple case studies to enhance students’ understanding of the components of effective and ineffective leadership for crisis.
LEAD 534 Facilitation and Team Leadership 3 Credits
This course examines the characteristics and behaviors of teams that produce good results and/or generate new ideas. The focus of the course is on how to lead high functioning teams and the development of facilitation capabilities, so that students can effectively lead teams and organizations.
LEAD 540 Strategic and Financial Decision-Making in Organizations 3 Credits
This course explores the importance of information and financial resources within the culture of organizations, and the necessary relationship that exists between the two. The course draws on current literature and student experience to explore resource management and focuses on the effective use of information resources within the boundaries defined by financial realities. The relationship between data analyses and effective decision-making will be explored.
LEAD 550 Organizational Research 3 Credits
The purpose of this course is to prepare future organizational leaders to read professional journal articles, plan research, and critique research. The course covers basic research methods, such as experimental, ex post facto, correlational, case study, time series, interviews, surveys, and basic statistics in terms of understanding and selecting statistics. These concepts are taught within the framework of organizational leadership. This course should be taken at the end of your program.
Prerequisite(s): LEAD 500, LEAD 510. Permission of Program Director required.
LEAD 551 Selected Topics in Organizational Leadership 3 Credits
As a Selected Topics course, the content will vary according to the topic or issue under consideration. Students will study important topics related to leadership within organizations. They will examine and analyze theoretical work, conduct background research, interpret findings and develop positions in regard to the topic under study. Depending on the topic, they may propose and plan policy or develop programs to influence change in organizations.
LEAD 552 Selected Topics in Organizational Leadership 3 Credits
As a Selected Topics course, the content will vary according to the topic or issue under consideration. Students will study important topics related to leadership within organizations. They will examine and analyze theoretical work, conduct background research, interpret findings and develop positions in regard to the topic under study. Depending on the topic, they may propose and plan policy or develop programs to influence change in organizations.
LEAD 553 Selected Topics in Organizational Leadership 3 Credits
As a Selected Topics course, the content will vary according to the topic or issue under consideration. Students will study important topics related to leadership within organizations. They will examine and analyze theoretical work, conduct background research, interpret findings and develop positions in regard to the topic under study. Depending on the topic, they may propose and plan policy or develop programs to influence change in organizations.
LEAD 554 Selected Topics in Organizational Leadership 3 Credits
As a Selected Topics course, the content will vary according to the topic or issue under consideration. Students will study important topics related to leadership within organizations. They will examine and analyze theoretical work, conduct background research, interpret findings and develop positions in regard to the topic under study. Depending on the topic, they may propose and plan policy or develop programs to influence change in organizations.
LEAD 555 Selected Topics in Organizational Leadership 3 Credits
As a Selected Topics course, the content will vary according to the topic or issue under consideration. Students will study important topics related to leadership within organizations. They will examine and analyze theoretical work, conduct background research, interpret findings and develop positions in regard to the topic under study. Depending on the topic, they may propose and plan policy or develop programs to influence change in organizations.
LEAD 556 Selected Topics in Organizational Leadership 3 Credits
As a Selected Topics course, the content will vary according to the topic or issue under consideration. Students will study important topics related to leadership within organizations. They will examine and analyze theoretical work, conduct background research, interpret findings and develop positions in regard to the topic under study. Depending on the topic, they may propose and plan policy or develop programs to influence change in organizations.
LEAD 557 Selected Topics in Organizational Leadership 3 Credits
As a Selected Topics course, the content will vary according to the topic or issue under consideration. Students will study important topics related to leadership within organizations. They will examine and analyze theoretical work, conduct background research, interpret findings and develop positions in regard to the topic under study. Depending on the topic, they may propose and plan policy or develop programs to influence change in organizations.
LEAD 558 Selected Topics in Organizational Leadership 3 Credits
As a Selected Topics course, the content will vary according to the topic or issue under consideration. Students will study important topics related to leadership within organizations. They will examine and analyze theoretical work, conduct background research, interpret findings and develop positions in regard to the topic under study. Depending on the topic, they may propose and plan policy or develop programs to influence change in organizations.
LEAD 559 Selected Topics in Organizational Leadership 3 Credits
As a Selected Topics course, the content will vary according to the topic or issue under consideration. Students will study important topics related to leadership within organizations. They will examine and analyze theoretical work, conduct background research, interpret findings and develop positions in regard to the topic under study. Depending on the topic, they may propose and plan policy or develop programs to influence change in organizations.
LEAD 598 Capstone in Organizational Leadership 3 Credits
All MA candidates complete a capstone research project to demonstrate the application of core program competencies to a specific organizational or leadership problem. Reflecting upon their own leadership philosophy developed throughout the program, students will formulate, research, and write a leadership capstone paper that integrates the skills and concepts from the core courses as students use quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze a problem. Core and concentration courses should be completed before taking this course.
Prerequisite(s): Must be taken in last semester of study. Permission of Instructor required.
LEAD 600 Independent Study and Research in Organizational Leadership 3 Credits
The content of the course varies with the academic research interests of students who wish to engage in independent study related to the core content of organizational leadership and/or one of the concentrations in higher education administration, communication, information technology, and counseling-related services.