Organizational Leadership provides an in-depth exploration of leadership within organizations, covering multiple theoretical frameworks and offering students practical experiences to enhance self-awareness and leadership effectiveness. This course presents a comprehensive view of leadership theory and practice and has two connected parts.

The study of organizational behavior requires an understanding of personal strengths, abilities and how to build and lead groups. As current and future leaders, participants in this course will delve into various topics including personal evaluation, transformational leadership, executive functions, strategic planning, communication skills, group dynamics, process consultation, ethics, decision-making, conflict management, and culture development. Students will be divided into teams and group projects will be assigned throughout the semester. The course will include case study work, group discussions, focused reading, individual and team-based projects. Pre-class preparations involve reading cases, assigned textbook chapters and reviews of supplemental materials. Students are expected to engage critically thinking skills that challenge their own perspectives, as well as those of their peers and the instructor.

This course provides a socio-technical perspective on the management of projects. The content deals with planning, scheduling, organizing, and implementing projects – e.g., product development, construction, information systems, new business, and special events. Primary class emphasis is on the project management processes, tools and interpersonal skills that are useful to project management teams. Today, more and more companies are realizing that managing projects is a vital part of everyone’s job. Mastery of key tools and concepts could give you a significant competitive advantage in the marketplace.

The purpose of this course is to gain an understanding of and use of the theory and processes of negotiation and conflict management as well as an introduction to alternative dispute resolution techniques. Through reading, discussion, and experiential exercises the student will understand the complexities of the negotiation and conflict resolution process including evaluation of the conflict dynamics, planning and preparation, strategies, tactics and important contextual factors along with ethical issues of concern.

This course equips emerging leaders with the skills to leverage data for strategic decision-making. Students will explore how business intelligence supports organizational goals, enhances communication, and drives performance. Through hands-on practice and real-world case studies, students will learn to interpret data, build compelling narratives, and tailor insights to diverse audiences, including data experts and external stakeholders.

This course focuses on ethical leadership. During this course the student will analyze different case studies and apply theoretical perspectives of leadership theory, organizational behavior theory, and decision-making theory into a detailed interdisciplinary evaluation of actual events using the cases studies format. The student will examine their own core values and gain a greater understanding on how they apply their core values to ethical decision making. Students will view ethical decision making through multiple lenses to understand the impact that ethical or unethical decisions have on stakeholders and society.

The Leadership Capstone course is designed to be the last course a student takes in the Leadership program. It provides the student an opportunity to demonstrate knowledge and skills required by their future career and synthesize knowledge learned in previous courses. A major project allows students to deeply investigate a topic of interest. Students also compile and revise their portfolio of work across the degree. Opportunities are provided for reflection about personal and professional goals and practical assistance achieving those goals.