M.A. in Leadership and Management: Curriculum

This course provides an overview of leadership, management, influence, social power dynamics, and change theories and practices, emphasizing application to the challenges and opportunities facing for-profit corporations, nonprofits, and government agencies. Introduces the philosophies and methodological approaches underlying the Master of Arts in Leadership and Management as well as the writing and online research skills students will use in this program.

This course connects morality, ethics, and values with leadership and influence. Students explore and respond to challenging organizational dilemmas while balancing personal integrity and organization goals from the perspective of Christianity and vocational ethics, incorporating these elements into the personal and professional decision-making process.

This course provides students with the ability to gather, analyze, and synthesize complex credible information about a topic of interest using quantitative and qualitative action research methodologies. Students choose a topic that relates to leadership, management, and/or social power dynamics and properly leverage their influence as they complete an action research project using a strategy to improve an organizational situation. While the emphasis of this course is on applied methods of research, an overview of the theory and some of the political and ethical implications of research will also be covered.

This course covers the practical aspects of completing tasks while working with, leading, and influencing teams in a project environment for high quality results. Students will learn how to effectively manage projects using software tools that focus on the various related leadership issues, such as monitoring needs compared with current action, team dynamics, planning, execution, problem-solving, closure, and assessment. Discussion may include appropriate quality measures including Reengineering, Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, Office Kaizen, and Process Improvement.

This course explores the practical aspects of the strategic and operational roles of financial management, accounting, analysis, and an introduction to finance-based decision-making related to working capital and long-term financing and investment. Students will learn the impact of a leader and/or manager’s influence on budgeting, financial performance, and fiscal and ethical responsibility.

This course examines the leader and manager’s role in influencing the development and implementation of vision, mission, values, and coherent strategic plans. Students will use classical and creative strategies to develop short- and long-term goals that improve operational effectiveness and strategically position an organization for the future. Students will also diagnose their own strategic capabilities and develop a plan for increasing their strengths in this area. Emphasis will be placed on ways to manage the implementation phase through best-practice processes.

This course explores how the legal environment can influence a leader’s decisions, guiding their actions and helping them avoid legal pitfalls in today’s complex organizations. This understanding will help leaders identify greater opportunities to influence change and innovation. Students will also learn to understand and influence the spirit behind various policies, regulations, laws, and guidelines that take leadership beyond simple compliance with governmental regulations.

This course offers students the opportunity to leverage their learning from the entire program. They will reflect their learning related to leadership, management, and social influence on topics relevant to their professional organizational setting. Students will also complete significant final steps in their research and present a formal report on their action research project.

This course explores how leaders manage the soft, relationship skills of organizational life to leverage their experience and practical research as they successfully influence innovative, disciplined, and well-led organizations. Topics explore strategies to a) assess an organization’s culture and climate; b) develop a continuous flow talent management mindset incorporating Training & Development methods throughout the organization; c) motivate and positively influence team member effectiveness and obtain applicable concepts and tools for acquiring, developing, improving, influencing, and (re)allocating talent; d) explore the concepts and theories related to change management and improvement; and e) develop skills to influence, plan, and implement changes for improving organizational life in both corporate and nonprofit settings.

This international travel course supports students’ program learning with first-hand experience.