Online Master’s in Management and Leadership

This workshop serves as an orientation toward the experiential and team-based models of learning used at Graziadio. Students engage in exercises and reflection that are meant to enhance communication, ethical decision-making, career development, and other relevant skills for interpersonal effectiveness in business. This course is graded credit or no credit.

Students learn to apply the behavioral sciences to management issues through the integration of conceptual and experiential approaches to self-awareness, perception, communication, motivation, productivity, group behavior processes, leadership, organizational change, diversity, ethical issues, career planning, and the management of personal and organizational stress. Development of oral and written communication skills is stressed in this course. In addition to regular class sessions, a required personal and leadership development workshop, BSCI 650, assists students in attaining an accurate understanding of their patterns of communicating and relating to others. Students must complete the workshop in order to continue in this course.

The global economy demands increased competitiveness at both personal and organizational levels. People can choose to respond either the easy way or the hard way. The hard way is to focus on what they (and others) perceive is wrong with them and pull themselves up by the bootstraps to improve those areas of weakness. The easy way is to tap into their underlying store of talents and understand exactly what is great about them at their core. The Strengths-Based Leadership Workshop deepens self-awareness, develops self-leadership, and shows students how to use that knowledge to improve their effectiveness. It also gives a work group or team a shared language that pinpoints their unique contributions in a way that is helpful and supportive.

The Team Dynamics Workshop applies the self-awareness gained in the Strengths-Based Leadership workshop to building high-performance teams based on individual and combined team talents and strengths. This workshop gives work groups or teams a shared language that pinpoints their unique contributions in a way that is helpful and supportive, leading to high performance and enhanced team dynamics.

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 and processes, and multi-organizational systems. Theories and practice of change management, which deals with the individual, group, intergroup, and organizational levels, are discussed. Methods for diagnosing organizations and designing interventions that will increase an organization's effectiveness are explored. Specific topics include traditional and contemporary approaches to change management, organization learning, consulting skills, and organization development.

As the 21st-century global economy has transitioned from the Knowledge Age to what is being called the Talent Age, talent is viewed as being the primary differentiator between great companies and ordinary ones. In this context, talent management has become an overarching strategic lens and a set of functions that can drive the management of human capital and create sustained competitive advantage for organizations. This course provides an in-depth analysis of the talent management functions of workforce planning, talent acquisition, learning and development, performance management, career planning, employee engagement, and retention.

Business leaders must respond to such contemporary realities as the information explosion, intense competition, accelerated social and technological change, fresh expectations from new generations, and ever-higher customer demands. Therefore, contemporary leaders must be more creative and innovative. This course focuses on imagination and invention (“creativity”) and the productive results of such processes (“innovation”). To enhance business problem-solving and effective leadership, students will integrate a dozen linear methods with a dozen nonlinear, imaginative tools.

The Education to Community (E2C) Capstone Project is completed and presented in this course. Each student provides a summative reflection integrating and applying theories, frameworks, and learning across the MSML program, including an understanding of organizations as complex systems. Students also present evidence of completion of their individual learning contracts and a personal and professional leadership development plan in which core values, personal mission, and strategic action plans are articulated.

This course provides an introduction to the variety of theories, frameworks, and models of organization design and management. The course will focus on how the multiple elements of organization design and management contribute to an organization's sustainable performance outcomes and strategic alignment. Multiple frameworks and models of organization will be examined. The course will provide special attention to several core organization design elements, including organizational structure and processes, job design, management and leadership style, talent management practices, and innovation and charge.

This course explores the management of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) at work and how the Human Resources Management function can contribute to leveraging diversity as a competitive advantage. Using a multilevel approach, the course identifies how individuals, work relationships, teams, and organizations employ DEIB principles. Designed to better prepare HR professionals to meet the challenge of diversity in organizations, the course is taught from an HR practitioner's point of view using case studies, textbooks, external readings and videos, and current media. The application of DEIB principles to actionable HR topics is studied during interactive class sessions, employing discussion, experiential exercises, presentations, case analyses, and team projects. By the end of this course, students will have a holistic appreciation of the HR tools necessary to implement effective DEIB management practices.

Leadership is one of the most studied and least understood of human behaviors. In today's complex global business environment, strong leadership acumen is vital for successfully leading traditional and virtual teams. This course is designed to prepare individuals to lead teams and understand the nuances of the virtual business world. There will be a strong focus on communication processes in virtual organizations and how to build, manage, and lead both traditional and virtual teams. Issues relating to ethical leadership, virtual management, team-building efforts, defusing conflict, and building trust will also be points of focus.

This course examines multidisciplinary values such as environmental stewardship, corporate citizenship, product/service excellence, and financial strength. Students are required to integrate these four values in building a blueprint for business sustainability. The course is taught from a practitioner's point of view, utilizing a combination of case studies, current media, and guest speakers. The capstone project requires students to work collaboratively in preparing a business plan that will be presented to a panel of distinguished business entrepreneurs.

This course explores cultural influences on organizations and the people working within them. Emphasis is placed on learning how to “learn culture” using methods for scanning the cultural assumptions of groups; bringing personally held cultural assumptions to consciousness; gaining exposure to the cultures of a variety of different regions, nations, and groups, and considering their organizational and managerial implications; and facilitating communication and cooperation across cultures. Personal and managerial skills are developed to enhance performance in multicultural environments and on transpatriate assignments.

Hosted by partner schools abroad, Global Business Intensive focuses on critical aspects of doing business in the global economy. The course consists of lectures by distinguished faculty members of the partner schools and recognized experts from companies and research centers on a variety of contemporary business issues. The course involves a series of seminars covering such topics as international economics, culture, marketing, finance, and political and legal contexts. Some programs also include field visits to internationally recognized companies or organizations in the region for a hands-on look at business opportunities and management strategies. Also included is a study tour of important historical sites. The tour provides an important backdrop of culture and history that flavors the nation's experience.