MBA 510: Leadership & Management for the Common Good (3 SH)
Students will study contemporary and forecasted societal stresses—from community level to global—and learn of the critical role of organizations in both contributing toward, and helping to mitigate, these stresses broadly classified as ecological, social, and economic. Students will then learn a broad range of organizational leadership and management theories, styles, and practices to identify approaches to leading people, systems, and organizations in ways that bring restoration, that offer hope, and that work toward promoting the common good.
OLS 515: Introduction to Leadership Studies (3 SH)
The course is an overview of various leadership theories, examining models of leadership, philosophies of leadership and different leadership styles. The advantages and disadvantages of various approaches will be studied.
MBA 530: Organizational Behavior (3 SH)
All organizations are organic, interconnected systems that take on a life of their own regardless of the individuals that occupy various roles in the system. Leaders need to understand their organizational systems and the behavior of those systems if they hope to effectively lead or change them. This course will explore organizational behavior and organizational development from a systems perspective, including concepts of change and conflict. It will rely heavily on case studies and student participation.
MBA 540: Managerial Finance and Accounting I (3 SH)
Managers and executives carry fiduciary responsibility for their organizations; it is therefore imperative that they know how to read financial statements, analyze financial health, assess financial risks, and communicate this knowledge effectively to others. The course emphasizes the role of the manager relating to finance and accounting through the analysis of quantitative information largely at the conceptual level. Topics include financial governance, understanding and reading financial statements, financial statement analysis, cost behavior, breakeven analysis, budgeting, balanced scorecard, working capital management, and the use of short-term cash planning. The overall aim is to improve organizational decision-making based on financial, social, and ecological metrics.
MOL 510: Leadership Seminar (3 SH)
This course provides students with exposure to writings (both contemporary and classical) that address a wide variety of issues in leadership. The primary aim of the course is to offer students opportunities to engage in thought provoking and critical discussion of leadership issues.
MOL 541-542: Mentorship Program (2 SH) Students will be paired with mentors from the business community to meet at least every other month during each semester. The pairs will be provided with questions to guide their discussions, but pairs are encouraged to discuss any leadership-related topic that students are experiencing at work or with regard to the program material. Students will collaborate with their mentors to develop a final project that summarizes their mentoring experience, or an aspect of the experience
PAX 615: Leading Organizational Change (3 SH)
Using a case study approach, this course engages students in role playing and teams to explore the challenges of leading organizational change through a variety of scenarios in for-profit, not-for-profit, and NGO settings. Students will focus on their own case studies as well as those provided by the instructor. (Prerequisite: Organizational Behavior)
OLS 665 Project Management and Grant Writing (3 SH)
This course will cover the basics of grant writing and standard project management practice. From finding applicable granting organizations, proposal writing, and accurate estimating through the launch of a project, team building, implementation, QA, and delivery this course will focus on non-profit funding and project delivery. This course will focus primarily on traditional project management but will also offer an introduction to Agile methodology project management. Core goals and objectives: At the end of the class students should have a clear understanding of the common steps that go into a good grant process, be able to analyze and adapt their project to the grant criteria, know what a good grant proposal consists of, and have a better understanding of the organizations offering grants in their fields of work or study. Students should also be familiar with the standard PMI project breakdown structure, be able to understand and implement a project plan, be familiar with non-PMI project management processes and their associated benefits and pitfalls. Students should also be able to craft a project plan including everything from the initial charter to steps for proper closing of a project at the end of this course. Core requirements: At the conclusion of the grant writing portion of the course students will submit (to the instructor) a fully prepared grant application based on a real-life project and meeting the criteria of the organization of their choosing. As part of this requirement students will also provide the appropriate information from the granting organization as to the requirements of the grant. Presentation: Students will give a short presentation on the granting organization they chose, why they chose that organization, and a brief summary of their project. Analysis / Critique: Post presentation students will prepare an analysis and critique of their proposal and granting organization choice based on their work and the work of their classmates. Literature review: During the course of the class students will review a recent popular or literary work on Project Management of their choosing. This review will consist of a short summary of the book, a detailed analysis of the salient points, processes, and/or recommendations of the book. Not to exceed 5 pages.
OLS 670 Project Management and Intrapreneurship (3 SH)
This course will cover the basics of standard project management practice with a focus on developing internal projects and programs. From the conceptualization of the idea, pitch, proposal through the launch of a project, team building, implementation, QA, and delivery, this course will cover the whole lifecycle of Intrapeneurship practices. This course will focus on traditional project management but will also offer an introduction to Agile methodology project management.
Core goals and objectives: At the end of this course students should have an excellent grasp of the process of developing a new project or division within a company, the risks associated with doing so, and the challenges associated with financing these endeavors. Students will also be familiar with the standard PMI project breakdown structure,be able to understand and implement a project plan, be familiar with non-PMI project management processes and their associated benefits and pitfalls. Students should also be able to craft a project plan including everything from the initial charter to steps for proper closing of a project at the end of this course. Core requirements: During the course students will submit a complete proposal pitching their idea, explaining the organizational fit and function, providing a cost estimate, proposing funding options, and listing a detailed risk analysis of the proposal. Presentation: During the intrapeneurship portion of the course students will pitch their ideas to the class / instructor as well as take questions on their proposals. Clarity, brevity, and quality of the pitch will be evaluated. Analysis / Critique: Following the presentation students will submit a short analysis and critique of their pitch based on what questions were posed, what techniques their peers presented, and their overall presentation style. Literature review: During the course of the class students will review a recent popular or literary work on Project Management of their choosing. This review will consist of a short summary of the book, a detailed analysis of the salient points, processes, and/or recommendations of the book. Not to exceed 5 pages. Project Plan: At the conclusion of the class students will submit a fully formed project plan covering every aspect of their approved project from project charter to project closing documents. Generally speaking these documents are no shorter than 20 pages, and can be considerably longer than that. Presentation: During the last full class period each student will be expected to present their project plan to the class Presentations will likely be time-limited and as such will focus on knowledge of the material and delivery of the “elevator pitch” more than on the depth of plan presented.
MOL 600: Developing Healthy Organizations: Team Building & Collaboration (3 SH)
The focus of this course is skill development for working with others in the organization and outside the organization to accomplish shared goals. Topics include effective non-violent communication, the formation and development of teams, working with boards, appreciative inquiry, and interest-based negotiation.
MOL 620: Transformative Leadership in Dynamic Contexts (3 SH)
This course explores the newest dimensions and challenges of leadership that strengthen and extend leadership skills through practice in rapidly changing and complex, diverse, multi- generational, multi-cultural and multi-dimensional systems, such as health care, government, education, non-governmental organizations and multi-national for-profit organizations.