Master of Leadership Courses

An intensive exploration of the intellectual and moral virtues in the context of cultivating leadership characterized by magnanimity and humility and built on the cardinal virtues (i.e., prudence, justice, self-control, and courage). Students develop an advanced capacity for self-awareness and managing oneself. Connections between ethical, authentic, servant, and transformational leadership styles and virtues are examined and applied to personal leadership style and ethical decision making.

• Gupta Core Course. Required for All Graduate Business Programs.

An examination of business as a creation of man and collective contributor to society according to its responsibilities articulated by the tenets of Catholic social teaching including the common good, solidarity, subsidiarity, the dignity of the human person, worker, and work, and a preference for the poor. Emphasis is placed on how managers and their organizations effect change for a more sustainable planet and just society.

• Gupta Core Course. Required for All Graduate Business Programs.

An examination of business as a creation of man and collective contributor to society according to its responsibilities articulated by the tenets of Catholic social teaching including the common good, solidarity, subsidiarity, the dignity of the human person, worker, and work, and a preference for the poor. Emphasis is placed on how managers and their organizations effect change for a more sustainable planet and just society.

• Gupta Core Course. Required for All Graduate Business Programs.

It is a pervasive challenge for leaders to adapt their organizations to today’s volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) business environment. In this course, students develop appropriate strategies for leading through the adaptive challenges faced by contemporary organizations. Emphasis is placed on the human factors of organizational changes, including leadership; influential organizational change models; stages of organizational change; and organizational culture change.

Prerequisites:

• Gupta Core Courses.

This course introduces the fundamentals of leadership, both its challenges and opportunities. We will study key examples of good and bad leadership. 

Prerequisites:

• Gupta Core Courses.

We think using stories. We plan and strategize using stories. We understand ourselves and others using stories. But stories can also mislead, obscure, and confuse. Stories are not simply entertainment. They provide the substance of our cognitive efforts and our social lives. In this course, students will learn how to create powerful stories of different kinds, for various purposes. The focus will be on story-telling as a tool in business. This will include its role in marketing, branding, and group dynamics. The most fundamental concern, however, will be with how to use stories to think strategically. Thinking strategically requires that you think critically, and so students will also learn how to see through and resist false and distorting narratives. By the end of this course, students will have begun to master the art of story-telling as a primary mode of thinking in both business and everyday life.

Prerequisites:

• Gupta Core Courses.

This course investigates the practices of effective problem-solving, tactical judgment, critical communication and strategic thinking.

Prerequisites:

• Gupta Core Courses.

Taken in the last semester of the program, this course will enable students to utilize their leadership course work in the exploration of a real-world problem. Projects might include interviewing business leaders, assessing leadership and organizational cultures, or developing a strategic leadership case-study of a specific company or business scenario. Students may work individually or in teams under the supervision of a professor. Leadership capstone approval is required to enroll. Prerequisites: completion of 24 hours of Leadership courses. Students may enroll in the Leadership Capstone concurrently with another course with prior approval.

Prerequisites:

• LDRS 5320. Leading & Following.

• LDRS 5350. Story-telling as a Mode of Thinking.

• LDRS 6310. Leading Innovation and Organizational Change.

• LDRS 6320. Critical and Strategic Thinking.

A consideration of the social construction of reality. The cultural context of individual experience is explored with cultural manifestations of psychological life. Social behaviors are related to the ethological heritage and ideological contexts. Psychological texts, such as body language, gender displays, fashion advertisements, and media, are viewed as both reflecting social attitudes and revealing influences upon the individual.

This course examines the important role of spirituality in the life of a leader. Attention will be given to the development and integration of the leader’s spirituality in the practice of leadership. The course will emphasize images of leadership developed in the Christian scriptures. In addition, the course will focus on the lives and leadership processes used by several biblical leaders including Moses, Joshua, Nehemiah, David, and Paul. Particular emphasis will be placed on the life and ministry of Jesus as a model of servant-shepherd leadership. Students will be invited to use biblical images of leadership and the biographies leaders as presented in scripture to explore their own motives, gifts, and approaches for leadership in a variety of contexts. 

This course is an advanced seminar designed to examine the ethical aspects of the leader-follower relationship. Specific attention will be given to the ethics of the individual leader, the ethics of the leader's means, and the ethical evaluation of the outcomes of the leader's actions.  The moral responsibility of followers will also be examined.

An application of high performance work system design to the team context. Students are challenged to understand the evidence-based components of team design and to apply the analysis of them to the effective design and management of workplace teams. At the completion of the course, students will be equipped to construct logical bundles of team design characteristics that positively influence individual and team performance to drive enhanced individual, team, and organizational outcomes. Participating in an experiential learning course, students should expect to complete cases, projects, and activities in a team context.

Prerequisites:

• BUAD 6103. Career Advancement.