Graduate Course Descriptions

Students will identify the unique nature, characteristics, and relationship of the Self and Others in regard to leadership and followership. Build upon an understanding of these identified differences to develop and implement strategies that improve the quality of the work culture and overall productivity for the betterment of the collective organization. This course lays the foundation for other courses in the program to include communication, ethics, power and aesthetics, strategy and subsidiarity, followership and solidarity, self-care, and more. Recommended within the first 12 credits upon advisement.

This course pursues the understanding that leadership, the practice of leading, requires the knowledge to recognize and discern the ethical, respectful, and just application of influence within a specific cultural context. Ethical leadership must invariably form everyday practices which preserve human dignity and benefit the common good even in the process of influence. Difficulties arise when striving to balance the collective interests of the organization with the cultural norms, established regulations, and global perspectives that comprise all societies.

This course draws upon a variety of interdisciplinary methods to analyze and better understand the societal aspects of organizational groups– change, memory, and stability–which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to formulate initiatives to reach their full potential through growth and change. This course emphasizes how leaders can be effective in generating organizational transformation. Learners integrate knowledge of organizational change theory into their role as a change agent.

This course will explore lobbying, persuasion, consensus building, and opinion management as key aspects of strategic leadership. Although the terms politics, lobbying , and consensus building are often associated with government politics, and these will be explored, they are also a common aspect of human interaction.

This course will examine a leader’s role and responsibility in regard to issues of sustainability, declining ecosystems, and environmentally minded leadership practices. Responsible decision making in light of current environmental issues and the organizational impact upon the environment will be discussed.

The importance of leaders recognizing the responsibility of the individual as a citizen in a digitally driven culture is the primary focus of this course. Students will develop an understanding of their own competency and proficiency in the areas of Information and Data Literacy, Communication and Collaboration, Digital Content Creation, Safety and Security, and Problem Solving. This understanding and the implications of a digital citizenship perspective will be applied to the broader practice of leading others within organizations.

This course explores strategy development and adopts an interdisciplinary approach to this process by drawing on the disciplines of history, sociology, literature, and game theory. A historical overview of the field of strategy will be analyzed, along with contemporary approaches which will introduce and demonstrate real-world application. A combination of theory and practice in all relevant aspects of strategic and critical thinking will be emphasized.

This seminar style course will address a revolving set of timely and relevant topics in regard to leadership. Topics and/or lecturers will change to explore current events and topics that impact and inform leadership, organizational culture, and society.

The culminating experience is a research thesis which requires students to build upon their research of the leadership topic of choice established in LDR 600 and pursued throughout the program. Students will define how their research topic of choice has shaped them as both a scholar and a practitioner of strategic leadership.

This course explores power through the field of Socio-Narratology. Students will learn to recognize how power is manifest through everyday narrative and the role stories play in leader-follower communications. Students will acquire the tools needed to study the cultural influence of history, folklore, mythology, literature, and media.