M.A. in Organizational Leadership – Organizational Development Consulting

An understanding of leadership from the wisdom literature from the evolution of leadership/management thought from 1900 to the present. Leadership as a contingent/context-specific application and organizational problems that have leader- follower interaction as a cause.

Provides an understanding of organizational structure and organizational life-cycle development.  Students learn the role of the leader as an organizational architect.  The course examines the role of the Organizational Development (OD) specialist and how leaders intervene in their own organizations, as well as how consultants intervene in other organizations.

Qualitative and quantitative research methods and data analysis that leaders and consultants use in organizations with particular attention to interview and observation.

Explores the psychological contract between leader and follower that takes any of many forms between two people or between the leader and small groups.  Students study group formation and group development, as well as the intricacies of coaching, mentoring, and discipling.  Students study organizational behavior and explore how OB concepts affect leadership effectiveness.

Examines organizational communication, including dyadic, small group, formal and informal communication, as well as the relationship of communication to organizational satisfaction and effectiveness.  In addition, students study how communication defers in leader-member exchange and mass-communication of charismatic leader/large group interaction.

Compares and contrasts strategic thinking with strategic planning and presents the value of both. Students study the leader’s role in organizational change – creating and preventing change, as well as determining the organization’s readiness for change.  In addition, students explore the reasons for resistance to change and strategies for coping with resistance.

Technology as the study of tools and methods and explores how leaders help followers interact with tools and methods to accomplish the organization’s objectives. This includes job design, human-computer interaction, understanding how new technology should cause current tools and methods to change, and how to help followers through the adoption and diffusion of the innovation process.

Synthesizes the knowledge and skills learned throughout this program.  This experience may be, but is not limited to, a guided project, (i.e., designing a new organization, analyzing an existing major organizational problem and recommending solutions or developing and testing a seminar), a master’s thesis or a publishable manuscript.  Prerequisite:  permission of instructor.

Explores consulting as both a process and occupational specialty.  Students review common consulting challenges and participate in an ongoing discussion of the role of leadership in developing and guiding strategic change within the consulting industry.

Students focus on the analytical and process skills that will enable them to diagnose and make effective interventions.  Particular attention is given to assessing key factors in the change process and examining how proper planning can increase the value of proposed interventions.

Introduces the student to a variety of organizational assessments and audits that measure an organization’s success and effectiveness.  In addition to looking at such standard measures as customer surveys, communication audits, attitude surveys, compliance audits, MBTI, and FIRO-B, the course examines some general principles of measurement and assessment.  Throughout the course, it is assumed that organizational development and improvement requires organizations to monitor, follow-up, and take corrective action against desired outcomes.

In this exploding age of information, it is the objective of the library faculty to prepare graduates to be on the cutting edge of information technology. Information literacy is the ability to effectively access information for problem solving and decision-making; thus, the knowledge and abilities you glean from this course will open doors to lifelong learning. It is imperative for graduate study research. Since the information learned in this course is a vital foundation for all other coursework, its completion is required within the first semester of study. The course takes approximately ten hours to complete.