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A headshot of an alumna of Regent University's MAOL degree program in the campus coffeehouse.

M.A. in Organizational Leadership

Unlock Your Leadership Potential Through Regent’s MAOL Degree Program

What’s your leadership style? How do you bring out the best in yourself and your team? Taught from a Christian worldview, Regent’s Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership (MAOL) is an in-demand graduate program that can help you develop practical leadership skills through real-life situations. Earn your online MAOL degree on its own or as part of a joint degree with another Regent University graduate program. Gain a foundation in business theory, with strategies to keep your organization and vision moving forward.

Online
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January 13, 2025

Careers | Concentrations | Courses | Admissions | Tuition

IMPROVE YOUR MARKETABILITY WITH AN MAOL PROGRAM

Master the organizational leadership skills employers are seeking, including motivation, creativity, vision, strategic planning, and technology.

INCREASE YOUR IMPACT IN THE WORKPLACE & BEYOND

Position yourself to influence public policy and social change as you learn to think globally.

INSPIRE OTHERS THROUGH SERVANT LEADERSHIP

Gain expertise to motivate teams and confidently guide those you lead and serve through our Master’s in Organizational Leadership degree program.

CUSTOMIZE YOUR MAOL ACCORDING TO YOUR CAREER GOALS

You can customize your MAOL to better understand the intricacies of leading effectively in a corporate, not-for-profit, ministry, healthcare, or government setting.

Regent has been ranked among the Top National Universities by the U.S. News & World Report (2024). Our programs have also been ranked among the Top 5 Best Graduate Online Business (Non-MBA) Programs in Virginia for ten years in a row.

MAOL Career Opportunities

On completing the MAOL degree, you can:

  • Apply organizational leadership elements in ethics, motivation, creativity, vision, strategic planning, teamwork, group development, technology and organizational development.
  • Serve as a confident leader who masterfully integrates best practices to increase employee engagement, retention and productivity.
  • Gain an insight into organizational trends through the application of qualitative and quantitative research methods and data analysis.
  • Apply principles of biblical entrepreneurship and management.
  • Evaluate global economic needs, opportunities, and resources required to build kingdom-strategic business ventures.

Career Opportunities:

  • Analytics & Strategic Planning
  • C-level Leadership
  • HR Administration, Mediation & Consulting
  • Corporate Training, Consulting or Coaching
  • Ministry Leadership & Missions
  • Not-for-profit Development & Administration
$125Thousand
Approximate Median Annual Wage for Training and Development Managers U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023

The Master’s in Organizational Leadership (MAOL) – Global Business Leadership & Communication can help you develop key leadership and strategic communication skills. It focuses on ethics, motivation, strategic planning, and on developing solutions for real-world issues through research.

The Master’s in Organizational Leadership (MAOL) – Healthcare Management can prepare you for a successful health administration career. You’ll gain expertise in healthcare law, best practices and how to manage change – all from a Christian worldview.

The Master’s in Organizational Leadership (MAOL) – Human Resource Management program can introduce you to evidence-based strategies that ensure high performance from your organization and staff. Be equipped to deliver practical solutions to organizational challenges.

The Master’s in Organizational Leadership (MAOL) — Interdisciplinary Studies program allows you to self-design your course lineup from a broad spectrum of subject areas—all taught from a Christian perspective. It can help you master key organizational leadership elements such as vision, motivation and strategic planning.

The Master’s in Organizational Leadership (MAOL) – Leadership Coaching & Mentoring can enable you to be positioned as a results-driven trainer, coach or consultant in a variety of career fields. Taught from a biblical worldview, it can equip you to be effective in the leadership coaching process.

The Master’s in Organizational Leadership (MAOL) – Not-for-Profit Management fuses business best practices with the daily complexities of a nonprofit. Taught from a Christian perspective, this program gives you the leadership skills and spiritual wisdom to help your organization make a meaningful difference.

The Master’s in Organizational Leadership (MAOL) – Organizational Development Consulting focuses on the role of leadership in developing and guiding strategic change. You can explore consulting challenges and tools to effectively audit, assess and implement changes required for organizational development.

The Master’s in Organizational Leadership (MAOL) – Servant Leadership program focuses on how servant leadership works in the contemporary world. Develop ethical decision-making and leadership skills that transcend career fields from ministry and not-for-profit to healthcare, government, business and beyond.

The Master’s in Organizational Leadership (MAOL) – Small Business Technology Management program can equip you to guide your organization in the effective use of technological developments, tools and analysis for informed organizational planning. Explore leadership elements from a Christian perspective and develop solutions for real-world issues through research.

The Master’s in Organizational Leadership (MAOL) – Social Entrepreneurship program explores how relevant, entrepreneurial business models can prepare you to advance as a social entrepreneur, leader in social-purpose organizations, philanthropist or director of volunteers in the social sector. You can examine biblical perspectives of servant leadership and the advantages of service-focused business structures.

Featured Courses
LMOL 601Foundations of Leadership: History, Theory, Application & Development3
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. Cross-listed with GOV 521.
LMOL 602Organizational Development: Consulting, Design, Intervention & Evaluation3
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.
LMOL 603Organizational Research, Analysis, & Problem Solving3
Qualitative and quantitative research methods and data analysis that leaders and consultants use in organizations with particular attention to interview and observation.
LMOL 604Motivation, Teams, Coaching & Mentoring3
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.
LMOL 605Organizational Communication, Conflict Resolution & Negotiation3
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.
LMOL 606Strategic Thinking, Planning & Organizational Change3
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.
LMOL 607Leadership, Technology, Job Design, Socio-technical Systems & Innovation3
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.
LMOL 609Culminating Experience3
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. LMOL 609 is intended to serve as a practical capstone project that provides students the ability to work with the materials they have been assigned in the program and to use the skills they have acquired.  Students will need choose a mentor to work with on this project, contact them for their approval, and then, with the help of advising, sign up for their chosen instructor's section of the course.

2024-25 Semester Check-In Deadlines

All students are expected to check-in for the semester two weeks before the session start date. Students should apply, be accepted, enroll in their first courses, and confirm a plan to pay for their courses prior to this date.

SessionSemester Check-InSession Start Date
Session AFriday, August 9Monday, August 19
Session MFriday, September 6Monday, September 16
Session BFriday, October 11Monday, October 21
Session CWednesday, January 8Monday, January 13
Session TFriday, January 31Monday, February 10
Session DFriday, March 7Monday, March 17
Session EFriday, May 2Monday, May 12
Session FFriday, June 13Monday, June 23

Admissions Requirements

Step 1: Apply to Regent University

Submit your application using the Regent University Online Application.

Note: If you are unable to complete our application due to a disability, please contact our Admissions Office at 757.352.4990 or admissions@regent.edu and an admissions representative will provide reasonable accommodations to assist you in completing the application.

Step 2: Submit Your Unofficial Transcripts

Submit your unofficial transcripts to regent.edu/items.

Upon submitting your application, you will receive an email requesting authorization for Regent University to obtain your official transcripts from your U.S. degree-granting institution. International transcripts must be evaluated by a NACES, AACRAO or NAFSA approved agency.

Step 3: Submit Your Government-Issued ID

To ensure academic integrity, Regent University requires a copy of a government-issued ID. Please submit a scanned copy or photograph of it to regent.edu/items.


Please feel free to contact the Office of Admissions at 757.352.4990 or admissions@regent.edu should you have any further questions about the application process.

Note: All items submitted as part of the application process become the property of Regent University and cannot be returned.

PART-TIME STUDENTS

DegreeTuition Cost Per Credit HourAverage Credit Hours Per SemesterAverage Tuition Per Semester
Master of Arts (MA) / Master of Science (MS)$6956$4,170
Master of Business Administration (MBA)$6956$4,170
Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)$1,0203$3,060
Doctor of Philosophy in Organizational Leadership (PhD)$1,0203$3,060
Doctor of Strategic Leadership (DSL)$1,0203$3,060

Full-Time Students

DegreeTuition Cost Per Credit HourAverage Credit Hours Per SemesterAverage Tuition Per Semester
Master of Arts (MA) / Master of Science (MS)$6959$6,255
Master of Business Administration (MBA)$6959$6,255
Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)$1,0206$6,120
Doctor of Philosophy in Organizational Leadership (PhD)$1,0206$6,120
Doctor of Strategic Leadership (DSL)$1,0206$6,120

Student Fees Per Semester

University Services Fee (On-Campus Students)$850 (Fall & Spring)
$700 (Summer)
University Services Fee (Online Students)$700

Military Admissions & Aid » | Cost of Attendance »

Part-Time Students

DegreeTuition Cost Per Credit HourAverage Credit Hours Per SemesterAverage Tuition Per Semester
Master of Arts (MA) / Master of Science (MS)$6956$4,170
Master of Business Administration (MBA)$6956$4,170
Doctor in Business Administration (DBA)$1,0203$3,060
Doctor of Philosophy in Business (PhD)$1,0203$3,060
Doctor of Philosophy in Organizational Leadership (PhD)$1,0203$3,060
Doctor of Strategic Leadership (DSL)$1,0203$3,060

Full-Time Students

DegreeTuition Cost Per Credit HourAverage Credit Hours Per SemesterAverage Tuition Per Semester
Master of Arts (MA) / Master of Science (MS)$6959$6,255
Master of Business Administration (MBA)$6959$6,255
Doctor in Business Administration (DBA)$1,0206$6,120
Doctor of Philosophy in Business (PhD)$1,0206$6,120
Doctor of Philosophy in Organizational Leadership (PhD)$1,0206$6,120
Doctor of Strategic Leadership (DSL)$1,0206$6,120

Student Fees Per Semester

University Services Fee (On-Campus Students)$850 (Fall & Spring)
$700 (Summer)
University Services Fee (Online Students)$700

Military Admissions & Aid » | Cost of Attendance »

*Rates are subject to change at any time. The per-credit-hour tuition rate is for SBL master’s level courses only. Concentration courses taken from the other schools at Regent University are charged at that school’s tuition rate.

The School of Business & Leadership offers students the opportunity to pursue a joint degree between the M.A. in Organizational Leadership (MAOL) and another graduate program at Regent University.  Students seeking online joint degree programs must apply and be accepted to both programs as a joint degree student.  Under the joint-degree agreement, students complete 27 (instead of 33) credit hours in the MAOL degree program. The credit hour reductions apply to elective courses only and no courses may be counted twice. Joint degree students subsequently earn a separate degree from each school and must complete both degree programs before being approved for graduation.

“I felt that Regent gave me a family connection.”
Eve Taylor, Ph.D., 2016 Strategic Leadership
“My mentor and I are mutually keeping each other lifted up in prayer and with encouragement in the midst of life's challenges. This mentorship connection has delivered extra focus for me by giving me a living example of what I desire to be engaged in upon graduating from Regent. Since I will be over 55 when I finish, my executive mentor demonstrates how there are decades of fruitfulness ahead of me and that completing this program is worth the rewards and open doors in the future.”
Wade Jensen, Doctor of Strategic Leadership, 2025 Mentee
“When you’re leading the largest city in the Commonwealth, you realize quickly, you can’t do it by yourself … so I pray. Regent was a vital factor in my spiritual growth and my professional growth.”
Bobby Dyer, Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership, 1998 Mayor, City of Virginia Beach
“"I consider my years in my Ph.D. program at Regent the best investment I ever made in my career. The time, energy and money spent in the program have paid off many times over. I consider the faculty to be world class, and my peers in my cohort are true friends and colleagues."”
Paul Alexander, Ph.D., 2005 Organizational Leadership
“I needed someone to tell me who I was and whose I was. Regent did that; the staff was amazing!”
Rae Pearson Benn, M.A. in Organizational Leadership, 2016 WTVZ Host of Our Issues Hampton Roads; Media & Communications Coordinator III, City of Virginia Beach