MA in Organizational Leadership Electives

We are continuously developing and adding to our extensive list of elective choices to meet the demand of today's rapidly changing business, industry and nonprofit sectors. You can further focus your degree by selecting a concentration. Most elective courses are offered once per year.

MG 6001 Spirituality and Values in Leadership (2 credit hours)
This course explores how the faith and values of a leader can and should shape their leadership. Students will explore the nature of leadership as expressed in multiple faith traditions, including the Jesuit perspective on leadership, and the idea of a “mensch manager.” Mensch is a Yiddish term for a gentle, proper person of integrity, honor and humility. Students will articulate what their own guiding values are, and explore how to remain true to their own principles while in the pursuit of success. They will also examine the implications of relying on one’s faith when working in a religiously diverse context. Prerequisite: MG 6310.

MG 6093 Global Business Issues: EU Experience (2 credit hours) 
This course explores the cultural and business practices in other countries and requires international travel. Through travel and participation in business and cultural activities with lectures by government officials, business managers and university faculty, students study the similarities and differences across specific countries and cultures. Students will study the business and cultural aspects of countries visited and the effect these factors have on international business markets. Other topics covered include market entry; cultural, legal and environmental factors; economics and financial risk; international structure and strategy; and corporate governance models. The course does not run every year, but when it does it typically is in early January for 10-14 days, and the destination is Barcelona, Spain.

MG 6098 Networking for Success (1 credit hour)
This course reveals strategies to connect with people in person, build casual acquaintances into real connections, and leverage social media to increase your sphere of influence.

MG 6170 Social Entrepreneurship (2 credit hours)
This course uses the principles of entrepreneurship to help solve social problems. Examples will be used from both developing countries as well as communities in need in the developed world. Students will have the opportunity to examine and develop successful models of entrepreneurship and innovation in these unique settings.

MG 6275 Developing Leadership in Organizations (2 credit hours)
This course explores how individuals develop as leaders, and how organizations can support that development. Leadership development programs are reviewed, as are organizational strategies to support individual development. Issues relevant to leadership development are explored, including culture and gender. Using their new understanding, students will develop a leadership development strategy for a specific organization. Prerequisite: MG 6310.

MG 6352 Problem Solving and Root Cause Analysis (1 credit hour)
Today’s graduates are hired to solve problems. Today’s managers are asked more than ever to lead their teams to create effective solutions to problems. However, administrative fixes (re-train, checklists, etc.) only place more pressure on management. Someone with a graduate, management degree is expected to not only systematically and logically solve the problem, but present the solution in a manner that is clearly understood. This course will provide a review of methods that can be used to accomplish this task.

MG 6355 Entrepreneurship (2 credit hours)
This course focuses on the unique issues facing the small business owner and operator, extensive coverage of critical business functions that the small business owner and operator are likely to face. The course emphasizes:1) How to locate and assess a potential business opportunity 2) How to craft a strategy and plan for developing the opportunity into a business 3) The stages of building the business 4) The personnel, professional and personal issues of the small business owner and operator.

MG 6365 Business in the EU (1 credit hour)
This course explores the cultural and business practices in the European Union. Students who plan to attend to Barcelona trip in January should enroll in this course. However, the course is open to all students interested in learning more about the European Union. Topics covered include market entry; cultural, legal and environmental factors; economics and financial risk; international structure and strategy; and corporate governance models.

MG 6380 HR and Managing People (2 credit hours)
This course focuses on the best practices of supervision and ways of effectively partnering with HR, including communicating with employees, planning and delegating to individuals, leading the team, building trust and respect, motivating performance, intercultural communication, evaluating performance, coaching to improve performance, developing and maintaining discipline and managing conflict. 

MG 6390 Conflict Management and Negotiation (2 credit hours)
This course explores the nature of conflict, including interpersonal conflict, organizational conflict, conflict styles, intercultural communication, and the function conflict plays in organizations. Particular emphasis is placed on the role leaders can play in addressing conflict to help organizations function more effectively. Students will learn skills to help others resolve conflict and strategies to help them be more effective as negotiators. 

MG 6420 Organizational Development and Consulting (2 credit hours)
This course increases students’ awareness of organizational processes and practices, including leadership, management, motivation, morale, group dynamics, interpersonal communications, conflict, and group problem-solving. The course provides conceptual insights and behavioral skills needed for successful leadership of continuous improvement in individual, team, and organizational performance. Prerequisite: MG 6310.

MG 6430 Organizational Theory & Design (2 credit hours)
The course utilizes theories drawn from psychology, sociology, political science, economics and the complexity/information sciences to explain why a given organization achieves the results that it does in a given organizational context. The student will learn the strengths and weaknesses of these theories as they are applied to understanding, appraising and strengthening an organization's capability to successfully execute its mission. Building on this understanding of organizational dynamics, the student will learn to design or modify an organization's socio-technical systems to optimize performance in a given competitive context. This design optimization will involve analysis of the sensemaking and decision-making performance of the organization, appraisal of the appropriateness of various organizational structures, business process design, and attention to the interactions between people and technical systems. Moving beyond analysis and optimization of a single firm, the course also prepares students to appraise and optimize the performance of multi-organizational systems that depend on high levels of inter-organizational collaboration. Prerequisite: MG 6310.

MG 6460 Innovation (2 credit hours)
Peter Drucker claimed, “the business enterprise has two—and only two—basic functions: marketing and innovation.” This course will take a 360-degree look at the notion of business innovation, ranging from the entrepreneurial to corporate and from the individual (creativity) to the collective (strategic). Students will explore a number of resources that help stake out a definition for innovation specific to business results and explore ways to foster creativity whether it be from an entrepreneurial perspective or an entrepreneurial effort to improve enterprise results.

MG 6461 Business in Asia (1 credit hour)
This course builds upon several key concepts introduced in BUS 6100 Global Markets... It extends discussion of how political, economic, legal, and technological developments are affecting the management of international business operations as they relate specifically to Asia. It pays special attention to the role of culture and the challenges in managing employees, operating facilities and targeting markets across Asia and other cultures. 

MG 6530 Managing Small Business Growth (2 credit hours)
This course focuses on the unique issues and challenges a small private business faces during the early growth stage of the business cycle. The course emphasizes the importance of 1) Regulatory requirements that companies face 2) Overcoming challenges in obtaining favorable contracts and financing 3) The decision-making process involved in establishing the environment of the business 4) How to develop and articulate a plan for growth.

MG 6540 Cross-Cultural Management (2 credit hours)
Global managers are cross-cultural managers and need intercultural business skills to manage workplace diversity. They face different challenges than ever before and need to know how to communicate, delegate, mentor and present ideas in culturally appropriate ways. They need to understand how to manage across cultures.

MG 6680 Organizational Change (2 credit hours) 
Change management within modern organizations, whether public, private or not-for-profit, is a complex process with many moving parts. The larger an organization becomes the greater the complexity. This course focuses on the fundamental assessments, tools, processes and interventions used to identify, agree upon, and enact a successful change initiative. Using an integrated learning model, students will explore and apply these principles to both written and live case studies. Specifically, the following will be addressed: multiple models of the change process (techno-structural, human systems, balanced metrics), tools of organizational analysis, methods for overcoming stakeholder resistance and techniques for ensuring buy-in and support from people at all levels of the organization. Prerequisite: MG 6310.

MK 6420 Selling and Persuasion (1 credit hour)
A specially designed class to help you learn principles, skills, and insights into selling and persuasion. The learning objectives include: learn principles of selling and persuasion; apply principles and skills of selling and persuasion to organizations and for personal and professional career success; meet, talk, and interact with successful individuals who demonstrate selling and persuasion skills; recalling Rockhurst and Mensch values use these skills and capabilities ethically.

MK 6510 International Marketing (2 credit hours)
This course addresses the global issues that impact concepts relevant to companies engaging in the international marketplace. It introduces the student to the cultural, economic, geographic, political and legal issues that affect the where, when and how to enter foreign markets. The course uses contemporary materials to expand beyond the text and bring real-life problems and solutions into the classroom for student discussion.

For more information about the suite of graduate business programs from Helzberg, please click here: School of Management Programs.