MS LOD Curriculum

Executive Education Course. The study of human behavior in organizations. Emphasizes theoretical concepts and practical methods for understanding, analyzing, and predicting individual, group, and organizational behavior. Topics include work motivation, group dynamics, decision making, conflict and negotiation, leadership, power, and organizational culture. Ethical and international considerations are also addressed.

Executive Education Course. This course examines the leading theories of conflict and conflict management strategies. The relationship between personality and conflict styles will also be addressed. Practical, theoretical, and critical analyses of conflict in a variety of contexts, including organizations, families, and interpersonal relationships are studied.

Executive Education Course. Explores the foundations and role of organizational development. Topics include: emergence and development of the field and its role in twenty-first century organizations; major macro-level organizational concepts such as organizational strategy, structure, culture, innovation, and globalization; and the role of organizational development in change management, intervention strategies and group process.

Executive Education Course. This course explores how real change happens in organizations including setting a business strategy, using change models and showing leadership throughout the change process. Topics include the linkage of business strategy and organizational change, driving and resisting forces to change, frameworks helpful in guiding the change process, and the types of leadership most critical at different stages of the change process.

Executive Education Course. The discipline of applied organizational development (OD) is broadly concerned with the application of empirically supported theoretical frameworks that, when applied, improve the performance capability and effectiveness of individuals, teams and entire organizations. This course will cover a range of models and practices spanning all three domains with a focus on how they translate to and apply in practice. Topics range from improving individuals’ performance, to improving the effectiveness of work teams, to large-scale system and organizational behavior diagnosis and change. The course is designed to bridge the gap between OD theory and research and actual practice.

Executive Education Course. This course explores Transformational Leadership as it relates to workforce dynamics and practices. Students will investigate the history of this theory, including the variety of approaches to Transformational Leadership as well as salient cultural, gender and business forces influencing its development over time. Course assignments include the applicability of Transformational Leadership to challenges inherent in both present and future workplaces. Case studies in Transformational Leadership will integrate theory with practice. Academic literature will be reviewed introducing relevant issues surrounding the application of this model in a variety of settings.

Executive Education Course. Political processes and the development and use of power in organizations including the role of power in decision-making, sources of power, conditions for the use of power, assessing power in organizations; political strategies and tactics; political language and symbols, and applications to budgeting, careers and organizational structure.

Executive Education Course. This course is focused on gaining theoretical knowledge and practical skills necessary to diagnose the operating effectiveness of a firm, business unit, or business function. The course will teach how to design a diagnostic approach, gather fact-based information, how to analyze it, draw actionable conclusions, and how to create a set of actions necessary to impact organizational performance. A case study approach will be used.

Executive Education Course. Exploration of the manner in which advances in the neurosciences inform organizational interventions in the area of leadership. This course will explore basic neural structures and functions and how these are activated within interactions between leaders and their teams as indicated by research. Of particular importance will be the relevance to workplace dynamics, particularly how the research can be translated into leadership practices that can augment productivity and engagement as well as research exploring which practices can derail organizations.

Addresses the challenge of leading organizations in dynamic and challenging environments. Overall goal is to not only question one’s assumptions about leadership, but also enhance skills and acquire new content knowledge. Topics include visionary and transformational leadership, post-heroic leadership, empowerment, leveraging and combining resources, designing organizations and ethics.

Executive Education Course. This course examines the leading theories of conflict and conflict management strategies. The relationship between personality and conflict styles will also be addressed. Practical, theoretical, and critical analyses of conflict in a variety of contexts, including organizations, families, and interpersonal relationships are studied.