Looking for admissions, majors or financial aid? Visit our Admissions Site.

Graduate Students

The Organizational Leader

Graduates from the business track are designated as Organizational Leaders. You’ll study the relationship between threat analysis and organizational failure… become competent in conflict management, team-building, and interpersonal dynamics … learn project management, including budgeting and resource allocation … explore creative entrepreneurial thinking, including innovative positioning strategies for an organization … and understand of the role of leadership in shaping organizational culture and social responsibility.

You’ll be equipped to contribute innovative strategies and new perspectives to your organization, whether it’s a for-profit company, an entrepreneurial endeavor, a government agency, a not-for-profit organization or a military unit.

Organizational Leader Course Offerings

This is a summary of the courses offered in the Organizational Leader (Business) Track.  For official course descriptions, please see the Graduate Studies Catalog.

BSGR 540 Leadership: Applied Systems Thinking
This course is designed for the study of various interrelated systems and functions within the organization and to help students gain an understanding of the impact decisions in one system have on other systems within the organization as well as the impact on overall organizational effectiveness. The course will use case analysis and best practices to look at various departments and functional areas of the organization and use evidence-based practice to identify innovations within these areas, such as balanced scoreboard, concurrent engineering, among others, to improve efficiencies an achieve organizational success.

BSGR 545 Change: Failures and Successes
This course focuses on leadership success and failures through the study of the mechanisms and processes that shape and direct organizational change. A combination of case studies, theoretical perspectives, as well as studies of historical leadership failures and successes will equip the student with knowledge and insights useful for leveraging organizational change.

BSGR 550 Motivation
This course examines contemporary approaches to motivation and employee satisfaction. There is a strong emphasis in the course on the student developing the skill set necessary to move from theoretical knowledge to implication of motivation practices and programs in the actual work setting. The course will also focus on the need to develop cultural awareness when developing motivation programs and the emerging issue of job burnout will be examined.
 
BSGR 555 Resource Management
This course examines the role of financial resource management as a tool to organizational success. Focus will be on budgeting, short-term and long-term planning, financial resources, allocation of resources, as well as general understanding of the role of financial statements in decision-making. Students will use financial tools to plan and evaluate decisions through case analyses as well as hands-on projects.

BSGR 560 Team Building and Conflict Management
This course will focus on developing the conceptual base and skill set that are used in building effective work teams. There will be particular focus on developing an understanding of the challenges and opportunities encountered in building effective culturally diverse teams. The course will explore the conceptual tools that team leaders find useful in managing work place conflict and ways to direct conflict to creative, constructive outcomes.

BSGR 570 Leadership: Accountability and Social Responsibility
This course focuses on the role of organizational leadership in developing an ethical organizational culture and climate for accountability and social responsibility. The focus will be on classical ethical theories and their relevance to diverse contemporary organizational issues, both within and outside the organization. Topics will include value focused enterprise risk management, codes of conduct, the responsibilities of the organization to the numerous and diverse stakeholders, both internal and external as well as other issues of social responsibility.

BSGR 575 Project Readings
Students will complete a supervised, extensive literature review related to their topic for the Capstone Project.

BSGR 580
Strategic Thinking and Sustainability
This course will examine conceptual and operational models of strategic thinking in detail, as well as the leadership of organizational change. Emphasis is on strategy formulation, implementation, enterprise risk management, and control of organizations of all types.

BSGR 590 Leading for Change III: Innovative Leadership Capstone
Students will complete an in-depth research project or application project. Project should center upon a research project or development of a case study integrating work applications, core coursework, as well as literature reviews completed in Project Readings. 

 

Organizational Leader Comparisons

Graduate study in business
Which path is right for you?

When considering a graduate program in business, you have several options that may fit your career goals and personal aspirations. This chart will help you compare GV's Organizational Leader to choices in advanced business education available at other institutions.

The Master of Science in Innovative Leadership is an integrated approach to advanced study that links a core of interdisciplinary courses with a concentration in business. Both theory and practice are emphasized in the program.

MS in Innovative Leadership
(MIL)

Offered at Grand View
Masters in Business
Administration (MBA)

Offered at many other universities
Masters in Public Administration
(MPA)

Offered at some other universities
The MIL prepares graduates for mid-level managerial roles or organizational leader roles in private as well as public organizations. The MBA prepares graduates for mid-level managerial roles within a private organization. The MPA prepares graduates for mid-level managerial roles within public and non-profit organizations.
Interdisciplinary program of study emphasizes leadership, decision-making, evidence-based management, practice of managing and changing people and organizations, and promoting positive growth in the context of dynamic organizations. Curriculum blends theory and application via casework, professional articles and team projects. Program of study includes significant quantitative components, including economics and finance, as well as exposure to multiple functions within business. Frequently case driven, MBA programs blend the various functions of business through discussion and decision-making simulations. Program of study includes management and operations within the context of governmental or nonprofit organizations. Greater emphasis on diversity, ethics, policy making and influencing societal goals.
Course Schedule

You will begin your track courses in the second year of the program.  The schedule below is an example of how those courses are scheduled.

Summer of Year 1
BSGR 540 Leadership: Applied Systems 3 credits
BSGR 545 Failures & Successes 3 credits
BSGR 575 Project Readings (Independent) 2 credits

Fall of Year 2
BSGR 550 Motivation 3 credits
BSGR 555 Resource Management 3 credits

Spring of Year 2
BSGR 560 Team Building and Conflict Management 3 credits
BSGR 570 Leadership: Accountability and Social Responsibility 3 credits
BSGR 580 Strategic Thinking 3 credits

Summer of Year 2

BSGR 590 Leading for Change III: Innovative Leadership Capstone 3 credits

return