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Master of Arts in Leadership | Graduate Degree Program

Master of Arts in Leadership

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About OU’s Master of Arts in Leadership

Ottawa University's accelerated, online Masters degree in Leadership is designed for anyone interested in gaining the management, communication, and people skills needed to pursue a top-tier position in a variety of career fields. If you are interested in leading your organization and staff in times of change, then completing OU’s leadership graduate degree is a step in the right direction.

Dedicated to preparing graduates for lives of significance, the Master of Arts in Leadership Degree (MAL) degree was designed to help you make a difference in your organization immediately following graduation. Through examination of contemporary and classic leadership theories, investigation of successful leadership behaviors across a wide range of environments, and discovery of the strengths and development needs of their personal leadership style, students will develop the skills to lead their organizations to new levels of performance.

Education and Qualifications

Persons interested in pursuing influential roles should have good leadership and communication skills and be able to establish effective working relationships with many different people, ranging from managers, supervisors and professionals, to clerks, and other workers. They must be able to coordinate several activities at once, quickly analyze and resolve specific problems, and cope with deadlines.

Curriculum

Curriculum for the accelerated, online Master of Arts in Leadership degree delves into the human elements of business, such as communication techniques, leadership theory, multicultural workplace dynamics, and team development. By emphasizing more personal and creative approaches to management, a leadership graduate degree enables students to work with the emotional intelligence of individual subordinates and inspire them to reach their full potential.

Courses

As a student in Ottawa University’s masters in leadership program, you will create comprehensive business strategies and envision potential futures that integrate organizational functions in achieving sustainable competitive advantage. You will acquire knowledge of laws, ethics, and values and apply this knowledge to make decisions appropriate to one’s professional practice. Additionally, you will gain hands-on skills through designing, planning, executing, and evaluating communication methodologies at the organizational, team, and individual levels. Courses may include:

  • Contemporary Issues in Business Leadership
  • Developing Leaders and Leadership Capability
  • Leading Business to Create Value
  • Servant Leadership Course
  • The Creative Organization
  • Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace
  • Human Resources Planning and Administration
  • Organizational Consultation
  • Organizational Change Theory and Strategy
  • Managing a Culturally Diverse Workforce
  • Advanced Leadership Theory and Practice

For complete curriculum and course descriptions, download a program overview. 

Two MAL Concentrations

The sky is the limit with your leadership graduate degree combined with one of its innovative areas of concentration. Coupling a desire to lead with OU’s value-added education will position graduates to pursue roles in many areas, including office and administrative support supervisors and managers; cost estimators; property, real estate, and community association managers; purchasing managers, buyers and agents; education administrators and top sales and business executives. Those who earn the MAL will be equipped to coordinate several activities at once, quickly analyze and resolve specific problems, and cope with deadlines. Students in the Master of Arts in Leadership program will have the option to personalize their education by selecting one of two areas of concentration:

Careers

Occupations with similar functions include office and administrative support supervisors and managers; cost estimators; property, real estate, and community association managers; purchasing managers, buyers and agents; education administrators and top executives.

Career Outlook for the MAL

Companies who invest in leaders do better financially. A study conducted by Development Dimensions International (DDI)  found that organizations who have managers with strong business and leadership skills show greater net profit and ROA (Return on Assets). A high ROA is a tell-tale sign of solid financial and operational performance. A master’s degree in leadership from Ottawa University distinctively positions graduates to help businesses achieve their most aspiring growth goals and, as a result, corporations, government agencies, and non-profit organizations are willing to pay employees more for this skill set.

Overall employment of top executives is projected to grow 6% through 2028, about as fast as the average for all occupations, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The median annual wage for chief executives was $184,460 in May 2019. The lowest 10% earned less than $62,290, and the highest 10% earned more than $208,000.

Accreditations

  • HLC Accredited University

Ottawa University is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission (HLC).

  • ACBSP Accredited University

The Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) Baccalaureate/Graduate Degree Board of Commissioners has awarded Ottawa University, accreditation of selected business programs.

Why Choose Ottawa?

Ottawa University's offers fully online courses for our Master of Arts in Leadership program. We make it easy for you to transfer credits in order to help keep tuition costs down. We also conveniently offer courses in accelerated 8-week terms to get you to the finish line faster. When you study online with Ottawa University, your campus is wherever you need it to be! No matter where you want to study, you will benefit from the support and expertise of our faculty members who are dedicated to your success.

Career advancement awaits with the Master of Arts in Leadership degree. Why not take the first step now? To learn more about Ottawa’s online MAL degree, contact us today!

See Also:

If you are interested in furthering your knowledge on leadership skills and making strategic decisions, then please visit our Business Blog Spot.

Master of Arts in Leadership (33 credit hours)

Required Courses

Contemporary Issues in Business Leadership | BUS 7001 (3 credit hours)
This course provides an opportunity to explore new and emerging issues in business leadership. Students will identify and read contemporary topics in journals published in the past two years.

Developing Leaders and Leadership Capability | BUS 7003 (3 credit hours)
Course focuses on strategic and tactical approaches to developing comprehensive leadership, talent management, and succession planning processes for an organization. It involves defining leadership capabilities needed by a company at the individual, team, and organizational level.

Leading Business to Create Value | BUS 7004 (3 credit hours)
Course focuses on how leaders create value for the organization and key stakeholders.  Students will compare various whole system approaches to assessing organizations. Topics include strategy, values, norms of behavior, reward systems, decision-making and accountability, processes and systems, and the role the leader plays in managing and aligning those components to add value to the business. Dynamics within organizations, including those at a personal, interpersonal, and organizational level, will be assessed. Various approaches a leader can use to align and focus an organization, such as strategic performance management or the Balanced Scorecard, will be considered for appropriate application and expected benefits to the business.

Servant Leadership | BUS 7006 (3 credit hours)
Course explores the philosophy of life and leadership dedicated to the growth of others as well as values-driven institutions that contribute to just, caring, and sustainable societies. Topics include enhancement of student awareness of their values and how those values are reflected in their decisions and actions, the gap and tension between stated individual and organizational values that drive behavior, identification of points of leverage to affect change in operational systems, leadership philosophies, styles, and strategies, and contemporary concepts of values and system level thinking integration.

The Creative Organization | BUS 7015 (3 credit hours)
Course covers methods for stimulating creativity and innovation, why context matters, and processes for making effective decisions with a focus on sustainable competitive advantage. Topics include practice in creative problem solving through in-class exercises and the creation of a plan to move the students’ own organizations to the next level of creativity.

Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace | HRC 7341 (3 credit hours)
Research shows emotional intelligence (EI) is more important than IQ in determining outstanding job performance. Examines variety of instruments and writings used to build EI in workplace.  

Human Resources Planning and Administration | HRC 7411 (3 credit hours)
Integration of human resources with strategic business functions and planning. Examines issues of structure, staffing, effectiveness, performance and assessment and diversity within organizations.

Organizational Consultation Skills | HRC 7661 (3 credit hours)
Emphasis on the consulting process in organizations including the role and skills of a consultant, internal versus external consulting, contracting for services, resistance to change, diagnosis, data collection and interventions to improve organizational performance. Apply consulting skills to case simulation.

Organizational Change Theory and Strategy | HRC 7711 (3 credit hours)
Examines strategic interventions to change organizations from planning through implementation and assessment and theoretical models for change including organization development and total quality management.

Managing a Culturally Diverse Workforce | HRC 7841 (3 credit hours)
Study of how gender, ethnicity and other cultural diversity dimensions influence organizational behavior and outcomes. Includes theory and techniques for working with and leading diverse workforce in order to increase organizational effectiveness and to enable all members to reach their full potential.

Advanced Leadership Theory and Practice | BUS 8000 (3 credit hours)
Covers theory and practice related to organizational leadership. Topics include organizational system thinking, living systems theory, leadership capacity development, and other advanced leadership theories. Includes application of theory to a variety of workplace settings.

Full Degree Catalog
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