Master of Business Administration: Organizational Leadership
Master of Business Administration: Organizational Leadership
Organizational Leadership Concentration in Rowan's MBA
Why an MBA Concentration in Organizational Leadership?
Leadership shapes how priorities are interpreted, how teams coordinate, how people respond to uncertainty, and how organizational culture influences execution. These dynamics become especially consequential when people must work across functions, reconcile competing interests, or move initiatives forward without relying solely on formal authority. Effective leadership requires judgment about people, context, relationships, and consequences, especially when expectations are changing or when the organization itself is under pressure to adapt.
Organizational leadership is shaped by how people influence one another and how culture, ethics, communication, team dynamics, and individual behavior affect collective performance. Leadership decisions can shape trust, accountability, engagement, conflict, and the willingness of people to support change or take responsibility for outcomes. The work also requires attention to how authority actually operates inside organizations, including the informal relationships and norms that can reinforce or undermine formal structures. Developing stronger leadership judgment therefore involves examining both personal approaches to leadership and the organizational conditions in which people are being asked to act.
Rowan’s Organizational Leadership Concentration pairs a common foundation in leadership theory and practice with opportunities for deeper study in organizational culture, ethics, teams, or personal leadership. That focused attention to people and organizational dynamics complements the broader business perspectives developed across the MBA, including management, human resources, operations, entrepreneurship, and other settings where progress depends on coordinating people, building commitment, and translating priorities into action.
Concentration Details
Requirement: 9 credits; complete MGT 06521 Leadership Theory and Practice and choose two approved electives.
MGT 06521 Leadership Theory and Practice anchors the concentration, while two electives allow further focus on organizational culture, ethics, teams, or personal leadership.
Concentration courses may also be taken as graduate business electives when students satisfy any listed Foundations and prerequisites.
Course Details
Required Course
MGT 06521 - Leadership Theory and Practice
The elective course is designed for graduate in MBA Management program students. Course content will cover the theories of leadership and practice. The focus of this course will be on a leadership influence on organizational concept and practices from a variety of perspective in the external environment, as well as leadership at the top, middle, and lower levels inside organizations. Students will be able to perform analysis of the dark side of leadership, destructive patterns of leadership behavior, and multiple intelligences. Furthermore, students will be able to understand the psychology of leadership, including the role of personality, employee motivation, and dealing with difficult people, importance of ethics, empowerment of employees, managing diversity in the work culture, the theory of creating a powerful vision, helping employee through change and burnout prevention, leadership in negotiation and alliances, leading and developing teams, and understand professional performance and sustaining discipline. By the end of the course, students will be able to effectively diagnose the complex dynamics of leadership, provide execution for organizational success, use effective theory, alignment, prioritization, in organizational environments and take action as leaders to improve individual, organization performance, and profitability.
Approved Electives
MGT 06520 - Global Leadership and Organization Culture
The course is designed for graduate business students. Course content will cover the theories of business leadership and the focus of this course will be on leadership from a variety of perspectives–organizational leadership in the external environment, as well as leadership at the top, middle and lower levels inside organizations. Students will focus on the theory and implementation of various business leadership tasks and responsibilities including working with other leaders in a multinational world, supervising workers with diverse backgrounds. These business skills will include establishing workplace goals, organizing work units for productivity, conducting interviews, giving feedback to subordinate employees, designing and implementing employee motivation programs, changing organization culture, the capacity to lead globally, leading work teams and managing workforce diversity. By the end of the course, students will be able to effectively diagnose the complex dynamics of leadership in business environments and take action as leaders and to improve individual and organization performance.
MGT 06525 – Leading Ethically for a Better World
We explore the moral foundations of leadership and examine how ethical decision-making predicts long-term leader effectiveness. Focusing on moral character development and how character affects ethical behavior, we study leadership and management theories, and topics such as personal character, organizational culture, moral engagement, and factors inhibiting ethical leader behavior. Sustainability and open systems perspectives provide the context for our course, challenging us to simultaneously consider leaders’ obligations to their organization, society, and the natural environment.
MGT 06528 – Leading Teams
Teamwork and interpersonal relationships are becoming increasingly important in today’s organizations. As a result, individuals are often required to work in teams. However, team environments take many forms including in-person teams and virtual teams, permanent and temporary teams, teams with assigned leaders and teams with emergent leaders. Students in this course will explore the skills necessary to work effectively in all types of teams, with a focus on leading within teams. This course examines topics such as team structure, leadership, member characteristics, interpersonal relationships, knowledge exchange, and team processes. Students will learn how to effectively lead and participate in teams. The course will also explore team roles and behaviors, communication, integrity and conflict resolution within teams.
MGT 06555 - Personal Leadership
The emphasis of this new course will be on developing core leadership principles and their application in a leadership context. Particular emphasis will be on the conceptualization of personal leadership development, developing personal strategies and planning, developing personal leadership theory, developing personal leadership decision making process, developing personal motivation, developing personal empowerment, developing personal leadership change process, developing personal leadership coaching, developing personal leadership governance and implementation, and effectively and efficiently lead organizations or industry.
Related Organizational Leadership Graduate Options
Leadership and organizational dynamics can play different roles in graduate study, from a focused area within the MBA to the central emphasis of a specialized degree. RCB offers several closely connected options.Organizational Leadership Certificate of Graduate Study
The Organizational Leadership COGS provides 9 credits of focused leadership study. Completed before entry into the MBA or MSOL, the same coursework can satisfy the MBA Organizational Leadership Concentration or apply directly to the MS in Organizational Leadership.
Master of Science in Organizational Leadership
The MS in Organizational Leadership makes leadership, organizational dynamics, and the human side of organizational performance the primary focus of the degree. It offers a distinct graduate experience from the MBA, where Organizational Leadership is one concentration within a broader business curriculum.
MBA/MS Organizational Leadership Accelerated Pathway
The MBA/MSOL Accelerated Pathway combines the broader business scope of the MBA with more concentrated study in leadership and organizations. Students interested in both degrees can review the pathway for current shared-course requirements and planning guidance.
