MBA Leadership Certificate
In today’s complex and changing environment, organizations are seeking to hire and promote individuals who understand and can display effective leadership behaviors. It is important for managers and aspiring managers to learn about the nature of effective leadership and how they can develop their own competencies in this area. Accordingly, the primary purpose of this certificate is to examine leadership effectiveness at three levels: leadership skill-sets for the individual, including leadership development and leading change; strategic governance issues for organizations, as well as ethics and social responsibility; and leadership in a global context, including effective leadership practices across cultures. Students who select this Leadership Certificate will have an edge on their competition in the job market and will be able to demonstrate their leadership savvy and understanding of the critical importance of leadership to the bottom line.
Requirements
Prerequisites: Acceptance into the MBA program; MANA 6332
The certificate requires students to complete the following curriculum:
- Leadership Development (3 credits) Required
This course focuses on the skill set needed to elicit commitment and productivity from people and groups. Awareness of one’s own values, beliefs, problem-solving skills and behaviors is seen as crucial to leadership effectiveness. The course combines lectures, cases, self-assessments and online activities.
- Choose two of the following:
- Leadership and Corporate Governance (3 credits)
This course will discuss how a firm’s value as well as the development of the private sector depend on corporate governance and investor protection. The impact of the firm’s leaders – its CEO and Board of Directors – on its strategy and performance will be studied with a variety of educational mechanisms. It will help students to evaluate firms, identify those that are well governed and prepare them for CEO and Board Member leadership positions.
- Global Leadership (3 credits)
The primary purpose of this course is to provide students with a multi-faceted view of what it takes to become a global leader. The course combines self-assessments, discussions, case studies, and interviews with practicing global leaders to explore the roles of global leaders, the competencies they need to develop, and the challenges they face.
- Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility (3 credits)
One of the responsibilities of leadership is to create and maintain an ethical organizational culture and to attend to the needs of a variety of corporate stakeholders. This course will consider several philosophical approaches to ethics, the different types of decision making activities each philosophical approach engages in, and the influence of leadership on the ethical decisions made by organizations. Further, the class will examine the myriad of stakeholders who influence and are influenced by organizational activities and will explore the organization’s responsibilities, if any, to these stakeholders. We will make use of cases, current event examples and experiential exercises in thinking about ethical issues and the social responsibilities of business organizations.
- Leading Change (3 credits)
This course involves an examination of the leader’s role in implementing and sustaining change at three levels: individual, group or team and organization. At each level of interest the focus is upon change strategies, diagnostic tools and techniques, overcoming resistance and effective implementation. Some attention is devoted to when the use of consultants is appropriate and effective partnering guidelines.
- Leadership and Corporate Governance (3 credits)
- Leanne Atwater, Ph.D.
Social/Organizational Psychology,
Claremont Graduate School (1985)
Dr. Atwater currently serves as the chair for the Department of Management in Bauer College. She has published over 50 refereed publications in journals such as Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, The Leadership Quarterly, Journal of Management, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Journal of Organizational and Occupational Psychology, Human Resource Management, and the Journal of Organizational Behavior. She is the co-author of two scholarly books—“The Power of 360 Degree Feedback” and “Leadership, Feedback and the Open Communication Gap.” She has published nine book chapters. She also has been a principal investigator on external grants to study leadership (totaling nearly $900,000) from agencies such as the Army Research Institute (ARI) and The Society for Human Resource Management Foundation. She serves on the editorial board of Leadership Quarterly and has been associate editor for Group and Organization Management.
- Barbara A. Carlin, Ph.D.
Strategic Management,
University of Texas at Austin (1991)
Prior to joining the faculty at Bauer College in 2002, Dr. Carlin taught at the University of Georgia and then spent several years as a consultant in the consulting firm Baker & Company. Baker & Company specialized in strategic management, customer satisfaction, and business process reengineering consulting for the automotive and telecommunications industries. Dr. Carlin’s teaching areas include strategic management, international strategy, organizational theory, and ethics and social responsibility. Research interests include organizational decision making, cooperative strategies, and corporate social responsibility. Her research has been published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes and Business Horizons.
- J. Timothy McMahon, DBA
Organizational Behavior and Management,
University of Kentucky (1972)
Dr. McMahon joined the Bauer College faculty in 1972and served as chair of the Department of Management from 1978 through 1985. He has received numerous teaching awards and currently teaches exclusively in the Bauer College MBA Program. Dr. McMahon has written extensively on topics related to management and leadership topics. His articles have appeared in journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Human Relations, Organizational Dynamics, Journal of International Business Studies, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, Personnel Psychology, and the Journal of Vocational Behavior as well as several European journals. He has extensive experience in developing and conducting management and executive development programs in the U.S. and numerous international locations.
- Seemantini Pathak, Ph.D.
Business Administration/Strategic Management,
Arizona State University (2007)
Dr. Pathak’s teaching interests include corporate strategy and governance, and international management. Her research has been published in the Academy of Management Review and the Journal of Education for Business and presented at conferences of the Academy of Management and the Strategic Management Society. Dr. Pathak’s current research examines the impact of a firm’s refocusing strategy on its subsequent corporate governance. Before joining Bauer College in 2007, she spent a number of years working for A.F. Ferguson & Co., a management consulting firm in India.
- Dusya Vera, Ph.D.
Business Administration/Strategic Management,
University of Western Ontario (2002)
Dr. Vera has teaching experience in strategic management at the undergraduate, graduate and executive levels in the U.S. and numerous international locations. She has been the recipient of multiple research and teaching awards. Her research interests and expertise are in the areas of strategic leadership, improvisation, and organizational learning. Her research has been published in leading management journals such as The Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, The Leadership Quarterly, Organization Studies, Organizational Dynamics, and Management Learning, among others. She serves on the editorial board of The Academy of Management Review and the Academy of Management Journal. Prior to her doctoral studies, Dr. Vera worked in Ecuador for such organizations as the Guayaquil Stock Exchange, the Pacific Bank and Consulconti Consulting.
Faculty
The courses that constitute the MBA Leadership Certificate will be taught by Bauer faculty. These may include: