Curriculum

ORGL 600: Foundations of Leadership - 3 credits

This course is the foundation of the organizational leadership program. You will investigate various theories of leadership and communication used by leaders in organizations, both positive and negative. You will explore your own ideas of leadership and how they relate to real world scenarios, through research, readings, discussion with your peers and personal reflection. During this process you will discover new ideas about what leadership is and will develop a leadership growth plan and craft your own leadership philosophy.

ORGL 605: Imagine, Create, Lead - 3 credits
This is a hybrid course and requires online course work before and after the immersion experience.
3-day On-Campus Immersion or 3-day Fully Online Synchronous Immersion

Come to campus and experience Gonzaga in person. During this 3-day immersion you will meet with your faculty to discuss career goals, check-in with Student Services and engage with your peers. This is your chance to establish friendships and build relationships that will support you throughout your master’s journey and beyond graduation. Have you ever been stuck trying to think of a creative way to solve an organizational problem? During this course, you will spark your creativity and explore innovative ways to solve problems, build a team and communicate, and see how creativity can become a useful leadership skill. You will later use your newfound knowledge to create a final class project. Some of the subjects you may explore include, art, architecture, Ignatian imagination, literature, poetry, music and even improv.

ORGL 610: Communication and Leadership Ethics - 3 credits

Inquiry into the personal, organizational, and social values present in moral dilemmas. Students will develop skills in ethical communication and decision-making, and recognize how to act for the common good as leaders who can acknowledge and consider multiple moral perspectives within a global context.

ORGL 615: Organizational Behavior and Theory - 3 credits

The purpose of this core course is to provide exposure to theories of organizations, organizational behavior, and systems as well as a variety of strategies and tactics useful to successful leaders and followers. The content includes a traditional macro organizational theory emphasis on structure and culture and then extends to organizational behavior focusing on leading teams and interpersonal relationships.

Capstone

ORGL 620: Leadership Seminar - 3 credits

This course, referred to as your capstone is the culmination of your leadership coursework. In this course you will reflect on what has changed for you both personally and professionally since enrolling in the program. You will also examine what you have learned, refine your leadership philosophy and apply your leadership skills and practice to a final leadership project.

Choose from the following ORGL electives or you can choose electives from our Master's in Communication and Leadership.

ORGL 506: Leadership and Diversity - 3 credits

Who we are – whether we are comfortable with this idea or not – is shaped in part by the social roles we occupy and how society sees us in those roles. As we will see from the very beginning of this class, our social roles, the class we are born into and our gender all have implications for our lives. We will explore intercultural communication as a tool for bridging differences and learning about identities, practices, and cultures.

ORGL 510: Renaissance Leadership for the 21st Century - 3 credits
Includes short-term study abroad in Florence, Italy
This is a hybrid course and requires online course work before and after the immersion experience

This course will help emerging leaders develop new perspectives and strategies and bring healthy creativity and energy to their organizations. Drawing upon the creative processes of artists, painters, architects, musicians, and writers, students will apply the same dynamics of creative thinking to the practical work of leaders. An interdisciplinary approach explores the power of Renaissance thinking as it applies to renewal, rediscovery, invention, and creativity.

ORGL 515: Leadership and Human Potential - 3 Credits 

Continuous innovation is critical to organizational health and happens when we find the keys to unlocking human potential. In this course, you will learn how to reframe attitudes and unlock creativity to find solutions to challenges in whole new way. Tap into your own ability to facilitate change and engage those around you to come up with new ideas. You will learn tools to address the frustrations sometimes present in group dynamics in any organization, including school groups, community organizations and fortune 500 companies. You will become familiar with the following strategies and interventions: design thinking, growth mindset, appreciative inquiry summit, future search, open space, and world café that will help you create a healthy interactions and organizational culture focused on growth.

ORGL 516: Organizational Development - 3 credits

Change is a messy affair. In this course you will learn how Organizational Development Consultants (both internal employees and external consultants) can support leaders and all members of an organization to achieve their goals for change through a human centric approach. Coursework focuses on ways to balance organizational and workforce needs, with tools for research, identifying problems and giving feedback that will be well received. You will become aware of biases, learn from resistors to change and develop your own learning agenda as a master change agent. You will also explore every step of the Organization Development process, including entry, discovery and data gathering, diagnosis and feedback, intervention planning and implementation, and evaluation. 

ORGL 517: Organizational Change and Transformation - 3 credits
Includes 3-day immersion offered on campus and virtually in a synchronous format
This is a hybrid course and requires online course work before and after the immersion experience

Managing change is a critical skill to support organizations in achieving their goals, mission, and vision. Building on theories from the field of change management, the experiential learning while on campus in Spokane will introduce multiple interventions, reinforcing that different situations require different approaches. The course is appropriate for people in various levels and types of organizations, providing the tools to support effective change leadership.

ORGL 518: Transforming Leadership - 3 credits

How do contemporary leaders go beyond the social exchange theory to convert followers into leaders and leaders into moral agents? This course offers a comparison of transactional and transforming leadership by examining past leaders and events. An examination of the dynamics of transformation and how leadership can facilitate it within individuals and organizations will help students develop new insights into the theory and practice of transforming leadership.

ORGL 520: Negotiation and Conflict Resolution - 3 credits

This course provides an overview of conflict on different levels, from micros through mezzo, macros to violent international conflict. Using real-life situations and case studies, students will practice skills and strategies for dialogue, decision-making, and ultimately conflict transformation and system change. This application is generic and therefore appropriate for all professions whether formally or informally involved in resolving conflict.

ORGL 522: Leadership, Community, Empowerment, Collaboration, and Dialogue - 3 credits
Includes 5-days at St. Andrews Abbey in Valyermo, CA
This is a hybrid course and requires online course work before and after the immersion experience

What is the meaning and purpose of life and activity? How is need for such meaning and purpose encountered in community? How does the leader develop community to facilitate individual growth and collective flourishing? Through study, experience, and scholarship students explore and practice the leadership processes of empowerment, collaboration, and dialogue in the context of creating structures and processes for sustaining and transforming community. At the Benedictine Abbey students become participant observers in a five day immersion designed to explore, practice, and come to an expanded understanding of the role and purpose of the leader’s involvement and commitment to building and sustaining meaningful and purposeful community.

ORGL 523: Psychology of Leadership - 3 credits
Includes 3-days on campus
This is a hybrid course and requires online course work before and after the immersion experience

This course offers an introduction to the field of psychological issues in leadership. While the field is considered relatively new and growing, this course focuses on three popular and often discussed themes in this area: personality development, emotional intelligence and dimensions of a psychologically healthy workplace. Through the use of lecture, discussion, class exercises, film and readings students will begin with a look at leadership success and failure from the lens of psychology. Importance will be placed on the student understanding the psychological challenges of being in a leadership role and how to interact effectively with those who behave in ways that are less than productive for the organization. The middle section of the course offers an in-depth exploration of those psychological capacities necessary for effective leadership. Finally, characteristics of a psychologically healthy work environment will be explored. 

ORGL 530: Servant Leadership - 3 credits

The foundations of Servant-leadership are explored with an emphasis on reviewing the original writings, and on conceptualizing and articulating the philosophy through a clarification of what it is, and why Servant-leadership is relevant. Human development theories are used as theoretical frameworks for identifying criteria to assess servant-leaders and servant-organizations, and for understanding how they develop and function. Dialogue is encouraged as a way of integrating aspects of the philosophy with applied experience and gain insights into the students own leadership approach.

ORGL 532: Leadership, Justice and Forgiveness - 3 credits

Emotional discipline based in love calls a person toward meaningful responses to human suffering. Such responses are grounded in discernment regarding human conflict, oppression, power, and harm, and the opportunities—personal, familial, societal, and global—that rise from the crucible of potential that is our humanity. The course engages you toward self-responsibility in the context of reconciliation, and the depth of heart, mind, and spirit that leads to healing and growth in community with others. You will work to apply the interior leadership necessary for discernment and action within oppressive systems.

ORGL 535: Listen, Discern, Decide - 3 credits

In this class, you will learn more in-depth concepts of Servant-leadership by learning approaches and practices of listening and discernment as a way of enhancing decision-making capacity. The course begins with a focus on interior and exterior listening. Listening and awareness techniques are then integrated with the principles and practices of discernment. The course progresses from a focus on the individual, to group, to listening and discerning and decision making in organizations and communities.

ORGL 537: Foresight & Strategy - 3 credits
Prerequisite - ORGL 530

In this course you will integrate more of the servant-leader characteristics, and further develop the disposition of a servant-leader. The course explores the art, science and methods leaders use to acknowledge, stimulate, and further develop their capacity of foresight.  You will engage macro-system perspectives in applying strategy and stewardship as you consider introducing vision into the reality of complex organizational and community systems.

ORGL 550: Team Building and Leadership - 3 credits
Includes 3-days on campus
This is a hybrid course and requires online course work before and after the immersion experience

This three-day intensive program is designed to increase your knowledge and understanding of leadership and team development through a combination of information sessions and active participation in cooperative, challenge activities. Challenge activities are designed to enhance your critical thinking skills, creativity, problem-solving ability, and ability to work effectively within a team. These activities present opportunities to taking leadership roles, recognize leadership styles, identify what works and what doesn’t work in given situations, and apply lessons to real life situations. Topics include the communication process, leadership models and styles, stages of team development, ethics, diversity, and visionary or principle-centered and creative leadership.

ORGL 551: Advanced Team Building and Leadership Intensive - 3 credits
Includes 3-days on campus; Prerequisite: ORGL 550
This is a hybrid course and requires online course work before and after the immersion experience

This 3-day intensive program is designed to be taken along with ORGL 550, building on key concepts learned. The advanced session shifts the focus from group participation to group facilitation through team building and leadership development activities.

ORGL 570: Introduction to Global Systems - 3 credits

We exist in a rapidly shrinking world of intensifying technological, economic, social, cultural, and political interconnections. Organizations across a range of fields and industries are increasingly more diverse and international, and leaders have to address this complex work environment both domestically and globally.  You will become familiar with a variety of global issues tied to organizational performance and be able to analyze those issues using systems-thinking concepts and tools. You will gain a deeper understanding of social relationships of interdependence and accountability, as well as skills to integrate diverse ideas and perspectives from a variety of sources. Further through case studies, simulations and discussions of current issues you will be able to refine global leadership skills such as self-awareness, inquisitiveness, open-mindedness, and cultural sensitivity.

ORGL 577: Methods of Inquiry and Strategy for Contemporary Global Issues: A Brussels European Forum Simulation- 3 credits
Includes short-term study abroad in Brussels, Belgium
This is a hybrid course and requires online course work before and after the immersion experience

Acquire the fundamentals of leading in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous global contexts while practicing strategic leadership integrating multinational perspectives. Develop the leadership capacity to examine contemporary global issues, comprehensively analyze policies, negotiate towards bilateral agreement, and work in multinational contexts to create viable and sustainable solutions. Competencies are gained from class instruction, mentorship, and coaching from an international simulation at the epicenter of the European Community, NATO, and the home of various multinational institutions in Brussels, Belgium.

ORGL 660: Reading in Social Systems - 1 to 3 credits

This individualized study course is based on readings in a specific topic designed in consultation with the instructor. You will discuss the selected readings on a tutorial basis with the instructor and prepare an annotated bibliography or bibliographical essay. Although individualized, this course is treated as a seminar in which you share your work with other students and the faculty member assigned to the course.

ORGL 670: Projects in Organizational Leadership - 1 to 3 credits

This independent study course consists of a formal research project investigating a problem in applied organizational or social research conducted under the tutelage of the instructor Although individualized, this course is treated as a seminar in which you share your work with other students and the faculty member assigned to the course.

ORGL 671: Projects in Group Behavior - 1 to 3 credits

This independent study course consists of a formal project of original research in a topic of group behavior that proceeds from a research design approved and monitored by the instructor. Although individualized, this course is treated as a seminar in which you share your work with other students and the faculty member assigned to the course.

ORGL 681: Leadership and Storytelling - 3 credits
Includes 3-days on campus
This is a hybrid course and requires online course work before and after the immersion experience

Stories permeate virtually every dimension of our existence as noted in the familiar quote: “Civilizations have existed without the wheel, but no society has ever existed without story.” With groundwork in narrative, the class focuses on the kind of leadership that is demanded by the current world situation: Leaders who lead from their real selves or, Authentic Leaders. After exploring an understanding of authentic leadership, the course will shift focus to a key tool for leaders: the leadership story.

ORGL 689: Leadership and Hardiness - 3 credits
Includes 4-days at Mt. Adams, WA
This is a hybrid course and requires online course work before and after the immersion experience

What is hardiness and resilience and why can some people access it and others cannot? In this unique immersion you will be introduced to psychological hardiness through readings, team projects and a climb at Mt. Adams, the second highest peak in Washington State.  You will gain an understanding of existentialism by exploring what is meaningful and how what is meaningful, informs attitude and feeds courage during adversity, both personally and organizationally.  You will examine how leaders have both failed and succeeded during extremely difficult circumstances.  Using course readings and research you will investigate what makes an organization hardy and resilient.  You will work within a small team and as a class as you plan your expedition to Mt. Adams.

ORGL 689: Contemporary Strategies to Counter Hate- 3 credits
Includes 3-days on-campus
This is a hybrid course and requires online course work before and after the immersion experience

You will research the leadership strategies used to create cultures of justice and human flourishing in communities and organizations targeted by hate. This class engages you to discover the success stories from the past in order to provide insights for today’s challenges. You will discover models for action, study lessons learned and discover the tools that worked. The class is aligned with a class from our doctoral program in leadership studies, and outcomes will be a part of a publication effort to share this knowledge with others interested in combating hate. 

ORGL 689: Global Citizenship - 3 credits

In 2016, GlobeScan found that 51% of people surveyed across 18 countries viewed themselves primarily as global citizens, rather than as citizens of their own nation. Considering the many issues currently facing ‘citizenship,’ such as the international migration crisis, Brexit, and the 2016 US Presidential election, how do we transcend political and state borders to assume the rights and responsibilities of our world? As an individual, we are ethical consumers, engaging actively in global issues. As a group, we must acknowledge our diverse global workforce through inclusivity, alongside the dedicated commitment to the well-being of those in our organizations, as well as our interconnected industries, communities, and world. This course will assist you in developing the personal and professional competencies required to responsibly address our increasingly globalized industries and society. You will gain a deeper understanding of how global citizenship can successful exist in micro-levels of organizational teams and small groups. This course offers an integrated, transdisciplinary, practical, and dynamic framework for you to learn how global citizens must think, act, and communicate among diverse, intercultural populations.

ORGL 690: Communication, Leadership and Community Development - 3 credits
Includes short-term study abroad in Cali, Colombia
This is a hybrid course and requires online course work before and after the immersion experience

Emphasizing face-to-face as well as the use of digital communication tools, the class provides classroom instruction and practical training to help leaders better understand community development needs, as well as how individuals and organizations might work inclusively in partnership with local community institutions to engage and build up local community capacity and empowerment.

• Apply organizational leadership theories at a variety of levels (personal, group and system)
• Demonstrate an ability to develop and sustain effective relationships in a variety of contexts
• Develop imaginative, creative and innovative solutions to solve problems within organizations
• Apply social justice-oriented ethical criteria in communication and leadership practices
• Demonstrate an ability to effectively facilitate change within organizations