Online Master’s in Management and Leadership CurriculumOnline Master’s in Management and Leadership CurriculumOnline Master’s in Management and Leadership Curriculum

Maryville’s online Master of Arts in Management and Leadership program comprises 36-39 credit hours, including your management and leadership core courses, electives, and optional concentration courses. Tailor your education to your personal and professional ambitions by choosing to pursue the general management and leadership track, or pick one of eight specialized concentrations: Cybersecurity, Health Administration, Human Resource Management, Information Technology, Marketing, Project Management, Software Development, or Data Analytics. The program is designed to be highly flexible, so you can tailor it to fit your professional and personal goals.

Master’s Degree in Management and Leadership:
The Curriculum

Businesses don’t grow by standing still: They have to create innovative strategies not only to remain relevant in their industries but also to stay ahead of the competition. While organizations can set specific goals to achieve growth, it takes the knowledge and skills of individual leaders to inspire others to rise to that challenge.

Strong leaders are essential in shaping an organization’s direction. Yet business leaders aren’t born; they’re shaped through gaining knowledge, experience, and refining their skills. One of the most effective ways to acquire this foundation is by earning an advanced degree, such as a master’s in management and leadership. The typical curriculum of a management and leadership program is designed to teach students how to lead teams toward common goals and guide businesses to the top of their fields.

Management and Leadership Core Courses (27 Credit Hours)

Admission Prerequisite: Depending on your background, a foundational course in accounting may be required. BUS-501-Survey of Business, will be required if your undergraduate degree was outside the area of business; however, credits earned in foundational courses such as ACCT 509 and BUS 501 are considered prerequisites to courses required for the graduate degree.

  • This course focuses on ethical problems in business as well as issues of current interest (e.g. the environment, technology, international relations).

  • Course topics include the history of management, perception and communication, motivation theory, leadership and power, group dynamics, conflict management and work design theory.

  • This course focuses on further preparing you to enter the workforce by concentrating on a greater understanding of human relations principles and practices. (Career success is a function of many facets.) The ability to understand and cope effectively with todays work and/or life issues and problems is a skill that is valued by most employers. Many trends, such as workforce diversity, flatter organizations, globalization, teamwork, workplace violence, require a greater understanding of human relations. Prerequisite: MGMT 647

  • This course presents the concepts needed to effectively manage information technology resources. It focuses on the role a CIO plays, the planning, scheduling and risk considerations, along with the strategic role that information technology systems play in an organization.

  • This course examines the roles and skills of the project manager and project teams through the phases of the project life cycle. Topics including project initiation and planning, project organizational structure, teamwork, leadership, resource planning and scheduling, control and project termination. Case studies of real organizations focus on the issues associated with new product, reengineering, technology implementation projects, and behavioral aspects including culture, conflict, risk and change management. The course is a general coverage of project management issues commonly found in the project management certification resources relevant for a wide variety of project types. Prerequisite: MGMT 647

  • This course examines the current leadership literature and traces the development of leadership theory. It stresses the strategic nature of leadership and its role in contemporary organizations. You will conduct a self assessment of your personal leadership skills and participate in many activities designed to develop leadership and skills in team building. Prerequisite: MGMT 647

  • This course is the study of human resource management (HRM) related to managing equal opportunity and diversity, personnel planning, recruiting and talent management, testing and selecting employees, training and development, performance management, compensation, ethics, retention, labor relations, collective bargaining, and safety. Prerequisite: MGMT 647 or COMM-501

  • The basic foundations of managerial accounting to aid in planning, implementing, controlling and evaluating an organizations goals and objectives are covered in this course. NOTE: Computer spreadsheet proficiency required Pre-requisite: ACCT 509

  • This course should be taken as the last core course in the degree program. This capstone course summarizes prior required curriculum in ethics, information technology, accounting and management. Using primarily a case study approach, the course integrates the components into a strategic decision-making model. Pre-requisites: BUS-643, MGMT-647, MGMT-670, ISYS-650, BUS-640, MGMT-687, HRMG-640, and ACCT-610

Cybersecurity Penetration Testing Certificate/Concentration (12 Credit Hours):

  • This course covers the Controls for Effective Cyber Defense, which are a recommended set of actions that provide specific and actionable ways to deter potential attacks. Discussion will focus on how organizations can use these controls to define the starting point for their defenses, direct their resources on actions with immediate payoff, and focus their attention on additional risk issues that are unique to their business or mission.

  • This hands-on course applies a penetration testing framework to ethical hacking. Emphasis is placed on penetrating testing methodologies for various types of penetration tests, including Reconnaissance, Social Engineering, and Network Penetration Testing. This course, in conjunction with ISYS-671, prepares you for the EC-Council CEH exam. Prerequisite: ISYS-600

  • This hands-on course applies a penetration testing framework to ethical hacking. Emphasis is placed on penetrating testing methodologies for various types of penetration tests, including hacking web servers, wireless networks, mobile platforms and cloud computing. This course in conjunction with ISYS-670 prepares you for the EC-Council CEH exam. Prerequisite: ISYS 670

Choose 1 of the following courses:

  • This course covers the Controls for Effective Cyber Defense, which are a recommended set of actions that provide specific and actionable ways to deter potential attacks. Discussion will focus on how organizations can use these controls to define the starting point for their defenses, direct their resources on actions with immediate payoff, and focus their attention on additional risk issues that are unique to their business or mission.

  • This hands-on course applies a penetration testing framework to ethical hacking. Emphasis is placed on penetrating testing methodologies for various types of penetration tests, including Reconnaissance, Social Engineering, and Network Penetration Testing. This course, in conjunction with ISYS-671, prepares you for the EC-Council CEH exam. Prerequisite: ISYS-600

Cybersecurity Incident Response Certificate/Concentration (12 Credit Hours):

  • This course covers the Controls for Effective Cyber Defense, which are a recommended set of actions that provide specific and actionable ways to deter potential attacks. Discussion will focus on how organizations can use these controls to define the starting point for their defenses, direct their resources on actions with immediate payoff, and focus their attention on additional risk issues that are unique to their business or mission.

  • This course presents the concepts needed to effectively manage information technology resources. It focuses on the role a CIO plays, the planning, scheduling and risk considerations, along with the strategic role that information technology systems play in an organization.

  • This course will cover the principles of cybersecurity incident response and forensics, which include a recommended set of forensic principles to provide specific methods to identify and manage security related events. Discussion will focus on how to leverage practices used to identify and analyze forensic data received from devices and the responsible actions to manage a security incident. You will learn proper cyber defense, evaluation and response methods that are inherent in today’s ever changing technology landscape. Prerequisite: ISYS-600

  • This course explores the laws and policies governments, organizations, and individuals leverage to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information and technology. This course explores various legal issues that arise in cyberspace, including contracting online, common and tort law, cybercrime, jurisdiction, security and privacy issues and practices, and intellectual property protection. It delves into industry-specific legal, privacy, and ethical considerations in the areas of healthcare, financial reporting, government information, and protecting children online. Lastly, the course provides you with tools for ethical-decision making in a security and privacy context. Prerequisite: ISYS-600

Health Administration Concentration Courses (12 Credit Hours)

  • The course provides an extensive overview of leadership in the U.S. health services system. The focus of the course will be on the role health services leadership plays in the delivery of healthcare services, including financial management, services utilization, regulatory compliance issues, etc. The student will explore the key theoretical and practical elements of leadership as well as current issues clarifying how the U.S. health services system is organized, managed, and financed. Pre-requisite: MHA 615 and MHA 651

  • In this course, students examine operational concepts related to delivering quality, consistent and cost-effective patient care across the healthcare system. Students gain an understanding of the major functions of operations management, governance and organizational structures. The course will address specific concepts related to understanding how to perform an operational assessment; taking a systems perspective on the organization and delivery of services; identifying problems and improvement opportunities using analytical techniques; and monitoring performance data to identify trends and variation based on current operations and those resulting from changes and improvements. Pre-requisite: MHA 610

  • This course explores the legal, policy and ethical challenges found in the healthcare system, and investigates the role of the healthcare administrator as decision-maker, leader and ethical steward of the healthcare administration profession. Pre-requisite: MHA 610

  • In this course, students will be exposed to management principles of healthcare quality and the origin, distribution and control of disease. Theories of health behavior relevant to individual and community health promotion program planning will also be explored. Students will examine formal and informal programs and strategies used to enhance the healthcare provider’s performance, quality outcomes, and patient satisfaction. Pre-requisite: MHA 610 and MHA 615

Human Resource Management Concentration Courses (12 Credit Hours)

  • This course is the study of human resource management (HRM) related to managing equal opportunity and diversity, personnel planning, recruiting and talent management, testing and selecting employees, training and development, performance management, compensation, ethics, retention, labor relations, collective bargaining, and safety. Prerequisite: MGMT 647 or COMM-501

  • This course develops students’ understanding of recruitment and selection strategies, hiring aligned with organization-specific competencies, and training and recruitment methods. Students will learn to measure the costs of hiring and training, and turnover rate, all of which are central for an organization’s strategic plan. Pre-requisite: MGMT 647

  • This course focuses on the study of employment law regulations and how to plan and reduce legal exposure in the area of human resources. Employment laws are extensive and vary based on many factors, including the size of an organization, its location and the type of industry in which the business operates. The laws that apply to the majority of employers are discussed. Pre-requisite: MGMT 647

  • This course examines the total compensation package with a special emphasis on employee benefits – both legally required such as workers’ compensation insurance and optional benefits such as retirement plans. The course provides students the guidelines for establishing job and pay structures while taking into account legal requirements. Other topics include compensable and economic factors influencing pay decisions, incentive pay plans, executive compensation, and compa-ratio calculation. Pre-requisite: MGMT 647

Marketing Concentration Courses (12 Credit Hours)

  • Apply both management principles and marketing theory to strategic marketing problems, emphasizing long-range planning of marketing mix elements, consideration of marketing interface with other areas, and problem solving and decision making.

  • Develop knowledge, understanding and concepts related to direct and web marketing techniques, tactics and strategies that enable a manager to make sound business decisions. Topics include web media and databases, target audiences, forecasting and cost control, research and testing of creative strategies. Pre-requisite: MKT 660

  • This course explores the role of the brand management function in building strong brands, measuring their equity or value, and in maintaining the strength of the brand over time. The primary objectives of this course are to increase the understanding of the important issues in planning and evaluating brand strategies and to provide the appropriate theories, models, and other tools to make better branding decisions. An additional area of emphasis will be brand management’s interaction with other functional disciplines within the corporate structure, including customer marketing and field sales. Pre-requisite: MKT 660

  • This course addresses the fundamental concepts of promotion management and applies them to a product situation. It examines the major issues facing the promotion manager. Pre-requisite: MKT 660

Project Management Certificate/Concentration (12 Credit Hours)

  • This course will examine how to effectively integrate operations across all functional areas of the organization. Prerequisite: MGMT 647

  • Course topics include the history of management, perception and communication, motivation theory, leadership and power, group dynamics, conflict management and work design theory.

  • This course focuses on further preparing you to enter the workforce by concentrating on a greater understanding of human relations principles and practices. (Career success is a function of many facets.) The ability to understand and cope effectively with todays work and/or life issues and problems is a skill that is valued by most employers. Many trends, such as workforce diversity, flatter organizations, globalization, teamwork, workplace violence, require a greater understanding of human relations. Prerequisite: MGMT 647

  • This course examines the roles and skills of the project manager and project teams through the phases of the project life cycle. Topics including project initiation and planning, project organizational structure, teamwork, leadership, resource planning and scheduling, control and project termination. Case studies of real organizations focus on the issues associated with new product, reengineering, technology implementation projects, and behavioral aspects including culture, conflict, risk and change management. The course is a general coverage of project management issues commonly found in the project management certification resources relevant for a wide variety of project types. Prerequisite: MGMT 647

Data Analytics Certificate/Concentration (12 Credit Hours)

  • Data analytics is generally defined as the use of data, quantitative analysis, and modeling to drive business decisions. This course serves as an introduction to data analytics and the key analytical techniques used for business decision-making. This introductory course aims to provide an overview of programming and data analytics software to develop your foundational programming skills. The course covers basic principles and practical issues combined with hands-on projects that effectively integrate analytics topics using various software.

  • This course examines database management applications to design, develop, and manage relational databases and data resources. The course also covers the integration of these databases with applications across the enterprise with a specific application towards business intelligence. Topics include the relational database model, requirements gathering, entity-relationship modeling, architecture, normalization, design for data warehousing, and extracting, transforming, and loading strategies to support business intelligence applications through a hands-on project. Corequisite: DATA 600

  • This course examines data mining techniques to explore patterns or relationships in data using methods such as classification, regression, cluster analysis, and recommendation systems. This course covers the analysis of both structured and unstructured data. Topics include data preparation, modeling, evaluation, and application. Widely adopted data mining software tools will be employed through a project-based learning approach to detecting patterns. Prerequisite: DATA 600

  • This course discusses techniques for developing effective dashboards to facilitate data-driven business decision-making. The course focuses on creating visualizations to communicate patterns and relationships in data effectively. Several software applications will be employed to enable storytelling through project-based learning. Prerequisite: DATA 600

Software Development Concentration Courses (12 Credit Hours)

  • This course introduces fundamental software development concepts, including data types, variables, decisions, repetition, data containers, functions, and classes. Students will practice using these concepts by writing Python to implement algorithms that operate on data retrieved from different sources (e.g., user input, files, etc.). Students will be introduced to C, C++, C#, and Java syntax. Prerequisites: none

  • Building on fundamental software development concepts, this course fleshes out the key data structures used in application development as well as the analysis of algorithms to determine code complexity. Concepts covered include pointers, stacks, queues, trees, hash tables, searching and sorting, and set and graph theory. Students will use Python, as well as a variety of other languages, to demonstrate competency in the concepts. Prerequisites: SWDV 600

  • This course covers the foundational elements of modern web applications. Students will learn the hardware and network aspects of the Internet, including the client and server backend. They will build pages using HTML, CSS as well as Javascript. They will use JQuery, AJAX, and technologies like node.js, Django, and PHP. Full applications will be built using C# and Java. Prerequisites: SWDV 610

  • This course focuses on a ‘day in the life’ of a software developer, working through a project as part of a team. Students will learn about the different methodologies in use today, including Agile and Spiral. They will run through all aspects of a project, including acquisition using RFI, RFP, and Statement of Work documents, requirements gathering and creating design artifacts, and move through implementation and deployment. Technologies like Scrum and KanBan will be utilized. Prerequisites: SWDV 610 *preferred course

To ensure the best possible educational experience for our students, we may update our curriculum to reflect emerging and changing employer and industry trends.

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Why Leadership Matters

It’s been said that all leaders are managers, but not all managers are leaders. Effective leadership requires a deft mix of well-developed interpersonal characteristics ― “people skills” ― and knowing how to apply the right style for the right situation. Once a leader sets a goal and an associated vision, the leader’s ability to inspire others to follow that goal and vision and deliver their best work is what puts an organization on the path to success. Without effective leadership, ideas idle and businesses stagnate as competition passes them by.

Quality leadership also helps to instill a sense of value and self-worth in a workplace. This is a complex process that goes beyond an individual cheering for progress toward a distant goal. Strong leaders break down the rationale behind why that goal is important, creating a sense of transparency that enables employees to know that their actions make a tangible difference. This also allows leaders to reach out to individuals to offer motivation, guidance, and support in a way that feels genuine and real, as opposed to distant and corporate.

This connection between leaders and employees demonstrates the true importance of leadership. A motivated staff working step by step toward a common cause can achieve strategy-driven goals more efficiently.

The Skills of Effective Leadership

What makes an effective leader? An old Chinese proverb might say it best: “Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow.” The best leaders are those who lead by their actions, not their words; those actions are informed by their expertise. It’s critical for those in leadership roles to develop a robust skill set that enables them to motivate a workforce.

Effective leaders master a number of fundamental skills that, when used in combination, enable them to seamlessly motivate and encourage others. One of the most important is strong communication and listening skills. Interpersonal characteristics, such as empathy and honesty, are also essential, as they can help leaders to support their employees.

Successful leaders should also incorporate skills, such as critical thinking and decision-making, which can help them develop organizational goals and devise the strategies needed to achieve objectives. Other key skills, such as work flexibility and adaptability toward evolving, tech-driven methods of communication, can allow leaders to become more approachable and be an active part of the teams they’re leading.

These skills have to be developed and nurtured to be effective, which is why an advanced leadership degree, such as Maryville University’s online Master of Arts in Management and Leadership program, can be such a fundamental step. These programs are typically designed to help students gain a deeper understanding of the competencies needed to lead others in ways that allow businesses to accomplish their goals.

A Look at a Management and Leadership Curriculum

Developing real-world leadership skills is the goal of Maryville University’s online Master of Arts in Management and Leadership program. The flexible curriculum is carefully designed to offer expertise in the core competencies of effective leadership, such as communication, critical thinking, and team building. It also prepares graduates to meet the challenges of the evolving business landscape head-on, such as the growing influx of Generation Z employees and evolving technological advances.

Maryville University’s online Master of Arts in Management and Leadership offers eight optional concentrations including:

  • Cybersecurity, focusing on protecting information systems, computer networks, and tech-driven data from cyber attacks.
  • Health Administration, which teaches students how to oversee healthcare system operations in a range of professional environments.
  • Human Resource Management, offering students expertise on managing an organization’s workforce, from recruiting talent to devising employee satisfaction strategies.
  • Information Technology, focusing on information technology management, database principles, and data analysis.
  • Marketing, teaching students how to create, promote, and maintain campaigns publicizing a company and its products.
  • Project Management, addressing methodologies of achieving objectives associated with business projects and processes.
  • Software Development, focusing on the creation, development, implementation, and support of operational software.
  • Data Analytics, teaching students how to integrate computer science and big data into business strategies.

Prepare to Lead the Way

Businesses can’t progress without quality leaders. Those who understand how to develop strategies, set goals, and use the right motivational tactics can be catalysts who move organizations forward.

Maryville University’s online Master of Arts in Management and Leadership program can teach you the necessary skills to be that catalyst. Its eight concentrations allow you the option to specialize in an area that aligns with your interests and graduate with specific expertise that employers are seeking. Learn how our dynamic program can help you embark on a rewarding new stage of your career today.

Recommended Reading

Effective Business Communication for Millennials & Gen Z

The Future of Business Ideas for 2020 and Beyond: Where Creativity Meets Data Analysis

Workforce Trends of Today and Tomorrow: A Changing Landscape

Sources

Boss Magazine, “The Importance of Leadership in Business”

Business News Daily, “4 Ways to Define Leadership”

Entrepreneur, “22 Qualities That Make a Great Leader”

Forbes, “100 Best Quotes on Leadership”

Houston Chronicle, “The Importance of Leadership in Business”

Houston Chronicle, “The Top 10 Leadership Skills”

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