Curriculum
The Bachelor of Science in Organizational Leadership curriculum is informed by national and regional workforce research—including insights from the Burning Glass Institute and SHRM—to develop the skills employers want most. The curriculum is structured around three skill domains that directly correspond to the demands of employers: Human Skills, Business Enablers, and Digital Building Blocks.
- Human Skills, often referred to as “soft skills,” are based on creative and critical intelligence as well as relationship-building.
- Business Enablers are the executing and synthesizing skills needed in the business world to move ideas forward.
- Digital Building Blocks are the skills that empower individuals to thrive in a digital and technology-centered world.
You’ll learn leadership theory with practical application, preparing you to step confidently into roles of greater influence. Courses like Leadership Roles: Trainer, Mentor, and Coach and Managing Organizational Change build skills in motivating teams, resolving conflict, and guiding transformation, while Leadership in the Digital Age and Business and Professional Writing equip communicators to thrive in today’s digitally driven workplace.
Curriculum Details
ORGL 201: Professional Leadership Development (3 credits)
This course provides an introductory overview of the Organizational Leadership major and familiarizes students with the various student services available at Butler University. It assesses current personal and professional leadership behavioral styles and effectiveness, analyzes theories associated with leader and leadership development, and involves writing a Professional Leadership Development Goal Setting Plan that provides motivation and increased likelihood of completion of professional development aspirations.
Service areas featured in the course: Career for Academic Success and Exploration, Career and Professional Services, Library Services, Counseling and Consultation Services.
ED 453: Perspectives in Leadership (3 credits)
The Perspective in Leadership course is for students who want to expand their understanding of leadership. The main purpose of the course is to create a learning experience where you will come to understand leadership theories, styles and skills. You will learn leadership development is a process of leading yourself before trying to lead others. You will collaborate with university and community leaders on how leadership styles are applied and practiced.
ORGL 215: Business and Professional Writing (3 credits)
In today’s fast-paced professional world, effective communication is a cornerstone of success. In combining principles of clear and concise communication with professional document design, this course equips students with the essential communication skills to excel in the world of business, leadership, media, and beyond.
ORGL 300: Leadership in the Digital Age (3 credits)
This course is designed to empower students with the knowledge and skills necessary to excel as leaders in the fast-paced digital landscape. Students will acquire the digital literacy skills necessary for critically evaluating web-based content, fostering effective online collaboration, and leveraging technology for success in the workplace. Additionally, through real-world case studies and insights from accomplished digital leaders, students will grapple with the ethical considerations, legal frameworks, and equity implications of technology adoption and implementation.
ORGL 320: Writing with Visual Impact (3 credits)
This course combines theory and practice to heighten students’ rhetorical awareness, visual literacy, and graphic design know-how. Upon successful completion of this course, students will have a diverse toolkit of storytelling strategies as well as the visual and digital confidence needed to add distinctive flair and creativity to their workplace writing.
ORGL 400: Inclusive Leadership (3 credits)
This course will illuminate the value of leading organizations with people from different backgrounds, beliefs, and/or experiences. We will explore interdependent, diverse perspectives for solutions and approaches to meet intended outcomes. Approaches to overcoming conflict and promoting equity in organizations will be discussed. Methods of leading people from a position of inclusion and belonging in order to positively impact organizational wellness will be examined.
ORGL 408: Leadership Roles: Trainer, Mentor, and Coach (3 credits)
In a rapidly changing global environment, organizations must harness the potential of individuals and teams to advance strategic objectives. This course provides students with critical leadership tools that empower them to act as trainers, mentors, and coaches within their organizations. Students will examine various methods that can be used for human development to ensure personal and organizational achievement and foster change management initiatives. Further, students will learn to model training, mentorship, and coaching strategies in ways that are both ethical and culturally inclusive.
ORGL 411: Managing Organizational Change (3 credits)
Students in this course will examine leadership communication in the context of organizational change. Leadership is analyzed using the concept of citizenship with a focus on communication skills needed to help construct effective experiences for an organization, team, or community, whether in the role of doer, follower, guide, manager, or leader. Students will also evaluate organizational theory and practice that links to how early to mid-20th-century management theories have shaped current 21st-century organizations throughout change.
ORGL 430 Financial Leadership (3 credits)
The goal of this course is to provide students with quantitative skills combined with basic theoretical knowledge to make optimal financial decisions. Financial concepts and accounting principles will be introduced during the course to help non-financial managers utilize financial information to guide managerial business decisions. The focus of the course is a practical application of financial concepts and calculations through case studies, real-world problems, and class discussions. Key topics include financial planning, time value of money, cash flows, capital budgeting, and valuation.
ORGL 460: Organizational Leadership Capstone (4 credits)
This course requires students to develop a written and verbal capstone project inspired by the organizational leadership program learning outcomes and reflections of their experiences with practical application that includes the workplace and through our Integrated Community Requirement (ICR). It is an opportunity to tell your story of organizational leadership experiences and/or aspirations. The capstone synthesizes your knowledge, values, skills, ability, and behavior, through perspectives of course learning gained in your degree program. The course includes a 20 hour community leadership project (ICR).
LE 264: Business Ethics (3 credits)
Examines the conceptual foundations for resolving ethical challenges associated with business activity. Areas addressed in the course include the economic arrangement of a business organization, the treatment of its stakeholders, and the treatment of the environment.
MK 280: Principles of Marketing (3 credits)
A survey of marketing planning and implementation, with special emphasis on product/service development and management, as well as distribution, pricing and promotion practices. Background in economics and accounting helpful, but not required.
MS 100: Business Applications with Excel (2 credits)
This course introduces students to the business uses of Microsoft Excel. These uses include aggregating and visualizing data, creating and analyzing data models, and generating and publishing reports.
ORG 315: Business and Professional Communication (presentation focused) – 3 Credits
This course is designed to help students critically develop and refine business communication skills in order to become more innovative professionals and effective leaders. Students will gain experience with applied techniques in business communication, and learn to effectively integrate and manage new technologies in various professional contexts.
ORG 356: Communication Research Methods (3 credits)
This course prepares students to become knowledgeable consumers and novice producers of social scientific and humanistic communication research. By the end of this course, students should possess introductory skills in developing research questions/hypotheses as well as gathering, organizing, interpreting, and presenting qualitative and quantitative data using appropriate, effective, and ethical methods.
ORG 359: Intercultural Communication (3 credits)
The purpose of this course is to lead students to acquire the concepts and skills needed to manage effectively communicative encounters in which intercultural factors make a difference.
ORG 362: Leadership and Communication (3 credits)
This course introduces students to the theories and practices of leadership from a communication perspective. Students will learn concepts of interpersonal, organizational, public and team leadership. Concepts of power, diversity, charisma, and ethics will be featured. Leadership styles of both historical and contemporary leaders will be examined.
Global & Historical Studies #1
Course Highlights
- Recognize human societies and cultures as dynamic, heterogeneous and constantly in conversation with one another.
- Draw on a variety of sources and disciplines—including the arts, the humanities, and the social and natural sciences.
- Recognize the role of human interactions—from the local to the global—in shaping diverse identities and inequalities.
- Develop knowledge about historical moments, peoples, and places; and to appreciate the relationship between the past and the present.
- Continue development of expository writing skills
Global & Historical Studies #2 (3 credits)
Course Highlights
- Recognize human societies and cultures as dynamic, heterogeneous and constantly in conversation with one another.
- Draw on a variety of sources and disciplines—including the arts, the humanities, and the social and natural sciences.
- Recognize the role of human interactions—from the local to the global—in shaping diverse identities and inequalities.
- Develop knowledge about historical moments, peoples, and places; and to appreciate the relationship between the past and the present.
- Continue development of expository writing skills
MA 162: Elementary Statistics (3 credits) – ALLIED
An introduction to inferential statistics with applications in the natural, social, and managerial sciences. This course is especially designed to meet the needs of students who will later pursue postgraduate studies in social and natural sciences or professional programs in medicine. The course introduces elementary probability and uses it to develop a sound understanding of confidence intervals and hypothesis testing. Topics include data analysis, descriptive statistics, linear regression, chi-square tests, analysis of variance, and tests and confidence intervals for means and proportions.
ST 310: Social Studies of Science and Technology (3 credits)
This course investigates science and technology as socio-cultural processes, institutions, and products. It explores how science and technology are embedded in society as a whole and how cultural variations affect their manifestations. Attention is given to the varying methods by which social scientists study science and technology.
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