To help in the selection of your courses and provide a focused program of studies, you are encouraged, but not required, to select a program concentration. Your concentration courses will allow you to develop specific expertise and signify your mastery of a topic to potential employers. Concentration courses allow you to explore the theory, application, and critical perspective in a sub-discipline, and will help you prepare to pursue the capstone project.
Organizational Dynamics students who complete the requisite course units in a single concentration will earn a Graduate Certificate in addition to the master’s degree.
All Dynamics courses are coded within four concentration groups, and students are encouraged to gain a multi-disciplinary perspective and to customize their curriculum by selecting courses from all groups. As many courses carry several group codes, students may earn multiple certificates.
The Global and Cultural Organizational (GL) studies concentration focuses on cultural diversity and organizational relationships within and between local companies and the international community. These courses include international seminars in which students study for one to two weeks in countries such as Panama, Sweden, Italy, and France.
The Global and Cultural Organization track may be appropriate for those who work in or are affiliated with a global organization; those who are planning to establish business relationships outside North America (including outsourcing); and those interested in the effects of global culture, economics, politics, and communication on organizational enterprises. Global and Cultural Organizational courses also examine how global interests are influenced by local cultural framing.
Recent courses in this concentration include:
- European Approaches to Complex Multi-Stakeholder Project Management
- Race, Ethnicity, & the American Workplace
- Dynamic Hub of the Americas: Entrepreneurship & Sustainable Development in Panama
Students who complete this concentration earn a certificate in Global and Cultural Organizational Studies.
The Leading and Managing through Change (LMC) concentration is the core of the Organizational Dynamics curriculum. This concentration includes action-oriented frameworks and methods for thinking, planning and getting things done. Students who are administrators, project and program managers, directors and executives will become strategic change agents and effective leaders. Leadership is framed as a relationship with coworkers, not as a series of skills and traits.
Recent courses in this concentration include:
- Organizational Project Management
- Social Media and the Organization
- Devil's Advocate: The Power of Divergent Thinking
Students who complete this concentration earn a graduate certificate in Leading and Managing through Change.
The Organizational Coaching (OC) studies concentration concerns how organizational talent is managed through coaching and how organizational coaching can be used as a strategic business development initiative. Coaching courses address the history, models, systems and tools of coaching including how to select and match coaches to clients, and how to evaluate coaching outcomes.
The concentration is designed for individuals interested in learning and developing coaching competencies and tools that integrate with other Organizational Dynamics competencies such as project management, change management and global studies.
Students for whom Organizational Coaching studies may be appropriate include:
- Those interested in enhancing their coaching or consulting competencies or credentials
- HR personnel responsible for supporting coaching within their organizations
- Managers and leaders who wish to apply tools of organizational coaching to their own activities, colleagues or teams
- Personnel with organizational responsibility for succession planning or talent management
Students who complete this concentration earn a graduate certificate in Organizational Coaching Studies.
The Leadership Coaching Cohort (LCC) concentration provides the academic foundations and practical experience necessary to begin a career in professional coaching or integrate a coaching approach into a leadership or management role in any field. Courses in this concentration explore the core psychological and developmental theories that inform coaching practice; the principles and methodologies that enable coaches to make a positive and lasting impact on individuals, groups, and systems; and the step-by-step process of planning and navigating the business of coaching.
This concentration is intended for individuals interested in gaining in-depth knowledge and hands-on experience in the field of leadership and executive coaching.
Who should consider the Leadership Coaching Cohort (LCC) concentration?
- Practitioners interested in incorporating coaching principles and tools as part of their leadership repertoire in an existing or future leadership role
- Managers, leaders, or HR personnel interested in facilitating cultural and organizational change, developing leaders, or increasing managerial effectiveness
- Practitioners of coaching looking for a competitive edge and in-depth mastery to help distinguish them in the growing field of professional coaching
- Individuals seeking to cultivate a robust understanding of group dynamics and their own roles as leaders and members of groups and teams
LCC uses a proven cohort learning model to create and foster a vibrant learning community. The experiential design of this program blends scholarly work, supervised hands-on practice, and independent study in a format that allows students to continue working full-time while they complete their coursework.
Students who complete this concentration earn a Graduate Certificate in Leadership Coaching.
The Sustainable Development (SD) studies concentration concerns the ability of an organization to meet their present needs and interests without compromising the ability of future generations to do the same. How an organization builds and supports a culture that systemically integrates meeting the triple‐bottom‐line (people/social, product/economic and planet/environment) is central to this concentration.
This concentration is suited to those who appreciate that perhaps the greatest challenge in creating a sustainable culture is changing the patterns of behavior and practice of an organization's members and stakeholders.
Recent courses in this concentration include:
- Global PENNovation: Making Tomorrow's Cities Sustainable Cities
- Sweden: Strategies for Thriving in the 21st Century
- Outdoor Dynamics: Issues in Sustaining Wilderness
Students who complete this concentration earn a graduate certificate in Sustainable Development Studies.
