Organizational Leadership Studies

Faculty: Associate Professor Clyde (coordinator) 
 

The Organizational Leadership Studies major empowers students to understand, practice, and reflect on leadership as a dynamic process—not just a position. Through interactive, experiential, and interdisciplinary courses, students gain tools to influence change, communicate with purpose, lead with integrity, and foster belonging across diverse settings. Emphasizing applied learning, self-awareness, and social responsibility, the OLS program prepares students for confident leadership in their careers, communities, and personal lives. The major provides foundational knowledge and practical skills to complement any career field or community-based work.​ 

Degrees and Minors

Courses

OLS/WGS 102: Foundations in Leadership

Credits 4
Introduces theoretical and practical understanding of leadership. Assists in defining personal leadership orientation and philosophy, building relationships, initiating change, and empowering others. Emphasis on women’s leadership.

OLS 230: Leadership in Sport Organizations

Credits 4
Exploration of the application of leadership concepts and theories within a sport organization context is extremely important for the success and health of the franchise, department, or company. Topics will include organizational culture, strategic decision-making, communication, motivation and the role of human resources in an atmosphere of complexity and diversity.

OLS 240: The Leader Within

Credits 4
The Leader Within will focus on concepts related to Self leadership. Self-Leadership is the practice of intentionally influencing your thinking, feeling and behaviors to achieve your objectives (Bryant & Kazan 2012). This academically based service-learning course will provide an opportunity for students to examine their own leadership through concepts such as Emotional Intelligence and Authentic Leadership. The course will be grounded in both theory and practice utilizing experiential and discussion-based learning. Service-learning links the academic content of the course with experience in the community through intentional readings, discussion, and reflection on the service experience.

OLS 260: Ethical Leadership

Credits 4
An examination of the unique ethical challenges faced by leaders with an emphasis on building ethical competency through self-assessment, challenge, and feedback. The emphasis of this class is practical application of ethical concepts, philosophies and approaches in order to develop more mindful and effective women leaders.

OLS 280: Organizational Leadership & Change

Credits 4
Whether public, private, nonprofit or governmental; as leaders or followers – every individual is immersed in organizations and the changes that are inherently connected. In this course, students will examine best practices in organizational leadership and how to effectively lead change in a variety of organizations. Understanding organizations’ goals, motivations of their leaders, and the framework in which decisions are made will be evaluated. Students will be introduced to essential terms, concepts and values that guide organizations and the properties necessary for change to occur and be successful.

OLS 291: Leadership Excursion

Credits 1 2
Excursions enable students to experience and understand issues in a more sophisticated and critical way. Excursions require a minimum of 15 hours of academic commitment in and out of the classroom per credit hour. Topics vary.

OLS 310: Applied Leadership Coaching

Credits 4
Introduces students to the foundations of leadership coaching through theory, practice, and peer collaboration. Students develop coaching skills, apply them in real-world settings, and reflect on their growth as leaders. Emphasizes ethical, inclusive, and confidence-building approaches to leadership coaching.

OLS 332: Leadership for Social Change

Credits 4
Academically based service-learning course in which students examine leadership in the context of social change, both theoretically and through observation and interview. The course will be grounded in both theory and practice utilizing experiential and discussion-based learning. Service-learning links the academic content of the course with experience in the community through intentional readings, discussion, and reflection on the service experience. Fulfills writing-intensive requirement.

OLS 340: Conflict Management

Credits 4
Conflict Management explores strategies for understanding, navigating, and managing conflict in organizational and interpersonal settings. Emphasis is placed on recognizing when conflict can be resolved and when it must be managed productively. Topics include communication strategies, conflict styles, negotiation, mediation, power, and workplace dynamics.

OLS 350: Team Leadership & Group Dynamics

Credits 4
Team Leadership and Group Dynamics is an academically based service-learning course in which students examine how group behavior affects organizational effectiveness, conflict management, decision making, and strategies for efficient group outcomes. Through activities in this course, students will explore their leadership skills specifically related to groups and group social process. Empasis will be placed on such topics as group decision-making, participation in groups, power and authority, and a variety of communication styles. Service-Learning and group community observation activities will provide an opportunity to evaluate current group processes and apply learning to actual structures.

OLS 360: Inclusive Leadership

Credits 4
There is a need for the leaders of the future to be aware of and sensitive to the cultural, gender and intersectionality that is inherent within the communities, organizations, and individuals with whom they will work. The course emphasizes the role of women in various cultures and the impact of culture, gender and intersectionality (the interplay between gender and culture) from a leadership perspective. Students will engage in discussions both within the course and with leaders from a variety of cultures to evaluate how to best be successful in a complex world..

OLS 420: Leadership Theories & Practice

Credits 4
An examination of the theories and skills necessary for the development of effective leadership with an emphasis on leadership, its theory and practice. The course includes opportunities for evaluating leaders and leadership behavior in a variety of contexts. Basic concepts of leadership theory will be discussed followed by an in-depth study of modern and historical conceptualizations of leadership and examination of the application of various leadership skills and approaches.