COURSES

Although Miami does not currently offer a formal major, minor or concentration in leadership studies, there are many undergraduate courses students can take to develop their leadership ability and knowledge. Below are some possible options of courses that directly address the topic of leadership:

AES 331, “Air Force Leadership Studies”

This three-credit course focuses on the study of the skills and knowledge necessary for effective management and leadership. Students will examine the Air Force leader’s world and elements of the job; review planning, organizing, controlling, and management by objectives; examine leadership insights uncovered by leadership research; and review leadership styles and research models.

AMS Program, “Acting Locally—Civic Learning and Civic Leadership in Southwestern Ohio”

This multi-year curricular program links learning and leadership through community interaction, dialogue, participation, coalition-building, and problem-solving. Students and faculty work with local communities in the region to understand the ways in which local communities are sustained, challenged, transformed, and created in a world where global forces are often as important as local ones in their influence on how people live.

BTE 111, “Introduction to Management”

In this three-credit course, students are introduced to principles and practices of managing organizations and exposed to contemporary management issues, functions of management, and the interrelationship between business organizations and the environment. There is an emphasis on development of supervisory skills.

BTE 112, “Introduction to Human Resources Management”

This three-credit course emphasizes personnel function, management-worker relations, union and government regulation of the workplace. Prerequisite: BTE 111

BTE 128,“Office Management: An Introduction”

This three-credit course centers on the study of job functions of the office manager, which include principles and processes, office environment, people and productivity.

BTE 243,“Management-Worker Relations”

In this three-credit course, students examine the theories, skills, and coping mechanisms necessary to understand and manage human behavior in the organization. The course focuses on ways organizations and members affect problems in an organizational setting. Special areas of emphasis include: development of human relation skills, group facilitation, communication, time management, business ethics, diversity, and managing conflict.
Prerequisite: BTE 111

BTE 252,“E-Business Leadership”

In this three-credit course, students learn the approaches used by leaders and managers of e-business organizations to recruit, train, and supervise Internet-ready employees. Students study the unique management challenges facing individuals who lead high-speed online organizations.
Prerequisite: BTE 181, 286.

BUS 101, “Foundations of Business Decision-Making”

Introduces students to a framework for understanding ethical issues in business that includes multiple stakeholders of the firm; explores fundamental business processes required for business transactions; global, environmental, legal, and inclusive perspectives are addressed. Open only to pre-business students.

EDL 100 “Career Development for the College Student”

This two-credit course features small group interaction and use of tests and inventories to provide opportunities for self exploration and clarification of personal and career goals. Students also examine occupational information and trends, and they gain experience developing resume and interviewing.

EDL F104 “Leadership for the Public Good”

This course explores theories and practices of citizenship and leadership. Using the interdisciplinary scholarship of citizenship, citizenship education, and leadership studies, we explore what it means to work in public life and lead for the public good in local, national, and international contexts. Through intensive reading, lively discussion, and service-learning experiences that connect theory with practice, we critically examine the meanings of leadership, citizenship, and the public good. The course helps students to develop their own educational vision and plan as they relate to preparing to be a citizen and leader in democratic public life.

EDL 306 “The Nature of Group Leadership”

This course is designed for undergraduate students who live in the Leadership, Excellence, and Community Theme Learning Community and have a specific interest in group processes and leadership. It is two credits and includes a service-learning component. In the spring this course will be opened to all first and second year students.

EDL 318 “Teacher Leadership & School Organization”

This three-credit course challenges and shapes students’ conceptions of educational organizations and cultures; their professional development as teachers and/or educational staff members; as well as the acts of teaching, curriculum development, teaming and leadership. The course encourages the development of personal and professional theoretical frameworks and practical tools for enhancing awareness of and action in educational roles as decision-maker, curriculum-creator, inquirer, community member/builder, democratic citizen, team member, teacher and leader.

EGM/MGT 311, “Project Management”

This three-credit course focuses on the fundamental aspects of managing complex projects, the central role of project management in organizations, the project life cycle and techniques for project planning, scheduling, and controlling using situations from technical disciplines.
Prerequisite: STA 368, DSC 205

HON 280 “Introduction to Scholarship, Leadership and Service”

This one-credit course provides first-year students in the University Honors Program an initiation into the best practices of collegiate life. Students develop a four-year learning goals plan, engage in service and learn of the many resources for learning on Miami’s campuses.

HON 350 “Preparing for Life Beyond Miami”

This one-credit course provides sophomores and juniors in the University Honors Program an opportunity to develop a statement of purpose or personal vision statement, research choices for graduate and professional school, engage in mock interviews and develop a portfolio detailing their life and career at Miami.

MGT 111, “Introduction to Business”

In this three-credit course, students study relationships between business and its environment, social responsibilities of business, functions of business, and business management.

MGT 303, “Human Resource Management”

This three-credit course introduces students to concepts, issues, and practices of modern human resource management and their impact on organizational effectiveness. Students develop a critical appreciation of the role human resource management plays in the dynamic environment in which organizations operate. Topics include human resource planning, recruitment, selection, training and career development, performance appraisal, compensation and benefits, employee and labor relations, and employee rights.

MGT 415 “Leadership and Learning”

This course investigates current leadership thinking and behavior in formal organizations as well as its relationship to power and decision-making in those settings. Emphasis is placed on exploring theory, research, and applications of leadership in order to develop personal guidelines for exercising leadership in organizations. Students also study the impact of power and dependence of both leaders and followers as well as the particular relationship of leadership to decision-making in organizations.
Prerequisite: MGT 291

NSG 402, “The Professional Nurse Leader”

In this three-credit course, students synthesize roles and responsibilities of the baccalaureate nurse by establishing a theoretical foundation for developing leadership skills applicable in all areas of the health care system.
Corequisite: NSG 301, 311, 313.

POL 261, “Public Administration”

In this four-credit course, students are introduced to public administration as a field of study and a major component of government. They study bureaucratic behavior and bureaucracy as formal organizations; structures, settings, functions, and personnel of bureaucratic organizations and their effects on public policy and public service delivery.

POL 343, “American Presidency”

Students study the evolution of the presidency, its powers and restraints, organizing and using White House staff, executive decision-making, and contemporary views of the office in this three-credit course.

WMS 401, “The Role of Women in a Transforming Society”

In this three-credit course, students review current and historically significant feminist writings on the ways in which patriarchal structures of authority affect what students know about women’s experiences. Student position themselves as creators of knowledge about women’s experiences and as members of self-critical communities of activists who are transforming society and women’s positions in that society.
Prerequisite: WMS 201

Although the following courses may not directly address leadership as the main topic, they do advance essential leadership skills and principles:

AMS/HST 204, “Introduction to Public History”

This course introduces students to the major issues addressed by historians who work in the public sphere, with emphasis on the creation of a shared public past and the disciplines that comprise the field of public history.

COM 135, “Public Expression and Critical Inquiry”

Students in this course develop the fundamentals of analyzing, organizing, adapting, and delivering ideas effectively in public contexts. Special emphasis is placed on informative and persuasive discourse.

COM 136, “Introduction to Interpersonal Communication”

In this course, students are introduced to major theories and empirical research regarding the role of interpersonal communication and related personal, contextual, and cultural variables in the development of various types of dyadic relationships.

COM 337, “Intercultural Communication”

Students in this course examine similarities and differences among cultures and subcultures with regard to norms, values, and practices in verbal and nonverbal communication. Barriers, such as prejudice and ethnocentrism, to effective intercultural communication are addressed.

EDL 401 “Cultural Studies and Complexity”

Through field experience and related readings in the field of cultural studies, students consider political and ethical considerations involved in helping relationships. Community service is a central component of the course. Journals, class discussions, and readings integrate experience with theoretical understandings of power as it relates to race, class, gender and other social categories. Students design, create, and present a project focusing on a particular problem that relates to issues encountered in the field placement and readings.

FSW 261, “Diverse Family Systems Across the Life Cycle”

This course offers an introduction to and survey of the diversity of family systems. It emphasizes the North American experience while drawing upon global understandings; covers the nature of family systems and how these may vary by social class, ethnicity, urban-rural residence, and other aspects of socio-cultural context; and stresses how family systems change across their life span, as well as how individuals experience different family systems in their life spans.

HST 386, “Race in US History”

This course examines the historical contexts within which major transformations in racial practices and policies have taken place and analyzes racialized customs and behaviors in the US across time and place.

HST 392, “Sex and Gender in American Culture”

In this course, students examine change over time in the construction of sexual norms, attitudes, and behaviors in American culture, as well as of gender roles. The course covers the period just prior to the Indian-European encounter through the present.

SOC 141, “Multiculturalism in the US”

This course examines demographic, historical and legal trends in race, ethnicity, class, and gender that shape and reshape diversity in the US. Examines the social dynamics of race, ethnicity, class and gender, and how they influence institutional structures, social issues and policy, and the possibilities for social change.

WMS 201, “Introduction to Women’s Studies”

This course is an interdisciplinary introduction to the study of women which focuses on determinants and expressions of women’s roles.