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online master's degree of organizational leadership
Spring term classes start March.
Connect in person with faculty and peers.
Earn your degree on your schedule
$680 per credit hour.
36 total credit hours.
develop the skills to lead with purpose and vision.
The Master of Science in Organizational Leadership program at Bellevue University is designed to help you strengthen your decision-making, problem-solving, and leadership capabilities while learning to inspire and develop others. Through a focus on effective leadership practices and purposeful mentoring, you’ll build the strategic, ethical, and interpersonal skills essential for success in today’s complex organizations. This program empowers you to become a confident leader who can guide teams, drive change, and shape organizational culture in meaningful ways.
Study six core areas of leadership excellence.
Your coursework integrates theory, research, and practical application across six key areas of leadership development: Organizational Leadership, Social Psychology of Leadership, Leadership Ethics, Strategic Leadership, Advanced Leadership Dynamics, and Creativity and Innovation. In each area, you’ll analyze real-world leadership challenges and apply your learning to projects you can showcase to employers—such as white papers, presentations, or professional portfolios. These experiences help you bridge academic knowledge with workplace impact, preparing you to lead teams, mentor others, and strengthen organizational performance.
Flexible, career-focused learning for working professionals.
The online MS in Organizational Leadership is offered in a flexible, accelerated cohort format designed for busy professionals. You’ll register once at the start of the program and take one course at a time, with three-week breaks between courses and no classes during most major holidays—allowing you to balance your education with work and life commitments. Alongside your degree, you’ll also have the opportunity to prepare for up to five professional leadership certifications, such as the Key Leadership Skills Certificate (KLSC), Leadership Development Certification Program (LDCP), and Strategic Organizational Leadership Certification (SOLC)—enhancing your expertise and marketability as an organizational leader.
Customize your Master of Science in Organizational Leadership degree program.
Concentrations
what you'll learn.
In this program, you’ll build the strategic, ethical, and interpersonal skills to lead teams, drive organizational change, and foster cultures of innovation and collaboration.
upon graduation, students will be able to:
- Use leadership theory and research as a lens to analyze power, processes and culture in organizations.
- Discern how attributions, social perception, attitudes, personality and social behavior impact organizational leadership.
- Analyze the effects of individual and organizational variables on team processes and leadership effectiveness.
- Demonstrate ethical leadership by practicing moral awareness, moral behavior and socialized power.
- Apply principles of strategic leadership for effective organizational change, communication, alignment and performance.
- Recommend leadership practices to promote creativity and innovation in groups and organizations.
- Maximize executive leadership potential in organizations by leveraging social networks and establishing purposeful mentoring programs.
- Apply a leadership-as-practice approach to achieve collectively shared knowledge and process alignment in organizations.
- Critically analyze leadership research and theories to promote informed practices for effective leadership development and workplace democracy.
Awards
Bellevue Stories
Organizational Leadership degree courses
Current students please login to BRUIN and select “Academic Progress” for your curriculum requirements.
Requirements (36 credit hours)
In this course, students explore the field of leadership by examining the history of leadership studies and leadership research methods. Contemporary leadership theories of change, transformation, service, mentoring, and leadership development will be examined. Students will also consider how individual differences, power, influence tactics, and diversity impact leadership emergence, effectiveness, and organizational practices.
You can customize the outcome of this course to your career goals and aspirations, based on one or more elements of MOL 645. Possible outcomes for this course include creating and writing a white paper, grant, training manual, conference presentation, or designing a custom project for your organization as agreed upon with the professor.
In this course, students examine several major social-psychological theories and experiments that have informed the study of leadership. Classic experiments on obedience, conformity, social influence, and impression management will be critiqued to analyze how situations influence leader and follower behavior. Students will also learn how perception, attitudes, conflict, culture, and social behavior affect leader-follower interactions, and training, in functional and dysfunctional groups.
You can customize the outcome of this course to your career goals and aspirations, based on one or more elements of MOL 647. Possible outcomes for this course include creating and writing a white paper, grant, training manual, conference presentation, designing a custom project for your organization, as agreed upon with the professor.
In this course, students explore the ethical foundations of leadership and examine how ethics predicts long-term leadership effectiveness. This exploration includes a focus on the moral character of leaders and how character affects ethical behavior, especially in times of change. Key research topics such as personal character, organizational culture, moral engagement, ethical decision-making, and crisis management will be presented.
You can customize the outcome of this course to your career goals and aspirations, based on one or more elements of MOL 649. Possible outcomes for this course include creating and writing a white paper, grant, training manual, conference presentation, designing a custom project for your organization, as agreed upon with the professor.
In this course, students will discover how leaders affect organizational missions, goals, and objectives. Students will also consider the roles leaders play in inspiring, empowering, planning, and communicating strategic initiatives. Key approaches to external monitoring, competitive strategy, strategic performance evaluation, and change will be applied to real life organizations.
You can customize the outcome of this course to your career goals and aspirations, based on one or more elements of MOL 651. Possible outcomes for this course include creating and writing a white paper, grant, training manual, conference presentation, designing a custom project for your organization, as agreed upon with the professor.
In this course, students learn about leadership research, frameworks, and models used to help organizations evaluate leadership effectiveness, address leadership challenges, and promote leadership development for improved leadership dynamics. Critical leadership studies will be used as the foundation to critique power relationships and mentoring practices to understand how leadership development is resisted or accepted in organizations.
You can customize the outcome of this course to your career goals and aspirations, based on one or more elements of MOL 653. Possible outcomes for this course include creating and writing a white paper, grant, training manual, conference presentation, designing a custom project for your organization, as agreed upon with the professor.
In this course, students learn how leaders can facilitate creativity, innovation, and effectiveness in groups and organizations. The course presents a dialog of disciplines by exploring leadership through the humanities to uncover the hidden traditions of art, history, music, and literature in in modern business. Additional topics include critical theory, discursive approaches to leadership, and leadership aesthetics.
You can customize the outcome of this course to your career goals and aspirations, based on one or more elements of MOL 655. Possible outcomes for this course include creating and writing a white paper, grant, training manual, conference presentation, designing a custom project for your organization, as agreed upon with the professor.
Major Requirements Credits
= 36 total credits*
University Accreditation
Bellevue University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission ( hlcommission.org ), a regional accreditation agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
Whether a college, university, or program is accredited is important to students receiving financial aid, employers who provide tuition assistance, donors, and the federal government.
This program is considered a non-licensure degree/certificate program and is not intended for those seeking licensure or the practice of licensed profession. This program may be relevant to multiple occupations that do not require licensure and was not designed to meet educational requirements for any specific professional license or certification.
*Consult with an admissions counselor to determine your eligible credits, as well as to verify minimum graduation requirements for this degree. Transfer credits must be from a regionally accredited college or university. Bellevue University makes no promises to prospective students regarding the acceptance of credit awarded by examination, credit for prior learning, or credit for transfer until an evaluation has been conducted.
learn on your own time, from anywhere.
Flexible schedule.
Study on your own time with courses designed to fit your busy life—whether you're working, raising a family, or serving in the military.
Reliable technical support.
Access 24/7 tech support to keep you connected and focused on learning, no matter where you are.
Dedicated online student support.
From coursework access and connectivity issues to tutoring and resume assistance, we've got you covered.
Engaging online learning.
Enjoy interactive courses designed for real-world application, with multimedia content, discussions, and hands-on projects.
Prefer to learn On-Campus?
grow with faculty who’ve been where you are.