Leading People and Organizations
The leading people and organizations area at the Gabelli School of Business focuses on the following areas:
- Ethical leadership
- Career management, focused on personal and professional calling
- Innovation, including social innovation
- Entrepreneurship, including social entrepreneurship
- Global sustainability management
The area's faculty research has global visibility and is frequently cited in professional journals and the popular press. Some faculty focus mainly on individual-level factors such as character, trustworthiness, or mindfulness. Others look at the group level of what makes highly functional teams work. Many examine how organizations of all kinds can better contribute to solving social problems. Overall, the area's research aims to create insights on how people can manage better.
Faculty contribute to this goal by participating on editorial boards, editing globally prominent journals, and serving in leadership roles in the Academy of Management and other professional associations.
The following options highlight ways in which you can earn a graduate degree in leading people and organizations:
- M.S. in Management (on campus and online)
- M.B.A. Concentration in Management (interdisciplinary)
- M.B.A. Secondary Concentration in Global Sustainability
- M.B.A. Secondary Concentration in Entrepreneurship (interdisciplinary)
- Advanced Certificate in Leading Sustainable Business
LPGB 6610. Introduction to Modern Management. (1 Credit)
This course introduces students to the current challenges managers are facing. It provides frameworks of competing theories on human nature and explores their consequences for managing organizations.
LPGB 6613. Leading People and Organizations. (3 Credits)
FT MBA CORE/ PMBA FLEX CORE COURSE. Presents theories of designing the structure and processes of organizations, as well as the elements of the global competitive environment within which such organizations operate and ways of relating to this environment. Explores critical issues related to the individual and the firm. Focuses on defining management's role and responsibilities in the continual improvement of quality, productivity, and the competitive position of the enterprise. Previous course title: Fundamentals of Management.
LPGB 7610. Leadership and Change. (3 Credits)
Prepares students to meet the requirements of today's economy, where leadership demands a combination of personal capabilities and insights, as well as in-depth knowledge of organizational change processes and practices. Through readings, cases, class discussions, self-assessment exercises, and leader-directed learning projects, participants gain important insights into their own management style and develop essential knowledge and skills for successful implementation of major change initiatives.
Attribute: ABEP.
LPGB 7615. Cross-Cultural Negotiation and Communications. (3 Credits)
Explores how cultural differences and international settings affect business communication and negotiation - key skills for managers who seek to get solutions accepted and implemented. The dimension of culture is used to increase the student-managers' self-awareness and reflection and to build flexibility in their conceptual understandings and skills. Emphasizes specific strategies, styles and techniques that help the negotiator/communicator.
Attributes: ABGS, ABIB.
LPGB 7616. Training and Development. (3 Credits)
An introduction to preparing, offering, and evaluating interventions for personnel training and organizational development. Topics include needs assessment, adult learning, instructional design, and transfer of training from the corporate classroom to the work site.
LPGB 7617. Assessment in Human Resources. (3 Credits)
Prepares students to conduct measurements, assessments, and reports of human resources programs and practices. Topics include job analysis, organizational development surveys, compensation reviews, organizational culture, and benchmarking.
LPGB 7619. Leading Organizational Change. (3 Credits)
Students learn to analyze organizational environments to identify challenges and constraints, to understand stakeholders' attitudes about the status quo, to understand and manage change according to several change models, and to align business strategies with organizational systems and structures. Elements of strategy, planning, and implementation are included.
Attribute: LSE.
LPGB 7623. Contemporary Issues in HR. (3 Credits)
This course provides an in-depth exploration of a current topic, issue, or practice in the area of strategic human resource analysis. The course uses cases, readings, and applied exercises to examine the topic and its implications for HR practice.
LPGB 7625. Team Dynamics. (3 Credits)
Focuses on examining and developing interpersonal skills consistent with modern business's evolution toward an integrated, self-managing, team-oriented structure. This structure emphasizes group problem-solving, interpersonal communication and leadership among peers. There are two face-to-face class sessions. The rest of the class is taught through asynchronous online modules.
LPGB 7637. Entrepreneurial Mindset. (1.5 or 3 Credits)
This is a non-traditional entrepreneurship course based on experiential learning: learning by doing. It is an introductory course that enables students to discover and grasp the nuances of entrepreneurship, and in particular, how to think, feel, and act like an entrepreneur. At a high level, students will be introduced to the risks and rewards, as well as the challenges and opportunities, of entrepreneurship and being a change agent; however, the emphasis will be on developing the framework of a new venture—from identifying and building out an idea to delivering an impactful pitch.
Attributes: ABEP, ABGS.
LPGB 7638. Career Management. (3 Credits)
Helps students plan and control their personal and career development by surveying theoretical concepts and research findings. Through discussions, case analyses and interpretation of diagnostic tests, students acquire the personal insights necessary to complete a self-assessment and career/life plan.
LPGB 7670. Mgmt of Human Resources. (3 Credits)
Studies the personnel function in private and public organizations from the viewpoint of the manager. Topics include recruiting, employment, wage and salary administration, management development, performance appraisal, job evaluation and design, career development, employee turnover, manpower planning, training and affirmative action.
LPGB 7811. Management Internship. (1 to 3 Credits)
This course is intended for students with a Management internship in this term that wish to receive academic credit for it. The course will begin with an orientation session and will be followed by additional meetings with students. The course instructor will provide additional details to enrolled students.
LPGB 8999. Independent Study. (0 to 3 Credits)
LPGB 769A. Leadership for the 21st Century. (3 Credits)
The challenges of leading organizations, especially businesses, in the current era are vast. Globalization requires competitive strategies and cultural sensitivity, the worsening environmental crisis calls for sustainable practices, and increasing social problems and inequalities increase pressure for social responsibility beyond traditional profit making. Many current management paradigms have to be rethought and remodeled to deal with these challenges effectively. In this course we look at challenges to organizations on the systemic level (environmental and social pressures), the organizational level (employee commitment and stakeholder trust), and the individual level (happiness) and examine ways of dealing with them proactively.
Attributes: ABGS, LSE.
LPGB 769B. Sustainability Reporting and Finance. (3 Credits)
Financial decisions worldwide are increasingly influenced by the unique risks of the 21st century. All activities demand focus on sustainability issues—from the looming impacts of climate change and risks associated with health and safety to credit and investment gaps that limit business opportunities and hamper economic progress in many parts of the world. As the challenges of scarcity of resources, the search for profits through efficiency, and impact of climate change continue to mount, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data become essential for prudent decision-making. Along with several multinational investment banks, Dow Jones has a sustainability index indicating that the search for profitability through efficiency has transcended trends and become the new corporate norm. Students in this course study finance, corporate disclosures, and sustainability reporting practices as integrated subjects, beginning with an introduction to financial and reporting principles and moving through financial analysis and industry-focused disclosures. Additionally, the course covers diverse aspects of sustainable reporting and offers tools for effective risk assessment.
LPGB 769T. Me, Inc.. (3 Credits)
If you were to conduct your life like a well-run business, what would it look like? The key to unlimited personal and professional success in daily life is in incorporating the best practices of exceptional companies into everyday living. This course begins by sharing basic business principles of the most successful and enduring companies and how they can be applied to your personal life. From there, this practical course will show you how to envision the kind of success you want and craft an "exceptional living plan" - much like a business plan - that will get you there.
LPGB 76AB. Personal Leadership Development. (3 Credits)
This course will explore emotional intelligence and leadership with an emphasis on self awareness and self management. Various instruments will be used to help students define clearly their personality, motive profile, signature strengths, values and belief systems. Once a level of self awareness is achieved, we will turn to self management to help students make choices that enhance their lives, improve their leadership, and make better career decisions.
LPGB 76AE. Turnaround Management. (1.5 or 3 Credits)
In today's demanding and fast-paced environment, there is a premium on individuals who can produce outstanding results on a continuing basis. Business as usual is not sufficient to sustain organizational vitality over the long term. Increasingly, leaders are expected to deliver growth and productivity improvements while satisfying clients, motivating employees, and meeting the needs of a myriad of internal and external stakeholders. This course is designed to prepare students to lead organizations to higher levels of performance by applying critical elements of leadership theory and practice.
LPGB 76AG. Managing Innovation Change. (3 Credits)
This course is geared towards deepening the understanding of the challenges, techniques, and burdens associated with initiating and implementing major change in an organization.
LPGB 76AI. Managing Transnational Firm. (3 Credits)
Organizations are complex systems. Different theories of designing structure and processes of such organizations are presented. The elements of the global competitive environment within which such organizations operate and ways of relating to this environment.
LPGB 76AS. Boards and C-Suite Decision Making. (3 Credits)
This course is designed to enhance the MBA's understanding of the theory and reality of decision making at the most senior levels of the corporate organization. It will focus on decision-making among the Board of Directors, CEO/CFO and other senior management in a variety of contexts and will include international as well as U.S. perspectives. In addition to lectures and case studies, current CEOs, CFOs, and Directors will share their experiences with the class.
LPGB 76AV. Developing the Sustainability Mindset. (3 Credits)
This hands-on workshop/seminar is designed for individuals ready to take leadership roles in contributing to solutions to our species' greatest challenge - dealing with the climate-change/global-unsustainability situation already impacting our lives, careers, businesses, and societies.
Attributes: ABGS, LSE, SOIN.
LPGB 76AW. Leadership & Trust. (3 Credits)
This course will cover some evolving concepts of leadership and then concentrate on how leaders build trust among followers and other stakeholders and how they architect high trust teams and organizations. The course will be centered around Dr. Hurley's new book The Decision to Trust, which was named one of the best leadership books of 2011 by the Washington Post.
Attribute: SOIN.
LPGB 76BG. New Models of Mgmt. (3 Credits)
This new course will explore the management systems, management processes, and global context required for the 21st-century. There is ample evidence that the "business as usual" management systems, processes, leadership, and goals of the 20th century are inappropriate for the realities of the 21st-century. Building upon the conceptual framework of three technologies (systems) of managing - traditional management, managing for quality and productivity, and managing for global sustainability - this course will explore the possibilities and emerging realities of management systems and leadership for global sustainability. Particular attention will be paid in the course to developing among class members the management skills necessary for this new system of managing and, most importantly, the mindset necessary to provide leadership for this emerging future.
LPGB 76BH. Organizational Behavior for Managers: How to Develop Workplace Motivation and Well-being. (3 Credits)
Organizational behavior (OB) examines how your employees’ outlooks, abilities, personalities, and motivation affect their work. This highly applied, workshop-oriented course will give you an overview of OB and its practical implications for managers. We’ll particularly focus on how to help shape your employees’ job behaviors and well-being. The applied workshops which make up the course will introduce you too to Google’s ‘mindfulness’ initiative in employee well-being and job performance.
LPGB 76BJ. From Managing Creativity to Leading Innovation: A Survey Course. (3 Credits)
Knowing how and where to innovate and to do so in a way that is sustainable financially, socially, and environmentally makes you invaluable to any employer. In this course you will learn tools and gain insights that can equip you to understand the process of innovation at a deeper level, by understanding its complexity and the multiple levels it can and needs to occur to be successful (including individual creativity, product/service innovation, business model innovation, governance innovation, social/sustainable innovation at the systems level).
Attribute: LSE.
LPGB 76BN. Jesuit Leadership and Culture. (3 Credits)
Experience the Spiritual Process that made Saint Ignatius of Loyola; Reflect and Discern on your own Leadership Style and how it compares to the Jesuit Culture of Leadership; Understand the Importance of Team Building in recreating a successful Walking Pilgrimage; Learn the Foundation of Jesuit History.
LPGB 76BQ. Entrepreneurship Bubble: Coworking, Incubators, Startup Contests, and the Purpose Bubble. (3 Credits)
This course provides a focus on the entrepreneurship and innovation bubbles as well as the shortcomings of startup structures. Topics include sources of funding and organizing such as: incubators, coworking spaces, open floor plans, angel investors, venture capital, IPO's, and governmental mechanisms. Upon completion, students will be able to effectively analyze the weakness of an entrepreneurial venture and innovation processes.
LPGB 76BT. Org Development & Change. (3 Credits)
This is a workshop-oriented, applied course on diagnosing and managing organizational development, especially in a climate of uncertainty. Cases, lectures, guest speakers, and exercises will cover a wide variety of OD applications, practical interventions, and approaches to change evaluation.
LPGB 76BU. Design Thinking. (3 Credits)
Design thinking is an iterative problem-solving process of discovery, ideation, and experimentation that, when combined with business models, provides decision-makers with effective tools for innovation and transformation. This hands-on course will guide students in the use of a variety of design-based tools and techniques to clarify and solve human-centered organizational, business, and public service challenges.
Attribute: LSE.
LPGB 76BV. Leading the Sustainable Business Organization. (3 Credits)
This course will outline current challenges and opportunities of modern, sustainable business management. It will focus on leadership opportunities for the advanced business student and highlight best and emerging practices of leadership in the 21st century (incl. Tesla, Unilever, Patagonia and social enterprise).
Attribute: LSE.
LPGB 76BW. Applied Sustainability Innovation. (3 Credits)
This course is a real-life consulting engagement for students with a leading fair trade company (Fairtrasa). Its CEO, Patrick Struebi, will present real-life challenges his company is facing and selected student teams will work on developing innovative solutions guided by peers and faculty. This course is a capstone for the management consulting concentration and the social innovation concentration, as well as the sustainable business minor.
LPGB 76BX. Social Innov Master Class. (3 Credits)
This class is a special offering for students deeply interested in understanding and experiencing the promise of social innovation. In partnership with leading global organizations like the Schwab Foundation, Ashoka, and the World Economic Forum, students will learn from global leaders in the field how social innovation can shape business strategy for the 21st century.
LPGB 76BY. Leading For Impact. (3 Credits)
Have you ever wondered why Tesla, Patagonia and Toms have achieved such remarkable success while generating positive impact for society? This course focuses on social innovation and how businesses can generate social and environmental impact, besides being financially sustainable. Students in this course will learn about the world's most pressing challenges and how new business models such as sharing economy (Uber, AirBnB), circular economy, IOT, etc. can create innovative solutions that generate positive impact for millions. Students will be provided with a comprehensive overview of the latest social business models and how their own creative ideas may be turned into a viable business venture. This course includes Community Engaged Learning (CEL) and students will be working on projects with community partners.
Attribute: LSE.
LPGB 76BZ. Managing Human Performance. (3 Credits)
This course examines compensation theory and practice, including strategic compensation planning as well as the development and management of compensation/reward systems, such as direct wages, indirect payments, and employee benefits. Topics include: economic and behavioral theories of compensation; job-based and knowledge-based pay systems; individual, group/team, and organizational performance pay plans; employee benefits; pay equity; executive compensation; and system administration and implementation issues.
Attribute: LSE.
LPGB 76CB. Sustainable Business Master Class. (3 Credits)
This 3-credit intensive will help prepare students to be leaders in the rapidly emerging world of sustainable business. The world today is in crisis: 65 million refugees on the move, fleeing climate change and failed states; the climate crisis has thrown millions into collapse, and will get far worse; we are living in the sixth great extinction, with millions of species going extinct; inequality is so bad that eight men have as much wealth as the bottom 3.5 billion people on earth? These and related crises are threatening economies across the planet, and business everywhere.
Attribute: ABGS.
LPGB 76CD. Soft Skills for Success. (3 Credits)
Functional knowledge (e.g. finance, IT, marketing, etc.) must be combined with implementation skills in order to create value. For example, a product manager who knows marketing but who cannot influence his or her advertising agency will not have a great career. Similarly, an investment banker who is great a financial engineering will not be successful unless they can negotiate effectively with people on all sides of the deal. The same with an accounting major who understands the accounting or tax rules but cannot lead the audit team or the many groups that report into the CFO. These implementation skills are often referred to as “soft skills”. This course will cover 8 key soft skills (reading people, influence, self-management, difficult conversations, conflict, negotiation, leading teams, execution) in quick burst format to enhance your skills and maximize your careers prospects in a short period of time. 1. Reading people – Understanding how people differ and how you should approach them to be effective. 2. Influencing people – How to increase the odds that people will act to promote your interests. 3. Managing self to maximize impact – How to understand our strengths and weakness and act to maximize the former and mitigate the latter. 4. Having difficult conversations – How to conduct conversations that may prove emotional or threatening but that need to happen to increase joint understanding, head off conflict and increase productivity. 5. Conflict resolution – How to resolve conflicts among people productively. 6. Negotiation – How to help others serve your interests and you serve theirs in ways that create value. 7. Leading teams and managing meetings – How to understand group dynamics, increase productivity and stay on track when you lead groups of people. 8. Execution – managing in such a way that you under-promise and over- deliver results to increase trust and confidence in your leadership .
LPGB 76CE. Business and the Green Real Deal. (3 Credits)
This course seeks to discern the role of energy choices and systems in responding to the climate challenge, and to specify and critically assess opportunities for business enterprise to take initiative in responding constructively to the climate challenge. Students will be organized into small teams. Each team will prepare a business case for an innovation that responds constructively to some aspect of the climate challenge.
Attribute: LSE.
LPGB 76CF. Innovation and Resilience. (3 Credits)
This course focuses on the process of innovation, including the resilience required to weather inevitable ambiguity, risk, mistakes, and even failures along the journey. Topics include: identifying opportunities, managing creativity, evaluating ideas, decision-making in uncertain environments, and resilience.
LPGB 76CG. Leadership for Sustainability and Regenerative Value Creation. (3 Credits)
This course focuses on the inner and outer dimensions of leadership for sustainability and regenerative value creation. We focus on the inner conditions necessary to lead effectively while examining the outer conditions calling for novel solutions. We examine leading companies (Philips, Barry Wehmiller, SEKEM, Natura, Body Shop) and learn from leaders such as Paul Polman, Nelson Mandela, Ibrahim Abouleish, Guilherme Peirão Leal, Eileen Fisher, Anita Roddick, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, Desmond Tutu, and many more. This course is a unique and advanced course for those wanting to make a powerful difference in the world of business and beyond.
Attribute: ABGS.
LPGB 869A. Leadership Forum. (1.5 Credits)
Do you think you can lead? Leading in today's complex environment is probably more of a challenge than at any other time in our history. The challenge is distinguishing between a true leader and a good manager. Additionally, how do leaders handle work/life balance? The Fordham Leadership Forum brings together many successful CEOs to articulate their road to success and the obstacles they needed to overcome, as well as great institutional leaders who will discuss how fortuity lead to them becoming heads of their respective institutions. Who should take this course? If you intend to eventually run a company, begin your own, or move up within the institution in which you are presently employed, this is probably the right course for you. Sander Flaum is well known as a leader within the pharmaceutical industry, having been the Marketing Head of a large pharmaceutical company as well as CEO of the No. 2 global advertising agency in healthcare. He now runs a marketing and sales effectiveness firm which also trains the "rising stars".
LPGB 869B. Leading Global Corporations. (1.5 Credits)
In this course we will focus on three specific areas: managing large-scale organizational change, creating cultures of integrity for sustainable growth. and developing the inner qualities of the global leader.
Attribute: ABIB.
LPGB 869D. Research For Final Project. (1.5 Credits)
Under the guidance of a faculty member(s), students will work as a team to analyse and dissect issues and generate recommendations for each group member and their specific action plan. This course will thus allow for some type of "return on investment" for the student.
LPGB 869H. Team Dynamics. (1.5 Credits)
This course is designed to help students understand teams, be a more productive team member, build and lead teams, and manage team conflict. While the theory aspects of the course come from organization theory and behavior, the practice component involves face to face and virtual team interactions, where students experience the relevance of key group dynamics concepts.