Avila University Master of Arts in Management with a concentration in Change Management Online

The study of the structure, individual and group behavior, and development of organizations.

This course is designed as a survey and overview of fundamental and intermediate statistical and financial concepts and techniques. The emphasis is primarily on the thought processes behind different types of analyses and secondarily on the mechanical execution of such analyses. The primary topics covered will blend key concepts from three disciplines: statistics, finance, and decision science.

This course focuses on the interpersonal communication and leadership skills needed for effective organizational development. The course emphasizes conflict management, presentation skills, and informal writing, as well as important leadership skills ranging from giving and receiving feedback to performance appraisals. The course is designed as a “train the trainers” course, enabling learners to later pass on skills to consulting clients, co-workers, and employees.

An experiential approach to the study of change for the internal or external OD professional or organizational manager. Topics regarding consulting and motivating for high-performing systems include interpersonal interventions, team development, and continuous improvement processes.

One of the most important skills leaders and practitioners can have is the ability to influence others to achieve work and organizational objectives. Many organizations welcome diversity as an asset, but lack strategic thinking for managing diversity, inclusion and belonging effectively. This program provides participants with a strategic planning model and an understanding of the critical role diversity councils play in organization success. There is a blend of facilitation skills and activities that will enable organizations to appoint effective diversity councils, develop a mission statement, a vision for the organization, objectives, strategies, and employee action plans.

This is a course about leadership theory specifically in the context of management and organizations. In this course, you will survey the broad spectrum of leadership theories and the research that led toward the theoretical conclusions. You will learn to appreciate the strength of the theories but understand the limitations so that as practitioners you can apply your own set of principles based on what we do know about leadership

This course is the capstone of the M.A. in Management program. It requires the completion of a faculty-approved project that demonstrates professional competence. The project is informed by and contributes to the appropriate discipline literature. It is comparable to a project a student would complete as an internal or external professional. The purpose of the Applied Research Project is the application and demonstration of skill and proficiency as a direct result of student learning accomplished throughout the Master’s program and in their work experience and integrating that with a knowledge base that provides evidence of the ability to research and give meaning to theory and assumptions

Organizational change is not a simple matter of determining where you want to be and moving forward. Rather, organizational change depends on interrelated dynamics associated with processes in the organization and the people involved. In this course, students develop ideas and models designed to help think differently about change and why change is so difficult. The course begins with an overview of the complexity found in organizations and why quality remains elusive. Next, the course develops models related to strategic thinking and acting and how to approach aligning internal capacities with external factors in an organization, or parts of an organization. Then, the course addresses organizational readiness for change. And finally, an overview of change processes, inclusion and how to participate in organizational change.

Building on the strategic organizational aspects of change and is built around the completion of a project template. The template, based on Lean Six Sigma, a performance improvement program focused on discovering process variation, and improving processes to continually provide quality outputs. This focus on processes finds ways of acting, thinking, and learning about continuous improvement through five interrelated dynamic stages. Throughout these stages, students learn to involve others with democratic concepts through structured dialog. Lastly, the course approaches the idea of innovation, or finding new value in organizations through team or community thinking. FA.

In organizations, many stakeholders with various perspectives make up reality. To change and ensure continuous improvement, change agents have to discern this reality through data and evidence. This course will take a deeper look at data and statistically based decision making. Students will layer this data-based view over the DMAIC framework. Consideration of other change methodologies and team development approaches will also be examined.