Metropolitan School of Professional Studies

M.S.M. Program: Leadership Track

The M.S.M. program's Leadership track is unique in its focus on skills-development. Building on the strong academic foundation of the M.S.M. program's core curriculum, the focus of the Leadership track courses is to provide students with a better conceptual understanding of leadership, to help them identify opportunities for their own development, and - ultimately - to facilitate the emergence of a better leader-manager.

The program consists of a total of 12 courses, or 36 semester credits, and requires approximately 18 - 24 months to complete. Students must earn at least a 'B' grade point average (3.0 on a 4.0 scale) - both overall and on final projects completed as part of the capstone course.

Core courses within the M.S.M. program include the following:

• Communicating Effectively as a Manager
• Managing People and Performance
• Managerial Decision-Making: Tools and Techniques
• Project Management
• Human Resource Management and Strategy
• Leadership Foundations
• Strategic Planning and Implementation
• Master's Capstone: Research, Synthesis, Applications

Students within the Leadership track also complete the following:

• Ethical Leadership
• Leading Organizational Change
• Developing Leadership Competencies
• One additional course selected from:
• Labor-Management Relations
• Integrated Organizational Communication
• Public Relations: Managing External Relations
• Human Resource Development and Training
• Advanced Managerial Communication
• Conflict Resolution

Schedule

Participants will typically take two courses per term, with each course meeting one evening per week, from 6:10 - 8:40 p.m., or from 6:35 - 9:05 p.m. Most students elect to complete the program as part of a cohort, although this is not required. The cohort model allows students to go through the program's core courses with the same group of colleagues. The benefits enjoyed from completing the program in this manner include:

• enhanced collegiality among the students
• student-colleagues serve as a ready back-up if you have to miss a class, providing notes and insights from the missed class meeting
• students become a strong professional network both during the program and afterward when you're facing new challenges
• personal friendships
• a more relaxed classroom dynamic that makes the learning experience more enjoyable
• familiarity among the faculty regarding which courses you have (or have not yet) completed within the program
• a fixed schedule for the duration of the program, which greatly enhances students' ability to schedule and accommodate personal and professional obligations
• confidence in knowing that the course you need each semester WILL be offered exactly when you expect/need it to be.

The following table provides a reasonable example of how the program is structured. Your schedule will resemble this, but may not be identical.

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