There are several types of graduate business degrees which prepare students for many types of careers. The most typical is the Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree, with its concentrations or emphasis areas. There is also the Master of Science (MS) degree which allows a student to explore a business concentration in more depth, such as in management, accounting, or finance. There is also a more broad-based business degree for students that are interested in understanding the culture and behavior of organizations. This degree is specifically designed to teach individuals to manage teams and systems from both the human and technical perspective. It is interdisciplinary in its approach in that it synthesizes knowledge from different fields, including business, the social sciences, and communication. This degree is the Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership (Mahuron, 2013).
A versatile graduate degree, the Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership (MAOL) prepares individuals to handle the human aspect of business management in a variety of roles and settings, which encompasses all private, public, and nonprofit organizations and businesses. Graduates can be employed to lead organizational change, be involved in human resource management, employee recruitment and development, and to help create high-performing work forces. They can be used as corporate trainers, adult educators, program developers, or instructional designers. They can be found working at institutions of higher learning in the development, planning, and implementing college-level programs within the student services division of schools, or providing leadership in an administrative role. It is also common for these graduates to teach college-level courses in student development, leadership, and adult basic education (Mahuron, 2013). MAOL graduates are indeed equipped for top paying positions such as Human Resources Manager, Production Supervisor, and Administrative Service Manager (Wilson, 2012).
Typical coursework for the MAOL involves theories in leadership and their application, human relations, diversity within organizations, and techniques for solving organizational issues and conflict resolution (Wilson, 2012). Effective written and verbal communication skills, employee training and development, and project management coursework could also be included.
The MAOL degree is considered to be an alternative to the popular MBA degree. While the MBA concentrates on the analytical parts of leadership, the MAOL emphasizes psychology and philosophy as it relates to employee and organizational behaviors. Each of these degrees has its own managerial approach and techniques. MAOL programs have been shown to create higher quality leaders than MBA programs, because of their heavy emphasis on organizational leadership (Wilson, 2012).
Sources
Mahuron, S. (2013). What Jobs Can You Get With an Organizational Leadership Degree? The Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 24 Oct 2013 from http://work.chron.com/jobs-can-organizational-leadership-degree-6405.html
Wilson, A. (2012, September 24). MSOL: Better Than an MBA? College Being. Retrieved 24 Oct 2013 from http://www.collegebeing.com/msol-better-than-mba/
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