Take My SNHU MS Organizational Leadership Classes

The six courses on SNHU's MS in Organizational Leadership page are all covered.

OL 500 Human Behavior in Organizations starts with the individual and the group: how personality and values shape work, why people are motivated or disengaged, how teams form and fail and how power and conflict play out. For a leader, it is the course that explains what is happening in the room.

OL 600 Strategic Human Resource Management treats people decisions as strategy: how hiring, development, pay, performance and retention support where an organization is going, and how a leader works with HR rather than around it.

OL 663 Leading Change covers why most change efforts stall and how leaders improve the odds, using Kotter's eight steps, Lewin's three stages, Bridges' transitions and ADKAR, with stakeholder analysis, communication and resistance.

OL 670 Organizational Leadership tours the major leadership theories, from trait research to adaptive leadership, and asks which ones explain a real leader.

OL 690 Responsible Corporate Leadership examines ethics, governance, stakeholder responsibility and sustainability from the leader's chair, often through cases where leaders failed or got it right.

OL 750 Organizational Leadership Capstone closes the degree with an applied project in which students diagnose a leadership challenge in a real organization and propose a solution.

Follow the table further down to each course's pages.

Leadership coursework is strongest when it is anchored in a real setting, so the plan starts with your organization, the courses left and how many you take per 10-week term.

Each course goes to someone who works in that area. An I/O psychologist takes OL 500; an HR executive takes OL 600; a change consultant who has led reorganizations takes OL 663; an executive coach with a doctorate in leadership takes OL 670; a corporate ethics officer takes OL 690; a former chief of staff to a city manager takes OL 750.

One organization can carry the program. Think of a hospital nurse director responsible for six inpatient units. OL 500 can explain night-shift turnover, OL 600 can plan nurse recruitment, OL 663 can roll out shared governance, OL 670 can examine the director's own style, OL 690 can weigh a staffing-ratio dilemma and OL 750 can propose a charge nurse leadership program.

During each course, posts are written before each week opens and larger papers arrive several days early. Comments from grading shape the next piece.

When one course ends, the next specialist receives a page of notes on your organization, the analyses already graded and how you write.

If your own workplace is too sensitive to describe, a realistic composite is built instead, such as a county agency or a regional nonprofit, and kept consistent across all six courses so your instructor still sees one organization develop.

Leadership is the day job here: an executive coach who works with hospital and police executives, an I/O psychologist, an HR executive at a regional employer, a change consultant who has guided mergers and reorganizations, a corporate ethics officer and a former chief of staff in city government.

Several hold doctorates in organizational leadership or psychology, and others hold coaching or Prosci change certifications.

Their papers read like advice from a seasoned leadership adviser: honest about the problem, grounded in research and practical about what a leader can actually do next.

A second specialist reviews every deliverable for accuracy, evidence and APA style before it reaches you.

Matching goes past the course title. A school leader's change plan goes to someone who has guided school reforms; a hospital leader's to someone who has worked inside health systems; a public safety leader's to someone who has advised police and fire departments.

Theory overload is the first challenge. OL 670 covers a dozen leadership approaches that overlap, and instructors expect students to choose and apply the right ones, not list them all.

Self-examination is the second. Many assignments ask students to analyze their own leadership with assessments and evidence, which is harder than analyzing someone else.

Application is the third. Change and capstone papers must show the model working on a real situation.

Ethics is the fourth. OL 690 cases rarely have clean answers, and graders want competing obligations weighed with recognized frameworks.

Most students also lead people full time, often in public service, schools, health care or the military, where emergencies, inspections and staffing gaps do not wait for a 10-week term.

Sources are another strain. Instructors expect peer-reviewed leadership research, and students used to management books and podcasts must learn to find and cite journal work.

Course prices are set from each syllabus. OL 750 and OL 663 usually cost the most to hand over, OL 670 and OL 690 sit in the middle, and OL 500 and OL 600 are often lighter.

The split is yours. Leaders who enjoy reflecting on their own style often keep the self-assessment pieces of OL 670; many hand over OL 663, OL 690 and the capstone.

When syllabi arrive about ten days before a term, each specialist can read the full course; a course already running is joined at its open week.

Timed quizzes, proctored exams, recorded presentations, live interviews you must conduct and confidential details from your organization stay with you. OL 500 and OL 600 also appear on the MS in Management page, so work in them fits either program.

Your degree audit helps account for transfer credit or any course already completed elsewhere.