This interdisciplinary minor covers a range of leadership concepts, including self-management, which includes values, ethics, and attitudes; problem-solving; decision-making; creative-thinking skills; management of others, which includes creative and collaborative management; delegation; management of change; communication and feedback; team management, which includes the development and growth of group dynamics; and the critical competency of leading by serving, which includes empathy, persuasion, foresight, humility, and the ethical use of power and influence.

Minor Learning Outcomes

Students who graduate with a minor in organizational leadership will be able to:

1. Describe leadership theories and models;
2. Demonstrate the ability to speak and write in a professional setting in a manner consistent with effective leadership;
3. Analyze the ethical dimension of human actions and apply ethical considerations to a leadership role;
4. Identify leadership and management skills in a particular profession or field of study that apply to other professions or fields of study;
5. Develop and articulate their own leadership style;
6. Apply leadership knowledge to a practical setting and assess their own effectiveness as a leader.

Minor in Organizational Leadership

A minimum of 19 semester hours is required, including:
IDS 115: Qualities of a Leader
ENG 325: Professional Writing
IDS 483: Organizational Leadership
IDS 485: Experiential Leadership

Choose one of the following courses in addition to the COM requirement in the core curriculum (i.e., select one COM course for core requirements and one more different course from this list).
COM 201: Interpersonal Communication
COM 202: Public Speaking
COM 250: Small Group Communication
COM 275: Workplace Communication
COM 306: Organizational Communication

Choose one of the following Ethics courses:
PHR 303: Ethics
PHR 304: Environmental Ethics
PHR 340: Christian Ethics
HHP 424: Contemporary and Ethical Issues in Sports

Choose one of the following courses in a particular field of study:
POL 220: Political Leadership
BSA 303: Principles of Management
EQS 308: Ranch and Stable Management
AVS 405: Air Transportation Management
HHP 412: Management of Health Enhancement and Sport Programs
MSL 301: Training Management and Warfighting Functions

AVS 405 – Air Transportation Management

Semester: Fall
Semester hours: 3

This course provides a comprehensive experience for the aviation student by examining the air transportation industry. Areas of concentration include airline operation, maintenance, marketing, and economic factors affecting the industry. The class uses a simulation program where students create an airline and then compete with other students. Additional aviation program fees apply.

BSA 303 – Principles of Management

Semester: Fall and Spring
Semester hours: 3

Students examine the management functions and basic concepts and principles of management, including planning, organization, coordination, control, job design, and human resource management. Topics in human resource management include recruitment, selection, administration of personnel policies, and dismissals.

Prerequisite: ACC 210, ECO 205

COM 201 – Interpersonal Communication

Semester: Fall and Spring
Semester hours: 3

This course examines how intimate, personal, and professional relationships are created and maintained. Students develop an increased awareness of and sensitivity to communication that facilitates interpersonal relationships, as well as communication that creates obstacles to building relationships. Topics discussed include perception, self-concept, listening, and conflict.

COM 202 – Public Speaking

Semester: Fall and Spring
Semester hours: 3

This course examines key aspects of writing and delivering public speeches. Focal topics include audience analysis, speech organization, developing supporting materials, argumentation, and delivery. By the end of the course, students will be able to write and support both informative and persuasive speeches and will be able to identify differences between the two. Students will also gain skill in delivering a variety of speeches.

COM 250 – Small Group Communication

Semester: Fall and Spring
Semester hours: 3

This course explores how and why people come together in groups, how groups develop norms for acceptable behavior, and how individuals can help groups work efficiently and effectively. Because employers seek competent communicators, this course is designed to provide students an opportunity to develop communication skills that can be applied in both personal and professional contexts.

COM 275 – Workplace Communication

Semester: Spring; Odd years
Semester hours: 3

This course will explore communication skills that are required in business processes and professional settings. Students will be exposed to theoretical foundations of interpersonal communication, group communication, nonverbal communication, written communication, presentation and interviewing skills in the context of a professional setting. Theory will be applied in many professional contexts including superior/subordinate communication, technical communication, workplace diversity, and customer communication.

COM 306 – Organizational Communication

Semester: Fall
Semester hours: 3

This course examines how communication occurs in large cooperative networks, especially in professional work settings. It focuses on the roles leadership, management, and conflict resolution play in larger organizations. By the end of the course, students will understand how the values and cultures of any organization emerge through communication.

Prerequisite: any 200-level COM course

ENG 325 – Professional Writing

Semester: Fall and Spring
Semester hours: 3

This course teaches concepts, practices, and skills for communicating technical, scientific, or business-related information. Topics include understanding how people read, designing documents, incorporating graphics, writing about statistical results, rewriting, editing, and using the Internet. This course may be especially useful for non-English majors, providing them with the tools and techniques to communicate their messages effectively.

Prerequisite: ENG 119

EQS 308 – Ranch and Stable Management

Semester: Fall
Semester hours: 3

This course will provide an overview of the business essentials of the equine enterprise. This information will be applied by the students in the ranch project. Students will tour area facilities and survey industry professionals to gain insight into the business practices of the equine industry.

Prerequisite: EQS 201

HHP 412 – Management of Health Enhancement and Sport Programs

Semester: Spring
Semester hours: 3

Students explore the organization, supervision, and administration of various health enhancement and sport programs.

HHP 424 – Contemporary and Ethical Issues in Sports

Semester: Spring
Semester hours: 3

This capstone course covers issues of concern in sports today, such as substance abuse, gender issues, Title IX’s impact on college sports, sportsmanship, standards of morality, questions of value, and rightness and wrongness.

Prerequisite: junior or senior standing

IDS 115 – Qualities of a Leader

Semester: Fall
Semester hours: 3

This course is the study of the art of leadership and how leadership skills can be developed. We will study leaders throughout history, from Sun Tzu (of over 2,000 years ago) to the latest leadership examples. This course will utilize reading, classroom discussions, group participation efforts, and two films in the attempt to dissect the idea of leadership. This course will also look at “personal leadership” characteristics that will enable the student to achieve success at Rocky Mountain College and in society.

IDS 483 – Organizational Leadership

Semester: Spring; Even years
Semester hours: 3

This course operates on a format of open discussion, risk-taking, initiative, honest self-assessment, experiential exercises, and observation of real-life leadership practice. It will challenge students to craft their own perspectives strengthened through critical examination of case studies, workshops, readings, and local public leaders who will share their own leadership perspectives.

Prerequisite: IDS 115 and junior or senior standing

IDS 485 – Experiential Leadership

Semester: Offered at discretion of department
Semester hours: 1

This capstone course gives the student hands-on experience outside of the classroom. In consultation with an advisor in the Organizational Leadership minor and under the direction of a coach, advisor, or mentor, as appropriate, the student will participate in leadership  activities to strengthen their leadership skills and then create a capstone project or paper that assesses their own leadership effectiveness. Options for the leadership experience include participation in an internship, in a job shadow experience, on an athletic team, in an extracurricular activity, as a resident advisor, or other activities as approved by the advisor.

Prerequisite: IDS 115, COM course in the Organizational Leadership minor, junior or senior standing

MSL 301 – Training Management and Warfighting Functions

Semester: Fall
Semester hours: 3

This course provides for the study, evaluation, and practice of the adaptive leadership model in order to acquire the same. The Leadership Development Program (LDP) is used to develop self-awareness, behavior modification, and critical thinking. Battle drills serve to assist the cadet in preparing for Warrior Forge. Students conduct a self-assessment of their leadership style, develop personal fitness regimens, and learn to plan and conduct individual/small unit tactical training while testing reasoning and problem-solving techniques. Students receive direct feedback on their leadership abilities. This course is restricted to contracted military science students. A laboratory component is required, which includes physical fitness training and other outdoor skills.

Prerequisite: MSL 101, MSL 102, MSL 201, MSL 202, or MSL 204
Corequisite: MSL 106

PHR 303 – Ethics

Semester: Spring; Odd years
Semester hours: 3

A study relating ethics, as traditionally conceived in philosophy, to one or more current philosophical works in ethics. This course will provide students with a solid background in ethics, from Plato to Nietzsche. A discussion of a contemporary work in ethics will introduced students to topics that may be covered in depth in later seminars.

PHR 304 – Environmental Ethics

Semester: Fall; Even years
Semester hours: 3

This course will address issues such as whether natural beings and the natural world have rights or whether only humans have rights. Students will determine what is ethically appropriate for humans in their relationship with the environment as well as what environmental ethics must take account of to be consequential in the world today.

PHR 340 – Christian Ethics

Semester: Spring; Odd years
Semester hours: 3

How can a Christian make moral decisions? We will study the biblical basis for ethics and several modern Christian ethicists to understand how they move from the beliefs of Christianity to recommendations for specific ethical action.

POL 220 – Political Leadership

Semester: Spring; Odd years
Semester hours: 3

This course will survey various theories of leadership as applied to politics, as well as explore the biographies of the men and women who have shaped both local and global events. Theory is grounded to practical application, with an emphasis on the various styles, methods, and particular contexts within which individual leaders have come to power, and how the exercise thereof has altered or reinforced their original goals and programs.

• Daniel Hargrove, Professor