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Master of Arts in Business Communication and Leadership General Course Descriptions

30 Total Credit Hours

Required Courses

  • COMMS 600 – Introduction to Business Communication and Leadership (first year experience) 3 credits. Complete the program successfully. You will complete a communication-style assessment to identify strengths and areas to improve. You will also learn how to communicate with diverse individuals, foster relationships, find a mentor, and how to express your professional brand through media.
  • COMMS 601 – Interpersonal Influence 3 credits. Strengthen your career through relationships. Learn how the fundamentals of interpersonal communication can be used to build trust, foster collaboration, increase productivity, resolve conflict, and employee engagement.
  • COMMS 602 – Creating Persuasive Mediated Messages 3 credits. Perform at a higher level with strong persuasive skills. You will study the fundamental elements of persuasion and apply them to create memorable mediated messages.
  • COMMS 603 – Writing and Presenting for Impact 3 credits. Leave an impact. Whether you are writing a concise email or delivering an engaging presentation, in this class you will learn how to harness your natural skills, analyze your audience, and express your ideas in meaningful ways.
  • COMMS 604 – Communication in a Distributed Workplace 3 credits. Enhance your online presence. Remote work is here to stay. In this class you will learn how to coordinate and lead remote teams, maintain team accountability, manage effective online meetings, deliver timely and constructive feedback.
  • COMMS 605 – Personal and Professional Branding and Leadership Development 3 credits. Create your professional brand for results. You will learn how to develop your network, chart your career plan, and enhance your leadership message. You will also master interviewing, resume and cover letter writing.
  • COMMS 606 – Communication in an Inter-Cultural Workplace 3 credits. Make the most of your diverse team. Understand and navigate cultural differences in order to effectively communicate and interact with people from diverse cultures. 

General Business Communication & Leadership Concentration Requirements 

Students should select 9 credits from the following list.

  • BUS 601 – Executive Communication 3 credits. Build your communication confidence. This course surveys key managerial communication perspectives with a focus on managerial and organizational effectiveness. The course prepares you to utilize technical, verbal, nonverbal and social media tools to improve your communication skills. You will self-evaluate and improve prior communication events, generate improved feedback processes, and participate in a group project to evaluate the culture and communication of real-world organizations. The course concludes with the development of a Communication Strategy for a real-world organization.
  • BUS 606 – Strategic Marketing 3 credits. Apply strategic criteria to make better decisions. In this course, you will integrate marketing knowledge and apply it in addressing strategic decision-making situations. Strongly emphasizing application, the course is centered around the process of analyzing cases in marketing management with the express purpose of making clear, specific, and justifiable strategic marketing decisions. This course emphasizes the use of analytical skills in making judgments under uncertainty in a variety of marketing contexts, including strategic selling, sales management, new product introduction, franchising, marketing research, and others. It is intended to help students apply critical thinking skills in making better decisions using strategic criteria.
  • BUS 776 – Data-Driven Decision Making 3 credits. Make informed decisions. This course presents an overview of managerial decision making – why do it, risk management, and key considerations. The course will present decision matrices through concepts, examples, and applied practice. You will explore the use of decision trees, expected monetary value, and data visualization using concepts, examples, and applied practice. You will also learn about function-specific use cases of analytics (such as marketing, finance, etc.). All concepts will be viewed through a lens of ethical business decision making.
  • COMMS 710 – Conflict Resolution and Mediation 3 credits. Address conflict in various contexts. You will understand fundamental causes of conflict, apply various approaches to resolving conflict and develop skills necessary to navigate and negotiate disputes in diverse settings. You will practice mediation techniques through role-play and case studies.
  • COMMS 711 – Storytelling 3 credits. Tell a compelling story. Professional storytelling is the art of crafting and delivering compelling narratives in a business or professional context. Use storytelling techniques to engage, persuade, and connect with an audience in order to achieve specific objectives.
  • COMMS 720 – Media Campaigns 3 credits. Master the art of media campaigns. You will plan, develop, and execute media campaigns for various purposes such as marketing, public relations, social advocacy and political. You will emphasize media strategy, message development, audience targeting, media selection and finally, evaluation.
  • COMMS 721 – Digital Literacy 3 credits. Thrive in a digital world. You will develop skills and knowledge to effectively navigate and use digital technologies to achieve your personal and professional goals. In this course, you will learn how to stay up to date with existing technologies and properly communicate in an online environment. You will learn how to find, evaluate, and communicate through various digital technologies and use online collaboration tools (e.g., Google Workspace, Microsoft Teams). You will enhance your digital proficiency, critical thinking, and digital ethics.
  • COMMS 730 – PR and Strategic Communication 3 credits. Communicate with intent. In this course you will learn how to strategically communicate key messages to achieve organizational goals. You will identify target stakeholders, build relationships with journalists and media outlets, leverage social media for PR and branding, and craft compelling stories for brand building and reputation management.
  • ORG 620 – Individual and Team Interventions 3 credits. This course focuses on how people’s behavior is influenced by their actions and the actions of others in organizational settings. This course examines individual and team interventions from a business perspective. Professionals in the workforce today are facing new challenges and the rapid pace of organizational change requires us to deepen our expertise and prepare for the demands of the present and future. Successfully designing, aligning, and implementing adaptive people management practices is an essential component of organizational effectiveness and value delivery. Topics covered include individual performance improvement, performance coaching, teams and teamwork, conflict resolution, change management, motivation and process consulting. The course is designed to be highly practical, current, and relevant. 
  • ORG 625 – Leading in a Global Context 3 credits. Get the big picture. Leadership is a necessary factor for organizations to compete successfully in the global marketplace. This course introduces concepts and theories of leading organizations in a global context with particular emphasis on an organization’s global strategy and organization factors within the context of its industry and the global economy.