About the Program

The ability to lead is not an inborn phenomenon reserved for a select few. Rather, individuals can be taught sound principles of ethical leadership, which in turn can be applied successfully to the modern workplace with positive results. Leadership involves the ability to articulate visions, create missions, establish goals, develop teams, embrace change, and motivate others while maintaining the highest ethical standards in business practice. The concentration in leadership provides students with the necessary foundations in critical thinking and leadership principles to enable their development as ethical leaders capable of succeeding in multiple organizational settings.

The Business Administration and Economics Department at Roanoke College has a highly integrated curriculum culminating in a capstone business policy class. This core of classes is supplemented by several areas of concentrated study including accounting, finance, marketing, human resource management, health care administration, and global business. The leadership concentration has added a new dimension to the curriculum. This is a concentration that few undergraduate colleges offer, and (to our knowledge) the close relationship with an innovation firm is not available at any other college.

The direct alliance with Roanoke Valley businesses allows the College to develop a leadership program that focuses on developing professionals to be able to deal with the complexities of leading others and teams in an innovative organizational environment. The principles taught in this new curriculum will focus on how leaders must continuously transform organizations in order to remain viable in the 21st century hypercompetitive marketplace. The 20th century-style "status-quo" management practices must be redesigned around leadership practices which encompass vision, innovation, and employee empowerment. Much has been written about the "creative economy" or "innovative organization" as the future of American industry, and this concentration recognizes and prepares our students to thrive in this environment. Additionally, the alliance with business will further refine the concentration and its content on a continual basis so that the curriculum is current and dynamic.

Requirements

The leadership concentration includes the following core courses:

• BUAD 264 Foundations of Leadership
• BUAD 364 Team Dynamics
• BUAD 374 Conflict Management in the Workplace
• BUAD 464 Advanced Topics in Leadership

In addition two courses must be selected from:

• BUAD 354 Human Resource Management
• COMM 220 Public Speaking
• COMM 217 Business Communication
• PHIL 222 Business Ethics
• POLI 301 Public Administration
• PSYC 325 Social Psychology OR SOCI 336 Organizations, Occupations and Work

Compilation of Credit Form for Concentrations