Graduate Programs In Organizational Leadership: A Review Of Programs, Faculty, Costs, And Delivery Methods

Abstract

Executive SummaryGraduate level education in professional degree programs, such as organizational leadership, is changing and evolving rapidly. As consumers demand non-traditional scheduling arrangements and mediated "any time, any place" learning, educational institutions have had to look at these options. This study explored the nature of graduate education in organizational leadership considering specifically the program focus, the characteristics, the faculty, costs, and delivery methods utilized. Based on the data gathered by reviewing more than 40 degree programs, there are clear indications that educational institutions are beginning to meet the needs of the nontraditional learner. Given the evolution of higher education, more specific research should be conducted.

Does education have a role in developing leadership skills?

“…This interest has even stimulated more and more business schools to design and prepare special leadership training and education programs. Crawford et al (2002) reviewed over 40 graduate degree programs that offered a specialization in leadership programs. This emerging demand for leadership education is also spurred by the interest of non‐traditional students (i.e.…”

“…This emerging demand for leadership education is also spurred by the interest of non‐traditional students (i.e. executives and practitioners) (Crawford et al , 2002). Academic units like Harvard Business School Executive Education Program, which focuses on enhancing leadership capacities of executives, and University of Michigan's Michigan Leadership Program (MLP) are known for developing leadership skills of students with a special emphasis on critical leadership issues.…”

Analysis of Doctoral Programs in Leadership: Strengths and Weaknesses

“…Results of this study could be used as reference for a review of graduate degree programs in leadership in a future. Numerous studies in leadership relating to an examination of related leadership programs in higher education have cited the study of Crawford et al (2002) as a reference for their studies (Stork et al, 2015;Tolstikov-Mast et al, 2018). However, the use of this article as a guideline for conducting research in leadership programs in Thai context was zero despite the useful information and ideas to extend the study in a related topic in a different context.…”

Leadership Graduate Degree Programs: A Comparative Review and Analysis of Value Propositions

“…College leadership degree programs have proliferated in the past two decades, most prominently in the United States and also abroad (Brungardt, Greenleaf, Brungardt, & Arensdorf, ; Greenwald, ; International Leadership Association, ). Crawford, Brungardt, Scott, and Gould () reviewed all the organizational leadership graduate programs they could find using the Internet in 2001 and reported on 38 of them; in preliminary work for the current paper, 283 were identified just 13 years later. The first programs were offered in the mid‐1980s followed slowly by other colleges and universities until the 2000s when there was, as Sowick () noted, “an explosion of leadership programs in academia over the past two decades” (p. 47).…”