Curriculum

Leading across difference requires more than good intentions — it demands the ability to examine how power, identity, and systemic inequity shape organizations, and the willingness to build new skills for navigating that complexity. In this course, students develop a foundation in organizational justice and inclusive leadership, then move into sustained practice with difficult conversations, feedback, and cross-boundary collaboration. Through virtual sessions, community connection groups, and an immersive onsite intensive, students assess their own inclusive leadership behaviors, explore their positionality and socialization, and build practical strategies for fostering psychological safety and leading equitable decision-making. By the end of the course, students will be able to analyze how dominant cultural norms operate in organizational life, demonstrate inclusive communication skills that foster belonging, navigate conflict across functional, cultural, and identity-based boundaries, and articulate a personal approach to inclusive leadership they can carry into their organizational roles.

Leading Global Change focuses on the application of change management methods to organizational contexts that require cross-cultural competence. Students will develop an awareness of the demands that leaders face when designing and implementing solutions that impact individuals from multiple countries and diverse backgrounds. This course begins with the development of cross-cultural competency and self-awareness to enhance students' knowledge of cultural differences and the impact that biases have on performance in teams and organizations. Strategies are then discussed that can be applied to maximize success during global organization change initiatives. Students will apply what they are learning to design a change adoption process and plan that would be required for a multinational organization change initiative. By the end of the course, students will have developed a global mindset, the ability to assess and build organizational agility, diversity, and cross-cultural competence in the workplace, know how to overcome challenges of change complexity when working in multinational companies and ultimately how to lead effectively in global organizations.

Leading Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice in Organizations equips leaders to see the systems holding inequity in place, assess where an organization actually stands, and design interventions grounded in evidence rather than assumption. Beginning with the dynamics of oppression, students build a systems-thinking orientation that connects mental models and power dynamics to the policies, practices, and resource flows shaping organizational life. The course then moves into the practitioner's core challenges: diagnosing organizational readiness, evaluating which DEIJ initiatives produce change and which do not, crafting narrative to mobilize commitment, and designing structures that reduce bias by design. Students engage with research on organizational justice, inclusive climate, and psychological safety, learning to translate those frameworks into action aligned with an organization's values and capacity. Throughout the quarter, students assemble a personal "playbook" of tools and strategies, developing a critical understanding of each approach's benefits, limitations, and conditions for use. By the end of the course, students will be able to diagnose organizational readiness for systems-level change, build roadmaps that embed equity into operations, craft narratives that sustain momentum, and adapt their leadership approach to meet resistance and navigate complexity.

Prerequisites

Must take one of the following courses prior to enrolling in Leading Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice in Organizations (MSLOC 445):

• MSLOC 425: Leading Across Difference
• MSLOC 431: Leading with Strategic Thinking
• MSLOC 435: Designing Organizations
• MSLOC 440: Executing Strategic Change
• MSLOC 441: Designing Sustainable Strategic Change
• MSLOC 442: Leading Global Change