Bellevue University is believed to be the first postsecondary institution to offer a master’s-level degree in leadership, back in 1994. Thirty years later, the university’s Master of Science in Organizational Leadership, offered through the College of Business, continues to be an innovative force in the field of leadership studies.
In fact, most schools are still catching up to Bellevue University and its focus from day one on the real-world application of leadership theories.
“The field has been predominantly theory-based, and most of these theories tend to be leader-centric and imply that followers are deficient in some way and needed leaders to set things in motion for them. But now leadership education and research is starting to focus on how leadership processes play out in organizations; beyond individual leader traits and behaviors,” said Professor Stephen Linenberger, who directs the Organizational Leadership program.
Linenberger has been affiliated with the university’s leadership program for nearly all of its existence. He graduated with his master’s in leadership in 1996 as part of the program’s second cohort of students. After teaching briefly as an adjunct, he’s been a full-time faculty member for 23 years.
Over the past 30 years, the program has been housed in other colleges at the university, but Linenberger believes it’s found the perfect home in the College of Business. Simply put, business leaders need this education the most, he said. That said, he’s quick to add that every organization needs strong leadership.
“It’s a master’s in organizational leadership, and I always say that – for the purpose of our program – ‘organization’ encompasses everything from families to the White House.”
Leadership Studies in general have shifted from teaching what are believed to be the necessary personality traits to an emphasis on leadership as a process and not a person. For example, what does communication look like within an organization? What’s the tone of the emails? What are the day-to-day details? How do people collaborate? And perhaps most importantly, what’s the level of “workplace democracy?”
“Workplace democracy, I think that’s the real indicator of whether or not there is effective leadership. In other words, how much collective direction, alignment and commitment is there within an organization,” Linenberger said. “That’s a big change from the old ‘leader-follower-goal paradigm,’ which was the lens for understanding leadership when I first started teaching. Now, our curriculum emphasizes the importance of collective direction, alignment and commitment in the leadership process.“I’m proud to say that I think our leadership curriculum on the cutting edge of leadership education,” he said.