Taught in a workshop format, this course provides an opportunity for undergraduate CET students to enhance their emotional intelligence, through assessment and if necessary, modification of personality traits and development of interaction skills. This course prepares students for success in the workplace, teaching those skills that enhance the ability to interact effectively and work harmoniously within the workplace. Students may enroll prior to working in a co-op position and/or prior to graduation and seeking employment.

The rapid pace of progress in technology and the change in demographics of the workforce are anticipated to affect what work will look like in the future, in addition to the structure and nature of work itself. Some of these changes might be incremental and others more radical and disruptive affecting the conduct of business. The pace, nature, and magnitude of these changes demand that businesses, organizations, educators, policy makers, leaders, managers, and individual employees reimagine models of employment including the organization and functioning of the workforce. This course is intended to provide students with a global perspective of the future of work and employment, and insights into the implications on their designated professions and careers. Among others, this course will address the following questions: What are the skills and competencies required of the workforce for this new future of work? What skills, competencies, and job roles may become redundant? How should corporations preempt and prepare to deal with these changes? What will be the role of leaders and managers in reimagining and developing the workforce of the future?

Major change initiatives within organizations fail because of lack of understanding of the process of change and the lack of deliberate and focused attention to the change process. This course teaches students the change process and the alterations required in structures, processes, and activities to effectively implement change initiatives within organizations. The components of this course include applied approaches and tools to help analyze barriers for change, leverage power and influence, and provide frameworks to plan and implement change.

This course is designed to teach the art and science of negotiation so that one can negotiate successfully in a variety of settings, in day-to-day experiences and, especially, within the broad spectrum of negotiation problems faced by managers and other professionals. Individual class sessions will explore the many ways that people think about and practice negotiations skills and strategies in a variety of contexts. Special emphasis will be on decision-making biases that are often inherent in any negotiation setting and compromise the quality of negotiated agreements.

Achieving competitive advantage in today’s world demands that organizations know how to innovate, and do so not once, but repeatedly. Creativity, rapid learning through continuous improvement, and the ability to turn ideas into action, products, processes and services are crucial. How do leaders foster and sustain a culture of innovation? What unique competencies and skills do you need as a leader and what skills do your teams need? How is managing an innovation team different than managing other kinds of teams within an organization? Through this course, service leadership students will leverage and build on their growing knowledge about innovation, the individual and group skills required for innovating gained in SERQ-712. Students will gain deeper insights into innovation leadership requirements for creating, managing and curating a thriving environment in which cutting edge ideas are encouraged, born and grown. Open to students in the service leadership and innovation MS program and non-majors on a space available basis with department permission.

Students will demonstrate synthesis and integration of the theories and foundation principles of their discipline to respond to questions found in the comprehensive examination. This demonstration will apply core knowledge to problem situations to be successful students must receive a passing grade of at least 80 percent. (12 semester hours or less of coursework remaining to complete the program; completion of all core courses in the discipline; currently enrolled in the program; possess a program GPA of 3.0 or higher; no outstanding incomplete grades; student cannot be on academic/disciplinary probation; for disciplines requiring integrative problem solving successful completion of that course.)