I am almost done with my BS-IT degree and looking to keep going with my education. My first thought was to get a MBA, but then I saw this Organizational Leadership thing was offered by a few schools. Does anyone have this degree or even some insight about it? Is it taken as a seriously? Are there practical applications?
Help me out, this is my future I’m asking about.
Getting an MBA in Organization Leadership is the first step towards getting your P.h.B.
Ha! I kill me.
The MBA in combination with a BS-IT is a very practical combination. It’s the kind of education that could easily lead to a management role in a technology company.
Organizational Leadership would take you in a different direction. It could be perceived as you moving away from tech and more into soft skills. If that’s what you’ve learned your interests are, it might make sense. It would be more likely to take you into a consulting role. If you are passionate about Organizational Leadership, consider it, but the MBA is probably the more practical choice.
If you want to have an IT career, I think an Org Leadership degree would best benefit you after you cut your chops in IT for a number of years. To get hired into challenging consulting gigs, you need to manage several significant projects to a successful completion. This is not all that easy for most folks in IT because the success rate for larger projects is probably around 30%.
Also, if your communication, consulting, and management skills are decent, then often larger employers will pay for your graduate studies.
Of course, you could bypass IT and go for more business or other support areas. But the money in IT is usually superior.
In addition to Organizational Leadership, also check out grad programs in ABS (Applied Behavioral Sciences) and Organizational Development. Antioch also has a MS in Management and another Whole Systems Design MS in Seattle that is related. Very expensive, kinda new age-ish, but it may be worth checking out.
One more thing and I apologize if this comes off as fartish: the intended audience for many of these leadership programs are folks with 10-12 years experience in the working world–I have worked in corporate IT for 15 years and it is a rare 23 year old consultant/mensh that can impress and succeed–especially when the client team resents the need to have you there in the first place. So if you are “younger” that is another challenge you may face.
Career-wise I don’t know about its value, but I will tell you that organizational studies is a really vital, interesting academic field right now. I loved my classes in it; a surprising number of students in my PhD program ended up loading up on OB from the business school and psych department because it’s just so interesting.
Thanks for the input. I am probably going for the MA-OL, as it sounds interesting and MBA’s seem to be everywhere.
When I say (type?) “practical” it has two meanings:
For more background info, I am young (late twenties) and inexperienced with IT . However, I have six years experience in the Navy (Nuclear Field) with organization, leadership and team building. Myself and a few partners (with 10+ years of exp. in IT) have started a IT outsource/consultation company. The BS-IT degree gives me the overall knowledge to know what my partners are talking about, help out when needed and to be able to talk to clients, but my main job will be administration and bending a handful of geeks into a successful company (tougher than you may think).
That is why I am asking here. A MBA will help with the admin part of the job, but the MS-OL seems more interesting and self-fulfilling. I just need to make sure Organizational Leadership is “practical” as far as helping me lead my company or get a job if it fails.
Thanks for providing more context about your career. You know, I don’t think an Org Leadership program will serve your needs all that well right now. Those programs are oriented toward large corporations and organizations like the Navy. If fact, I bet a lot of it would be recycled stuff you got in the Navy (I have worked with several Naval vets who speak that language quite well). Actually, you probably need something more entrepreneurial in orientation and less academic. You could always find an MBA program in entrepreneurial studies, but I think real entrepreneurs, like yourself, are out there doing their jobs (I founded and sold a small corporation in the mid-80s). So perhaps one of those quickie certificate programs or better yet something like small business management and accounting would be more pragmatic and valuable to your firm.
I am sure org leadership is more interesting and self-appealing, but when my partners and I founded our company we didn’t have a lot of time for pure self-fulfillment–we were hustling to grow the business and pay the bills. Anyway, your experience gained from this new company will be far more valuable to your career than any formal academic program.