Enhance leadership and business skills for immediate impact. Practice everyday leadership, manage people, learn and apply concepts and techniques to effectively manage organizations through organizational design, and formulate and implement strategy. Through the courses in this specialization, you will learn the fundamentals to effectively lead people and teams, manage organizations as well as tools to analyze business situations and develop strategies. The Specialization covers the strategic, human resource, and organizational foundations for creating and capturing value for sustainable competitive advantage – including how to manage people and organizations, analyze the competition, and develop strategies both within a business and across a portfolio of businesses. The capstone is a strategic leadership and management plan where you’ll apply what you will learn to an actual business situation with participation by one or more focal companies. The deliverable will be designed to create value from the perspective of potential employers while achieving pedagogical and experiential goals for learners. This Specialization is part of the University of Illinois Masters of Business Administration degree program, the iMBA. Learn more about the admission into the program here and how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into the program. You can also start with for-credit courses within the Illinois iMBA degree program.
Strategic Leadership and Management Specialization
Leadership and Business Skill for Immediate Impact. Apply practical strategies to becoming an effective organizational leader.
Offered By
Skills you will gain
How the Specialization Works
Take Courses
A Coursera Specialization is a series of courses that helps you master a skill. To begin, enroll in the Specialization directly, or review its courses and choose the one you'd like to start with. When you subscribe to a course that is part of a Specialization, you’re automatically subscribed to the full Specialization. It’s okay to complete just one course — you can pause your learning or end your subscription at any time. Visit your learner dashboard to track your course enrollments and your progress.
Hands-on Project
Every Specialization includes a hands-on project. You'll need to successfully finish the project(s) to complete the Specialization and earn your certificate. If the Specialization includes a separate course for the hands-on project, you'll need to finish each of the other courses before you can start it.
Earn a Certificate
When you finish every course and complete the hands-on project, you'll earn a Certificate that you can share with prospective employers and your professional network.
There are 7 Courses in this Specialization
Foundations of Everyday Leadership
In this course you will learn about the “head and heart” of everyday leadership, individual decision making, group decision making, and managing motivation. The objectives are to understand why and how leadership skills are so critical to organizational success, and learn the foundations of effective leadership skills. Learners: • Understand why and how leadership skills are so critical to organizational success • Know how to use leadership skills to work more effectively with others, and are able to organize teams to work more effectively together • Will be able to apply the foundations of effective leadership skills to everyday situations faced by leaders. This course is part of the iMBA offered by the University of Illinois, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.
Applications of Everyday Leadership
This course covers the following topics: negotiation, feedback and coaching, conflict management, and leading change. The objectives are to learn how to use leadership skills to work more effectively with others, how to use leadership skills to organize others to work more effectively together, and to apply the foundations of effective leadership skills to everyday situations faced by leaders. Learners: • Will be able to negotiate effectively and influence others • Provide feedback and coaching that is appropriate and influential • Will be able to manage conflict and lead change This course is part of the iMBA offered by the University of Illinois, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.
Designing the Organization: From Strategy to Organizational Structure
In this course you will understand how firms are organized, what factors must be taken into account in making critical design decisions, and what role managers play in making these choices. In order to answer these questions, we will first develop a conceptual process model that links business models, external and internal contingencies, and organizational design. Second, we will focus on the fundamental principles of organization design and what alternative design choices are available for managers. Finally, we will apply these concepts and ideas to organizational situations to develop the critical insights and decision making skills to build effective organizations. Learners: • Will understand how managers create value through their organizations • Will have a good understanding of the fundamental principles and factors important to organizational design • Will be able to design the coordination, control, and performance measurement systems to manage an organization. This course is part of the iMBA offered by the University of Illinois, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.
Managing the Organization: From Organizational Design to Execution
In this course you will build a practical framework to understand the critical linkages between organization design and the creation of economic value through execution. We will focus on four critical linkages: 1. How organizational growth and life cycle require design changes to improve execution 2. How managerial decision making can be improved through better organization design 3. How the design of human resource practices shape the culture of the organization 4. How innovation and change can be facilitated through organization design These linkages are critical in assessing how managers make sure that the organizations they design can execute the strategies they have envisioned under changing environmental conditions. Learners will be able to answer the following: • What are the managerial implications of organizational growth and life cycle? • How do you improve managerial decision making through organizational design? • How do human resource management policies shape organizational culture? • How do organizations plan for top management succession and change? • How do you know that your organization design is not effective? • How do you manage organizational change and innovation? This course is part of the iMBA offered by the University of Illinois, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.
Instructors
Deepak Somaya
Professor of Business Administration
Gregory Northcraft
Professor of Business Administration and Harry J. Gray Professor of Executive Leadership
Joe Mahoney
Professor of Business Administration
Michael Bednar
Associate Professor
Huseyin Leblebici
Professor of Business Administration
Jeffrey Loewenstein
Professor
Jack Goncalo
Professor
Jeff Flesher
PhDStart working towards your Master's degree
About University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the refund policy?
Can I just enroll in a single course?
Yes! To get started, click the course card that interests you and enroll. You can enroll and complete the course to earn a shareable certificate, or you can audit it to view the course materials for free. When you subscribe to a course that is part of a Specialization, you’re automatically subscribed to the full Specialization. Visit your learner dashboard to track your progress.
Is financial aid available?
Can I take the course for free?
Is this course really 100% online? Do I need to attend any classes in person?
This course is completely online, so there’s no need to show up to a classroom in person. You can access your lectures, readings and assignments anytime and anywhere via the web or your mobile device.
How long does it take to complete the Specialization?
Time to completion can vary widely based on your schedule, most learners are able to complete the Specialization in 3-6 months.
How often is each course in the Specialization offered?
Each course in the Specialization is offered on a regular schedule with sessions starting about once per month. If you don't complete a course on the first try, you can easily transfer to the next session, and your completed work and grades will carry over.
What background knowledge is necessary?
No background knowledge is required. This Specialization is designed for anyone interested in becoming a better manager, team member, or leader.
Do I need to take the courses in a specific order?
It is recommended that the courses in the Specialization be taken in the order outlined. Some courses do list other courses as prerequisites. In the Capstone Project, you will have the opportunity to synthesize your learning in all six courses and apply your combined skills in a final project.
Will I earn university credit for completing the Specialization?
iMBA courses in Coursera do not carry University of Illinois credit on their own. Each course has an enhanced for-credit component. You can earn academic credit if you combine an iMBA Coursera course with the enhanced for-credit component offered on the University of Illinois platform. Some universities may choose to accept Specialization Certificates for credit. Check with your institution to learn more.
What will I be able to do upon completing the Specialization?
• You will know how to lead people and teams, how to manage conflict and lead change in an organization.
• You will be able to build effective decision-making infrastructures by diagnosing organizational issues.
• You’ll learn about tools to analyze strategy and its implementation integrated across industry, firm, and corporate levels.
I’m interested and have more questions about the iMBA. Where do I go for more information?
Please find more information at https://www.coursera.org/course/imba and http://onlinemba.illinois.edu/, or email your questions to onlineMBA@illinois.edu.
More questions? Visit the Learner Help Center.
