As a culmination of their program, students will complete an extended literature review on a specific topic in the field of servant leadership. Themes from the literature and recommendations for implementation will be presented in a formal written paper and in an oral presentation to a seminar of their peers. Prerequisite: 501, 504.

This course is aimed at providing a framework to help participants make the moral decisions that they face as servant leaders to promote the common good. This course will emphasize traditional ethical principles, contemporary ethical theory, and social teaching. Application will be made to leadership theory and practice and how these principles shape the common good, especially in our institutions and communities. Co-offered with SVLD 504.

The challenges communities and organizations face often reflect, refract, and interact with a range of global forces at work in the world today. In order to evaluate the prospects and ambiguities of servant-led social change in the twenty-first century, this course will analyze how the very real and often contentious political, economic, and cultural processes of globalization affect the diverse local contexts in which participants currently serve.

The prophet is called and calls others to read the signs of the times. Prophetic Leadership is genuinely involved in the social, economic, and political realities of the communities they serve. This course will examine prophetic voices throughout history. Participants will discern and discover their won prophetic voice in leadership and the courage of their own conviction.

Robert Greenleaf understood that the primary task of a Servant Leader is to build an effective, ethical organizational culture and that the means to do this was through the intentional surrender of coercive power and the cultivation of trusting relationships. This course will examine seminal writings on the nature of power and trust spanning two thousand years, beginning with historical and philosophical writings by figures like Thucydides and Plato and ending with contemporary empirical studies in sociology and psychology.

Healing is an understudied dimension of servant leadership, despite being recognized as a vital activity of individuals and institutions committed to serving others. This course examines the critical role of servant leaders in helping create the institutional and social conditions necessary for human flourishing. Key concepts covered will include health assets, moral injury, leading causes of life, social determinants of health, among others.

At the heart of a Franciscan theology of environment is the notion of ecological stewardship - a responsibility and opportunity to embrace the cosmic earth story with an attitude of care for the planetary household of God. Stewardship understood in this way is another key characteristic of a servant leader. This course will examine ecological guidelines for behavior (ethos) for the household (oikos), and explore the relationship between environmental justice and issues of social justice.

The MA in Servant Leadership seeks to meet the needs of adult learners. All students will participate in the core courses described above, and while some students program may include mostly elective course work taken through Viterbo University, other students may choose to construct a program consisting largely of contracts for individualized work or a mixture of elective courses and contracts. Contracts are composed in close coordination with the students adviser.

By examining the foundations of servant leadership in scripture, theology, and the experience of the people of God, participants may begin to identify and understand their own ways of leading and the gifts and skills that they bring to leadership for the common good so that they may set goals for developing them. The course should help participants answer these questions: What are the virtues of a servant leader If I am to be a servant leader, what type of person would I need to be, and how would I need to act