
Master in Leadership for Sustainability
Malmö, Sweden
DURATION
1 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
15 Jan 2025
EARLIEST START DATE
01 Sep 2025
TUITION FEES
SEK 100,000 / per year *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* full tuition fee
Introduction
This multidisciplinary one-year master’s program provides students with an understanding of organization and leadership theory in the context of sustainability. Students will acquire a critical understanding of sustainable development and sustainability leadership. Furthermore, they will learn research methods for exploring and analyzing sustainable challenges using leadership and organization theory. This education provides a foundation for those seeking to lead and/or manage sustainable initiatives, in research and practice, that bring about change in the workplace, community, and the world.
The master’s degree program is grounded in four core premises:
- Sustainability requires new forms of organizing, especially when it comes to a project-based organization involving diverse stakeholders
- That organizing and leading sustainability requires new and diverse leading and organizing skills, understanding, and knowledge for managers and leaders of sustainable projects
- Organizing and leading sustainability requires a new way of thinking about sustainability within and between organizations. Current research on social entrepreneurship and social innovation Can reveal new methods and strategies about this
- Methodological and methodical knowledge and understanding are needed to enable leaders to make sustainable decisions
Based on these four premises, the program bridges the fields of organization theory, leadership, project management, social innovation, and social entrepreneurship, so that new ways of organizing and leading sustainability can be created. This will enable students to rethink common perceptions of leadership and organizational development.
A unique program for future sustainable leaders and social entrepreneurs
In this program, students are taught to reflect upon organizational and leadership challenges linked to organizational development and sustainability. This program provides students with the knowledge and critical understanding of current research in the fields of leadership and organization, project management, social entrepreneurship, and social innovation in the context of sustainability and sustainable development.
This master's program is also focused on action and doing via diverse projects and thesis work. This is a way to develop students’ professional, conceptual, and interpersonal skills so that as future sustainable leaders and social entrepreneurs, they will drive sustainable changes and have the capacity to make informed decisions about organizational and leadership issues in the management of sustainable organizations and projects.
Admissions
Curriculum
Organization
The master program “Leadership for Sustainability” is a multidisciplinary master dealing with the issues of organizing and leading organizational development to reach sustainability. The standpoint of this master is that sustainability requires new forms of organising especially project-based organisations involving diverse stakeholders. Organizing and leading sustainability thus require new and diverse leading and organizing skills, understanding, and knowledge of project managers and leaders.
It also requires a new way of thinking about sustainability within and between organizations. This new way is to be found in contemporary and ongoing research in the fields of social entrepreneurship and social innovation. The master's program provides methodological and methodical knowledge, understanding, and skills of research to enable sustainable decision-making in organisations.
Teaching methods
Lectures, seminars, and workshops enable interaction in small and large classroom settings. Group work is used to generate discussions about sustainability, especially while doing case studies. Study visits and guest lectures connect learning with practice. Individual papers, individual studies, and thesis work focus on in-depth knowledge and mastery of a specific subject.
Contents
Autumn 2024 - Semester 1
- Organising and Leading Sustainable Organisations (OL641E), 7.5 credits, compulsory
- Leadership and Organisation for Sustainability - Research Methods (OL652E), 7.5 credits, compulsory
- Project Management and Sustainability (OL643E), 15 credits, compulsory
Spring 2025 - Semester 2
- Sustainable Development: Individual, Organisational, and Network Perspectives (OL644E), 7.5 credits, compulsory
- Social Entrepreneurship, Social Innovation and Sustainability (OL645E), 7.5 credits, compulsory
- Master Thesis with a focus on Leadership and Organisation for Sustainability (OL646E), 15 credits, compulsory
Program Outcome
Knowledge and understanding
After successful completion of this program, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate insight into current research in the fields of leadership and organization, project management, social entrepreneurship, and social innovation in the context of sustainability and sustainable development
- Acquire a critical understanding of the fields: of leadership and organisation, project management, social entrepreneurship, and social innovation in the context of sustainability and sustainable development
- Demonstrate an understanding of the challenges involved in organizing and leading sustainable development as well as organizational development and project management
- Acquire and develop a set of perspectives and tools for approaching the challenges of organizational development and particularly different approaches to project management and demonstrate an understanding of how these tools relate to creating and sustaining a coalition of stakeholders
- Demonstrate knowledge of several different models and techniques for broad stakeholder involvement
- Discuss basic values underpinning social entrepreneurship and sustainability
- Acquire a critical understanding of philosophical, methodological, and ethical approaches in research focused on leadership and organisation
Skills and competencies
After successful completion of this program, the student will be able to:
- Find, evaluate, and synthesize current research in the fields of leadership and organization, project management, social entrepreneurship, and social innovation in the context of sustainability and sustainable development
- Identify and assess ethical issues in balancing the interests of different stakeholders with an end toward creating sustainable development
- Critically reflect on the roles of leaders and social entrepreneurs as change agents as well as on the roles of followers in the context of sustainable development and thus reflect on their future role in sustainable development
- Develop organizations and leadership processes following scientific methodological and methodical standards in leadership and organization studies
- Make informed decisions on choices of organizational and leadership models and strategies in the management of sustainable projects
Judgment and approach
After successful completion of this program, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate the capacity to critically use his/her understanding of the current research in the fields of organization and leadership, project management, social entrepreneurship, and social innovation in the context of sustainability and sustainable development to identify a problem, analyze it, and solve it via the generation of new alternatives/knowledge
- Develop a multi-frame set of mind to address sustainable development in the context of organization and leadership
- Assess challenges in a sustainable project or organizational development and be able to reflect on the leadership role in areas suited to his/her competencies;
- Argue for an approach to organizational development based on a developed understanding of its implications for sustainable development
- Critically and reflexively relate to contemporary research in the fields of leadership and organization, project management, social entrepreneurship, and social innovation in the context of sustainability and sustainable development
Career Opportunities
This program lays a solid foundation for those seeking to work as key players in project management and organizational development environments, and where the broader issues of societal development are important. The skills acquired during the program will be relevant for managers in local, national, and international governmental bodies, the private and non-profit sectors, and consultancy work.
The entrepreneurial content of the course is designed to stimulate and encourage students to initiate projects, businesses, or organizations to work towards sustainable development.