BA in Liberal Studies, Leadership & Sustainable Business

Ethical business is worthy business.

Dynamic leadership is an essential element for success in today’s business environment. Leaders must be distinctive, able, and compelling in order to effectively implement changes that align with organizational and societal goals. AUS’s Leadership & Sustainable Business concentration emphasizes social responsibility, entrepreneurial innovation, environmental sustainability and financial resilience within a just global economy. By applying these equitable strategies you’ll be capable of navigating the complex changes that are shaping the way that we do business and lead our organizations.

This degree is offered by AU Seattle.

Program Overview

Leadership & Sustainable Business engages students in reflective inquiry into the nature of dynamic leadership and resilient organizational life, with a particular emphasis on guiding systemic and participatory change in a quickly evolving, interconnected and multicultural world.

Studies in this area emphasize an ethic of social responsibility and entrepreneurial innovation driving business decisions and functions, along with concern for environmental sustainability and financial resilience within a just global economy.

The Leadership and Sustainable Business concentration prepares students to work in fields such as management, organizational development, human resources, training, business, social entrepreneurship, sustainable systems design, public policy, community development and leadership in an array of fields from education to healthcare and social services.  

Degree Requirements

A Leadership and Sustainable Business concentration requires a minimum of 45 credits. Students take at least one class in each of the six areas of learning listed below. Electives, at least 2 credits of internship/field-based learning and a senior synthesis project round out the concentration.

1. Leadership

One course in this area of concentration should primarily address the leadership role, taking up issues in contemporary leadership theory, strategy and practice, with a particular emphasis on what it means to be an effective leader. Sample classes:

•    Case Studies in Leadership
•    The Resilient Leader
•    Expeditionary Leadership: Lessons in Group Leadership
•    Servant Leadership
•    The Mindful Leader
•    Coaching for Leadership & Change

2. Systems Change

One course is required that develops students’ understanding of organizations and businesses as complex adaptive living systems, emphasizing the dynamics of change and the role of leaders as prompters and guides of organizational learning and change. Sample classes that would meet this core requirement:

•    Far-From-Equilibrium: Systems Perspectives on Change
•    Narrating Change: Stories for Collective Action
•    Coaching for Leadership & Change

3. Applied Leadership

Another required course provides the opportunity to develop applied leadership skill. Students are supported to learn specific strategies to facilitate a wide variety of groups in ways that promote collaborative learning, change and action. Possible classes include:

•    The Power of Engaging: Listening, Collaborating, Facilitating
•    Design & Facilitation of Learning
•    Community Organizing in Action

4. Political Economy and Globalization

Courses that fulfill this requirement explore the power relations that constitute the production, distribution, and consumption of resources within capitalist society. Students examine capitalism as a global system and develop a transformative analytic to understand matters of wealth, exploitation, impoverishment, social class, inequality as well as the contested themes of development and globalization. Along with developing critical analysis, courses that fulfill this requirement highlight how diverse communities understand and enact social change that confront the logic and structure of capitalism. Courses that fulfill this subject area include:

•    Political Economy and Globalization
•    Globalization, Development, and Grassroots Movements: Issues in the Global South
•    Wealth and Poverty in America

5. Financial Theory & Practice or Sustainable Business Development/Marketing

Coursework fulfilling this requirement addresses fundamentals of finance from a triple bottom line perspective — “People, Planet & Profit.” Students learn strategic financial planning and reporting frameworks that take into account social and ecological, as well as financial, performance criteria. Alternately, a course in this area addresses a philosophy and practice of business development and/or marketing that strives to enhance the well-being of employees, consumers and also serves the best interests of society a course. For example:

•    Triple Bottom Line Accounting and Financial Management
•    Entrepreneurial Finance & Small Business Accounting
•    Sustainable Business Development
•    Green Marketing

6. Resilience/Sustainability

A final required learning activity for this concentration provides the opportunity to develop in-depth perspectives on issues and/or policy considerations regarding resilience and sustainability in human and environmental systems. Topics could span from intergenerational trauma, to food deserts, to climate change. Possibilities include:

•     Principles of Sustainability
•    Bioregional Studies: Dynamic Duwamish
•    Intercultural Communications
•    Liberatory Psychology
•    Urban Restoration
•    War and the Soul
•    Food, Health and Mental Health
•    Urban Agriculture
•    Environmental Justice
•    Intergenerational Trauma

Sample Antioch Electives:

• Non-Profit Management
• Media Psychology
• Nonviolence, Social Movements, and Democracy
• Adult Education
• Critical Pedagogy

Sample Transfer Electives:

• Human Resources Management
• Organizational Behavior
• Grant Writing
• Business Communications
• Personnel Supervision
• Small Business Entrepreneurship
• Business Law
• Accounting

Sample Community/Field-Based Learning Experiences:

• Raising awareness about multicultural issues in one’s work team/division
• Apprenticing with an interpersonal communications skills trainer
• Doing market research for a café and bookstore
• Assist a family owned business develop a human resources program
• Internship based on a project management initiative at work

Sample Synthesis Projects:

• Interviewing five leaders of non-profits and comparing their leadership styles and management approaches
• Writing a case study analysis applying three theories of leadership & change to a current situation in one’s workplace
• Developing and implementing a volunteer training workshop
• Lead a change initiative at one’s workplace
• Develop a business plan for a new environmental start-up
• Research paper exploring the development and adoption of the Ceres Principles for Sustainable Business
• Development of a sustainability transition plan for one’s company
• Create a green marketing plan for a Salmon Safe Certification business
• Development of a triple bottom line accounting system for a family business
• Analysis of toxic waste disposal practices in a local medical facility & drafting a proposed set of waste reduction recommendations
• Comparative analysis of several corporate social responsibility programs
• Researching ‘cradle to grave’ green production possibilities in one’s industry.

For detailed curriculum, degree requirements, and course descriptions, please visit the AUS catalog

Career Outlook

The Leadership & Sustainable Business concentration prepares students for work in fields such as:

• Management
• organizational development
• human resources
• Training
• Business
• social entrepreneurship
• sustainable systems design
• public policy
• community development
• leadership in an array of fields from education to healthcare and social services

Students completing this concentration also acquire the necessary prerequisites for successful graduate study in the above fields.