Online Master’s in Management and LeadershipOnline Master’s in Management and LeadershipOnline Master’s in Management and Leadership

Management is about more than business. It’s about people.

Real leadership starts with one brave decision, and we want to embolden you to make your next big career move. Earn your online Master of Arts in Management and Leadership degree from Maryville and learn to lead stronger, more organized teams.

We designed our program to be accessible regardless of your academic and professional background. We’ll first help you establish a strong foundation in business, and then focus on developing your leadership skills like communication, team-building, critical thinking, decision-making and problem-solving.

If you’re ready to move forward in your career, start here. Our program focuses on practical, real-world learning opportunities and features eight concentrations and/or built-in certificates, including cybersecurity, health administration, human resource management and software development. You’ll learn from experienced faculty with input from top employers to build practical, relevant skills that you can apply to your career.

Don’t just prepare for the next step in your career. Prepare for every step.

View our program guide for more information.

Get Curriculum Details

Apply with no fee and no GRE/GMAT required

Explore financial aid options

Access coursework 100% online

Get practical, real-world experience through collaborative team projects

Earn a top-quality education by completing this ACBSP-accredited program

Choose from eight concentrations/ built-in certificates, or pursue a general management degree

Why earn your Master’s in Management and Leadership online?

You don’t have to be a business expert to be a leader — you just need the drive to succeed and the desire to help others do the same.

Our online master’s degree in management and leadership is designed to give highly motivated people like you the opportunity to build the competencies to lead in the modern workplace. Learn from experienced faculty in a collaborative environment that can help you prepare for success in various industries. The flexible, online format allows you to study on your schedule — not ours — so you can balance your personal and professional obligations with school.

Learn with a flexible, affordable, and highly personalized online program

Study on your schedule with 100% online coursework, and apply with no fees or entrance exams.

Explore financial aid and transfer credit options.

Get an interdisciplinary education from a career-oriented program that offers a collaborative team approach relevant to today’s business settings.

Study with a community of dedicated learners and educators, and get field-ready with relevant, practical learning opportunities.

Tailor your educational experience to your ambitions through a general management and leadership track or with one of eight concentrations/certificates in Cybersecurity Incident Response, Cybersecurity Penetration Testing, Health Administration, Human Resource Management, Marketing, Project Management, Software Development or Data Analytics

Gain expertise to pursue management and leadership careers from any academic or professional background.

What can you do with your online Master’s in Management and Leadership?

Great leaders are always in demand. We want to help you become one.

With your management and leadership degree, you can stand out to employers and fill a vital need. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects that management occupations will grow faster than average from 2022 to 2032, with roughly 1.1 million new positions each year and a median annual wage of $116,880.1

For management roles in some fields, competition can still be stiff. That means you can never be too prepared — and there’s never been a better time to upskill and prepare for advancement. Our online Master of Arts in Management and Leadership aims to help you stand out with skills like communication, team-building, critical thinking, decision-making and problem-solving.

Additionally, you can specialize your education to fit your professional goals through various electives and concentrations/built-in certificates. Wherever you want your career in management to take you, we’ll help you get there.

What types of careers can I pursue with an online master’s degree in management?

Leadership and management aren’t confined to any one industry. That’s why we built our degree program to give you a comprehensive, dynamic look at best practices, strategies and techniques you can apply across various fields and positions.

As long as you’re passionate about leadership, you’ll have the opportunity to use your experience and/or previous degree along with this master’s degree to further your career. Our admissions advisors are here to discuss your experience and previous degree to help you decide your best path.

Put your online master’s degree in leadership and management to work in various settings, including:

  • Advertising and PR firms
  • Colleges and universities
  • Consulting agencies
  • Cybersecurity and information security firms
  • Finance and insurance firms
  • Hospitals
  • Local, state and federal government
  • Management firms
  • Manufacturing and production facilities
  • Non-profit organizations
  • Medical and pharmaceutical suppliers
  • Office environments
  • Private or personal enterprise
  • Religious organizations
  • Retail settings
  • Schools
  • Social assistance offices
  • Technical firms

Career opportunities for management and leadership professionals include:

  • Administrative services manager
  • Advertising or marketing manager
  • Business development manager
  • Compensation and benefits manager
  • Computer and information systems manager
  • Entrepreneur
  • Human resources manager
  • Industrial production manager
  • Management consultant
  • Medical or health services manager
  • Project manager
  • PR or fundraising manager
  • Sales manager
  • Social media manager
  • Training and development manager

What’s the outlook for Master of Arts in Management and Leadership graduates?

Command a high salary.

While salaries vary based on factors like location, field and experience, you can take advantage of tremendous earning potential with your master’s degree in management and leadership. Depending on your background and the concentration you pursue at Maryville, you may qualify for high-salary management roles in areas like administrative service (median salary of $104,900 in 2023),2 advertising/marketing ($156,580),3 computer/information systems ($169,510),4 human resources ($136,350),5 medical/health services ($110,680),6 and public relations/fundraising ($130,480).7

Take ownership and advance in your career.

What’s the next step in your career? With your master’s in management and leadership, you can be competitive as you prepare for advancement into management-level careers — and beyond.

With a master’s in management and leadership, you’ll be prepared for more influential roles in your organization — roles that can have an effect on the success of your company or team. In higher-level roles, you may have the chance to lead a team or division and make significant decisions. You’ll have the opportunity to improve production, communication, morale and much more within your department, which can add significant value to your company and your career. That kind of value gets noticed by top-level executives and can set you up for even more career growth and advancement.

Why choose Maryville University’s online Master’s in Management and Leadership?

If you’re looking to advance into management and beyond, or if you’re hoping to discover better techniques and strategies for strong leadership, then our online master’s in management and leadership is for you. Our program can help you develop and enhance the management competencies you need to be an effective leader in any organization and across industries because we incorporate both the business and people sides of management.

In our dynamic program, you’ll learn to think critically about communication plans, team-building, problem-solving, innovation and data-driven decision-making. We designed our online master’s in management and leadership to give you practical, real-world, relevant experience you can apply in your job the next day.

Prepare for your future in leadership, regardless of your background.

Not a business major? Not a problem. We designed our online master’s in management and leadership degree to be accessible to students from all academic backgrounds. If you’re motivated to lead, we’ll help you get there — whether your undergraduate degree or professional background is in English, psychology, communication, PR, marketing, nursing, STEM or virtually any other subject.

Our online program can help you build a strong foundation in business concepts and competencies but the focus isn’t strictly quantitative. You’ll touch on subjects like accounting and finance, with the bulk of your coursework giving you the chance to develop the soft skills and techniques that matter for effective leadership — including critical thinking, problem-solving, team-building and ethics of management.

Learn real-world skills through collaborative, practical projects and experiences.

Effective leadership is, above all, about knowing how to work with people. That’s why we designed our management and leadership master’s program to give you the chance to learn from experience. Our courses feature opportunities for you to work collaboratively and participate in projects and case studies based on real-world challenges. You can also apply your skills and knowledge in the field with an optional internship experience.

Master of Arts in Management and Leadership faculty spotlight

Christine Dufner

Maryville Adjunct Professor

When you earn your master’s in management and leadership from Maryville, you learn from top experts in the field who bring a wealth of real-world experience, like Christine Dufner – or Chris, as her students call her.

Chris brings with her 34 years of professional experience at Monsanto in the Information Technology (IT),  American Seeds and North America Supply Chain divisions, where she held senior leadership roles for teams with anywhere from 30 to more than 200 members.

Christine joined Maryville University in 2015. Since then, she’s taught various courses, including Interpersonal Management Skills, Supply Chain Management, Management Policies Capstone, Human Resource Management and Leadership Theory.

She focuses on developing students beyond the textbook by adding relevant and current trends, embracing research in the respective course curriculum and through leadership and team-based resources.

Online Master’s in Management and Leadership curriculum

When you choose Maryville for your online management and leadership master’s degree, you choose a program built to prepare you for the challenges and considerations of leading a team or organization in the 21st century. Our future-focused courses can help you enhance your knowledge and understanding of key leadership and management principles.

We designed our online program to be highly flexible, so you can tailor it to fit your professional and personal goals through one of eight concentrations/built-in certificates or a customized general track. It comprises 36-39 credit hours, including your management and leadership core courses, electives and optional concentration courses.

Build your foundation in management and leadership.

Set yourself up for success by developing and enhancing your soft and quantitative skills. Our online program features courses in integral areas like business ethics, organizational behavior, project management, human resources, accounting and leadership.

Put your knowledge to work.

When you study with us, you won’t just get top-quality education taught by experts in the field. You’ll also get the chance to see what you learn in action through practical class projects based on real-world scenarios and a comprehensive capstone experience.

Specialize your management and leadership knowledge.

Tailor your education to your personal and professional ambitions by choosing to pursue a general management and leadership track or picking one of eight specialized concentrations/built-in certificates: 

  • Cybersecurity Incident Response
  • Cybersecurity Penetration Testing
  • Health Administration
  • Human Resource Management
  • Marketing
  • Project Management
  • Software Development
  • Data Analytics

Get a head start with Early Access.

Want to finish your Master of Arts in Management and Leadership sooner? If you’re a current or future Maryville undergraduate student, you may be able to start earning master’s-level credits while you complete your bachelor’s degree through Early Access.

By utilizing our Early Access program, you can take up to four management and leadership graduate courses — up to 12 credit hours — as electives while earning certain bachelor’s degrees. Master’s-level classes will count toward both degrees, and they’ll be charged at the undergraduate tuition rate. That means you can save a substantial amount of time and money on your education.

If you’re a qualified undergraduate student and you have not yet completed your elective requirements, we invite you to explore Early Access as an option. To qualify for Early Access as an undergraduate student, you must have earned at least 75 credits toward your bachelor’s degree (with at least 20 credits completed at Maryville) and have at least a 3.25 GPA. You can learn more at our Early Access page, or contact an advisor if you have any questions.

Learn more about the online Master’s in Management and Leadership at Maryville University

Be Brave

Bring us your ambition and we’ll guide you along a personalized path to a quality education that’s designed to change your life.

  1. Occupational Outlook Handbook: Management. (2024). U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved May 7, 2024. ↩︎
  2. Occupational Outlook Handbook: Administrative Services and Facilities Managers. (2024). U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved May 7, 2024. ↩︎
  3. Occupational Outlook Handbook: Advertising, Promotions, and Marketing Managers. (2024). U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved May 7, 2024. ↩︎
  4. Occupational Outlook Handbook: Computer and Information Systems Managers. (2024). U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved May 7, 2024. ↩︎
  5. Occupational Outlook Handbook: Human Resources Managers. (2024). U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved May 7, 2024. ↩︎
  6. Occupational Outlook Handbook: Medical and Health Services Managers. (2024). U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved May 7, 2024. ↩︎
  7. Occupational Outlook Handbook: Public Relations and Fundraising Managers. (2024). U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved May 7, 2024. ↩︎