Online Master's in Management and Leadership

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

If you’re a leader at heart, you’re in the right place. Management and leadership skills are in demand across industries, and that means there’s plenty of opportunity for people like you to step up and build the skills to help maintain an efficient and effective work environment.

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 you can be the catalyst behind stronger, more successful, more organized teams.

We designed our program to be accessible regardless of your academic and professional background. We’ll help you establish a strong foundation in business, then focus on developing in-demand leadership skills and qualities 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 it features eight unique concentrations in Cybersecurity, Health Administration, Human Resource Management, Information Technology, Marketing, Project Management, Software Development, or Business Data Analytics. You’ll learn from experienced faculty in a program designed with input from top employers, so you can 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.

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 from an ACBSP-accredited degree program

Choose from eight concentrations, or pursue a general management degree

Why earn your Master of Arts 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 management and leadership master’s is designed to give highly motivated people like you the opportunity to build the competencies to lead in the modern workplace. Here, you can learn from experienced faculty in a collaborative environment that can help you prepare for success in a variety of industries. Best of all, online flexibility allows you to study on your schedule, not ours — so you can balance your personal and professional obligations with school.

When it comes to an online management and leadership degree, Maryville has a reputation for offering an exceptional curriculum in a 100% online environment. You don’t earn the accolades we have without providing academic excellence at an economic value. It’s all part of our student-focused commitment to helping you succeed.

Flexible, affordable, and highly personalized.

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 designed with 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 and practical learning opportunities.

Tailor your educational experience to your ambitions through a general management and leadership track, or with one of eight concentrations like: Cybersecurity, Health Administration, Human Resource Management, or Information Technology.

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

What can you do with your online Master of Arts 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 7% from 2018 to 2028, faster than the average for all occupations. That amounts to more than 700,000 new positions.

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 build the soft and quantitative skills to stand out even in crowded professional areas.

We designed our curriculum with input from top employers, so you can be sure what you learn in the classroom translates directly to the real world. We’ll help you develop the most in-demand skills, like communication, team-building, critical thinking, decision-making, and problem-solving.

Not only that, but you can specialize your education to fit your professional goals through a variety of electives and concentrations. Wherever you want your career in management to take you, we’ll help you get there.

What types of careers can I pursue?

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 a variety of 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 enrollment advisors are here to discuss your experience, previous degree, and desire to help you decide your best path.

Put your management and leadership master’s to work in a variety of settings, including:

Advertising and PR firms
Colleges and universities
Consulting agencies
Cybersecurity and info security firms
Finance/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?

woman shaking hands in office

Command a high salary.

Employers put an enormous value on well-qualified team leaders — and they’re compensated accordingly. The median salary across all management positions is over $100,000, according to the BLS, with many occupations pushing well beyond that number.

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 $96,180 in 2018), advertising/marketing ($132,620), computer/information systems ($142,530), human resources ($113,300), medical/health services ($99,730), and public relations/fundraising ($114,800).*

Working on a Business Project

Fill a growing need.

Management opportunities span nearly all industries, and growth is dependent on the forces that shape each market. For example, if you choose to pursue a management career in the tech sector, influences like expanded digital presence and the shift toward computer-based systems might mean huge growth opportunity for you. If you specialize in health administration, increased demand for medical services might drive your field forward.

Management occupations are projected to grow across the board. With your master’s in management and leadership, you can take advantage of opportunities in booming management areas like medical/health services (18% projected growth between 2018 and 2028) and computer/information systems (11%).* You can also pursue a career in areas growing at a faster-than-average pace like administrative services (7%), advertising/promotions (8%), public relations/fundraising (8%), and training/development (8%).*

Business owner talking to manager

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 the organization — roles that can have an effect on the success of your company, team, or organization. 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, which can set you up for even more career growth and advancement.

*Salary and growth data collected by the BLS.

Why choose Maryville University’s online Master of Arts 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 — all among the skills most valued by today’s employers. We designed our online master’s in management and leadership to give you practical, real-world, relevant experience that you can apply at your job the next day.

Why Maryville?

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. Whether your undergraduate degree or professional background is in English, psychology, communication, PR, marketing, nursing, STEM, or virtually any other subject — if you’re motivated to lead, we’ll help you get there.

Our 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.

According to a recent survey of more than 15,000 managers worldwide, the most important skill for a manager to have is the ability to build relationships with people. Also high on the list are good communication, teamwork and problem-solving, and trust building.*

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.

*Survey results from Mind Tools for Managers: 100 Ways to Be a Better Boss, as described by the Society for Human Resource Management.

Put our reputation to work.

Maryville University was founded in 1872 and has been helping brave, motivated professionals launch or enhance their careers with industry expertise ever since. Ninety percent of our full-time faculty holds a doctorate or terminal degree, and our management and leadership faculty can teach you how to succeed in the real world from decades of combined experience in high-profile companies like Boeing, Emerson, and Monsanto.

We’re proud of our reputation for quality academics, accelerated growth, and affordability, because it demonstrates our commitment to excellence.

We’re recognized for excellence. So you can be, too.

Maryville University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission

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 a variety of 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 of Arts 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 like communication, team-building, critical thinking, decision-making, and problem-solving.

We designed our program to be highly flexible, so you can tailor it to fit your professional and personal goals through one of eight concentrations, 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 program features courses in integral areas like business ethics, organizational behavior, project management, human resources, accounting, and leadership.

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: Cybersecurity, Health Administration, Human Resource Management, Information Technology, Marketing, Project Management, Software Development, or Business Data Analytics.

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.

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 of Arts in Management and Leadership at Maryville University.

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Online Master’s in Management and Leadership