Employees and economic experts agree on what makes a good superior: He should set clear targets, hand over responsibility, have specialist skills, express praise, be fair and always have an open ear for his employees. Of course, nobody is born a leader . In order to delegate tasks, make decisions and motivate employees, managers must have specialist knowledge in the areas of organization and leadership. There are now courses that prepare prospective bosses and managers for precisely these tasks.

An overview of the management course

According to toppharmacyschools.org, the courses offered in the field of organization and leadership are numerous. On the one hand, there is the possibility of specializing in the corresponding fields of activity in a regular business administration degree . On the other hand, there are independent courses that equip students with leadership skills. Some of these study programs are tailored to special fields of work, such as management tasks in the healthcare sector.

However, there are also courses that convey cross-sector management skills and prepare, for example, for the management of internationally operating companies or medium-sized companies. Many courses are aimed at people who are already working and want to develop their leadership skills. These study programs are often designed to be part-time .

Bachelor

On the one hand, the bachelor’s programs in the field of organization and leadership equip the students with knowledge from the subject of business administration. In addition, they impart the soft skills and methodological competencies that are necessary to manage a company. Most of the bachelor’s programs initially focus primarily on knowledge from areas such as marketing , accounting or human resource management . As in all economics courses, subjects such as mathematics , statistics , business law and business English are on the curriculum.

In the specialized bachelor’s programs, students also learn industry-specific knowledge . The students on a course that prepares them for management tasks in health facilities, for example, deal with the development of the German health system or health policy. In the further course of the course, organizational and leadership skills increasingly come into focus. The students learn, for example, how to make strategic decisions, motivate employees or cope with crises.

In many general management courses, students have the opportunity to focus on areas of specialization. Areas such as marketing management, personnel management or management in the hotel and tourism sector come into question here. In addition to the methodological knowledge, the prospective managers are taught important soft skills, for example presentation techniques or rhetorical skills. In many courses, practical phases or practical semesters are also integrated into the curriculum, which give students a first look at the management levels of large companies.

Master

If you actually want to work in higher management later on, there is no avoiding the master’s degree. The master’s programs in the field of organization and leadership give graduates the opportunity to deepen the knowledge acquired in the bachelor’s degree. Many master’s programs are also open to graduates from other disciplines. As in the bachelor’s degree, there are both general and industry-specific courses .

The Master of Business Administration ( MBA ) deserves special mention. This popular master’s degree is primarily aimed at qualified professionals who are already working and would like to acquire additional management skills. These can be economists as well as graduates from other subjects, such as medical professionals or engineers . Classically, the MBA was a cross-industry degree . In recent years, however, more and more specialized study programs have emerged here, which, for example, explicitly refer to the health sector or international management.

The bachelor’s and master’s programs in the field of organization and leadership are offered by universities and technical colleges as well as private business schools . In the case of the latter, applicants should make sure that they have state recognition. This is especially true for MBA programs that require very high tuition fees.

Study organization and leadership / management: requirements

The requirements for admission vary from university to university. Many courses have a numerus clausus . In the internal selection process, applicants with very good final grades on their Abitur or Bachelor’s degree have the best chances. Some universities carry out additional aptitude tests and selection interviews . For the master’s programs in particular, universities often require professional experience and a good knowledge of English. Prospective managers should not only have good grades and be happy with numbers, they should also have social skills such as empathy and communication skills.

Occupational fields

A degree in organization and leadership enables graduates to take on management tasks. Companies from all sectors as well as state and private institutions, banks, clubs, associations, international organizations or NGOs can be considered as employers. Depending on the orientation of the subject , graduates work, for example, in companies for tourism, in industry or in the health sector.

Depending on their professional qualifications, they are often used initially in individual departments, such as marketing, sales or personnel management. Many graduates move up to management positions after a while. With the know-how acquired, it is of course also possible to set up your own business . Even activities in the consulting area are possible.

Experience abroad: a must for managers!

Regardless of which industry you would like to work in later: Executives and managers now have to have foreign language skills and international experience. For this reason, stays abroad are an integral part of the course of studies at many universities. A semester or two in another country gives you the opportunity to expand or perfect your language skills and at the same time acquire important intercultural skills . This includes, for example, the ability to work in international teams or to adapt to a foreign culture. In addition, a semester abroad gives you the opportunity to develop a network of international contacts at an early stagebuild up. She also signals characteristics such as flexibility, assertiveness and organizational talent to later employers.