2023 Editor’s Top Selections: The Best MBAs in Organizational Leadership

A Master of Business Administration is widely recognized as the degree held by the best of the best in executive management circles. It’s even considered a key credential in fields other than business, including non-profit management and in plenty of government agencies, including those in the business of intelligence and law enforcement.

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When you put that elite level of business strategy, economic theory, HR oversight, and operational methods together with studies in organizational leadership, it becomes even more valuable. An executive who knows all the tricks when it comes to management and administration is one thing. But one who can also bring the interpersonal skills, the communications training, and the large-scale vision to motivate a team to get it done is solid gold in the business world.

If that’s the kind of manager and leader you plan to be, then you know you can’t compromise on the degree that will give you the edge you’re looking for. You need the best training from the best possible school for the career path you’re on.

Why the Right MBA in Organizational Leadership Paves the Path for Your Leadership Career

One of the great things about MBA programs in the United States today is how diverse they are. You can find all kinds of different business philosophies, specialized concentration tracks, and industry ties scattered in schools across the country. No matter what your industry or goal, there are probably a dozen different programs that offer exactly what you are looking for.

The only real question, then, is to find the best of the best. Where you earn your MBA matters. Whether you are competing for a promotion or getting started on your climb up the executive ladder at a new organization, the very first thing anyone is going to look at is the name of the school in the education section of your resume. And that name is going to carry a lot of weight in whether or not you get the job.

Organizational leadership isn’t something that just any school can teach well. It’s a knack for connecting with people, for seeing through the process and procedures and evaluating the human strengths, and for finding a way to bring out the best. MBA programs in the field have to accomplish the same thing with their students.

Each of these schools has got that magic dialed in cold. The leadership degree concentrations they offer have what it takes to pass it along to you.

How We Found the Best Available MBAs in Organizational Leadership Today

Of course, it takes a little bit of work to drill down through all the different MBA programs in organizational leadership to find that special few. You won’t find any of them that advertise themselves as second best.

So our editors took a page out of the OL playbook and did a deep-dive analysis on every MBA leadership concentration offered through accredited universities coast to coast. And we looked way past all the marketing materials to give you a list that reflects the reality of which degrees are actually delivering on the promise of turning out amazing organizational leaders.

The key factors we looked at aren’t mysterious, but they are of the highest importance in every case.

Overall Reputation in the Community and Strength of Graduates

Great MBA programs get talked about a lot in both the business and the academic communities. This is the factor that draws the attention to that line on your resume next to the letters “MBA” that every future employer you ever have is going to look at. Are they going to sit up and pay a little more attention to the rest of your skills and experience, or are they going to slide that paper over closer to the slush pile? That’s the power of reputation.

It gets built on the back of those who came before you and those you will learn from. So we listened to the word on the street when it came to MBAs with strong leadership concentrations. Whether it was graduates of those programs giving them high marks in evaluations or major rating organizations like U.S. News & World Report putting them high up on the lists of the best schools in the country, we looked at what the community had to say about these schools.

Instructors Who Have Developed Real Leadership Expertise and the Skill To Teach It

Leadership is tough. Any program in organizational leadership will teach you that right off the bat. And it’s even tougher to find people who can actually teach others how to be leaders. There aren’t many professors out there who have the right combination of actual industry experience and the key academic and research credentials to pass the skills along.

These programs have found exactly those individuals and put them to work training the next generation of great business leaders. They have the kind of real-world experience to know the pitfalls and tricks of leadership first hand. And then they’ve gone on to study the theory and history of organizational behavior, strategic communication, and all the other disciplines that put in the foundations beneath that knowledge. If you want to learn how to lead a business, there is no one better to learn it from than the professors working at these schools.

The Right Industry and Community Connections to Hone Your Expertise

When we’re talking about how important real-world skills are on top of academic experience, you have to realize that’s just as true for your own development as it was for your instructors. So the kind of opportunities that your MBA program offers you to combine your classroom learning with real, on-the-street experience are a big deal.

These schools have options that let you explore real-world leadership alongside your academic studies. Of course, no one is going to make you a leader in a major corporation while you’re still learning the ropes, but you will find internship opportunities, practicum courses, and various mentorship options that will put you together with effective leaders in their native environment so you can see how it’s done.

And many programs here have partnerships with major corporations that allow you to work on projects involving actual leadership problems, ones that you’ll learn to solve with a full view of all the complications that come in a real leadership position.

Networking and Career Services To Help Launch Your Leadership Journey

Getting an amazing education is just the first step to actually becoming a leader. Next, you have to go out and get that promotion or pick up that new job.

All of these schools work hard to help you put your new training to use in a genuine organizational leadership job after you graduate. In part, that comes through great networking opportunities that put you into internships in the right places to meet people you’ll count on through the course of your career. Or it might be conferences and other academic events to let you rub shoulders with movers and shakers plying organizational leadership skills in a variety of industries and fields.

On top of that, you can count on career services teams that genuinely care about getting you into positions you want and that will go the extra mile to make it happen.

The Academic Resources and Support to Excel in Your Studies

Getting a good reputation in the MBA world means one thing: a very tough degree program that forges strong, well-trained leaders.

Getting through those programs isn’t something you can do on your own. You need the help and support along the way to get through the rough spots. And these schools have academic advising and counseling services to help you do it. They also make sure you have all the resources, from research opportunities to voluminous case studies, to make sure answers are always at your fingertips.

Choosing the Right MBA in Organizational Leadership for the Path You’re On

Superb business schools offering OL concentrations aren’t that common, but they aren’t exactly rare. You’ll find enough top programs on this list that you’re still going to have some hard choices to make when deciding where to apply.

So we’re giving you a lot more to work with than just telling you how great all these schools are. You want to find the perfect fit for your own career path, and we’re going to give you all the data you need to find it.

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