Courses

This course sets the stage for the MHRM curriculum and begins to socialize students into the program. A key objective is to introduce students to a strategic view of HR, which includes adopting a systems perspective and attending to multiple stakeholders. This course emphasizes the importance of understanding the many forces that shape a firm’s approach to managing HRM and the positioning of the HR function as a strategic partner, putting the focus on the intersection of HRM, business policy, and competitive strategy.

Prerequisite: HR Strategy I (38:533:580)

This is a complete course addressing strategy. The primary focus will be to provide students with a deep understanding of strategic management. Topics to be covered in this course will include competitor analysis, strategy formulation (at the business, corporate and international levels), acquisitions and restructuring, cooperative strategies, corporate responsibility and entrepreneurship.

Prerequisites: HR Strategy II (38:533:590) and Financial Decisions (38:533:540)

HR Strategy III is premised on the assumption that, in an economy dominated by intangible assets, conventional accounting systems do not provide the kinds of information required to effectively measure or manage the HR function or the workforce. Developing effective measurement systems requires that managers understand how the workforce drives strategy execution, that they identify and collect the right measures of workforce success, and finally, that managers have the access, capability, and motivation to use these data to communicate strategic intent and monitor progress.

Prerequisite: HR Strategy III (38:533:680)

In HRS IV, students will apply what they have learned throughout the program in a global context, using a systematic and comprehensive approach to HR strategy formulation and execution. As a capstone course, assignments will emphasize student involvement and problem solving.

The course prepares students to assess the business implications of basic financial statements (income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement) and to participate in the financial analysis of business strategy. Particular attention is paid to topics where finance and HR intersect (cost benefit analysis of HR initiatives, selection of financial measures to serve as bonus drivers, alternative models for valuing employee stock options, financial and accounting aspects of pensions and other post retirement benefits).

This course addresses research design methodology and addresses basic statistics through regression analysis. It will enable students to compile and analyze data that can be used in developing, implementing, and measuring the outcome of HR strategy.

This course addresses how organizations acquire and deploy human assets, both internally and through outsourcing. Issues discussed include turnover, socialization, retention, and downsizing.

Students in this course will learn how to assess and develop an organization’s human assets through training and development. The course examines both micro issues and macro issues, including the transformative nature of the “learning organization.”

Prerequisite: Data-Based Decisions (38:533:542)

This course focuses primarily on base pay systems and includes an introduction to individual performance management issues. (Managing Rewards Systems II continues the sequence by examining incentive pay systems and providing in-depth coverage of sales, executive, and advanced individual performance pay issues.)

This course focuses on the operation of the labor market, and how economic forces and demographic trends affect a firm, its workforce, and the employment relationship. Topics will include economic reasoning and current research on labor demand, labor supply, demographic trends and projections, education and training, unions, discrimination, and unemployment.

This course covers principles of law associated with the employment relationship. The focus is on understanding the legal process as it relates to employment issues, and developing the ability to research legal issues effectively.

Students in this course will be introduced to the impact of global markets on the management of human capital at home and abroad. Discussions will also include the expansion of international trade and the growth of U.S. multinational operations abroad.