MBA in Human Resource Management

Business strategy consists of the theories, concepts, and methods top and middle-level managers can use to ensure the profitable and long-term growth of their organizations. Strategy helps general managers (as opposed to functional managers whose responsibilities focus on one function such as finance, production, marketing, human resources, IT, etc.), make better decisions to improve the competitive position of their organization in the long run and create value for its key stakeholders.

Gain a perspective on organizations, both within and outside of the for-profit business world. Strategic analysis and managerial thinking applies to organizations regardless of their activities, for or not-for-profit orientation, governance structure, geographic locations, size, etc. You’ll examine the main theories, concepts, and models of strategic analysis and their role in management practice.

Examine the critical financial fundamentals necessary for managing an organization's operational activities and achieving its strategic goals. You’ll learn about the time value of money, investing in various instruments, making critical decisions regarding capital expenditures, and various methods for successfully capitalizing the firm. Managing critical cash flows and allocation of financial assets are also discussed in detail from a managerial perspective.

Explore a wide range of economic concepts, theories and analytical techniques and key economic fundamentals. You will learn about the supply and demand model – the fundamental market model where trade-offs and choices are considered by comparing benefits and costs. Product and market structures, including perfectly competitive, monopolistically competitive, oligopolies, and monopolies, are also analyzed at the firm level.

Macroeconomic issues of fiscal and monetary policy are explored at an aggregate level. Finally, you’ll gain an understanding of selected topics in international trade, financial markets, economic growth, and positive and negative externalities.

Many business decisions throughout every level of an organization are based on the information found in the company’s financial statements. Explore how small and large process changes can increase organizational efficiency and profits through analyzing financial statement information. You’ll also examine how decisions made about capital projects, long-term investments, and a company’s risk aversion impact the bottom line.

Examine the skills and characteristics necessary to be an effective leader. You’ll learn how to apply leadership skills during change and in multicultural and diverse environments. The common thread throughout the course will be leading with strong managerial ethics, emotional intelligence, and reflective leadership. You’ll also examine the relationship between contemporary leadership issues and classical leadership theory.

Explore the design and implementation of the best combination of marketing efforts to carry out an organization's strategy in its target markets. You’ll develop an understanding of how an organization can benefit by creating and delivering value to its customers, and stakeholders, and the skills in applying the analytical concepts and tools of marketing to such decisions as segmentation and targeting, branding, pricing, distribution, and promotion.

Gain a deep understanding of operations management and how it is critical to your success in any field, from consulting to entrepreneurship to general management. You’ll explore the major problems and decision processes of operations management such as operations strategy, process and capacity planning, facilities planning, aggregate planning, materials planning, and quality planning.

Modern business is conducted by economic organizations in a highly competitive market environment. Managers often make decisions under severe time pressure without sufficient information. Ethical decision making in business cannot be considered apart from the complexity and uncertainty of actual situations. Therefore, the focus of the course is on ethical questions from the point of view of the practicing manager, with the aim of making ethical decisions that are consistent with effective corporate management.

Develop your understanding of theoretical and practical insights and developments in the fields of business ethics and sustainable business and learn the principles, practices, and ethical concerns/challenges organizations face in their daily operations. You will also gain an understanding of the theoretical basis of business ethics: stakeholder-theory, theories of responsibility and normative ethical theory, as well as intercultural ethics.

Conduct a strategic assessment of the overall global competitive environment and consider how an organization can leverage resources, capabilities, and preferential entry modes to create competitive advantages when entering a foreign market. As part of the final assessment of global strategy, you’ll take part either virtually or in-person in an international trip, visiting one to two foreign locations to experience local business culture. You’ll use theoretical knowledge to assess the strategy of an international organization in an applied cultural context. 

People are an organization’s most valuable resource. The quality of an organization’s talent is perhaps the single most important resource contributing to its profitability and or viability. Leaders and managers within the contemporary organizational context appreciate that a critical source of competitive advantage comes from the effective management of human resources. Product designs or service processes, creative marketing strategies, while critical, are not considered sufficient to deliver sustainable competitive advantage.

Academics, policy makers and practitioners are thus paying greater attention to work force issues. Managing human resources is as much a science as it is an art; it represents the combination of the application of scientific principles and practices, and, the application of personal characteristics. The human resource function exists within the organization in order to support the achievement of the organization’s strategic imperatives.

Equip yourself with a thorough understanding of the advantages and challenges presented by workplace diversity, and suggest techniques to effectively manage and maximize the benefits of diversity. You will be guided through a comprehensive understanding of how to effectively manage diversity based on race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, age, ability, national origin, and intersectionality in organizations as well as issues various groups face, including discrimination. 

You’ll also analyze data in ways that facilitate the development and evaluation of human resource (HR) policies, practices, and strategies. Finally, you’ll gain an in-depth understanding of the human resource management practices that facilitate employee engagement as well as how to conduct a competent workforce survey and use the data to assess and maintain as well as improve employee engagement.

Examine methods to improve organizational effectiveness. You’ll study organizational change, including the concept of planning change, the basic roles and styles of the change manager, as well as resistance to organizational change and how to overcome it. You’ll discuss all aspects of dealing with the people aspects of organizational change from the perspective of a change leader or consultant. Topics cover personal change, models and frameworks for change, methods for changing corporate culture and mindsets, approaches to strategy execution, and techniques for implementing new organizational designs and technologies.

Equip yourself with the knowledge and skills necessary to align individual and team-based activities with the organization's mission and vision and to thus optimize the contribution made by the workforce to the achievement of its long-term ambitions. You’ll adopt a balanced approach to the study of strategic human resource management by synthesizing a combination of academic theory and practitioner experiences, drawn from a broad range of operating environments. As such, you’ll be able to review and evaluate an organization's current operating environment; develop frameworks to diagnose workforce-related problems and propose solutions; and anticipate and prepare for uncertain organizational challenges. 

Develop your understanding of research in general and business. You’ll address both academic business research and business consultancy research and examine the concepts and theories underlying research, as well as the practice of research.

This course has an applied focus. Your readings and assignments are designed to identify a feasible research topic and develop a research proposal for academic business or business consultancy research. You will examine how research problems and questions may be identified, and the process of achieving thoughtful, effective, and efficient research design. You will also investigate the importance of the literature review and how it can be carried out for optimal effectiveness in research.

Learn the research methodologies and methods, as well as the techniques of the research process as applied to business, whether as a business consultant or as an academic researcher. You will also study the philosophical and epistemological assumptions underpinning the research approaches and methodologies, as well as their role in determining the design and implementation of the research. Finally, you will also gain an understanding of the ethical aspects of research and consultancy.