Subject Overview

An advanced graduate syllabus examining how organizations acquire, develop, reward, govern and sustain human capital. It integrates foundational HR theory with strategic management, employment regulation, workforce analytics, technology, AI and contemporary workplace challenges.

Learning Goal

Students will be able to design, evaluate and lead ethical, evidence-based HR systems aligned with organizational strategy, employee well-being, legal requirements and future workforce needs.

Syllabus

1. Foundations and Evolution of Human Resource Management

Learning Objective: Explain HR terminology, the employee lifecycle, historical development, stakeholder roles and major perspectives, including human capital theory, resource-based theory, the Harvard and Michigan models, and the AMO framework.

Category: foundation

2. Strategic HRM, Governance and the HR Operating Model

Learning Objective: Align people strategy with business strategy; evaluate vertical and horizontal fit, HR architectures, shared-services models, HR business partnering, outsourcing, governance, policies, metrics and strategic decision-making responsibilities.

Category: strategic

3. Work Analysis, Job Design and Strategic Workforce Planning

Learning Objective: Conduct job and competency analysis; design motivating and flexible work using scientific management, job characteristics and sociotechnical perspectives; forecast labor demand and supply; and address skills gaps, restructuring and alternative workforce arrangements.

Category: core

4. Talent Acquisition, Selection and Onboarding

Learning Objective: Design employer branding, recruitment, assessment, selection and onboarding processes; evaluate validity, reliability, utility, fairness and candidate experience; and apply structured interviews, testing and responsible technology-enabled hiring.

Category: application

5. Motivation, Engagement and Retention

Learning Objective: Apply motivation, psychological contract, organizational commitment, employee experience and engagement theories to diagnose turnover and develop ethical retention, recognition, flexibility and employee-value-proposition strategies.

Category: core

6. Performance Management and Employee Development

Learning Objective: Create performance systems connecting goals, competencies, feedback, coaching and organizational outcomes; address rating bias, calibration, underperformance and continuous performance management using approaches such as MBO, balanced scorecards and multisource feedback.

Category: core

7. Learning, Career Development and Succession Management

Learning Objective: Conduct learning-needs analysis; design and evaluate training with adult-learning and transfer principles; and manage careers, leadership pipelines, high-potential talent, succession, mentoring, reskilling and return on learning investment.

Category: application

8. Total Rewards and Compensation Strategy

Learning Objective: Design equitable and competitive compensation, benefits and recognition systems using job evaluation, market pricing, pay structures and incentive theory; assess executive pay, pay transparency, internal equity, external competitiveness and reward risks.

Category: core

9. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging

Learning Objective: Evaluate workforce diversity, identity, bias, discrimination and inclusion through relevant theories and evidence; design accessible and equitable HR practices; and assess representation, pay equity, belonging and DEI program effectiveness.

Category: contemporary

10. Employment Law, Ethics and HR Risk Governance

Learning Objective: Apply major principles governing recruitment, employment contracts, privacy, discrimination, discipline, dismissal and worker rights across jurisdictions; resolve ethical dilemmas and establish documentation, due process, compliance, accountability and human-rights safeguards.

Category: core

11. Employee Relations, Labor Relations and Employee Voice

Learning Objective: Manage workplace communication, grievances, discipline, conflict and collective employment relations; examine unions, collective bargaining, consultation, dispute resolution, voice mechanisms and constructive employer–employee partnerships.

Category: core

12. Occupational Health, Safety and Employee Well-Being

Learning Objective: Develop systems for physical and psychological safety, hazard prevention, ergonomics, workload, stress, burnout and workplace accommodations; integrate legal duties, risk controls, crisis response and sustainable well-being practices.

Category: application

13. Global, Comparative and Flexible Workforce Management

Learning Objective: Compare HR institutions and practices across countries; manage expatriation, global mobility and cross-cultural teams; and address remote, hybrid, contingent, platform and multigenerational workforces while balancing global consistency with local adaptation.

Category: advanced

14. People Analytics and Evidence-Based HR Decision Making

Learning Objective: Formulate workforce questions; use descriptive, diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive analytics; evaluate HR KPIs, dashboards, experiments and financial impact; and interpret data responsibly while avoiding causal, statistical and measurement errors.

Category: advanced

15. HR Technology, Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work

Learning Objective: Evaluate HRIS, cloud platforms, automation, digital employee experience and generative AI across HR processes; lead digital transformation while governing privacy, cybersecurity, bias, explainability and human oversight; and anticipate skills disruption and emerging work models.

Category: contemporary