Human Resource Management

Do you know how motivation to work "works"? Have you ever encountered challenges with team tasks? Do you know how an application process looks like from the perspective of a company? Would you like to be a founder, but wonder how to select the best people for your startup? These and many more topics will be addressed this class on Human Resource Management (HRM).

This course offers you a broad overview of the role of HRM from a strategic, organizational, and individual perspective. In fact, effective management of HR has become a competitive advantage and involves not only employment planning (i.e., recruiting, selecting, and retaining employees) but also effectively managing the “human side of business”.

The aim of this class is to provide you with the theoretical knowledge related to these aspects and offer you practically applicable tools to handle them. Because it has become more common for non-HR specialists to implement or plan HR initiatives, and because employees themselves have become responsible for services that were previously provided by HR specialists like for instance scouting for training and development opportunities, the content of this class will be relevant for you, regardless of the functional area in which you will operate in the future.

Furthermore, the individual assignments in this class (current research presentation and reflection report) can serve you as a valuable preparation for your Bachelor thesis. This way, you will get the opportunity to exercise literature research and structured evaluations of academic papers. The skills that you develop accordingly will serve you well in writing your final thesis.

• Students will have the capacity to learn individually and communicate their opinions/ findings effectively and rigorously as well as to broaden their competences on their own.
• Students can use methods and tools and apply theories of related sciences, which are necessary to understand business and economic sciences.
• Students will apply critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Students will produce documents of a highly professional standard.
• Students will be able to transfer theoretical knowledge into managerial and entrepreneurial practice.

• Lecturing
• Case work
• Group and individual work

• Your first task is to work on a case study that is related to "Digitalization in HR".
• You will prepare a brief presentation and present your main findings as a group.

Current research presentation (20%, individual grade)

• Your second task is to find a current research article that was published in a peer-reviewed high-quality journal relating to a class topic of your choice.
• You will summarize the essence of the paper (i.e., what the article is about, which theory or theories it applies and what kind of practical implications it offers) on a single ppt slide that you will present in class.
• You must turn in the article, or link to the article, with the slide.

Reflection report (50%, individual grade)

• Your third task is to write a brief critical reflection (3 pages + references) on a theory or research construct that we discussed in class.
• You will discuss the practical implications and applicability of the theory or research construct and reflect on its limits and potential implied drawbacks.
• You are free to choose which theory or construct you would like to address.