Some ideas for getting students energized at the beginning of class include the following:
Connectivity Activity: Ask students to think about a previous or current job. In small
groups, discuss their interaction with the HRM department. Note the activities
mentioned by students on the board or flip chart. Ask students whether all of the
activities are the sole remit of HRM. There are likely to be shared responsibilities
with management. Highlight some of the reasons why HRM is important for those
who wish to be HRM managers, but also for those who wish to manage others, or
even start their own business.
Connectivity Activity: Go to websites for HR professional associations, such as the
HRPA, CIPD, or SHRM. Collect information on each of the topics to be discussed
over the course of the semester (e.g., week-to-week breakdown of HRM activities,
such as recruiting and training). Have students get into small groups, and give one
topic per group. Ask students to develop a presentation on three of the most important
or interesting elements in the reading, and then present their findings to one another.
This can also be done at the end of the lecture as a preview for the rest of the course.
Call-Out Question: Think of a firm you are familiar with that is facing dramatic
changes in order to survive. How do you think the firm’s personnel can help it adapt?
What role will the company’s HR staff play in helping with that goal?
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Call-Out Question: Ask students whether they can think of a situation in which, if a
particular person left an organization, that organization’s expertise would drop
rapidly. There are many instances in which a single individual’s expertise has an
enormous influence on an organization. Some high profile names will jump out. Mark
Zuckerberg of Facebook and Bill Gates at Microsoft are highly recognizable
executives. If students have a difficult time coming up with easily recognizable
people, ask them about small companies in their hometowns. What would happen at a
mom-and-pop store if Mom or Pop decided to leave? In small businesses especially,
the human capital may be almost completely tied up in one or two key individuals.
The talent, service, and/or reputation of those key individuals “are” the business.
Highlight that HRM programs are often the conduit through which knowledge is
developed and transferred among employees, and that HRM can provide the systems
and procedures so that if a star CEO leaves, he or she does not take the success of the
company with him or her. To go outside the bounds of the textbook, it is possible to
introduce “strong” cultures in this space (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004; see the full
citation in the Recommended Reading section).
Why Study Human Resources Management?
Human Capital and HRM
The term human capital describes the economic value of employees’ knowledge, skills, and
capabilities. To build human capital in organizations, managers must continue to develop
superior knowledge, skills, and experience within their workforces and retain and promote
top performers.
Direct students to review Figure 1.1: Overall Framework for Human Resources
Management.
Competitive Issues and Human Resources Management
Professional organizations such as the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA)
and HRPS seek the input from chief executives and HR managers to identify the most
important issues/challenges.
ISSUE 1: Responding Strategically to Changes and Disruptions in the Local and
Global Marketplace
HR Managers and Business Strategies
In order to meet this challenge, HRM professionals need to know the business strategy, and
how to align its policies with it.
Call-Out Question: Since 2008, the world has undergone a “Great Recession.” How
has this impacted business? What have organizations done in order to survive?
Students may generate the following strategies:
Downsizing—the planned elimination of jobs
Outsourcing—hiring someone from outside the company to perform
business processes that were previously done within the firm
Offshoring—involves shifting work to overseas locations
Employee leasing—the process of dismissing employees who are then
hired by a leasing company, which handles all HR-related activities, and
contracts with that company to lease back the employees
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Reengineering—a fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business
processes to achieve dramatic improvements in cost, quality, service,