Earn your degree in one year from a leading research university
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Designed to fit your schedule
Earn your degree in one year from a leading research university
No GRE required
Master of Science in Human Resource Management
Master of Science in Human Resource Management
The Master of Science in Human Resource Management program is designed to prepare professionals to advance their careers in the field of human resources (HR). The program emphasizes the strategic role that human resources plays in the performance of global organizations, providing students with the knowledge and skills needed to be effective HR leaders.
In addition to core HR principles, students examine the full spectrum of human capital management concepts, including talent acquisition and retention, employee motivation, change management, and organizational culture. Students will learn about key HR processes, including talent management, total rewards, performance management, learning and development, employee relations, and HR analytics.
Finally, students will explore key topics that are increasingly important to HR, including managing in a global context, principled leadership, HR technology, and corporate social responsibility.
Learning Outcomes
Design effective HR strategies that strengthen organizations.
Interpret HR policies, procedure, key documentation, and considerations needed to manage risks and achieve organizational objectives.
Create plans to recruit, hire, train, retain, and motivate a diverse and global workforce.
Use research methodology and data collection methods needed for strategic HR decision-making.
Evaluate HR practices to ensure compliance with relevant laws and regulations.
Incorporate ethical practice into all aspects of HR management.
Develop leadership skills that accentuate personal strengths while addressing interpersonal relationships and organization development and change.
Assess drivers and organizational factors to ensure HR alignment with the organization’s mission, vision, and values.
Incorporate integrity and impartiality into all aspects of HR management.
Curriculum
A Master of Science degree in Human Resource Management requires 24 units of coursework offered in the fall, spring, and summer semesters. The program may be completed on a 1- or 2-year track. Students attending the program on the 1-year track can earn the degree within 12 months and those on the 2-year track can complete the program in less than two years.
Our curriculum was designed by industry leaders who are at the forefront of the future direction of the field. Our engaging faculty will prepare you to be future leaders of the profession and will give you increased confidence in your skills and knowledge that will serve you throughout the rest of your career.
Human Resource Strategy (2 units)
Explores the strategic role that HR management plays in providing organizations with sustained competitive advantages by unlocking the productive potential of employees’ human and social capital.
- Illustrate the importance of aligning human resource practices with an organization’s strategy, mission, vision, and values.
- Analyze organizational challenges through a strategic human resources lens.
- Recommend human resource strategies, approaches, and practices to support positive organizational outcomes.
Organizational Culture and Employee Outcomes (2 units)
Prepares students to create, foster, and manage organizations in which people thrive and perform at their best in order to retain talent and reduce costs in a sustainable way.
- Appraise the manifestations of organizational culture at the individual, leadership, team, or organizational levels.
- Distinguish an organization’s culture using the Competing Values Framework and the Human Capital Management Drivers.
- Analyze the ways in which organizational culture can support or undermine an organization’s vision and strategy.
- Select appropriate frameworks, models, tools, and processes to address an organizational need.
- Recommend a solution to a cultural development need that aligns with an organization’s strategy, mission, vision, and values.
Leadership in Human Resources (2 units)
Focuses on developing the critical social intelligence skills needed to lead people and change through increased self-awareness, understanding of interpersonal differences, and greater influence.
- Assess personal strengths and limitations in relation to the traits, skills, and behaviors typical of successful leaders.
- Outline strategies for enhancing effectiveness in key leadership roles.
- Create a personal leadership development plan.
Talent Management (2 units)
Examines talent management processes that impact employee experience and engagement and explores ways to improve data driven decision making processes including workforce and succession planning.
- Detail a process to align a talent strategy with an organization’s business strategy, yielding a pipeline of talent to help achieve organizational goals.
- Identify aspects of an organization’s talent management processes that impact employee experience and engagement and adapt processes accordingly.
- Improve approaches to making data-based, individual-, and group-level decisions about talent (e.g., workforce planning, hiring, performance reviews, and promotions).
- Broaden approaches to develop capabilities of talent in organizations, including training interventions, learning from experience, and enabling managers to effectively coach and develop employees.
- Design and facilitate talent processes to identify high potential leaders and build a robust succession pipeline.
Total Rewards (2 units)
Provides a comprehensive look at the employee rewards strategies that human resource practitioners promote and manage including compensation, performance management, benefits, and non-monetary rewards.
- Develop a rewards strategy that is consistent with the needs of specific organizations.
- Assess the effectiveness of reward programs in motivating, attracting, and retaining employees.
- Determine the mix of rewards that is most likely to be effective in a specific organization.
- Distinguish the major types of compensation and benefit programs and their advantages and limitations.
- Communicate rewards programs to employees in an organization.
Learning and Development (2 units)
Prepares students to identify, design, and implement effective learning and development interventions and strategies that drive results and enhance organizational competitiveness.
- Examine theoretical and organizational factors that affect the ability of learning and development departments, functions, and initiatives to enhance individual and organizational performance.
- Compare and contrast a variety of historical, current, and future-focused learning and development concepts and examine applied practices.
- Critique the design and implementation of applied learning and development interventions.
- Develop a portfolio of practical tools and ideas for identifying needs, designing experiences, and evaluating outcomes of learning and development interventions.
- Create a project plan for a learning or development intervention that can be applied within an organizational context.
- Apply effective reflection and feedback processes to enhance personal learning and development.
Employee Relations (2 units)
Applies practical approaches to building positive employee and labor relations and solving related problems through increased employee motivation, effectiveness, and retention.
- Examine the dilemmas and strategies for managing effective relationships with employees, bosses, and labor unions.
- Effectively manage disruptive employee behavior that challenges organizational norms and goals.
- Recognize how gender, cultural, and generational differences affect employee relations. Practice managing these differences effectively.
- Use data-driven, evidence-based approaches to improve the practice of management within organizations.
- Utilize performance management evaluations to coach, counsel, and correct employee behavior.
Human Resource Analytics (2 units)
Examines and emphasizes strategies and techniques to enable improved organizational and human capital decisions by directing the organizational analytics for more actionable insights.
- Evaluate approaches to HR analytics and the HR analytics maturity model.
- Recommend effective ways to execute an HR project to support the organization.
- Argue for changing the paradigm from perfecting HR processes to improving organizational results.
- Create effective success measures for HR using research methodologies and data collection methods.
- Investigate analytics to drive impactful changes in the organization by undertaking projects that address organizational challenges.
- Assess how cutting-edge analytical techniques will impact the future of HR.
Management of Diverse and Global Human Resources (2 units)
Analyzes today’s global HR environment with consideration to individual well-being and community alignment, focusing on effective organizational strategies and best practices.
- Evaluate concepts of human dignity, civility, and well-being within society and the organization.
- Recommend best practices for creating a workplace where all individuals can thrive.
- Develop strategies to support corporate social responsibility, federal and state laws, and ethical conduct in an organization.
- Measure the effectiveness of organizational strategies to promote respect and cooperation in the workplace culture.
- Assess global workplace patterns with respect to human dignity and valuing others across cultural and generational differences.
- Appraise the implications of cultural awareness and unconscious bias.
Organization Design (2 units)
Equips students with a deeper understanding of how to design and develop organizations to increase performance and effectiveness and includes sections on strategy, work, and management processes.
- Evaluate the alignment between an organization’s current design and its strategic direction, mission, vision, and values.
- Develop design criteria that define an organization’s desired state.
- Analyze strategies to strengthen organizational capabilities.
- Make design decisions based on design criteria and in support of organizational strategy, mission, vision, and values.
Change Management and Organization Development (2 units)
Identifies the common challenges in organizational change management and explores the limitations and opportunities of different models of organizational change.
- Explore prevailing change theories and perspectives.
- Describe the effect leadership can have on organizational change.
- Identify and correct the common challenges in change management.
- Explore the limitations and opportunities of different models of organizational change and change management.
- Formulate strategies and tactics to prevent or address resistance to change.
Anticipating the Future of Human Resources (2 units)
Explores the forces and emerging trends that are reshaping work, the workforce and workplace – and how to address these transformational changes and be effective as an HR leader.
- Evaluate the forces of change and trends that are reshaping work, the workforce, and the workplace.
- Critique the capabilities and actions that are required to address and resolve these transformational changes, challenges, and opportunities.
- Assess concrete, specific, and practical connections between leadership theory and what it means to be an effective HR leader.
- Develop a plan using practical tools, frameworks, and change strategies to resolve current and future HR issues.
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