On-Campus Course Schedule for Spring 2021

MPS HR Capstone

The HRM Capstone is the culminating experience of the Georgetown Master’s in HRM program. It represents a crowning achievement as a capstone does in architecture, and provides students with an opportunity to apply the HR knowledge, skills and competencies gained from all their coursework to complex real-world organizational challenges. Through the culminating experience, students complete unique and original projects that make a creative contribution that advances an organization or the HR profession. This contribution may take the form of a consulting engagement with a partner organization or an applied research project. Depending on the nature of your project, you may work individually or on a small team — under the guidance of an expert advisor. Your semester-long project may be broad-based or focused on a specialized area of HR, and requires you to demonstrate mastery of the seven program learning outcomes: creative & critical thinking, global competence, ethical reasoning and values, applied problem solving, information literacy, technological competence, and communication. Note: This course is a core requirement for the MPS degree. A grade of “B” or higher is needed to pass this course.

Note: This course meets asynchronously online with 4 *mandatory* Zoom sessions.

Change Management Comms

Communications, as a management discipline, must not only be swift to react, but be forward thinking to anticipate and help solve future problems. Change Management Communications is increasingly where practitioners can demonstrate greatest value, as businesses, and their employees, navigate uncharted waters at a furious pace. This hands-on class will help prepare practitioners to identify and act on the communications implications of change. Using a mix of case studies, practical workshops, and group discussion, students will sharpen communications skills, from storytelling to consultative listening, by looking at them anew through the change “lens.” The forces driving change are not simply impacting individual companies but upending entire industries, and spawning entirely new ones. Such change compels companies to rethink their business strategy, reposition themselves in the marketplace, and redefine their value proposition to customers. Business leaders need to acquire new communications skills to help employees take actions to reach new goals. In-house communications teams must reimagine themselves to fulfill their new role. The class will address these, and other, aspects of change. Participants will be encouraged to explore communications, business and other readings – the point being that practitioners need to ‘connect the dots’ between information and issues beyond the traditional boundaries of communications be effective change partners.

Consulting Skills in Human Capital

The world of work is changing at an unprecedented pace and scale. As organizations struggle to cope with the challenges posed by rapid technological advancements, workforce demographic shifts, the transformation of work and employment relationships, and other disruptive trends, HR has been propelled to center stage. Technical HR knowledge is not enough for HR professionals partnering with business leaders to navigate these complexities. They need well-honed consulting skills to get the job done. This course provides a structured approach to delivering high-impact consulting services — from evaluating business challenges, to designing HR solutions, implementing and supporting HR solutions, leading change, and building client relationships. Through case studies and experiential exercises, you will explore field-tested tools and learn techniques for effective internal and external consulting. The course ends with specially designed consulting scenarios that will help you apply newly acquired knowledge and skills, challenge your thinking, and develop your confidence as a human capital consultant.

Note: This course meets synchronously online through Zoom on the day and time listed. Specific course meeting dates can be found in the syllabus when the course launches.

Coaching Skills for HR Profs

Coaching works. As organizations increasingly recognize its value in driving employee performance and business results, there has been a remarkable growth in demand for coaching. This trend poses opportunities and challenges for HR professionals, who are expected to play a critical role by instilling a coaching culture and integrating coaching into their organization’s talent management strategy. This course is designed to help you learn, practice and master evidence-based tools and techniques to function as an effective coach, whether you will be coaching internal or external clients. You will gain an understanding of the core phases of the coaching process, and learn how to align coaching with other core HR practices (for example, performance management, succession planning, and leader development). Through role-plays, case studies and group exercises, you will refine your own coaching skills, including active listening, empathizing and giving feedback, and learn how to leverage coaching to improve organizational performance.

Note: This course meets synchronously online through Zoom on the day and time listed. Specific course meeting dates can be found in the syllabus when the course launches.

Corp Communication

This course is designed to provide communications professionals with a deep understanding of the interplay between the many corporate communications functions and best-practice approaches to their strategic integration. We will examine how successful communicators leverage the skills of influence, persuasion and organizational awareness to establish themselves as true business partners and, ultimately, maximize their contributions to and impact on the business. In addition to completing the assigned readings, students will survey – and challenge – a broad range of best practices as we consider case studies compiled from organizations of all types and size. Every third class will serve as a lab practical to reinforce the concepts discussed during the prior two sessions, and to give students a chance to apply relevant theories, principles and experiences to real-life scenarios. Working in small groups, the students will devise original solutions to address their assigned issues. The solutions will be submitted for comment and analysis, and some work will be discussed and presented during class time. Upon conclusion of the course, students will have a timely, finely-tuned perspective on how to sell themselves and their know-how to senior teams by partnering with a business and its leaders to build strategies that enable and support business goals.

Foundations of HR

People management really matters. In the twenty-first century talent economy, the evidence consistently and overwhelmingly shows that effective HR practices promote employee well-being and drive organizational performance. Forward-thinking organizations and managers must therefore put people at the center of strategy execution, and manage them carefully and purposefully in every stage of the HR life cycle — from recruitment, to onboarding, talent development, retention and off-boarding. Blending theory and practice, this course examines the latest trends and best practices in the key functional areas of HR: talent acquisition and management, learning and development, total rewards management, and employment relations and the law. You will explore the roles and responsibilities of HR professionals and line managers in implementing HR policies and practices that align with business outcomes and meet employees’ changing needs. Through real-world case studies, application exercises and group projects, you will acquire the foundational HR knowledge and skills for building competitive advantage through people.

Note: This course meets synchronously online through Zoom on the day and time listed. Specific course meeting dates can be found in the syllabus when the course launches.

Human Capital Analytics

The twenty-first century has ushered in a new era of data and analytics. This presents a unique opportunity for HR professionals to establish themselves as credible business partners, helping organizations to leverage analytics to make smarter talent and strategic decisions. This course will equip you with the knowledge and skills to unlock the power of people data. From basic data reporting, statistical analysis, and benchmarking (descriptive analytics) to advanced quantitative analysis and modeling (predictive analytics), you will learn tools and techniques for data analysis. The course provides practical tips to help you translate your analytical findings into impactful HR solutions, and communicate your findings through persuasive visualization and storytelling. Ethical and legal issues that may arise from using analytics to make HR decisions will also be explored. Using real-world case studies, application exercises and group projects, you will learn how to develop a data-driven decision-making mindset, to improve the way organizations recruit, deploy, develop, assess, reward and retain talent.

Note: This course meets synchronously online through Zoom on the day and time listed. Specific course meeting dates can be found in the syllabus when the course launches.

Organization Development & Change

In today’s increasingly dynamic, volatile and complex world, change is inevitable. From private enterprises to public sector and nonprofit organizations, change initiatives have become more frequent and widespread, as organizations strive to cope with rapidly shifting environmental conditions, new technologies, demanding customers and stakeholders, and dynamic markets. But despite the necessity and frequency of change, several studies continue to cite a high failure rate of change initiatives. This presents serious challenges—and opportunities—for HR professionals, as they are uniquely positioned to promote employee buy-in and drive change forward. This course will prepare you to be a successful change agent. We will examine how Organization Development and Change concepts and methods can be used to effectively design and implement change initiatives. Through insightful readings, peer learning and dialogue, and a semester-long real-world application project, you will explore the OD process in depth: from the entry and contracting phase, to data gathering, diagnosis and feedback, conducting interventions, and evaluating and ending an engagement.

Note: This course meets synchronously online through Zoom on the day and time listed. Specific course meeting dates can be found in the syllabus when the course launches.

Total Rewards Mgmt

As organizations strive to create value and deliver results in today’s increasingly complex and dynamic environment, leveraging HR practices for competitive advantage has taken on a heightened importance. The ability to attract, motivate, retain and engage a talented workforce are critical to successful strategy execution, but continues to be an Achilles’ heel for many organizations. HR professionals have a strategic role to play here. They are responsible for designing and implementing a competitive mix of total rewards – compensation, benefits, work-life effectiveness, performance management, recognition, and talent development – while keeping the compensation budget (one of largest controllable expenses) under control. This course will prepare you to deal with these tensions, and help you to strike the right balance between the competing imperatives of internal equity, market competitiveness and individual performance. You will learn how to align total rewards strategies with organizational culture, HR goals and business strategy, and develop the skills needed to measure and improve compensation ROI.

Note: This course meets synchronously online through Zoom on the day and time listed. Specific course meeting dates can be found in the syllabus when the course launches.

Workplace Ethics

There seems to be a never-ending cycle of corporate scandals — employee mistreatment, accounting fraud, insider trading, bribery and corruption, among other types of misconduct — prompting debates about the role and effectiveness of HR in creating an ethical workplace culture. Unquestionably, HR professionals are uniquely positioned to identify, prevent and correct ethics scandals due to their outsize role in hiring, training and evaluating employees. This course will prepare you to act as an ethical agent. Combining theory with practice, you will learn how individual and collective values, belief systems, and moral philosophies impact individual and organizational actions. You will also explore critical factors that shape ethical decision-making and workplace ethics, from leadership styles, to gender and generational differences, and how to embed social responsibility, corporate governance, and sustainability into workplace practices. Through experiential exercises, case studies, and group projects, you will learn evidence-based tools and strategies to navigate common ethical landmines. Note: Core requirement for MPS-HRM degree. Minimum grade required is “B” to continue eligibility toward graduation. This course meets online.

Note: This course meets synchronously online through Zoom on the day and time listed. Specific course meeting dates can be found in the syllabus when the course launches.