On-Campus Course Schedule for Spring 2022

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 in person at the day and time listed.

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 in person at the day and time listed.

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 through Zoom at the day and time listed.

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 in person at the day and time listed.

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 through Zoom at the day and time listed.

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 through Zoom at the day and time listed.

Research Process and Methodology

As scientific research output on human resources management continues to grow rapidly, there is wide acceptance of the need for HR professionals to embrace evidence-based practice. This requires using the best available scientific evidence, as well as systematically gathering organizational facts, data, indicators, and metrics. Exploring the fundamentals of research methods and data analysis, this course is designed to help you become a more sophisticated consumer and producer of research. As a consumer, the course will equip you with the skills to make informed, critical, and cautious use of published research. A central focus of the course is preparing you to produce high-quality research. You will learn how to formulate research questions, design research projects, and collect, analyze and interpret data using qualitative and quantitative methods. Employing a learning-by-doing approach, you will develop your research and analytical skills, and gain the foundational knowledge and skills to leverage HR research and analytics for effective problem-solving and decision-making.

Note: This course meets in person at the day and time listed.

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 in person at the day and time listed.

Workplace Ethics

Note: This course meets in person at the day and time listed.