This introductory course is designed to provide a broad overview of critical dimensions of human capital in the context of business strategy. Human Resource Professionals and Organisational Leaders must understand the context of the organisational environment to make decisions related to human capital. Starting with the origins of the human capital concept, we explore the direct and indirect influences of organisation structure, strategic leadership, organisation culture and talent management on human capital as a resource of the firm. We will provide a common grounding in each of the topics through practice perspectives and bring these to life with case studies along with student sharing. To help bridge the link to academic research, we will also anchor to key points in the literature.

Human capital (HC) decisions are increasingly based on rigorous evidence and analysis. This course is divided into two sections that cover (1) research methods used to generate rigorous evidence and (2) analytical methods used to generate insights for HC decisions.

Research methods
Research methods represent the “how” of the scientific study of theoretical and applied questions. Appropriate research methods allow us to rigorously investigate and develop evidence to address important problems. This section of the course is an introductory master-level seminar on empirical research methods in the context of business research. It will focus on different types of research designs and methods, such as lab experiments, field experiments and survey research. It is meant to help you make informed choices about designing and conducting your own research studies effectively and ethically.

Analytical methods
HC analytics focusses on the use of people data for HC decisions and involves mapping HC initiatives to business outcomes. The key benefits of employing HC analytics include quantifying returns on HC investments and optimising employee investments to achieve tangible business outcomes. However, the challenge faced by HC practitioners lies in knowing what to analyse and how to analyse. Reports have revealed that only a small percentage of HC practitioners are proficient in undertaking advanced univariate analyses and that an even fewer number can perform advanced multivariate analyses. This creates a proficiency gap that can be narrowed by more HC practitioners becoming more competent in this field. The focus of this section of the course is to narrow this gap, allowing HC professionals to play a more strategic role within their organisations through equipping them with the ability to undertake some useful HC analytics on available organisational employee data. The course will use the SPSS software package, chosen for its ease of use and commercial accessibility.

The objective of this course is to develop a critical understanding of learning and talent development (LTD) policies and strategies that enable the development of intellectual, social, professional and personal skills to perform effectively in an organisation. The course is designed to give students a sound introduction to learning and development (L&D) practices that are anchored on key L&D theories and models. To be specific, this course will take the students through the L&D process including strategic L&D, learning needs analysis, L&D design, L&D implementation and L&D evaluation.

Your professional success in a complex organisation depends not only on technical, functional and professional skills, but also on the ability to navigate the people side of the organisation: to successfully work with and through others to achieve individual, group and organisational objectives. Professionals will, therefore, benefit from a deeper understanding of, and an ability to apply, a range of concepts and frameworks for managing people and organisations. This course aims to provide such understanding and ability.

This course examines rewards management in an organisational and international context with a view to understand how to plan, implement and evaluate policies and practices. We will review the foundations of pay and benefits management and consider strategic designs for special areas such as sales incentives, executive compensation and long-term reward strategies. We will explore the theoretical debates informing reward management and develop mechanisms to evaluate the needs based on labour markets and firm constraints.

Talent is critical to the creation of organisational human capital. We focus on talent activities including recruitment, selection, assessment, retention and dismissal of employees. In addition, we go beyond these core activities to evaluate the trade-offs of short-term and long-term strategies that improve organisational performance, morale and diversity. Areas such as employer branding, diversity and work-life balance also are explored. We will take an evidence-based and experiential approach to explore these talent management activities, reflecting and drawing on the recent evidence and real-world case studies from around Asia and beyond. Readings (reflecting a selection of classics as well as cutting-edge ideas) are assigned before each of the first four course sessions. The course will also consist of a business game in which you will experience first-hand the short-term and long-term implications of strategic talent decisions on key deliverables such as productivity, morale, diversity and turnover. Taken together, the concepts, frameworks and approaches resulting from the readings and case studies, combined with the applied and experiential experience of the business game, will provide you with key and invaluable leverage for resourcing and building a talent-rich organisation.

Professional success is largely dependent on one’s success in managing differences and fostering collaboration among people and organisations. However, in today’s highly dynamic and complex managerial environment, which is marked by increasing interdependence and often conflicts of interest, it can be extremely challenging to bring together the relevant “players” – internal and external stakeholders who have different interests, perceptions, attitudes, behaviours or values – to forge efficient, profitable and lasting agreements. HR professionals who understand the science and practice of negotiation are much better equipped to navigate these differences and create agreements that advance not only their own interests, but also the interests of other parties involved. After taking this course, HR professionals will understand and be able to put into practice the central frameworks, concepts and skills in negotiation, gain negotiation experience, skills, and confidence, and obtain the skills and insights needed to learn on an ongoing basis from their own future negotiations.

This course considers the ethics of working in a society constructed around legal entities having many of the rights but few of the responsibilities and liabilities of human beings: corporations. We examine the ethical dilemmas, contradictions and aporias of corporate working life and the corporatisation of society. What values are intrinsic to the corporation? What values exist above and beyond corporate values both historically and in contemporary society? The course seeks not so much to salve the conscience with easy propositions of corporate social responsibility or social entrepreneurship, but instead asks students to face the tough questions of our daily life together as ‘corporate citizens’ and the role of the future HR leader in this context.

This course introduces students to the theoretical concepts and analytical tools required for formulating and implementing appropriate strategies that affect the enduring success of the entire organisation. Topics to be covered include external and internal environmental analyses, business-level strategies, corporate-level strategies, strategy process and implementation, and special topics such as competitive dynamics and competition in high-tech industries. The course emphasises the application of theory to a number of real-world strategic issues. Students are encouraged to synthesise knowledge from other business courses into a comprehensive understanding of the competitive advantages of a firm.

In this day and age, it is no longer sufficient for managers and leaders in organisations to be simply transactional or transformational. They also need to be fair, just, ethical, moral and responsible. The same might be said for organisations themselves. It is not enough for organisations to be profitable. They must also behave responsibly and sustainably. This course is divided into two sections that cover (1) what it means to be ethical in an organisational setting and (2) the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its role in business and society.

What it means be ethical in an organisational setting
This part of the course is designed to explore, inform and stimulate thinking on issues related to behavioural ethics and responsibility as encountered in the corporate world. To create this intellectual exchange, it will focus on how individual and organisational behaviour is shaped by context as well as by biases, why these factors make it difficult for managers to be responsible leaders and what can be done about the influence of these factors. It is important to emphasise that the goal of this course is not the ethical or moral transformation of students, but the ability to develop a set of tools and frameworks (where possible) that allow you to manage effectively in a world increasingly characterised by stakeholders with competing needs and responsibilities.

The importance of CSR and its role in business and society
In this portion of the course, we explore the idea that businesses bear a responsibility to society and a broader set of stakeholders beyond their shareholders – an idea that has gained currency since the 1970s. The question remains, however, whether corporations have a responsibility towards and within society that goes beyond merely being well-run companies? Through this course, we will engage in a critical evaluation and discussion of different views on the meaning of CSR and the “proper” role of CSR in business and society. We will also discuss contemporary research and organisational practices that inform the integration of CSR within a firm's core business strategy and operations. We will understand that through strategically managed CSR, including ways to create shared value and apply sustainable business strategies, business corporations can potentially identify business opportunities that help address the world's most pressing challenges and still manage their relationships with important stakeholders who affect the firm's sustained success.

Finance is about the allocation of capital for productive use in the economy. In this course, we examine how financial assets are priced (asset pricing) and how firms raise capital (corporate finance).

Asset pricing
In this first portion of the course, you will learn about the importance of finance in society. You will get familiar with tools that are necessary in finance, such as the time value of money, and apply these tools to the pricing of bonds and stocks. Finally, you will learn about the fundamental concepts of risk and return, as well as portfolio theory, and how these relate to investing.

Corporate finance
This second part of the course is about financial decision making in a firm with the objective of maximising the firm's value. The key corporate finance decisions can be grouped into three types: investment decisions, financing decisions and dividends decisions. This segment aims to provide you with fundamentally important ideas about what to look for in making good decisions from a corporate manager's perspective.

In this project, you will effectively develop and present a workable solution to solve a human capital challenge. You will have the opportunity to demonstrate your ability to diagnose and investigate a live business issue, research the current literature, collect and analyse data, and develop conclusions.