Intro to Human Resource Management – Reimagined: A Round Table Discussion

Keywords: Human resource management student motivation career

Abstract: Knowledge about human resource management practice could prove very beneficial for students, yet current human resource management class in many business school programs suffer from student interest and motivation problems. We argue that one of the major reasons for this missed opportunity is that the way the the classes are taught (particularly at the intro level) pertains heavily to future HR specialists, while the majority of students in the class may not aspire to be. In this proposed roundtable discussion, we would like to invite the participants to re-imagine the intro to HR class and explore the possibility of the class from the perspective of students as future employees, and illustrate the HR functions from as steps in the employment life cycle. We believe that this approach may not only increase student motivation but also help them with their careers in the HR field or not.