Course: Managing People for Competitive Advantage

Course Code: MGHR6004
Credit Hours: 3

This course is built on a fundamental principle: people are an organisation’s most valuable resources. The quality of the organisation’s talent is perhaps the single most important resource that contributes to its profitability and / or viability.  Leaders and managers within the contemporary organisational context appreciate that a critical source of competitive advantage comes from the effective management of human resources. Product designs, service  processes,  and creative  marketing  strategies,  while  critical,  are  not  deemed  to  be sufficient to deliver sustainable competitive advantage. Academics, policy makers, and practitioners are thus paying greater attention to work force issues.

Managing human resources is as much a science as it is an art; it represents the combination of the application of scientific principles and practices, and the application of personal characteristics.  The human resource function exists within the organisation in order to support the achievement of the organisation’s strategic imperatives.

This course has been designed and is guided with reference to three overarching themes:

1. Understanding  the  barriers  that  challenge  the  effective  management  of  human resources within an organisation
2. Developing systematic and strategic approaches and policies to managing people
3. Implementing  such  approaches  and  policies  in  order  to  achieve  competitive advantage

There are many aspects to HRM. They include determining the number of persons required to undertake the approved functions, identifying the skill sets required, developing policies etc, to attract the right candidates for each position, creating the optimum environment to retain and develop the persons, and providing a framework to stimulate high productivity for organisational profit and growth.

This course aims to provide learning opportunities for students to examine the human resource landscape within Jamaican organisations. Having investigated the landscape they will  be  able  to  apply  the  principles  of  people development  and  management  to these situations thereby designing and proposing systems and strategies that will result in a cadre of employees that high performers with high morale and motivation supporting organisational goal achievement. This course will cover most of the critical areas of managing human resources through case studies, role play, lectures, group discussions, project assignments and evaluations.