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⇱ Preparing to Manage Human Resources | Coursera

Preparing to Manage Human Resources

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Preparing to Manage Human Resources

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Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.
4.8

10,510 reviews

2 weeks to complete
at 10 hours a week
Flexible schedule
Learn at your own pace
97%
Most learners liked this course
Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.
4.8

10,510 reviews

2 weeks to complete
at 10 hours a week
Flexible schedule
Learn at your own pace
97%
Most learners liked this course

Build your subject-matter expertise

This course is part of the Human Resource Management: HR for People Managers Specialization
When you enroll in this course, you'll also be enrolled in this Specialization.
  • Learn new concepts from industry experts
  • Gain a foundational understanding of a subject or tool
  • Develop job-relevant skills with hands-on projects
  • Earn a shareable career certificate

There are 4 modules in this course

One way or another, all employees are managed. But approaches to managing employees varying from employee-to-employee, job-to-job, manager-to-manager, organization-to-organization, and country-to-country. This course provides a foundation for developing your own approach to skillfully managing employees by illustrating alternative human resource management (HRM) strategies, introducing the importance of the legal context, and thinking about what motivates employees. This will then give you the factual and conceptual basis for developing specific, critical HRM skills in subsequent courses on hiring employees, managing performance, and rewarding employees. Don't know anything about HRM? That's OK! Leave this course with a new-found understanding of the range of options available for managing employees, a grasp of what makes workers tick, and the readiness to develop your own HRM skills.

Welcome to the first week of this course! This section starts with an introduction to the course, and then we'll spend two lessons looking at alternative ways of managing human resources. After completing this module, you will be able to… • Explain why managing people is important. • Compare strategies for managing human resources. • Evaluate the fit between an organization’s HR strategy, a manager’s style(s), and the business environment. • Recommend strategies and styles for managing people in a particular situation.

What's included

12 videos1 reading4 assignments1 discussion prompt

12 videos•Total 80 minutes
  • Video: Welcome to the HRM Specialization!•7 minutes
  • Video: Embrace Your Role as a Manager (Course Introduction)•7 minutes
  • Video: About the Instructor•7 minutes
  • Video: Human Resources? That’s Not Very…•4 minutes
  • Video: HR Basics•5 minutes
  • Video: The Historical Evolution of HRM•7 minutes
  • Video: Contrasting Organizational Strategies•6 minutes
  • Video: Alternative Managerial Styles•8 minutes
  • Video: External Influences on HR Strategies•7 minutes
  • Video: The Importance of Organizational Strategy for HR Strategy•6 minutes
  • Video: Speed Dating with HR Executives•6 minutes
  • Video: Ideas Matter•10 minutes
1 reading•Total 10 minutes
  • Will the Real HRM Please Stand Up•10 minutes
4 assignments•Total 98 minutes
  • Different Approaches to Managing People•30 minutes
  • Course Readiness and Personal Goals•30 minutes
  • Lesson 2 Practice Quiz•8 minutes
  • Lesson 3 Practice Quiz•30 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 10 minutes
  • Discussion: Your Experience with a Good or Bad HR Strategy•10 minutes

Welcome to the second module of this course! We'll be focusing on the monetary reasons for working, and the lessons for managers that result. After completing this module, you will be able to… • Explain how money can motivate some workers. • Identify key managerial concerns if workers are self-interested and view work economically. • Develop strategies for addressing these key concerns using insights from economics.

What's included

10 videos2 readings4 assignments1 peer review

10 videos•Total 61 minutes
  • Video: Why Worry about Why Employees Work?•3 minutes
  • Video: The Many Meanings of Work•5 minutes
  • Video: Working for Money•3 minutes
  • Video: The Daily Grind•7 minutes
  • Video: Opportunism and Shirking•7 minutes
  • Video: Incentives, Incentives, Incentives•7 minutes
  • Video: Information Signals and Screens•7 minutes
  • Video: The Commodification of Work•6 minutes
  • Video: Labor Supply and Demand•9 minutes
  • Video: Labor as More than a Commodity•9 minutes
2 readings•Total 20 minutes
  • HR Pros Ignore Economics at Their Own Peril•10 minutes
  • Everything You Need to Know About the Employment Relationship in One Tweet•10 minutes
4 assignments•Total 120 minutes
  • Monetary Aspects of Work•30 minutes
  • Lesson 1 Practice Quiz•30 minutes
  • Lesson 2 Practice Quiz•30 minutes
  • Lesson 3 Practice Quiz•30 minutes
1 peer review•Total 120 minutes
  • What Work Means to Me...and Others•120 minutes

Welcome to the third module of this course! We'll be focusing on the non-monetary reasons for working, and the lessons for managers that result. After completing this module, you will be able to… • Explain at least four different reasons that people work not related to money. • Identify key managerial concerns when workers work for different non-monetary reasons.• Develop strategies for addressing these key concerns using insights from psychology and sociology. • Justify the (in)application of insights from economics, psychology, and sociology in different situations.

What's included

9 videos3 readings4 assignments1 peer review1 discussion prompt

9 videos•Total 73 minutes
  • Video: Work is About More Than Money•3 minutes
  • Video: Seeking Fulfillment from Work•9 minutes
  • Video: Finding Identity in Work•8 minutes
  • Video: Society Expects Me To Work•8 minutes
  • Video: Caring for Others•8 minutes
  • Video: Serving Others•8 minutes
  • Video: Fairness and Justice•9 minutes
  • Video: The Power and Limitations of Theories of Human Behavior•11 minutes
  • Video: Work Complexities Mean Managing is Complex•10 minutes
3 readings•Total 25 minutes
  • Does 5 to 9 solve 9 to 5?•5 minutes
  • The Metaphor of the Octopus Worker•10 minutes
  • To Tip or Not to Tip, That is the (HR Policy) Question•10 minutes
4 assignments•Total 120 minutes
  • Non-Monetary Aspects of Work•30 minutes
  • Lesson 1 Practice Quiz•30 minutes
  • Lesson 2 Practice Quiz•30 minutes
  • Lesson 3 Practice Quiz•30 minutes
1 peer review•Total 120 minutes
  • Analyzing Your HR Landscape•120 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 10 minutes
  • Discussion: Social norms that influence work in your culture.•10 minutes

Welcome to the fourth and final module of this course! In this section, we'll finish laying a foundation for managing human resources by looking at the constraints faced by managers, especially the legal environment. After completing this module, you will be able to… • Explain at least four constraints that influence how human resources are managed in a particular organization. • Compare the ways in which the law does and does not see employment as a typical contractual relationship. • Create a list of legal and illegal HRM practices in your country. • Judge when to use strategies for managing people that go beyond what the law requires.

What's included

16 videos3 readings5 assignments1 discussion prompt

16 videos•Total 106 minutes
  • Video: The Goals of Every People Manager•4 minutes
  • Video: You Can’t Always Do What You Want•7 minutes
  • Video: Managing Unionized Employees•5 minutes
  • Video: The Front Stage, Backstage Manager•5 minutes
  • Video: The Employment-at-Will Baseline•7 minutes
  • Video: But True Employment-at-Will Doesn't Exist•8 minutes
  • Video: Disciplining and Dismissing Employees for Just Cause•9 minutes
  • Video: It’s a Complicated Legal World for Managers•7 minutes
  • Video: U.S. Employment Law•10 minutes
  • Video: U.S. Labor Law•9 minutes
  • Video: Employment and Labor Law: Non-U.S. Examples•8 minutes
  • Video: Pay Attention to the Law, But Don't Be Paralyzed By It•5 minutes
  • Course Re-cap: Putting it All Together•6 minutes
  • Video: Interview with HR VP•6 minutes
  • (Optional) Video: Careers in HRM•8 minutes
  • Video: Looking Ahead to the Other Courses•4 minutes
3 readings•Total 30 minutes
  • Labor Relations 101 as Told Through the Musical Newsies•10 minutes
  • Thank You Wells Fargo...For Reminding Us of the Nature of the Employment Relationship•10 minutes
  • Reflection Exercise: Create a Mad Lib (optional, quick, and hopefully funny)•10 minutes
5 assignments•Total 150 minutes
  • Managing in a Complex System•30 minutes
  • Lesson 1 Practice Quiz•30 minutes
  • Lesson 2 Practice Quiz•30 minutes
  • Lesson 3 Practice Quiz•30 minutes
  • Looking Back•30 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 10 minutes
  • Discussion: Important Work-Related Laws in Your Country?•10 minutes

Earn a career certificate

Add this credential to your LinkedIn profile, resume, or CV. Share it on social media and in your performance review.

Instructor

Instructor ratings
4.8 (3,061 ratings)
University of Minnesota
4 Courses•335,631 learners

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Showing 3 of 10510

MM
·

Reviewed on Jun 19, 2020

I had a very great time while doing this course and there are a lot of things that i have learned from this course, and because of my this experience i am looking forward to go for another course

AV
·

Reviewed on Apr 4, 2018

The course was useful to me, as I have people management responsibilities as part of my job. I have learned concepts that I did not know about, and got an insight into US labour laws as well.

PW
·

Reviewed on Jun 29, 2018

I learned so much about what it takes to become Human Resource Manager and the different laws that are out there. More importantly i learned that its exactly what i want to do with my career now

Frequently asked questions

You’ll learn how to compare different ways of managing people, understand what drives employee behavior, and make HR choices that fit an organization’s goals and constraints. It starts with HR basics and managerial styles, then moves into employee motivation, fairness, and the legal side of managing employees. You’ll apply those ideas through quizzes, discussions, and a peer-reviewed analysis of an organization’s HR challenges.

No, you don’t need prior HR experience to start. The course begins with HR basics and introduces the main ideas step by step, including strategy, motivation, and legal constraints. If you’ve already managed people, that will give you useful examples to connect to, but it isn’t required.

Yes, it’s a good fit if you’re new to HR or moving into a people-management role and want a broad introduction. The course explains core ideas through lessons, readings, quizzes, and discussion-based activities before asking you to apply them. It may feel less suitable if you want deep training in one narrow area like recruiting or compliance right away.

Plan on about 19 hours in total. At roughly 10 hours a week, that’s about two weeks of study, with time spread across lessons, readings, quizzes, discussions, and peer-reviewed assignments. The pacing should feel manageable if you like working through short units steadily.

Yes, but the hands-on work is more analytical and reflective than lab-based. You’ll do self-assessments, quizzes, discussion prompts, and peer-reviewed writing, including work on your own views of work and an analysis of an organization’s staffing, performance, and compensation challenges. Most of the practice is guided, with a few more open-ended assignments, so you apply each idea as you learn it.

The course focuses on people management from several angles: HR strategy, managerial style, employee motivation, and the constraints that shape management decisions. You’ll compare different HR approaches, look at both monetary and non-monetary reasons people work, and examine topics like fairness, unions, and employment law, including US law and some international examples. By the end, you should have a clearer framework for judging why different management choices fit different workplaces.

After finishing, you should be able to explain why one people-management approach fits a situation better than another. You’ll be better able to assess what may be motivating employees, where fairness concerns may arise, and when legal or organizational limits affect a manager’s options. For example, you could look at a team’s staffing or performance issues and suggest a more suitable HR approach.

It’s more concept-focused, with guided practice built in. Most of your time goes into understanding how strategy, motivation, and workplace rules shape management decisions, then reinforcing that through quizzes, discussions, and short written analysis instead of labs or a large project.

This course is a strong choice if you want a broad, manager-centered view of HR rather than a course that stays in just one lane. John W. Budd ties together strategy, employee motivation, fairness, and legal constraints, so you see how people-management decisions connect across real organizations. If you want to think more clearly about managing employees, especially as a new manager or HR learner, this course is a better fit than a specialist or compliance-only option.

Financial aid available,

¹ Some assignments in this course are AI-graded. For these assignments, your data will be used in accordance with Coursera's Privacy Notice.