The emphasis is on developing human resource strategies that are integrated with firm business strategies. Covered are methods and techniques used to forecast and plan for organization structures and processes, work force population, employee contribution, and employee morale. Much of the course is organized around cases and simulations in which students make policy and program decisions for fictional organizations. Decisions are evaluated on the basis of their contributions to the organizations' human resource and business objectives. Among the topics covered are valuation of business, planning, obtaining resources, management of growth, and cashing out.
Students team up to write and present business plans.
The course is case study oriented and focuses on strategic consulting. It has multiple objectives. First, it provides students with the opportunity to understand the role of the consultant and to gain indirect experience in that role through dealing with a broad range of practical and real-world issues. Second, it helps students improve their analytic skills through practice with case studies. Third, it provides students with information that they are unlikely to gain in other sources, as well as experience in making group presentations and evaluating presentations.