Professor Monica Belcourt

York University

Welcome to the exciting world of managing people. Many of you taking this course are enrolled in business programs or certification programs which will help you succeed at work. You are studying important subjects like finance and marketing, but I guarantee you that 80% of your problems at work will involve people. There are professional and time solutions to problems of financial projections and product launches ... and I will argue throughout the course that there are technical solutions to problems such as hiring the best people and giving them performance feedback which motivates productivity.You may undertake this course, thinking that Human Resources Management is just for people who work in the "personnel" department. But, everyone who is a coach, a volunteer leader, or a manager needs knowledge and skills in the art and science of managing people. For example, as a coach or volunteer leader, you may want to orient the new recruit to your team or project. There are effective ways of doing this. You may want to give them some negative feedback on the way they performed. There are right and wrong ways of handling this situation.

The study of Human Resources Management will help you handle these situations. Furthermore, if you plan to be a manager in an organization, then knowledge about what the department of human resources can do for you is very important.