About 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.

Week 1: Alternative Approaches to Managing Human Resources

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.

Week 2: What Makes Employees Work? Money, Of Course!

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.

Week 3: What Makes Employees Work Revisited...Non-Monetary Motivations

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

Week 4: The People Manager as Part of a Complex System

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.