There are many electives available to those pursuing a human resources MBA today. While some students choose these elective courses based on pure potential for enjoyment, others make selections here based solely on accompanying value to the degree or intended future career. What are some those elective choices made available to HR MBA students? The following five are represent just a small handful of the many options seen at different schools across the US.
Resource: Top 10 Best HR MBA Programs
Project Management
Project management is a unique component to business that acts unto its own but must also align and mesh with greater company strategy, branding, and culture. This namesake elective course pushes students to take on the duties of a project manager and understand the unique, organizational relationship held therein. Deadlines, planning, staff and material requisition, budgeting, and even ethics and morale, students will find, all play key roles.
Entrepreneurship
One great way to understand the business world and markets from an “outside-the-box” perspective is to see the landscape through the eyes of an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is thus another great option offered by many schools along the elective lineup for this degree. Students here can expect to take a closer look at ventures, risk, crowdfunding, copyrighting and property claims processes, and much more.
Marketing Management
How can the current customer base of a company be maintained and even expanded? When is the best time to utilize current event or culture-based advertising media? What kinds of advertising media draw the best results and in which situations? These are the kinds of questions delved into by the marketing management elective course offered by many schools in conjunction with the HR degree.
Power and Politics in Organizations
In a recent Harvard Business Review article, the four, main types of political layouts found in organizations today are put on display for the common reader. While some basics can be gleaned about these four brands from this piece, a truly deeper look is taken by students participating in the Power and Politics in Organizations course. Here, one can expect to learn about the differences between formal and informal politics, hierarchy and roles, leverage, legal checks and balances, union involvement, and much more.
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence is an elective course typically found with strong academic emphasis in communications and psychology degrees, but in the business world and HR in particular, understanding this subject area can truly arm one to deal with nearly any situation. A small glimpse of this concept and what is taught about it in college coursework can be taken from Psychology Today‘s general explanation of the subject: “Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify and manage your own emotions and the emotions of others.” Additionally, the publication notes, and students will learn, “it is generally said to include three skills: emotional awareness, the ability to harness emotions and apply them to tasks like thinking and problem solving, and the ability to manage emotions.”
Today’s HR-focused Master’s of Business Administration will absolutely prepare the student for a future of business world success and upward progression. How the elective coursework here is chosen is completely up to the student as they make their way through toward degree completion. These five electives are among some of the most commonly associated and applicable to the human resources MBA right now.
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