Perspective

This professor (literally) wrote the book on strategic HR: Here’s what she has to say about the field’s future

HR academics have long regarded HR as a strategic function, even when businesses missed the memo. Here’s what they’re forecasting for the future.
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· 4 min read

More than 20 years ago, Mary Gowan said, mastering HR coursework was as simple as memorizing “list after list after list.” As a visiting professor at the University of Maryland, she noticed that students learned to recite back terms but rarely understood their practical applications.

The problem, as she saw it, was that HR was taught as an administrative function, not a strategic one. Gowan and her colleague, the late David Lepak, created a framework teaching students how to consider external and internal factors when making people decisions and published it in their textbook, Human Resource Management, in 2008. Five editions later, it’s still being taught in lecture halls around the country.

Gowan, now dean at the Mike Cottrell School of Business at the University of North Georgia, told HR Brew that many companies are just beginning to catch up. “They’re recognizing that there may be something in this research…that [can] cause a company to be more successful,” she told HR Brew.

If HR professors foresaw the rise of the strategic CHRO in the early 2000s, what do they see as the HR of tomorrow? We hit the books and the (virtual) lecture halls to hear from the professors themselves.

If the future is now. Today’s professors are teaching tomorrow’s HR leaders to expand their horizons, urging them to consider new content and perspectives, as well as learn new skills.

At Michigan State, for example, the director of HR and labor relations, Peter Berg, told HR Brew his department sits in the school of social sciences—not the business school—to reflect the department’s commitment to exposing students to multiple perspectives. Undergraduates are required to take courses on income inequality, voice and democracy, and international HR, which sometimes includes trips abroad.

In an increasingly globalized and interdependent business community, Berg said that these courses offer students a more holistic understanding of the workplace and a “leg up” on their future colleagues.

In terms of rights and regulations, “The US is an outlier when it comes to HR practice and the rest of the world,” Berg said. Indeed, just this year, the UK piloted a four-day workweek and the Netherlands put forth a law guaranteeing the legal right to work from home for some. Keeping up with such global regulations, Berg said, can help set graduates apart. “It will be a way to demonstrate that you’ve thought about this—you’ve learned about it and you have very specific knowledge about the way things work in lots of different contexts.”

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At the University of North Georgia, Gowan sees a growing demand for data-based courses, such as HR strategy, information systems, data analytics, and cybersecurity. She urges students to think critically about the application of tech in HR. For example, when teaching her students about AI in recruiting, which can lead to discriminatory outcomes, she uses software called Vmock that lets students experience mock AI resumé screenings and interviews. Her hope is that they gain familiarity with the tools and their possible limitations before they become decision makers. (The majority of today’s business leaders report not understanding how AI operates.)

Tomorrow’s textbooks. The professors agreed that the gig economy could reshape work and, in turn, HR over the next five years. As workers increasingly turn to gig work, Darren Brooks, the Barry and Janice Anderson director of the center for HR management at Florida State University, believes people will increasingly rely on worker associations for retirement, health insurance, and other policies typically considered employee benefits. Such changes, he said, will require reimagining how programs teach compensation and benefits.

Among traditional employees, Berg expects unionization efforts to continue, making it important to teach HR students about collective bargaining.

Whatever changes occur, Brooks said, they will likely happen at a fast pace—after all, he added, today’s students can access information at the speed of a Google search.

“They’re much more informed and they have expectations of what the world of work is going to be and what opportunities are provided to them,” Brooks said. Preparing the next generation of HR leaders, he said, will come down to intangibles: “Teach students the ability to continually be intellectually curious, but also adaptable to the changing nature of the workplace.”—SV

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Quick-to-read HR news & insights

From recruiting and retention to company culture and the latest in HR tech, HR Brew delivers up-to-date industry news and tips to help HR pros stay nimble in today’s fast-changing business environment.