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Becoming a Golden Hawk means more than just cheering on our (really good) varsity teams – it means being a student who cares about your community, who works hard in the classroom, and who takes advantage of all the learning opportunities that can happen outside the classroom, too.
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Our Master of Science (MSc) in Management degree program with a concentration in Organizational Behaviour (OB) and Human Resource Management (HRM) is a 12-month program that combines course work with the opportunity to work on your own independent research project with the guidance of a faculty supervisor. Your supervisors are committed to providing exceptional mentoring by working with you one-on-one to develop your research skills.
This program is designed for students who want to pursue a PhD with the ultimate goal of being an academic (e.g. professor) or having a research-based career (e.g. consultant or research analyst). Students who wish to become HR practitioners should consider our Canadian Human Resource Professionals (CHRP) designation or MBA program.
This full-time, 12-month program starts in September each year. You will complete a minimum of six courses and an independent research project known as a "Master's Research Project" (MRP), which is conducted under the supervision of one of our faculty supervisors.
You’ll be trained in research methods, design and quantitative analysis, and receive an introduction to theory and research in the broad areas of OB and HRM. In preparation for your major research paper, which serves as the capstone project of the program, you’ll complete courses and seminars in research methods and statistics, in addition to content-based courses in OB and HRM.
If you enrol in our MSc in Management: OB/HRM program, you can expect:
Our OB/HRM faculty supervisors are leading scholars with exceptional research and teaching records. They publish in the leading journals in the field and are nationally/internationally recognized for their research expertise. They are active in the top conferences in the field; this involvement in the larger research community provides you with remarkable networking opportunities.
Greg Irving
Professor
"My research interests centre on the processes by which individuals move from being organizational outsiders to insiders. To that end, I examine the role of factors such as the impact of Realistic Job Previews (RJPs) and applicants’ pre-entry expectations on their post-entry adjustment. Although post-entry adjustment can mean many things, my interests focus primarily on employee attitudes toward the organization (e.g. organizational commitment) and behaviours (e.g. turnover). I am also interested in the ways that organizations can facilitate the transition from outsider to insider via activities such as organizational socialization and the development of psychological contracts."
Lisa Keeping
Professor
"Employee performance reviews are conducted by most organizations on an annual or semi-annual basis, often at great time and expense. Interestingly, research indicates that managers and employees alike find performance evaluations to be among the most disliked aspects of their jobs. My research examines the process and outcomes of performance evaluations from the perspective of both managers conducting the evaluations and employees being evaluated. Some of the issues I examine are why managers deliberately provide evaluations of employees that they know to be inaccurate as well as the reactions employees have to receiving performance feedback. The approach I like to take to research is to examine what are largely considered to be human resource issues by applying theories and concepts from organizational behaviour. Secondary areas of interest to me are leadership and employee selection."
Lindie Liang
Assistant Professor
“My research interests can be broadly classified into three overlapping areas: leadership, workplace aggression, and emotions. In my research, I apply motivational theories to answer the questions when and why employees behave in certain ways. For example, I am interested in exploring why leaders mistreat their employees, what emotions leaders experience after mistreating their employees, and why mistreated employees behave badly. My other research interests include mindfulness, conflict in the workplace, and ostracism."
"My research interests focus on the use of personality variables in the workplace. I am interested in questions such as, 'What personality variables predict important individual and organizational outcomes such as performance and retention?' and 'What is the best way to measure personality variables in the face of such threats as applicant faking?'"
Simon Taggar
Professor
"Much of my research is on understanding and predicting team performance, especially when that performance relates to team creativity and innovation. I am interested in what team members bring to their team (inputs) and how that affects team dynamics. I have examined team member gender, personality, intelligence, cultural values, attitudes, entrepreneurial passion and leadership skills as team inputs. In terms of team dynamics, I have examined collective beliefs, values and attitudes that emerge when team members work together to achieve a common goal. In particular, I am interested in understanding why highly capable team members sometimes develop a team that performs poorly and why mediocre team members sometimes create a high performing team. Lastly, I am interested in the organizational culture that surrounds teams and how that culture influences team performance."
Yujie (Jessie) Zhan
Associate Professor
"My research interests include two streams: emotion regulation and retirement. My research on emotion regulation mainly concerns service employees who are required to express a cheerful emotion when they are interacting with clients or customers. I am particularly interested in how service employees react to difficult customers and why they use different strategies to regulate their emotions. My interest in retirement research is stimulated by the aging trend of population. My research aims to explore factors that impact older employees’ retirement decision and retirement adjustment process."
If you are admitted into the PhD in Management program with a concentration in the OB/HRM field, you will be given course credit for successfully completed courses cross-listed in both the master's and PhD programs.
Contact Us:
For more information about the OB/HRM MSc and PhD program, email our OB/HRM graduate field coordinator at obhrm@wlu.ca.
For admissions-related inquiries, please Contact Us.
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