Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources
In line with SMU's mission and vision, the Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources group excels in teaching, research and service. For undergraduates, we offer a Major in OBHR (link), we conduct core courses such as "Management of People at Work," "Human Capital Management," “Negotiating in Management and Business” and “Ethics and Corporate Responsibility,” and we offer a wide range of elective courses such as "Organisational Change and Design," "Cross-Cultural Management and the Management of Diversity," "Talent Acquisition and Assessment," and "Compensation" (see link for a full list of courses offered). For postgraduates, we offer the Master of Human Capital Leadership (link) and the Ph.D. in Business (OBHR) (link). All of our OBHR faculty are active in research and we consistently publish our research in leading scientific journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Applied Psychology, Organization Science, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Personnel Psychology.
The OBHR group presently has twenty-four faculty members: Michael Bashshur (Ph.D., University of Illinois), Devasheesh Bhave (Ph.D., University of Minnesota), Ronald Bledow (Ph.D., University of Giessen), Roy Chua (Ph.D., Columbia University), Timothy Clark (Ph.D., De Montfort University), Shereen Fatimah (Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University), Gary Greguras (Ph.D., Bowling Green State University), Yea Hee Ko (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison), Filip Lievens (Ph.D., Ghent University), Paul Lim (DBA, Grenoble Ecole de Management), Zihan Liu (Ph.D., University of Houston), Chin Heng Low (Ph.D., University of South Australia), Thomas Menkhoff (Dr rer soc, University of Bielefeld), Jack McGuire (Ph.D., National University of Singapore), Jared Nai (Ph.D., National University of Singapore), Burak OC (Ph.D., Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Marko Pitesa (Ph.D., Grenoble Ecole de Management), Nina Sirola (Ph.D., University of Zagreb), Jochen Reb (Ph.D., University of Arizona), Michael Schaerer (Ph.D., INSEAD), Hwee Hoon Tan (Ph.D., Purdue University), Jayarani Tan (Ph.D., University of Bielefeld), Kenneth Tai (Ph.D., National University of Singapore), and Abhijeet K. Vadera (Ph.D., University of Illinois). In addition, we have a number of OBHR practitioners and business professionals who, as adjunct faculty, offer specific, skill-based courses.
Our OBHR major (see link) offers undergraduates the opportunity to focus primarily on HR, primarily on OB, or on some combination of the two. Students who focus primarily on HR typically pursue a career in HR, for example as an HR Specialist focusing on HR Analytics, Performance Management, Compensation, Selection, or Training & Development, as an HR Generalist, or as a Consultant. Students focusing primarily on OB typically take OBHR as a second major, recognising that the foundation in OB provides them with valuable team and leadership skills, and an understanding of organizations (politics, culture, change, etc.), that will help them excel in any professional pursuit. Our Master of Human Capital Leadership provides experienced professionals with broad business grounding and mastery in strategic human resource management. Our Ph.D. in Business (OBHR) trains and socializes doctoral students for a career in university research, teaching, and service. Welcome to our OBHR group. We look forward to meeting you and working with you!
