Master of Philosophy in People Management

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Master of Philosophy in People Management is to provide advanced training in human resource management, with a focus on strategic human resource management and human capital development. This Master's qualification aims to educate human resource practitioners with the requisite knowledge and skills to conduct Master's level empirical research into a variety of human resource related problems or concerns within South African organisations. Learners will also be able to apply their newly acquired knowledge to develop possible solutions or interventions for these problems.

Rationale

This qualification is designed for the professional training of industrial/organisational psychologists. Over the years many human resource practitioners have completed this Master's qualification in order to attain a higher Degree in a related discipline. The overwhelming majority of these learners have not pursued an internship, written the board examination or registered as organisational psychologists. The identified a need amongst prospective learners for an alternative qualification dedicated to advanced learning in human resource management was also identified. This field of study is similar to, but distinct from, that of organisational psychology. This qualification is meant to better tailor the learning material to the real needs of human resource practitioners. The implementation of this qualification will allow the modification of organisational psychology in a Master's qualification and strengthen its focus on developing researchers and scientist practitioners in the area of organisational psychology. In this way the institution's strategic orientation of (a) strengthening and building greater research capacity and (b) expanding the postgraduate offerings with innovative delivery modes to appeal to learners requiring a Master's level Degree, but not one with a professional registration track, will be fulfilled.

This qualification will be implemented over two years to allow working learners the necessary time to engage comprehensively with the learning material while at the same time continuing in their place of employment. This Master's qualification is designed to include a significant component of work-based and experiential activities and a triangulated relationship with learners' line managers, in order to ensure that the learning is directly applicable to their current job positions and future career aspirations.

The rationale for this qualification was also motivated by a needs analysis, conducted amongst human resource directors throughout a variety of industries within the region to assess the learning needs of their staff. The needs analysis exercise has provided empirical evidence that there is a cogent argument for providing this qualification.

Historically the common descriptor is human resource management, but given that the National Association for Human Resource Practitioners has re-branded itself using the descriptor People Practice, the qualification descriptor represents more contemporary conceptualisation of the field. This also provides for differentiation on the institution's offering from other and more traditional national Master's qualifications in the field. The institution's differentiation centres around the focus on strategy and developing knowledge and competencies for human resource practitioners as strategic partners and the triangulation with line managers, to ensure successful transfer of learning. The term 'people management' is a more modern/current/contemporary term.

Depending on the undergraduate Degree, applicants to the qualification would have a well-rounded and broad education in various fields or in organisational psychology or human resource management. An applicant without a prior Degree in the field would require practical work experience and the associated learning in the discipline.

Recognition of Prior Learning

The Recognition of Prior Learning can be used where applicable to grant

• Access to the qualification to those who do not meet the minimum admission requirements, but who qualify for admission.
• Credits towards the achievement of the qualification.

Access to the Qualification

The applicant must be in possession of a relevant Bachelor Honours Degree, with a minimum of two years' related work experience.

The qualification comprises six coursework modules, together totalling 120 Credits and the production of an original relevant research project at Master's level, worth 60 Credits, in order to complete the qualification with the minimum required Credits of 180.

People Management Masters Coursework I: 80 Credits

• Strategy.
• Training and development.
• Resourcing, talent retention and other global Human Resource challenges.
• Intergroup skills.

People Management Masters Coursework II: 40 Credits

• Research Methods.
• Performance and compensation.

People Management Masters Research Project: 60 Credits.

1. Conduct independent research in the discipline (or inter-disciplinary field).
2. Communicate verbally and orally with professional audiences.
3. Apply in-depth and specialised disciplinary knowledge and research skills to discipline based problems.
4. Analyse and critique communications of an academic and popular nature.
5. Demonstrate appreciation of the ethical issues associated with research and knowledge production in the discipline.
6. Demonstrate in-depth knowledge and understanding of the processes whereby knowledge in Business is constructed.

Critical Cross-Field Outcomes

All the Critical Cross-Field Outcomes are addressed in the qualification.

These assessment criteria may be applied in an integrated manner to any or all of the Exit Level Outcomes

• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of contemporary theoretical, empirical and applied issues in the field of human resource management.
• Identify and document strategic trends in the external environment of an organisation; prioritise these trends and make informed decisions, based on sufficient evidence, about those trends which might affect people management practices.
• Produce a business-oriented document (i.e., brief, concise and based on numbers) which outlines transactional efficiencies for internal Human Resource (HR) processes.
• Design an HR unit which will deliver strategic partnership, change agility, fairness and service excellence in an organisation.
• Construct a logical, written argument indicating which value-adding measures could be used in a high level HR report for the senior leadership team in an organisation.
• Design an equitable reward qualification.
• Understand when reward discrimination is justified and use this understanding to design models for rewarding special groups.
• Deal with inequitable rewards.
• Design retention strategies that organisations can make use of to retain top talent.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the role that organisational learning can play in organisational success by formulating an evidenced-based argument to this effect.
• Examine the strengths and weaknesses of popularly used evaluations models in a comparative analysis exercise.
• Demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the underlying theories informing training evaluation models by reviewing and analysing relevant social science research and theories.
• Select and apply an appropriate model for a particular intervention in a given context.
• Apply an evaluation model to a case in order to assess the potential for learning transfer and present the result of this application exercise in the form of a class presentation.
• Assess the strengths and weaknesses of different recruitment and selection process models for a given context.
• Identify the challenges associated with recruitment and selection planning processes in the South African context.
• Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of different sources of recruitment.
• Assess the role of psychometric assessment in the recruitment and selection process.
• Develop a guideline for fair practice (ethical and legal) in recruitment and selection.
• Diagnosis interpersonal problems based on diversity.
• Evaluate the potential effectiveness of a variety of transformation initiatives and diversity skills training models.
• Develop conflict management and team communication skills.
• Apply a range of advanced research methods and statistical procedures to human resource management research problems.
• Conduct advanced literature searches to inform reviews of specialised literature.
• Diagnose a given scenario and identify an appropriate intervention.
• Evaluate an intervention qualification and write research proposals.
• Write reports for a variety of clients and stakeholders.

Integrated Assessment

Each module is equally weighted and learners will be required to pass all modules to pass the course work component of the qualification. Formative assessment is addressed in that each lecturer is required to set a minimum of two assessments per module.

Summative assessment requires that there be at least one assignment and one test. The assignments will articulate with work-based problems and be a combination of theory and application.