Best Free MOOCs in Business In March

Managing Social and Human Capital

School: Wharton School

Platform: Coursera

Registration Link: REGISTER HERE

Start Date: March 13, 2017 (3 Weeks Long)

Workload: 2-3 Hours Per Week

Instructors: Michael Useem and Peter Cappelli

Credentials: Useem and Cappelli are both professors of management at the Wharton School. He teaches “Managing Established Enterprises” and “Foundations of Teamwork and Leadership” to graduate business students. A prolific author, Useem is best known for his book called The Leadership Checklist, with his most recent research appearing in the Academy of Management Journal, Leadership Quarterly, and Organizational Dynamics. He is also the Director of Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change Management. Cappelli teaches “Negotiations” and “Building Human Assets in Entrepreneurial Ventures” at Wharton, where he also serves as the Director of the school’s Center for Human Resources. Recently, HR Magazine ranked him among the five most influential thinkers in management.

Graded: Students must successfully complete all graded assignments to complete this course.

Description: Some say management is more art than science, that you must dive in and take your lumps to learn it. In fact, management ranks among the most difficult roles, quickly exposing your weaknesses and humbling any sense that you’re in control. You never have enough time and there are ever-changing priorities tugging at you. As a manager, you must balance pleasing your superiors, while also maintaining the respect and trust of your reports. All the while, you need to stay focused on the big picture as you push to realize today’s goals.

While experience is key to successful management, so too is training. In this course, Useem and Cappelli examine the structure of work, the psychology behind motivating people, the decision-making needed to achieving goals and proven strategies for developing talent. In particular, the instructors will focus on how to “motivate individual performance and design reward systems, how to design jobs and organize work for high performance, how to make good and timely management decisions, and how to design and change your organization’s architecture.”

Review: “Incredible course. The material taught and discussions held where practical and applicable to the real world situation today.” For additional reviews, click here.

Additional Note: This is the third course in a six course specialization from Wharton called “Business Foundations,” which includes introductory courses to marketing, finance, and operations. To learn more about this specialization and register for it, click here.