Looking at the core course requirements for the Anderson MBA program, there is one course that I used to dread above all else: Human Resources. Of course, it’s not actually called HR, but the name “Organizational Behavior” does not fool anyone here either. Now, you might wonder what HR ever did to me. Simply put, I am a quantitative man, and I figured HR is the kind of course where you sit in a circle around a campfire and empty your heart. It’s not because I don’t have soft skills, but rather because I imagined HR required the softest skill: the ability to answer life-changing questions such as “and how does that make you feel?” Moreover, I don’t think I ever met a single HR department that did a good job wherever I worked, so needless to say my prejudices against HR ran strong. I am glad to say that I was wrong.
So far, the course is deep-rooted in psychology, and thus human behavior, which is a nice change of tune because most courses so far, especially economics and finance, keep looking at the world as if people made rational decisions, which I find rather baffling. HR is finally making me aware (and providing me with names) of behaviors that I have been observing for a long time now, such as the insensitivity to sample size bias. Of course, this would be of limited use if it did not also prescribe ways to solve problematic behaviors. While I still have my doubts about some of these solutions, which would sometime require a drastic culture change within a company, I can tell some of this stuff will be helpful in dealing with others. For instance, if you ever need to convince a group to adopt your idea rather than that of somebody else, speak first and also ask for the opinion of those who agree with you first; you will build a momentum and put the pressure on people who disagree with you to be heard. Pretty useful stuff…
Of course, there is still stuff that I don’t like. For instance, greed remains greed, and whatever reasons psychologists invoke to explain its existence does not change it being here. And you’ll have a hard time convincing me that human nature can be changed significantly either, which is why we have laws in the first place. But that’s like everything else: you keep some, you throw some out, and you make the best of what you have.
-Simon
