Offered by: College of Business Administration, Management and Human Resources Department
The MHR Department prepares students to obtain a baccalaureate degree (MHR major) with career emphases in either human resources, entrepreneurship and small business, general management, or not-for-profit management, through engaging them to become effective managers, leaders, and entrepreneurs, helping them develop their personal leadership style and making them more self-aware, and strengthening their performance-management skills of teamwork, communicating, questioning, and community-building. Its fulltime and adjunct faculty members are committed to emulating the teacher-scholar model and learn-by-doing philosophy of Cal Poly Pomona and enriching their classes with their professional experience and research insights.
All department programs are designed to provide maximum flexibility in selecting an area of specialty It is important that students entering Cal Poly Pomona for the first time seek the help of an advisor to ensure that their individual programs are in their own best interest. Students choose the Management and Human Resources subplan in order to:
- give them a practical foundation, informed by theory, in human-resources management, entrepreneurship and small-business management, general management, or not-for-profit management—taught by first-rate faculty.
- learn how to manage their own performance by analyzing their strengths and weaknesses and then encouraging them to begin developing an action plan to work toward a career, not just a job, while earning their degree.
- learn how to effectively work with others—MHR is the only department in the College of Business Administration that emphasizes discussions and activities involving groups in virtually every class. This consistent, prominent feature of our curriculum fosters the AACSB’s goal of improving the skills business students need to work in groups, a phenomenon they are sure to encounter in the workplace.
- enhance self-efficacy in moving upward in organizations or launching new ventures.
- acquire or hone skills most in demand by hiring companies—to communicate clearly in writing and oral presentations, ask insightful questions, and be effective leaders and teammates.
- form and secure industry contacts through a variety of professional venues directly tied to employment opportunities upon graduation.
- get a job or start a business upon graduation.
For our department, learn by doing is more than a slogan. We require students to engage in projects that get them outside of the classroom in virtually every course we offer in order to learn about business from the inside out. Moreover, we require students to spend a significant time in the field by engaging in internships as part of their degree. MHR is one of only two departments in the College of Business Administration to require its students to obtain internship credit. Thus, the active learning process that begins in our classes before transitioning to the field enables students to gain industry/practical experience during the program. This experience smooths the transition to getting a good job upon graduating.