Managing People and Education
Innovation, growth, and economic development in modern economies heavily depend on human resources, particularly in times of shrinking and aging workforces. The effective and efficient management of people and their education is thus crucial for a nation’s wealth and competitiveness.
Human resource management in firms and the management of educational careers and educational institutions have to become a strong part in future business schools, and each student should have a solid foundation in how to manage human resources, training, and education in an effective, sustainable manner.
By providing excellent research and integrating research results on all levels of education, Managing People and Education contributes to ensuring future specialists for research, teaching, practice, and politics for one of the most important challenges in modern economies.
Research Projects
Exemplary project: Effect of Workforce Age on Quantitative and Qualitative Organizational Performance (U. Backes-Gellner, M. Schneider, S. Veen)
Using a panel study among judges in labor courts, we investigate whether productivity decreases with an aging workforce as often argued. Unlike in previous studies, we distinguish between quantitative and qualitative performance, i.e., the number of court cases completed and the accuracy of cases (decisions not rejected by higher authorities). We find that quantitative performance indeed decreases with aging, while qualitative performance increases. This result indicates in general that negative quantitative effects are often outweighed by the positive qualitative effects of aging in demanding professional jobs, and that while older professionals may on average be slower, they have higher accuracy and reliability accruing from their richer experience and wisdom.
Selected research projects and centers
- Swiss Leading House on Economics of Education, Firm Behavior and Training Policies (U. Backes-Gellner, S. Wolter)
- Swiss Human-Relations-Barometer (B. Staffelbach, G. Grote)
- Effects of Being Passed Over for Promotion on Deceptive and Uncooperative Workplace Behavior (A. Feierabend, E. Aulich, B. Staffelbach)
- How Do Employment Relations Influence Multinational Company Location Decisions? US-Subsidiaries in Switzerland, Germany and the UK (U. Backes-Gellner, K. Pull)
- Innovative Personnel Development to Foster Export in China (B. Staffelbach, A. Sender)
- Responsible Leadership in Global Business (A. Scherer, C. Vögtlin)
- CEO Post-Succession Period (D. Seidl, S. Ma, S. Guerard)
- Organizational Memory – The Linkage between Past, Present and Future within the Organization (F. Langenmayer)
- Reconsidering the Fixed Effects Ordered Logit Model – with an Application to the Effect of Unemployment on Life Satisfaction (R. Winkelmann, G. Baetschmann, K. Staub)
- Misbehavior, Education, and Labor Market Outcomes (C. Segal)
Connections to courses
Our topic addresses students interested in Human Resources and Education Management and who aim at a position particularly in HR departments, in educational institutions like schools or universities, in public administration or in educational policy making. Contents of Managing People and Education are taught in the Business Administration core elective area 3 and in the Management and Economics specialization on Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral level. The following list provides examples of courses particularly related to our topic.
List of courses
More detailed information on each module can be found by copying the 8-digit code into the search field of the University’s course catalogue.
Bachelor's level
| Principles in Human Resource Management | BOEC0243 |
| Team Leadership and Team Organization - Applied Project Management | BOEC0294 |
| Management of Family Business | BOEC0303 |
| The Economics of Gender | BOEC0314 |
| Negotiations and Conflict Resolution: Theory and Role Playing | BOEC0014 |
| Seminar Management Processes in HRM | BOEC0126 |
| Organisation and Management | BOEC0131 |
| Change Management | BOEC0289 |
| Designing Effective Organizations | BOEC0132 |
Master's level
| Seminar Human Resource Management Practices | MOEC0363 |
| ME Seminar Personnel Economics and Empirical Analysis, Part 1+2 | MOEC0052 MOEC0066 |
| Human Resource Management Practices | MOEC0364 |
| Human Resource Management Research | MOEC0356 |
| Strategic Human Resource Management | MOEC0381 |
| Organization Theories | MOEC0306 |
| ME1: Personnel Economics | MOEC0249 |
| Leadership | MOEC0217 |
| International Business in Chinese Enterprises | MOEC0383 |
| The Practice of Strategy | MOEC0384 |
Doctoral Students will find a variety of core and elective courses in the field of “Managing Human Resources and Education” and can take advantage of the structured Course Program for Doctoral Students in Economics of Education of the Swiss Leading House on Economics of Education, Firm Behavior and Training Policies.
Faculty members involved
The following Faculty members research and/or teach in Managing People and Education.
Department of Business Administration (IBW)
Prof. Dr. Uschi Backes-Gellner (main contact for topic)
Prof. Dr. Agnes Bäker
Prof. Dr. Andreas G. Scherer
Prof. Dr. Karl Schmedders
Prof. Dr. Carmit Segal
Prof. David Seidl, PhD