Chet Robie is a Professor in Organizational Behaviour/Human Resource Management in the Lazaridis School of Business & Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. His previous academic posts include an assistant professorship in the I/O Psychology program at the University of Houston and an assistant professorship in the College of Business Administration at Niagara University. Robie worked as a Senior Researcher at the consulting firm Personnel Decisions International where he was tasked with evaluating their range of selection and development assets.
CHET ROBIE
He has consulted for international firms such as General Motors, Procter & Gamble, Prevue HR, and Caliper, Inc., dealing with issues related to multi-source feedback, applicant faking, test development and validation, and global norms. Robie also worked as a Personnel Management Specialist for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management where he was involved in large-scale survey initiatives and policy evaluation.
Robie has a continuing interest in collective bargaining and negotiation issues having served as a certified New York State mediator, an arbitrator for both the National Association of Securities Dealers and the Better Business Bureau, and various roles in faculty unions. His current research primarily revolves around issues surrounding the use of personality assessments in high stakes personnel selection contexts.
My experience with HRManagement
I have been using the HRManagement simulation in my courses for over 20 years—from a relatively static simulation in which student teams stored their decisions on floppy disks to the present day web-based simulation that uses a highly interactive graphical user interface with in-depth data reporting capabilities. I have used the simulation across large coordinated undergraduate sections and also in small MBA courses. Many students enter courses in human resource management assuming that the HR function in an organization is primarily an administrative one without any substantive contribution to firm competitive advantage.
The HRManagement simulation attempts to dispel this notion by putting students in the role of HR decision-maker—every week students need to hire, fire, train, determine compensation and benefits, do industry comparison research, launch special programs, and manage to budget. Special decisions each week can be set up to dovetail with lecture material and require students to deal with situations that they might experience as a practicing HR professional—from dealing with a case of suspected sexual harassment to choosing a performance appraisal system. It becomes immediately apparent to students that the HR function in an organization is vital, strategic, and multi-faceted. Instructors who are interested in teaching HR in an immersive and experiential manner will benefit greatly from the use of this simulation in their course.