Managing Social and Human Capital (Coursera)

Managing Social and Human Capital (Coursera)

Based on their popular course at Wharton, this course will teach you 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 the your organization’s architecture. By the end of this course, you'll have developed the skills you need to start motivating, organizing, and rewarding people in your organization so that you can thrive as a business and as a social organization.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

People are the most valuable asset of any business, but they are also the most unpredictable, and the most difficult, asset to manage. And although managing people well is critical to the health of any organization, most managers don't get the training they need to make good management decisions. Now, award-wining authors and renowned management Professors Mike Useem and Peter Cappelli of the Wharton School have designed this course to introduce you to the key elements of managing people.
Course 3 of 6 in the Business Foundations Specialization.

Syllabus

WEEK 1
Motivation and Reward
In this module, you'll learn how motivation affects an individual's performance and how to use that motivation to drive performance. You'll explore how incentive systems are designed and how psychological concepts such as behavior modification, imitation, conformity, and compliance influence and shape these systems. You’ll also examine the current process of hiring employees using technology, tracking systems, and outsourcing. And you’ll learn how you can provide valuable feedback to your employees, and make performance appraisals productive. By the end of this module, you’ll be able to apply what you've learned to best motivate, hire, and evaluate your employees.

WEEK 2
Tasks, Jobs, and Systems of Work
This module is designed to teach you the difference between a task and a job. You'll learn how jobs are historically designed, and you'll explore some of the drawbacks related to past work systems. You'll also learn how job design has been influenced by engineering and psychology. Finally, you'll look at real world examples from the GM and Toyota to compare their respective approaches. By the end of this module, you'll understand how jobs and systems of work have evolved to improve employee performance and productivity.

WEEK 3
Making Good and Timely Management Decisions
In this module, you'll learn how to make good and timely management decisions. Through several real-world examples, you'll see how leaders create and build a decision making mindset. You'll also learn how leaders can make costly decisions that affect their team or their entire company negatively. By the end of this module, you will be able to apply key concepts to making good and timely management decisions and build a higher performing team.

WEEK 4
Designing and Changing the Organization's Architecture
This module was created to describe the influence of an organization's architecture on management and its team's performance. You'll explore how inequity fosters disparity among employees and can inhibit a company's success. You'll also look at two real-world examples of leaders who tackled problems within their organizational structures to effect change. By the end of this module you will be able to identify key steps in which you can lead change within your organization.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Introduction to the Nonprofit Sector, Nonprofit Organizations, Nonprofit Leadership and Governance (Coursera) Coursera
The State University of New York

Introduction to the Nonprofit Sector, Nonprofit Organizations, Nonprofit Leadership and Governance (Coursera)

This course introduces you to the nonprofit sector, nonprofit organizations, and the concepts of leadership and governance. While this course has been developed with North American culture in mind, we do appreciate that in other parts of the world the nature of the nonprofit sector, nonprofit organizations, nonprofit leadership and governance may not be the same. Nevertheless, it is our hope that much of the course content will still be of value to those in other parts of the world.

Aug 17th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Manager dans l'incertain (Coursera) Coursera
Institut Mines-Telecom

Manager dans l'incertain (Coursera)

Le MOOC “Manager dans l’incertain” s’adresse aux étudiants comme aux porteurs de projet et managers (qu'ils soient en activité professionnelle, juniors ou seniors dans leurs domaines de spécialité) mais aussi à tout acteur du monde de l'entreprise susceptible de prendre des décisions dans un contexte imprévisible. Ce MOOC vous invite à suivre une démarche de décision en 12 étapes propre à la méthode du D.M.C. (Decision Model Canvas).

Aug 17th 2026
4 Weeks
Exploration et production de données pour les entreprises (Coursera) Coursera
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Exploration et production de données pour les entreprises (Coursera)

Ce cours fournit un cadre analytique afin de vous aider à évaluer les problèmes clés de manière structurée. Il vous procurera également des outils afin de mieux gérer les incertitudes qui envahissent et compliquent les processus des entreprises. Plus précisément, vous serez initié(e) aux statistiques et à la manière de résumer les données. Vous découvrirez les concepts de fréquence, de loi normale, d’études statistiques, de l’échantillonnage et des intervalles de confiance.

Aug 17th 2026
4 Weeks
Organisational behaviour: Know your people (Coursera) Coursera
Macquarie University

Organisational behaviour: Know your people (Coursera)

Organisations have changed and now, more than ever, personnel management is crucial to organisational success. In this course you’ll explore a range of concepts, theories and methodologies that will help you navigate and optimise your work environment. Via structured learning activities (video lectures, quizzes, discussion prompts and written assessments) you will be exposed to the latest best-practice leadership strategies to enable your employees to achieve more at work.

Aug 17th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Designing and Implementing Your Coaching Strategy (Coursera) Coursera
University of California, Davis

Designing and Implementing Your Coaching Strategy (Coursera)

In order to be an effective manager in increasingly fast-paced and complex organizational environments, coaching skills to develop and get the best work out of employees has become essential. Throughout the Coaching Skills for Managers specialization, we’ve discussed many topics for improving coaching conversations with our employees. It is now time to put all of that theory and discussion into practice as you solidify your coaching philosophy, develop your coaching practice and agendas, and demonstrate mastery at handling everyday coaching conversations!

Aug 24th 2026
3 Weeks
Business English: Finance and Economics (Coursera) Coursera
Arizona State University

Business English: Finance and Economics (Coursera)

Do you work in finance or interact with finance professionals? Is it necessary to speak, write or understand English in your career? Follow the authentic characters in this course as they work through common business situations in finance and economics. Learn from your successes and failure, and think critically about your own communication options.

Aug 17th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Leading Diverse Teams & Organizations (Coursera) Coursera
University of Michigan

Leading Diverse Teams & Organizations (Coursera)

In this new course, you'll gain evidence-based knowledge and practical tools to help you design and lead diverse, equitable, and inclusive (DEI) teams and organizations. You’ll better understand yourself and your personal identity in the workplace and gain new skills to identify privilege, implicit bias, and microaggressions in your organization and to take action as an active ally and change advocate. After hearing from experts representing a diverse array of real-world perspectives, you’ll understand best practices for equitable organizational processes and norms and inclusive behavioral practices in teams.

Aug 17th 2026
4 Weeks
The Factors that Influence the Effectiveness of Boards and the Governance Process (Coursera) Coursera
University at Buffalo,The State University of New York

The Factors that Influence the Effectiveness of Boards and the Governance Process (Coursera)

The third course in this Specialization introduces you to the factors that influence how effective boards of directors will be in carrying out their roles and responsibilities and hence the impact they have in shaping the success of the organization they govern. While this course has been developed with North American culture in mind, we do appreciate that, in other parts of the world, the nature of the factors that influence the effectiveness of nonprofit boards of directors may vary. Nevertheless,it is our hope that much of the course content will still be of value to those in other parts of the world.

Aug 17th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Subsistence Marketplaces (Coursera) Coursera
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Subsistence Marketplaces (Coursera)

The foundation for this course lies with unique synergies between pioneering research, teaching, and social initiatives through the Subsistence Marketplaces Initiative. Unique to this approach is a bottom-up understanding of the intersection of poverty and the marketplace. The goals of this course are to help you develop an understanding of marketplace activity in the radically different context of subsistence where much of humanity resides and survives, and for you to design solutions that can be implemented by individuals, businesses, and social enterprises through economically, ecologically, and socially sustainable products for subsistence marketplaces.

Aug 17th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Interpersonal Communication for Engineering Leaders (Coursera) Coursera
Rice University

Interpersonal Communication for Engineering Leaders (Coursera)

This course covers communication skills that engineering leaders use every day to motivate, inspire, and support the people in their organizations. Speaking and writing are basic leadership communication skills. (We covered these topics in the Specialization course 1 and 3.) However, leaders also need to be skillful interpersonal communicators.

Aug 17th 2026
4 Weeks