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Explore Our Programs
Our PhD in Management degree program with a concentration in Organizational Behaviour (OB) and Human Resource Management (HRM) is a four-year program. In the first two years, you will complete courses and your comprehensive exams. In years three and four, you will focus on research with your supervisor and other faculty members. Opportunities for teaching are also available. If you complete your MSc in Management with us, you will receive credit for those courses you have already completed, which can decrease the length of the time it takes to complete this degree. This program is designed for students who wish to become academics and researchers.
Why choose OB/HRM at Laurier?
- You will have the opportunity to work closely with leading scholars in the field of OB/HRM and be involved with cutting-edge research throughout your studies. Building a strong research foundation (including exposure to different theories and methodologies) is important for success in your future career.
- We only admit a small number of students each year to ensure that our students can receive the mentoring that they need to succeed in an academic career. You will receive personalized guidance and individualized attention as you develop your own research and prepare for your career.
- Our faculty members devote an extensive amount of time and energy into developing our students’ research capabilities and skillsets. You will be encouraged to join projects that can build this foundation and provide you with opportunities to start building your résumé with conference presentations and publications.
Program Overview
This is a full-time, four-year program, starting in September each year. You will focus on completing course work in Years 1 and 2. Your comprehensive exams occur at the end of Year 2. You will further refine your research skills and complete your dissertation in Years 3 and 4.
Required Courses
- MS700: Univariate and Multivariate Statistics
- BU800: Fundamentals of Behavioural Research
- BU802: Research Methodology
- BU804: Organizational Behaviour
- BU814: Human Resource Management
- PS800: Advanced Multivariate Methods
- BU899: Doctoral Dissertation
- Five electives chosen in consultation with the OB/HRM field coordinator
Note: Students admitted into the PhD program from the Laurier MSc in Management will be exempt from some courses already completed at the master’s level.
Learning Outcomes
- You can expect coursework that is designed to provide a solid theoretical foundation in OB and HRM combined with exceptional statistical and methodological training, including research methods, research design, and quantitative analyses. You will also have the opportunity to delve deeper into topics with special topic courses, electives, and directed studies.
- You will conduct your own research under the guidance of our faculty supervisors. You are expected to engage in research throughout the program, culminating in the completion of your dissertation.
- You will have exposure to cutting-edge research from our faculty supervisors and guest speakers, as well as networking opportunities within the academic community.
Meet our Outstanding Faculty and Research Community
Our OB/HRM faculty supervisors are leading scholars with exceptional research and teaching records. They publish in the leading journals in the field and are nationally/internationally recognized for their research expertise. They are active in the top conferences in the field; this involvement in the larger research community provides you with remarkable networking opportunities.
Faculty with Supervisory Status
Laurie Barclay
Laurie Barclay
Associate Professor
- Fairness in the workplace
- Emotions
- Aggression
"My research interests focus on fairness in the workplace. I am particularly interested in what makes people feel unfairly treated and how to help employees recover from unfair experiences. I also examine emotions and aggression in the workplace. Some examples of the research questions that I investigate in those areas include what makes some emotions 'toxic,' how can people’s emotions impact the way that they respond to fairness issues, what makes some people more likely to be the recipient of aggression, and when is it functional or 'moral' to engage in revenge?"
Greg Irving
Greg Irving
Professor
- Employee attitudes
- Employee psychological contracts
- Organizational socialization
"My research interests centre on the processes by which individuals move from being organizational outsiders to insiders. To that end, I examine the role of factors such as the impact of Realistic Job Previews (RJPs) and applicants’ pre-entry expectations on their post-entry adjustment. Although post-entry adjustment can mean many things, my interests focus primarily on employee attitudes toward the organization (e.g. organizational commitment) and behaviours (e.g. turnover). I am also interested in the ways that organizations can facilitate the transition from outsider to insider via activities such as organizational socialization and the development of psychological contracts."
Lisa Keeping
Lisa Keeping
Professor
- Processes and outcomes of performance evaluations
- Employee selection
- Leadership
"Employee performance reviews are conducted by most organizations on an annual or semi-annual basis, often at great time and expense. Interestingly, research indicates that managers and employees alike find performance evaluations to be among the most disliked aspects of their jobs. My research examines the process and outcomes of performance evaluations from the perspective of both managers conducting the evaluations and employees being evaluated. Some of the issues I examine are why managers deliberately provide evaluations of employees that they know to be inaccurate as well as the reactions employees have to receiving performance feedback. The approach I like to take to research is to examine what are largely considered to be human resource issues by applying theories and concepts from organizational behaviour. Secondary areas of interest to me are leadership and employee selection."
Lindie Liang
Lindie Liang
Assistant Professor
- Leadership
- Emotions
- Mindfulness
- Motivation
- Workplace aggression
“My research interests can be broadly classified into three overlapping areas: leadership, workplace aggression, and emotions. In my research, I apply motivational theories to answer the questions when and why employees behave in certain ways. For example, I am interested in exploring why leaders mistreat their employees, what emotions leaders experience after mistreating their employees, and why mistreated employees behave badly. My other research interests include mindfulness, conflict in the workplace, and ostracism."
Chet Robie
Chet Robie
Professor
- Personality
- Testing
- Faking
"My research interests focus on the use of personality variables in the workplace. I am interested in questions such as, 'What personality variables predict important individual and organizational outcomes such as performance and retention?' and 'What is the best way to measure personality variables in the face of such threats as applicant faking?'"
Yujie (Jessie) Zhan
Yujie (Jessie) Zhan
Associate Professor
- Emotional regulation
- Work stress and well-being
- Employee retirement
"My research interests include two streams: emotion regulation and retirement. My research on emotion regulation mainly concerns service employees who are required to express a cheerful emotion when they are interacting with clients or customers. I am particularly interested in how service employees react to difficult customers and why they use different strategies to regulate their emotions. My interest in retirement research is stimulated by the aging trend of population. My research aims to explore factors that impact older employees’ retirement decision and retirement adjustment process."
Financial Support and Funding
In addition to the financial support that you receive as part of your acceptance into our program, you will have opportunities to receive funding from other sources within and outside of the university.
For example, our students have been successful in receiving grants and fellowships from external funding sources including the prestigious Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and Ontario Graduate Scholarships. Our students have also received support in the form of travel grants for conference presentations and small research grants ($1,500-$3,000) that support their research initiatives. There are also opportunities to work as teaching assistants (TAs), instructors, and research assistants (RAs) for supplemental funding.
Tuition and Fees
For information about our program’s tuition costs, please take a look at the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies' tuition and fees webpage.
Contact Us:
For more information about the OB/HRM MSc and PhD program, email our OB/HRM graduate field coordinator at obhrm@wlu.ca.
For admissions-related inquiries, email sbephdmasters@wlu.ca.
