Patrick P. McHugh
Associate Professor of Management
Why this course
Sustainability has primarily focused on the impact organizations have on the physical environment. Organizations also have a profound influence on employees and the social environment. Management decisions often have a direct impact on employee well-being (e.g. stress, job/life satisfaction, physical and mental health). This course examines the managerial challenges associated with balancing economic efficiency with employee equity and voice – in other words, the sustainability of human capital. Human capital sustainability will be the criterion used to evaluate management decisions. Drawing on a variety of sectors (e.g., consulting, sports, retail, hospitality, “gig economy,” financial services, and entrepreneurial ventures) students will examine how markets, public policy, and collective bargaining influence management decisions. Topics will include the role of negotiations in resolving conflict, mechanisms for employee voice, managing to enhance human capital sustainability, the relationship that public policy, entrepreneurship, and globalization have on sustainable employment relationships.
Biography
Patrick P. McHugh (PhD in labor & industrial relations, Michigan State University) is an associate professor of management at the George Washington University School of Business. He received a BS in business administration at Bowling Green State University and an MA in economics from Washington State University. He has served as a consultant to private sector firms, government agencies, nonprofits, and several labor organizations, such as Ford Motor Company, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, UAW-Ford National Education and Development Training Center, American Pharmacists Association, and the American Federation of County and Municipal Employees Union.
He has received several awards for teaching and mentoring students. In addition to teaching undergraduate, graduate, and executive education classes at George Washington University, he has taught at Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques in Paris, France, as well as at Michigan State University, and Bowling Green State University.
His research has appeared in a wide selection of scholarly journals.
