In February 1984 Courtland Chaney and two associates formed Human Resource Management Associates, Inc. (HRMA) to provide management and organizational consulting services to businesses.
Holding doctorates in industrial-organizational psychology, the original partners approached consultations from the academic-practitioner model that dominated their professional training.
A typical consultation involved:
-Data-based identification of problem areas
-Diagnostic analysis
-Program development to address specific problems
-On-site implementation, including training programs for human resource development
-Evaluation of the intervention
Over the course of its evolution, ownership of HRMA changed as one partner moved on to other professional activities and a second passed away. Since 1995 HRMA has been owned by Courtland Chaney alone.
Our professional services are provided as one-time interventions and regularly scheduled activities. An initial exploratory meeting is always held with prospective clients for no fee and with no obligation to determine the relevance of HRMA services to the client and to provide the basis for any subsequent proposal to provide professional services. Since 1984 we have provided services to more than 300 client organizations.
Professional services are provided on a fee-for-service or fixed price basis, plus reimbursable expenses, based on the nature and location of the consultation.
A Sample of Our Supervisory and Management Development Topics includes:
1. Managerial Behavior: Thinking and Acting Like a Manager (An introduction to management)
2. Organizational Behavior
3. Leadership
4. Giving Effective Feedback
5. Understanding and Managing Workplace Motivation
6. Managing Up and Down the Organizational Hierarchy
7. Managing Conflict and Coping with Difficult People
8. Understanding Your Personality Type and Managing Workplace Behavior
9. Strategic Thinking and Planning and the Role of Ethics
10. Personality Awareness and Effective Leadership
11. Managing Performance and Risk: Legal and Practical Considerations in Human Resource Management
12. What Every Manager/Employee Should Know About Employment Discrimination and Harassment
13. Organization Development and Change Management
14. Emotional Intelligence
15. Disaster and Crisis Management
16. Coaching and Consulting: Management Roles and Practices
17. Understanding Human Behavior and Improving Interpersonal Skills
18. Individual, Interpersonal and Group Dynamics Impacting Team Effectiveness
19. Stress Management
20. Anger Management
21. Speaking with Confidence
22. Personality Matters: Personality Characteristics that Impact Workplace Behavior
23. Developing Problem-Solving and Critical Thinking Skills
24. Problem Solving/Group Problem Solving
25. Team Building
26. Disciplining Employees
27. Training
28. Counseling Employees
29. Predicting Job Performance: Legal and Practical Considerations
30. Evaluating Job Performance: Legal and Practical Considerations
31. Coaching Basics: Roles and Fundamental Concepts
32. The Coaching Process
33. Ethics – In general and as a develop process for organizations
34. Workplace Investigation Essentials
35. And any number of additional topics dealing with management, human resource management and industrial-organizational psychology.
Examples of the types of consulting projects/activities undertaken include:
1. Writing job descriptions and developing performance appraisal systems (chemical, hospital, media, retail, gaming and others).
2. Preparing job analyses and/or other expert services in employment discrimination cases (age, race, disability, national origin, retaliation, etc. (maritime, paper, chemical, retail industries).
3. Mediating interpersonal conflict (maritime industry, tourism industry, engineering services and others).
4. Using confidential employee interviews to identify organizational problems and improve organizational effectiveness (retail, engineering services, gaming, financial services and others).
5. Conducting management/organizational retreats regarding strategic planning and/or organization development (real estate, medical laboratory, retail, gaming and others).
6. Providing coaching, counseling and consulting services to individual employees as a company benefit (agricultural/chemical company, media, gaming).
7. Developing and conducting professional development programs on management, coaching, organizational behavior and consulting for a global enterprise with a multicultural workforce (oil and gas services).
8. Developing and conducting supervisory and management development programs in many industries and for hundreds of businesses.
9. Evaluation of testing procedures and report preparation for a race discrimination charge (paper industry) and cheating on a promotional test (chemical industry).
10. Providing coaching services to individual managers as needed while providing other consulting services (multiple industries)
11. Providing general consulting services to business owners and managers. (multiple industries)
12. Facilitating/mediating personal and business relationships between and among business partners/ managers (multiple industries)