Entrepreneurship-Based Course Design: A Case Study of Its Application in

Human Resource Planning and Development Course

Bayu Airlangga Putra, S.E., M.M. (bayu.airlangga@narotama.ac.id)

M. Ikhsan Setiawan, S.T., M.T. (ikhsan.setiawan@narotama.ac.id)

Iswachyu Dhaniarti, S.T., M.HP. (rektor@narotama.ac.id)

Narotama University, Jl. Arief Rachman Hakim 51, Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia

Abstract:

The advancement and prosperity of a country are, in part, determined by the number of

entrepreneurs in that country. Entrepreneurs can help a countrys economy by opening

numerous job opportunities. In this respect, higher education institutions are expected to

create a great number of entrepreneurs. One of the core components in a higher education

activity is a course. Thus, a course should be better designed in such a way that can raise

students motivation to get involved in entrepreneurial activities. This paper describes the

application of an entrepreneurship-based course design in Human Resource Planning and

Development (HRPD) course during the even semester of academic year 2014/2015 at

Narotama University Surabaya. The most important part of that design is the main

assignment that instructs the students to establish their own small business plans which cover

vision, mission, and strategy for at least the next five years. After that, they must establish a

detailed enough plan to conduct various human resource management activities directed to

get qualified employees who can support the business in implementing its strategy. Finally,

this paper also discusses the effectiveness of the HRPD course design in enhancing the

students entrepreneurial motivation.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Higher Education, Course Design, Human Resource

Management, Students Entrepreneurial Motivation.

Introduction

Entrepreneurship is a key for the prosperity of a country. Experts agree that

entrepreneurship is one of the most powerful engines for economic growth (Kuratko, 2005 in

Gedeon, 2014). This is because entrepreneurs open large number of new businesses that

provide jobs for more labors, which in turn reduce the level of unemployment. Entrepreneurs

also tend to be innovative in their business operation. For instance, they often use technology

that can enhance production process efficiency, so that increase the competitive advantage of

their countries. In general, it can be said that entrepreneurship knowledge is a critical factor

to attain success (Welsh & Dragusin, 2013).

However, data show that in 2013 entrepreneur rate in Indonesia is only 1.56% of total

population. This figure is below those in Malaysia and Singapore where entrepreneurship rate

reach 5% and 7% respectively. Moreover, in developed countries, such as Japan and the

United States, entrepreneurship rate can reach quite impressive figure of 10% and 12%

respectively. Many researches suggest that the ideal number of entrepreneur in a developing

country like Indonesia is at least 2% of its population (Santoso, 2014).

Therefore, creating as many as possible entrepreneurs is a strategic activity that urgently

should be done by governments. Higher education institutions, as government partners in

education sector, have strategic role in assisting that process of entrepreneurship creation.

University students are excellent human resources expected to become intellectual force in

advancing a country in many aspects such as economy, technology, or culture. For that

reason, after graduating in the future, they are expected to have knowledge, skill, and

motivation needed to establish a business (Welsh & Dragusin, 2013).

One of the core elements in learning activity at university is lecturing activity. This

activity is organized in the form of courses that can be taken by students every semester. In

this respect, entrepreneur creation function must be integrated into lecturing activities which

are manifested in the design of each course.

This article reports the findings of a case study about the learning process and outcomes

of Human Resource Planning and Development (HRPD) course during the even semester of

academic year 2014/2015 at Narotama University Surabaya. The semester started from

March 2015 and ended in early July 2015. In that semester, the HRPD course applied an

entrepreneurship-based course design, even though it is not a subject that is directly related to

business matter.

Research Method

This study is qualitative in its approach. It used a case study method as its strategy of

inquiry, where the researcher deeply explores a program, event, activity, process, or one or

more individuals. Case is bounded based on time and activity, and the researcher gathers

detailed information using multiple data collecting procedures during a sustained time period

(Stake, 1995 in Creswell, 2009).

In this case study, one of the researchers is also the lecturer of HRPD course, so that

gaining wide enough access to explore vast array of data related to the implementation of

HRPD course, such as course design, teaching materials, students characteristics, students

performances, and students attitudes toward the course.

Active participants of HRPD course in even semester 2014-2015 is 11 (eleven)

students. From that number, 5 (five) of them are involved as respondents for this study.

Among those respondents, 3 (three) students gave answers interactively in several sessions of

in-depth interview arranged by the researchers, and the other 2 (two) responded by filling in

an open-ended questionnaire distributed via e-mail. Those in-depth interviews and open-

ended questionnaires were used to explore as deeply as possible data about the learning

process in HRPD course as well as conditions felt or experienced by students after

completing the course. The data collection activity has been conducted in September and

October 2015, about two months after the course finished.

The expected outcome of this study is a comprehensive description about the

implementation of HRPD course, which integrates some entrepreneurship principles into its

design, and its effectiveness in raising entrepreneurial motivation among students.

Entrepreneurship Concepts

Entrepreneur is a person who exploits opportunity, often by recombining available

resources, and in the other hand also bears uncertainty in the execution (Gmsay, 2014).

According to Eze and Nwali (2012) entrepreneurship activities are generally viewed as

having advantages because show certain attributes as follows:

Entrepreneur take an initiative to combine and allocate various resources;

Entrepreneur make decisions about policy;

Entrepreneur is an innovator who always involved in the art of creating new

idea/product/business;

Entrepreneur is a risk taker/bearer.

According to Nadim and Singh (2011), entrepreneur is an individual whose actions are

relied on his creative ideas. This means that an entrepreneur is a dreamer who acts, not

someone who only dreams but never acts, nor someone who realizes others dream without

having his own dream.

Entrepreneurship Education

Many studies show strong relationship between education sector and the emergence of

entrepreneurs. For instance, one study finds that the role of resources and other support

mechanism in educational environment positively have impact on students perception of

entrepreneurship as career choice (Johannisson, 1991 and Autio et al., 1997, in Fayolle et al.,

2006).

Recently, the idea about entrepreneurship-oriented university has risen. More familiarly

called entrepreneurial university, such university is a natural incubator which tries to

provide supportive environment where university members can explore, evaluate, and use

ideas that can be transformed into various entrepreneurship-oriented social and economic

initiatives (Guerrero et al., 2012).

Narotama University is a higher education institution that is very concerned with

entrepreneurship development. Narotama Universitys mission statement sounds to present a

valid contribution in the development of science and technology for the sake of society

welfare through education activities, research, and community service by means of

communication and information technology. It is very clear that the mission contains a

strong will to participate in the efforts to improve the wealth of society. Then, the will is

translated by the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) as one of its educational

objectives aims to produce graduates who have ability to become an entrepreneur in real

economy sector (small and medium enterprises). For that reason, the management of FEB

always encourages lecturers to incorporate entrepreneurial elements into their course designs,

especially ones related to small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

There are three phases of entrepreneurial career: first, potential entrepreneur, which

comprises those who have entrepreneurial intention; second, early-stages entrepreneurial

activity, which comprises nascent and new entrepreneurs; third, established entrepreneurs

(Xavier et al., 2012 dalam Croitoru, 2013). Using this concept, the learning outcome of an

entrepreneurship-based course design in Narotama University is more focused on the effort to

increase students entrepreneurial intention

However, this case study uses students entrepreneurial motivation concept rather than

students entrepreneurial intention concept. This is because the concept of entrepreneurial

motivation is regarded as more comprehensive, covering various factors inducing individual

to start a business. As Dunham (2010) proposes, entrepreneurs often strive to exploit

opportunities for various reasons, such as desire for achievement, need for independence, and

passion for certain ideas.

Human Resource Planning and Development Course Design

According to Schuler and Jackson (2006), professionals in the field of human resource

(HR) management must perform roles as business partner, consultant, innovator, monitor,

and change manager. Among these roles, at least roles as business partner, innovator, and

change manager have relevance with the characteristics of an entrepreneur.

The role as business partner demands an understanding of external environment and an

ability to participate in strategy formulation and implementation. The role as innovator

demands an initiative to take action and make improvement in HR policies and practices

continuously by taking advantage from technology advancement. Finally, the role as change

manager demands a capability to understand long-term vision and strategy and to predict

talents for future needs.

Therefore, from above explanation, it can be concluded that HR management

professionals must equip themselves with an entrepreneur attributes. It is this premise that at

first triggered the development of entrepreneurship-based design for courses in HR

management concentration, including Human Resource Planning and Development (HRPD)

course.

As stated by Fayole and Gailly (2008), an educator needs to plan his teaching model by

initially answering five questions: what?, for whom?, why?, how?, and for which result?

Question what? is related to the content of a course itself. Question for whom? refers to

the target audiences of a certain course. Question why? has to do with the learning method

to be used. The last, question for which result? is related to the evaluation and assessment.

Based on the questions above, the following is a general description of an

entrepreneurship-based HRPD course. The content of HRPD course is about concepts and

practices in HR planning and development oriented toward the implementation of

entrepreneurial business strategy. The audiences of this course are management major

students who had chosen HR management as their study concentration.

The learning objective of HRPD course is equipping students with a number of

competencies which are necessary in planning and developing HR in an entrepreneurial

organization. In this respect, the students are directed to assume themselves as entrepreneurs

focusing on the preparation of employees in order to support the business activity. The

purpose of such arrangement is to raise students entrepreneurial motivation, even though not

necessarily start early in their career. To accomplish the learning objective, a combination of

tutorial, exercise, design project, and discussion was used as the learning method. Next

paragraphs briefly explain the design project instructions as one of the important parts of

HRPD course.

In HRPD course, the students were asked to initially make a plan to establish a small

business. Then, based on that plan, they were asked to design an HR planning and

development scheme that appropriate enough for supporting the strategy implementation. The

focus on small business was determined based on the premise that small business can provide

conducive environment for entrepreneurship and innovation, which not always has to rely on

know-how and resources control like the characteristics of a large scale production, but needs

commitment and close cooperation among organization members (Sahut & Peris-Ortiz,

2014).

The students must at first determine the business field they would focus on. In this case,

it also includes goods or services that would be produced and offered to consumers. They

must also explain the initial condition of the business, potential competitors, and strategy and

innovation for coping with competition. Moreover, they must also determine profiles of the

market segments they target.

After that, they must formulate vision and mission statements for the business. The

mission statement needs to explain business process and HR management policy that are in

line with the competitive strategy and innovation. Next, the implementation of that mission

needs to be concreted in the form of objectives to be achieved in the next five years. Here,

they must also set target for the realization of the planned business innovation. The

realization must be manifested in product features and physical appearance of the business,

along with its expansion profile in the future.

Next, the student must formulate strategies to achieve the vision, mission, and

objectives. In this part, they also have to formulate strategies or special agenda to face the era

of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). Included here is the connection between strategy

and innovation which already formulated before and the predicted business environment

changes in the AEC era.

After the strategy has been formulated completely and detailed enough, the students

were instructed to plan HR needs for their small business. Here, they must specify various

aspects such as organization functions needed and the number and qualification of employee

required for each function. Further, they must specify various aspects concerning HR

development processes, such as job analysis, recruitment and selection, training and

development, performance evaluation, and compensation.

In addition to the above project instructions about small business plan and HR planning

and development design, in mid-term and final-term examination sessions, there are several

additional assignments must be done by the students in order to enrich the project in progress.

For example, the students must give a description of the use of HR information system and

the utilization of change management techniques to cope with global environment dynamics.

Finding and Discussion

This section describes important and relevant findings of this case study. Two important

themes that can be identified from the findings are competencies gained by the students and

their motivation to start entrepreneurial activity.

According to the students, after completing HRPD course they gained competencies in

the following matters:

Ability in generating innovative business ideas;

Skill in developing business plan more systematically;

Knowledge about the process of HR planning and development, especially in

entrepreneurial small businesses;

Self-control and self-direction;

More responsible attitude;

Leadership potential to become a role model.

All student respondents said that after completing this course they felt a strong intention

to become an entrepreneur. That semester, one of them actually had already been running

family businesses in building materials trading and printing. At the end of the course, he had

more enthusiasm in starting new business. He manifested that enthusiasm by setting up a

small restaurant as the first business owned by himself, not his family. He said that he did so

to attain self-actualization and made his family proud that he finally can be independently do

business. The other student had once been an entrepreneur, but for a certain reason had to

quit. After completing HRPD course, he raised up and had an intention to start a business

again. Now, he already runs a small restaurant also.

Conclusion and Recommendation

Generally, it can be concluded that the students entrepreneurial motivation raised after

completing the HRPD course. However, they also suggest that the course should be

complemented with more real examples about how to solve business problems. For that

purpose, several learning innovations can be considered, for instance by applying action

learning method and business simulation.

As described by McHardy (2000 in Jiwa et al., 2005), action learning places

participants in a situation which requires real problem solving in a directional and logical

manner. This method makes participants empowered, act rationally, and develop critical

thinking skill. This increases their capacity to investigate, understand, and, if necessary,

change the existing situation, all of these with minimum external support. Action learning

method gives hope for a greater impact on students entrepreneurial motivation growth. This

is because, with this method, beyond the cognitive level, entrepreneurship concept can also

be felt in the affective and psychomotor level.

Finally, this case study is expected to contribute in establishing curriculum for higher

education institutions oriented toward entrepreneurship development. The positive findings of

this study can motivate higher education practitioners to further develop this kind of course

design. For the future, alternative learning models of entrepreneurship-based course design

need to be explored and studied. These models should to be applicable in almost all courses

in a university in an integrated way. For instance, the project of small business plan can be

applied as a joint project done by cross-courses students representing various managerial

functions of an organization. A small business plan project, for example, is done by students

from various study concentration, such as marketing, finance, HR, operation and strategic

management. By doing so, the business plan developed from this process will be more

comprehensive and feasible enough to be worked out as a real and prospective venture.

Opportunity to cooperate with several business incubators also needs to be explored.

Business incubators can help in the realization process of prospective business plan. This

kind of cooperation is necessary in stimulating students to start their own business seriously.

The recommendations above, when done properly, are expected to help in attaining the

desired result of ideal number and significant role of entrepreneurs for the prosperity of a

nation.

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