Joe Mucha is a firm believer in giving back. Over the course of his distinguished career in human resources, he has not only mentored and supported countless other HR professionals along their career paths, but he’s embodied the ideal of paying it forward by creating not one, but two, endowed fellowships in support of the MA-HRIR program at the University of Minnesota.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in history at St. John’s University, Joe served as a Captain with the U.S. Army and gained valuable experience as a unit commander. He returned to school and earned his MA-IR degree at the University of Minnesota and then began his corporate career at Pfizer. He joined General Mills in 1978, where he held a succession of increasingly responsible positions, and retired as vice president of HR in 2006. We asked Joe to share more about his professional journey and what led to his generous establishment of the Thomas Mahoney and Joseph R. Mucha Fellowships.
How did your academic background impact your career?
I was blessed to have the right background at a time that companies were beginning to search for candidates who were business oriented and had academic and an experiential background in human resources. The MA-IR program/faculty was oriented to provide graduates with a systematic approach to human resources at a time when all public companies and public organizations were working toward integrating minorities and women into their workforce in a manner that would use their full talent potential to contribute to the company’s success.
I believe I was able to gain organizational credibility and get a seat at the management table along with my colleagues in marketing, finance, sales, manufacturing/distribution and R&D because my line management (outcome-based) orientation gained by the experience as a military unit commander, my systematic and integrative approach to add value to the company by proposing innovative solutions to human resource challenges, opportunities and issues as they were being addressed and finally, my background from my St. John’s liberal arts education which oriented me to think about HR solutions to business problems by taking the approach that the solutions had to benefit the total “community” (HR solutions had to fit the criteria of achieving business outcomes that benefited the company, my operational unit and most importantly, the employees of the enterprise). Lastly, I believed that my role as an HR practitioner in an organization was to be a positive “change agent.” I believe that to achieve a competitive advantage with the human resource assets of an organization, an HR executive must anticipate the challenges of the future in addition to solving the challenges or issues that are present today. Faculty and coach mentors helped my understanding that the rate of change in business/world is accelerating and the best executives in the future will continually “re-invent” themselves and their function to maintain a competitive edge for themselves, their employees and their organization.
What motivated you to give back to your alma maters and to the HR profession?
My graduate and undergraduate degrees provided me with career opportunities that would have not been available to me otherwise. My hardworking parents were not able to financially support my undergraduate studies at St. John’s, but the Benedictine monks offered financial aid and a work-study support for my degree there. The GI Bill and part-time employment paid for my graduate education as well as economic support for my wife and two daughters at the time. I was very appreciative of this critical financial support and committed at the time I graduated from these institutions that I would try to pay them back for their investment in me, if I were financially able to do so. I started contributing immediately, starting with small amounts annually, and increased my support as my career advanced along with my compensation. [In addition to the support Joe has provided the University of Minnesota, he sits on the Board of Trustees of St. John’s University and is a member of their Founders Society.]
What can you tell us about the Thomas Mahoney and Joseph R. Mucha Fellowships?
[Fellow MA-IR alumnus] Steve Kumagai and I started the Thomas Mahoney Fellowship in 2006 to support full-time graduate students in recognition of Professor Thomas Mahoney, who had a big impact in our lives as an instructor and mentor. The reputation of the MA-HRIR program is dependent on the quality of the faculty in the program and the successful careers of the graduates that they inspire. I hope that this fund continues to grow.
The Joseph R. Mucha Fellowship is being established to support full-time graduate students who have the high academic qualifications, but do not have sufficient financial resources to pursue a graduate degree in HRIR. I have requested a preference for military veterans, but the committee that evaluates and authorizes fellowship grants has final jurisdiction. The motivation for this fellowship is very personal….I could not have attended either St. John’s or the University of Minnesota without financial support from others. Without the education degrees that I was awarded, I would not have had the career opportunities that became available to me. While I can’t pay back those directly responsible for helping me, I can model their behavior and help other promising HRIR candidates with the opportunity to advance their careers.
What advice do you have for other alumni considering donating?
We, as alumni, benefited from the financial support others provided us while having the privilege to be accepted by this world-renowned program. Because of this program and the outstanding faculty, both past and present, many of us have had very successful careers in HR. Financial resources that the University formally had for financial support for qualified MA-HRIR students are less available than in the past and the cost of this education is significantly more expensive than when we attended classes there. Today’s students and their families do not have the same financial resources that we enjoyed, so it is now our turn to step up to support these students and this program. The University and the MA-HRIR program invested in us when we were there and we benefited from this investment by career advancement and successes in the HR field…it’s now our turn to invest in future MA-HRIR students and graduates who will carry on the tradition of HR excellence that this program inspires and provides the HR leaders of tomorrow.
Amy Dayal: Ten of us from the class of 2006 meet every other month to share ideas and best practices across the different industries and parts of the world we represent. We get together for an hour and talk about the different challenges we’re facing. It’s really fun and inspiring to learn in that forum and stay connected to dear friends from the program.
Laura Blomberg: I initially brought the group together because I wanted to broaden my perspective and learn from the outside. As I reflected on how best to do this, I realized that I wasn’t even fully leveraging my existing network. I had a group of grad school colleagues/friends who I knew and respected and was confident they would have so much to offer personally and professionally.
Sesil Pir: I joined initially because I felt honored to be considered and loved the idea of reconnecting with my classmates as much as being a part of an HR community for ongoing learning. I continue because I feel we have formed a “safe and loving” zone for all of us to share, learn and grow together.
Tina Liu: I also joined for the opportunity to reconnect with my former classmates, and was excited at the opportunity to share our experiences across different industries, geographies, and HR practice areas. The ability to reach across such a large breadth of knowledge is invaluable to me.
Colleen Doherty: I agree with the others – it was the perfect opportunity to leverage a group of my peers that I know and trust and who have gone on to do amazing things since we officially parted ways in 2006. It would be near impossible to build a network this diverse in experience (and global!) on our own. Kudos to Laura for initiating!
Andrea Johnson: When I can join it is always so great to connect with friends who are strong, smart and facing many of the same personal and professional challenges. It often reminds me of eating lunch in the student lounge between classes laughing and talking about life. The topics back then were John Budd’s stats class, internships and relationships. Now it’s promotions, benchmarking best practices and the ups/downs of life. It’s always so great to hear about what amazing things our classmates are up to!
Vickie Maurer: I
Allison Cohn: It was amazing that this group was able to pick up where we left off in grad school as though no time had passed at all. This is a really busy group of HR leaders; what keeps us prioritizing our time together each time is the knowledge-sharing and collaboration we receive on topics facing our organizations and the support and encouragement we provide to one another.
Maureen Losinski: I’ve read all the responses and I think the group captured everything I would’ve said. Well done, all!
In his more than 25-year teaching career at the Carlson School of Management, Professor John Budd has introduced hundreds of students to the principles of labor relations and collective bargaining. In these courses, he says, “it’s common to have a collective bargaining simulation in which students are broken into union and management teams for a scenario in which an existing union contract is expiring, and they need to negotiate a new one.” Unhappy with the available written simulations available at the time, in 1992 Budd created his own simulation based on a fictitious local hotel, delivered to students at first through “a thick, printed packet,” and then, beginning in 1999, through an online simulation which he has been using, sharing, and updating ever since.
Budd has made The Zinnia simulation free to use and available to anyone. “Now because the materials are all online,” he says, “it’s easy for other instructors to use them. I know it’s used coast to coast, and occasionally in Canada, too.” Instructors and students alike find the simulator to be a valuable experience that helps bring the collective bargaining process to life. “Last semester, I used the simulation for the first time,” says an instructor from Georgia Southern University. “I thought it was very good, and was eager to see the student evaluations. Their evaluations were unanimously positive. They loved the real-life feel of the simulation. They felt it was the most enjoyable part of the course. Finally, many of them commented on how they learned the need to be flexible throughout the negotiations. As the negotiations continued, they realized that their original planned strategy needed to be modified if they wanted to reach an agreement. ”
