Syllabus: Human Resource Management
BUS 352, Spring 2011, M/W 14:00 – 15:20, MC 320
Purpose and goal of this class:
This class aims to give a basic idea about human resource management. For this purpose it provides an idea about problems human resource management (HRM) has to cope with and how to address them. We will approach the field of HRM from a behavioral point of view, meaning that psychological and sociological aspects are stressed more than legal or quantitative ones. International comparisons will show the broad variety of HRM policies and practices.
In order to provide some hands-on experience about behavioral aspects of international collaboration students will work in internationally mixed teams.
Availability:
My office hours are Wednesday, 3:30 until 4:30 p.m. and Friday, 11:00 until 12:00 a.m., room MC 111A, Tel.: x3499. Many questions can be solved by email, too: [email protected]. If necessary, we can schedule individual meetings.
Prof. Heike Nolte, School of Business & Leadership, Management
Attendance and active participation:
Discussions in class and in teams with other students is extremely important for learning this material. This means that everybody is required to participate actively in class and in teamwork. You are encouraged to bring in your personal experience from outside school, especially from work. All contributions should be considered in the context of relevant HRM theory, which means that it is obligatory to come to class having read the readings assigned for that day. Since much of the content of this course will take place in the classroom, it is very difficult to catch up again after missing classes. And because of the emphasis on team-based learning, it is not only the individual student who suffers from missing classes, but also the rest of the group. So please try to show up prepared to each class! Missing more than three meetings will result in loss of credit. If you miss class due to an illness, please provide a doctor's letter and we will find a solution. (For instance, you might be asked to provide an extra paper.) Active participation is also a prerequisite for acquiring credits: no credits without it. It contributes to 20% to the grade. In addition, of course, the general rules of the university regarding academic responsibilities apply.
Presentations:
Giving presentations is an everyday activity for a manager, so they are also an important part of this class. Do not hesitate to contact me if you encounter any difficulties in preparing them or foresee problems in giving a presentation.
Please be realistic about the time you need: Typically presentations last longer than expected. I reserve the right to cut you off if you exceed the scheduled time!
Incidentally, giving a good presentation does not mean that one has PowerPoint slides with all the gimmicks PowerPoint provides; above all, the content matters and slides are only supposed to support it. (See Doug Zongker (2007): Chicken Chicken Chicken, Presented at the AAAS humor session, February 16, 2007, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL_-1d9OSdk&NR=1.) Please make sure, that each presentation has a message and gets to the point. I will also ask for some presentations that do not entail using PowerPoint or similar software.
Finally, I am prepared to give feedback to your presentations, but only if you ask for it. Since most of the presentations will be based upon papers pertaining to case studies, they will be graded together with these papers.
Papers:
Academic standards apply to the papers you will write in this class: So please present a clear argument and give reasons for it. Give sources. Be careful not to plagiarize by accident. You are welcome to ask me whenever you are unsure about these criteria. It is desirable to provide more than the basic sources mentioned in the syllabus for a paper, but the latter are obligatory. Regarding length, it is the same as for the presentations: more is not necessarily better – the content matters, not the number of words. If you exceed the indicated length by more than 20% it will have negative impact on the grade: one of the goals of this class is to get acquainted with managerial tools, and short documents, which get to the point, are one of them .
Beside these assignments, there will be some occasions when I ask you to write reflection papers, usually based on your experience during a game or exercise. These reflection papers are of a completely different nature. Here your personal impressions and reflections matter, not academic knowledge per se. You can depend on their confidentiality. They will be graded according to the depth of their reflection, but not their conclusions, so it does not matter if you say that you did not like a game or other class activity. What matters is that you explore how and why you were affected by it. The quality of the reflection papers will be considered in conjunction with active participation as part of the final grade.
In general, the indicated length of the papers (see Agenda) is based upon a font like Times New Roman 12 pt or Arial 11 pt, 1½ spaced. Always submit the papers by Moodle no later than 6:00 a.m. of the day given on which they are assigned. I do not accept any late papers unless accompanied by a doctor’s letter, nor anything handwritten. In case you have written the paper as a team, indicate who is responsible for which part. Please provide not only your name but also your email-address at the beginning of the paper.
Prof. Heike Nolte, School of Business & Leadership, Management
Teamwork:
Organizations can only succeed if the units collaborate without frictions on shared objectives and manage to create synergy. On a smaller scale, this is applies to teamwork. Moreover, in most work situations, goals are rarely achieved individually but in teams. Thus, teamwork is an essential part of this class. Each member is responsible for achieving the team's goal and is accountable for it. The team's success will have impact on the individual grade. In case problems occur within a team – which is normal – I expect you to first try to solve the issues internally. But if this does not work, please do not hesitate to involve me. In spite of the fact that the entire team is responsible for accomplishing its task, team members will be graded individually – but individual efforts to achieve a better team result will also be taken into account.
Grading and feedback:
In general, I give feedback by email. In case you want to have additional explanation, I will be happy to provide it during office hours. If, for a university-approved reason, you cannot submit a paper or give a presentation at the scheduled time, contact me as soon as possible. Make-up exams, papers or presentation opportunities for non-university-approved reasons are not guaranteed. Failure to give a presentation or to submit a paper at the scheduled time will result in a score of zero for that assignment.
The final grade is based on:
• class participation and reflection papers: 20% • (teamwork) papers and presentations: 40%
• quizzes: 40%
In general, my approach to grading follows Bloom's taxonomy: For a medium grade (C) it is required that you document your understanding of the relevant literature. In order to get a better grade you need to not only to restate the concepts, but also discuss them. For a high grade you have to restate, discuss and apply these concepts, typically bringing theory to bear in an empirical context.
Topic Activity Assignments Week 1 Jan,19 Introduction
HRM and com-petitive advant-age I
“Bingo“
Week 2 01/24/10 HRM and com-petitive advant-age II
Kleimann 1 -21
Kinicki & Kreitner 2003: 6 - 21
Jan, 26 Planning Kleimann 51 – 74, Nkomo et. al. 17 - 22 Week 3 Jan, 31 Analyzing Jobs Kleimann 75 - 99
Feb., 2 Job Design &
Motivation Kinick & Kreitner: 114 - 133Nkomo 97 - 98 Week 4 Feb., 7 Quiz
Feb., 9 Recruiting
Ap-plicants Analyzing Job Openings Kleimann 100 – 129Collect 3 interesting job openings and bring them to class Week 5 Feb., 14 Selecting
Applic-ants
Kleimann 130 - 174 Feb., 16 . Recruiting,
Se-lecting and the Web 2.0
Guest Speaker Search for information about one peer available on the internet Week 6 Feb., 21 Training and
Developing Employees
Kleimann 175 – 207 Feb., 23 The case
EN-RON Film
Week 7 02/28/10 ENRON and HR Discussion Mar., 2 Quiz
Week 8 Mar., 07 Impact of nation-al and organiza-tional culture
Mar., 09 National and or-ganizational cul-ture: Working in international teams
Midterm Break Visit to
Ger-many (optional)
Plan of Approach about the team-paper, due date to be agreed on indi-vidually
Week 9 Mar., 21 HR and its
envir-onment I Visit of European students at UPS (either this week or the next)
Kleimann 22 – 50
Mar., 23 HR and its
envir-onment II Visit of European students (planned)
Geohagan 2010
Week 10 Mar., 28 Basics of international HRM Visit of European students (either the previous week or this one) Kleimann 409 - 433
Mar., 30 Diversity Man-agement etc.: Everybody is dif-ferent Visit of European students (planned)
Kinicki & Kreitner 2003: 63 - 113
Week 11 Apr., 4 Labor Relations Kleimann 346 - 379 Apr., 6 Quiz
Week 12 Apr., 11 Workforce and organizational change
Greenberg et al. 2010 Apr., 13 Motivation and
Productivity Improvement programs I
Employee job performance; Pay and Benefits
Kleimann 240 - 276 Week 14 Apr., 25 Workplace
justice laws
Kleimann 312 – 345
Paper due „Aspects of HR from U.S. and European perspective“ (in teams, together with European students, 15 pages / person)
Apr., 27 Safety and
Health Kleimann 380 - 408
Week 15 May, 2 Quiz
May, 4 Summary Students presentation
Reading Assignments:
Geoghegan, Thomas 2010. Were You Born on the Wrong Continent?: How the European Model Can Help You Get a Life. New York, N.Y. : New Press : Distributed by Perseus Distribution
Greenberg, Edward; Grunberg, L.; Moore, S. & Sikora, P.B. 2010. Turbulence. Boeing and the State of American Workers. New Haven: Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-15461-0
Kinicki, Angelo & Kreitner, Bob 2003. Organizational Behavior. Key concepts, skills & best practices. New York: McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0-07-251492-2
Kleiman, Lawrence 2000. Human Resource Management. A managerial tool for competitive advantage. 2nd edt. Cincinnati:
South-western College Publishing, ISBN 0-324-00871-6
Nkomo, Stella; Fottler, Myron, D. & McAfee, R. Bruce 2008. Human Resource Management Applications. Cases, exercises, incidents, and skill builders. 6th edt. Mason, OH: Thomson South -Western, ISBN 0-324-42142-7; 978-0-324-42142-2
