Instructor:          Dr. William Shepherd

Office:                College of Business Administration, no physical office

Telephone:        216.870.3159

E-mail:               William.Shepherd@skyfi.com (please use “MI&S 34180” as the subject line of your e-mail)

Office Hours:     After class or by appointment

Kleiman, L. S. (2007). Human Resource Management: A Managerial Tool for Competitive Advantage (4^th Ed.).  Atomic Dog Publishing: Cincinnati, OH (ISBN: 1-59260-268-1; Online Edition: $41.50 or Paperback + Online Edition: $64.95).

Syllabus

A copy of the syllabus can also be found at the Department of Management & Information Systems website at http://mismain.bsa.kent.edu/

PREREQUISITE: M&IS 24163 Principles of Management (students that do not have the proper prerequisites risk being deregistered from the class).

This course is designed to provide students with detailed knowledge of the human resource management function in modern organizational settings.  Emphasis is placed on techniques and approaches that are currently being applied to solve human resource problems in business organizations. Through lecture, class discussions, and experiential exercises, we shall consider the contribution of human resource management to short- and long-term organizational functioning.  Moreover, the course will provide a basis for understanding how properly applying human resource management techniques assist in moving an organization toward its goals.

The fundamental purpose of this course is to provide the student with an increased understanding of the content and processes involved in the management of human resources.  Upon completion of the course, a student should understand and be able to assess and suggest solutions to human resource-related problems.

Exams

Three exams are scheduled for the semester.  All exams will cover text readings, handouts, guest speakers, and lecture material.  The format of the exams may include multiple choice, matching, and/or short answer essay questions.  Each exam will account for 25% of your final grade.

Case/Exercise Evaluation

Experiential exercises and cases will be used as an opportunity for students to apply many of the concepts covered in this course. In addition to the influence these cases/exercises have on your participation grade, your grade will also depend on the quality and quantity of cases/exercises you complete during class. Cases/Exercises may be evaluated as groups (to be assigned during the first week of class) and/or on an individual basis. Generally, cases/exercises will be conducted during class (although some outside work will be required occasionally) and your written work will be collected when the case/exercise discussion is completed. If you are not in class, you will receive a zero for that class period’s case/exercise (only in extraordinary circumstances will make-up cases be allowed). However, you may miss one case without penalty. Cases will account for 15% of your total grade.

Participation:

Students will receive credit for class participation, which will account for 5% of your final grade. Attendance is required to earn class participation credit.  Each individual will be evaluated on the quality and quantity of her/his participation during class sessions.  To receive an acceptable participation grade you must be consistently knowledgeable concerning all assigned readings and you must actively participate in class discussions.

Internet Assignment

Students will be expected to find and summarize information relating to course topics that they find on the World Wide Web (be sure to include the web address of the site that you "visit"). Also, please do not copy the work of others—once a student has presented a web site, it may not be used again. Information may be from sources found using simple internet searches or from internet sites of which you are aware. You will be asked to share your findings with the class by preparing a one-paragraph summary about the site and presenting this information to the class (you must also provide the summary and a copy of one page of the website to the instructor). The internet assignment is worth 5% of your final grade.

Grades will be calculated according to performance on the three exams (25% each), case/exercises (15%), participation (5%), and internet assignment (5%).  Final grades will be assigned as follows:

Registration: Students have responsibility to ensure they are properly enrolled in classes.  You are advised to review your official class schedule (using Web for Students) during the first two weeks of the semester to ensure you are properly enrolled in this class and section.  Should you find an error in your class schedule, you have until Friday, January 26, 2007 to correct the error with your advising office.  If registration errors are not corrected by this date and you continue to attend and participate in classes for which you are not officially enrolled, you are advised now that you will not receive a grade at the conclusion of the semester for any class in which you are not properly registered.

Course Withdrawal Deadline:  For Spring 2007 the course withdrawal deadline is Sunday, March 25, 2007.