BAD 64271 Summer 2009 Hogue

Human Resource Management

BAD 64271-030

Summer 2009

Instructor:                   Mary Hogue, Ph.D.

Office:                         College of Business A423

Phone:                         (330) 672-1148

Office Hours:              MTWR 4:45-5:45 or by appointment

E-Mail:                        mhogue@stark.kent.edu

Required Text:            Noe, R. A., Hollenback, J. R., Gerhart, B. & Wright, P. M. (2009).

                                    Fundamentals of Human Resource Management. Boston:

                                    McGraw-Hill.

Course Objectives: With this class, you will develop an understanding of HRM concepts and techniques, expand your problem solving skills, refine your communication skills, and enhance your goal setting, organization, and time management skills.

Class Procedures: The first half of our summer session is devoted to learning the various aspects of human resource management. The second half of the session is devoted to exploring controversial HR subjects in depth through debate formats.

Determinations of Course Success:

Midterm exam

Your midterm exam will be a comprehensive, open-note, open-book exam covering the entire book. Questions will be multiple choice (1 point each) and short answer (2 points each). There will be 100 possible points.

Critical Thinking Debates

 In groups of 3-4 you will prepare an argument to support your assigned topic. Guidelines are at the end of the syllabus. Debates are worth 100 points. Seventy points will be decided by me and awarded to the group. Fifteen points will be awarded by the audience to the group. Fifteen points will be awarded by your teammates to the individual.

Final exam

Your final exam will cover only debate-related material. There will be open-ended questions devoted to definitions of terms (some of these may overlap the mid-term exam), and there will be short essay questions devoted to critical analysis. There will be 100 possible points.

Make-up exams require acceptable, documented excuse. Tests missed for any other reason can be made up through a 12-page research paper. Due dates and topics for research papers will be determined by me. I strongly suggest that you arrange your schedule so that you are able to attend class on test day.

Grading: The table below depicts the grading scale along with the points necessary to earn each grade.

All materials are due before the beginning of class on the assigned days. No late assignments will be accepted unless arrangements have been made with me prior to the due date, and I will not make arrangements for this except in the case of an extreme, unavoidable, and documented emergency.

Grade dispute: If you are unhappy with the grade you receive on any assignment, I will happily revisit my decision. For this to occur, you must make your argument IN WRITING within 3 days of receiving your grade. Your explanation should include your rationale for deserving a different grade (“I worked really hard on this” is not rationale for receiving a different grade) along with any supporting material. Keep in mind, however, that upon revisiting my decision, any change can be made in your grade. It might be raised as you request, but you also run the risk of it being lowered.

Class attendance: All students are expected to attend class regularly and are responsible for all material covered even when they miss class.

The Following Policies Apply to All Students in this Course:

A.      Students attending the course who do not have the proper prerequisite risk being deregistered from the class.

B.      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 Thursday July 23, 2009 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.

C.      Academic Honesty:  Cheating means to misrepresent the source, nature, or other conditions of your academic work (e.g., tests, papers, projects, assignments) so as to get undeserved credit.  The use of the intellectual property of others without giving them appropriate credit is a serious academic offense.  It is the University's policy that cheating or plagiarism result in receiving a failing grade for the work or course.  Repeat offenses result in dismissal from the University.

D.      For Summer 2009, the course withdrawal deadline is Monday August 10, 2009.   Withdrawal before the deadline results in a "W" on the official transcript; after the deadline a grade must be calculated and reported.

E.      Students with disabilities:  University policy 3342-3-013 requires that students with disabilities be provided reasonable accommodations to ensure their equal access equal access course content.  If you have documented disability and require accommodations, please contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester to make arrangements for necessary classroom adjustments.  Please note, you must first verify your eligibility for these through the Student Accessibility Services (contact 330-672-3391 or visit www.kent.edu/sas for more information on registration procedures).

Course schedule: The following is a tentative schedule for this course. Chapter assignments are subject to change as the course progresses. Any changes will be announced in class.

Chapters must be read before coming to class. We must move quickly, so I cannot lecture on everything. I have chosen a book that provides excellent explanations of the topics, and we will spend much of our class time applying the material in discussion and in small-group work.

Critical Thinking Debates

Thinking critically means analytically examining a topic, challenging ideas and looking for support. It is not enough to believe something. You must know why you believe it. To know that, you must examine an issue from as many sides as possible looking for information that will support each of the possible positions. Only then can you form an intelligent opinion about something.

You will work together with 2 or 3 classmates to prepare a well-structured, well-researched argument for your position. It is not necessary that you agree with your position, only that you can argue it well. Another group will be preparing an equally well-structured and well-researched argument for the opposing position.

Debate formats will be as follows:

            Ten minutes to present an initial argument for the affirmative.

            Ten minutes to present an initial argument for the negative.

            Three minutes for the negative group to rebut affirmative arguments.

            Three minutes for the affirmative group to rebut negative arguments

            Continuing 3 minute rebuttal cycles until all arguments are extinguished.

            Questions from the class.

            Responses from both sides.

Your arguments must be informative and thorough. I expect you to do your homework researching your own position, anticipating arguments from the other side, and researching their position.

Your initial argument must be clearly presented. The other team and the rest of the class must hear and understand. Remember, they will not be allowed to ask questions for quite a while, so you must present your information in a way that will allow them to understand. You do not want to lose your audience.

Your research can incorporate information from any number of valid sources (Wikipedia is not a valid source). You may use our textbook, other textbooks, trade books, academic journal articles, newspaper articles, government websites, etc. If you are unsure about the quality of your source, ask me. You do not want me to challenge your source during your debate. When you refer to your researched material, be sure to give credit to the source (e.g., “The May 12, 2009 issue of the Wall Street Journal explained a recent Supreme Court decision about affirmative action in the following way . . .”).

Each team must prepare an outline of their presentation including all possible rebuttal information. You must give a copy to me, to members of the other team, and to members of the audience.

The audience must listen closely to the debates. Your role will be to learn the material, question debate teams, and grade debaters.

Debate Topics

Debate 1: Protection under Title VII

Our government has declared equal employment opportunity a cause significant enough to require legislation mandating that companies must make employment decisions without regard to race, religion, ethnicity, sex, color, age, disability, etc.; yet, technically, these laws apply only to organizations that employee more than 15 or more than 20 workers (depending on the law).

            Affirmative: Small businesses face financial and competitive obstacles not faced

by larger organizations. If they were required to adhere strictly to

nondiscrimination laws, then they would be at a disadvantage thereby

hindering their ability to operate effectively.

Negative:  Discrimination is such an insidious problem that it could not be

            overcome without explicit laws – laws that should equally apply to all

            organizations. Small businesses should not be able to make employment

            decisions in such a way that those decisions could be affected by personal

            biases, and without laws mandating fair treatment, small business may

            make unfair employment decisions that result in discriminatory practices.

Debate 2: Affirmative action

Affirmative action has to do with the extent to which employers make an effort to attract, retain, and upgrade members of the protected classes of the 1964 CRA or persons with disabilities.

            Affirmative: Affirmative action is still necessary. Women and minorities continue

to experience difficulties being hired and promoted in many jobs even when they are equally or superiorly qualified. Historically, discrimination was so rampant, and lately discrimination has become so covert that explicit programs are often necessary to require employers to make up for past and continuing offenses.

            Negative: Affirmative action is no longer necessary because equal employment

opportunity laws exist to protect women and minorities from discriminatory employment decisions.

Debate 3: Intelligence tests as selection devices

Intelligence testing is a quick, often inexpensive, and reliable method of selecting employees that frequently leads to adverse impact for protected groups.

            Affirmative: Intelligence is the best predictor of future job performance for all

jobs. Hiring the wrong employee is a costly decision for an employer to make. Employers must be allowed to use the best means to select the

                        best workers for their company.

            Negative: On average, various ethnic groups score differently on standardized

                        intelligence tests leading to employment decisions that favor one group

over others. The CRAs disallow this, so employers must not be able to use these unfair tests.

Debate 4:Tying pay/promotion to performance appraisal

Most managers dislike the performance appraisal process. Most employees are distrustful of the performance appraisal process. Most organizations tie employee compensation and promotion to performance appraisal information.

            Affirmative: The employment relationship is an exchange: employees offer

                        employers their work, and employers offer employees pay in exchange

                        for the work. Those who provide better work should receive better

                        compensation. The only way to determine who provides better work is

                        to look at the employees’ performance appraisals. It just makes good

                        business sense.

            Negative: Employees’ performance is affected by things that are out of their

control, and managers’ appraisal of employees also is often biased by

factors out of the employee’s control. Tying pay to appraisal does not

necessarily make pay equitable and can instead lead to reduced effort,

absenteeism, and turnover. It does not make good business sense.