Course Description
Human Resource Management provides a management-oriented exploration of human resource management, structure,functional applications, and labor management relations. Focus is placed on managers and leaders within organizations and their responsibility to optimize performance and make decisions based on ethical criteria.
Course Textbook
Stewart, G. L., & Brown, K. G. (2015). Human resource management: Linking strategy to practice (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Course Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:
1. Compare and contrast effective human resource management strategies.
2. Estimate the impact of legal provisions on human resource management.
3. Evaluate the components of workforce planning.
4. Recommend basic human resource management (HRM) principles to develop a recruiting program for an organization.
5. Relate different selection criteria and selection methods to organizational considerations.
6. Appraise the importance of project management processes for launching training programs in organizations,to include planning, design, implementation, and evaluation.
7. Analyze the roles and responsibilities of organizational leaders in the safety and health of employees.
8. Critically evaluate the challenges to human resource management in a global corporation.
9. Formulate a compensation strategy that aligns with an organization's business strategy.
Credits
Upon completion of this course, the students will earn three (3) hours of college credit.
Course Structure
1. Study Guide: Each unit contains a Study Guide that provides students with the learning outcomes, unit lesson,required reading assignments, and supplemental resources.
2. Learning Outcomes: Each unit contains Learning Outcomes that specify the measurable skills and knowledge students should gain upon completion of the unit.
3. Unit Lesson: Each unit contains a Unit Lesson, which discusses lesson material.
4. Reading Assignments: Each unit contains Reading Assignments from one or more chapters from the textbook.
5. Suggested Reading: A Suggested Reading is listed in the Unit II study guide. Students are encouraged to read the resource listed if the opportunity arises, but they will not be tested on their knowledge of the Suggested Reading.
6. Learning Activities (Non-Graded): These non-graded Learning Activities are provided to aid students in their course of study.
7. Discussion Boards: Discussion Boards are part of all CSU term courses. More information and specifications can be found in the Student Resources link listed in the Course Menu bar.
8. Unit Assignments: Students are required to submit for grading Unit Assignments in Units I-VIII. Specific information and instructions regarding these assignments are provided below. Grading rubrics are included with each assignment. Specific information about accessing these rubrics is provided below.
9. Ask the Professor: This communication forum provides you with an opportunity to ask your professor general or course content related questions.
10. Student Break Room: This communication forum allows for casual conversation with your classmates.
Unit Assignments
Unit I Assignment
HR Mission Statement
By now, from your textbook readings and lesson, you should have a firm grasp on the different types of human resource values and strategies that are commonplace in the workforce. From this information:
1. Create and briefly describe a fictional large company of your choice. This is your company and it should preferably be in your current or desired future industry. This company and the HR mission statement you create will be used as a foundation for future assignments in this course.
2. Compare and contrast the below sample mission statements. Evaluate them for overall effectiveness.
3. Use your analysis to write your own HR mission statement for your fictional company.
Consider the following questions when evaluating and formulating your mission statement:
Why does your HR function exist? What do you want for your customers and how can HR provide that?
Who are your customers and what can you do for them that will enrich their lives and contribute to their success,both present and future?
What image of your function do you want to convey internally and externally? Customers, employees and the public will all have perceptions of your company. How will HR help create the desired picture?
What level of service do you provide to employees and the company? Don't be vague; define what will make your service extraordinary.
What kind of relationships will your HR function maintain with customers? Every company function is in partnership with its customers. When you succeed, so do they.
What underlying philosophies or values guided your responses to the previous questions? Some mission statements choose to list these separately (as core values or vision). Writing them down clarifies the "why" behind your mission.
Does your HR function's mission statement describe and support what your company will do and why it will do it (the company's core values)?
Unit II Case Study
Locate a recent court case, lawsuit, or article related to employee selection criteria and methods. Write a paper of at least 500 words in length about the selected manuscript. You are required to use at least your textbook and a court case as source material for your paper.
Be sure to include the following information in your paper:
Provide a brief description of the selected manuscript.
Identify the selection criteria and methods, and discuss how they relate to the needs of the organization in the case.
Include an analysis of the criteria and methods used for selecting the employee in the manuscript.
Include a discussion of the legal and ethical issues related to equal employment opportunity as they pertain to the employment selection process in this manuscript.
What impact will this court case, lawsuit, or article have on HR management?
All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations in APA format.
Information about accessing the grading rubric for this assignment is provided below.
Unit III Assignment
Succession Planning Procedure
In a minimum of 500 words, document a succession plan for an employee (e.g., IT Developer, Maintenance Crew, Training Specialist, CEO) of your chosen firm. What concepts are crucial when recruiting team members? Be sure to address the following questions in your response:
1. What are the critical knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) of that position?
2. Will you select, train, or both for these KSAs?
3. How will you ensure your selected successor does not leave the firm?
4. What succession planning process will you use?
Follow the steps above in chronological order. Any sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations in APA format.
Information about accessing the grading rubric for this assignment is provided below.
Unit IV Article Critique
Use the CSU Online Library to locate and review a scholarly article found in a peer-reviewed journal related to HR recruiting, unions, labor relations, or international human resources management. There is a minimum requirement of 500 words for the article critique.
Format your critique in APA style.
Begin with an introduction that defines the subject of your critique and your point of view. You will first need to identify and explain the author's ideas. Include specific passages that support your description of the author's point of view.
Take into consideration how you would approach a recruiting program for your company based on the author's ideas on the subject matter.
What challenges would you face if your company were a global conglomerate?
Defend your point of view by raising specific issues or aspects of the argument. Offer your own opinion. Explain
what you think about the argument. Describe several points with which you agree or disagree.
Explain how the passages support your opinion.
Conclude your critique by summarizing your argument and re-emphasizing your opinion.
For each of the points you mention, include specific passages from the text (you may summarize, quote, or paraphrase, being sure to include proper in-text citations) that provide evidence for your point of view. Information about accessing the grading rubric for this assignment is provided below.
Unit V Article Critique
Use the CSU Online Library to locate and review a scholarly article found in a peer-reviewed journal related to HR selection methods, analyzing work, designing jobs, or HR planning. In peer-reviewed journals, the articles were reviewed by other professionals in the field to ensure the accuracy and quality of the articles, which is ideal when writing an article critique.
Research tip: When researching using the databases, you can limit your search to only peer-reviewed articles. To do this, look for the phrase "limit results," and select "peer-reviewed articles."
Once you have selected your article, follow the below criteria:
There is a minimum requirement of 500 words for the article critique.
Write a summary of the article. This should be one to three paragraphs in length, depending on the length of the article. Include the purpose for the article, how research was conducted, the results, and other pertinent information from the article. Identify the selection criteria and methods and how they relate to hiring at the organization in the article.
Discuss the meaning or implication of the results of the study that the article covers. This should be one to two paragraphs. This is where you offer your opinion on the article. Discuss any flaws with the article, how you think it could have been better, and what you think it all means.
Write one paragraph discussing how the author could expand on the results, what the information means in the big picture, what future research should focus on, or how future research could move the topic forward. Discuss how knowledge in the area could be expanded.
Any sources used, including the textbook and the article, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must
have accompanying citations in APA format.
Information about accessing the grading rubric for this assignment is provided below.
Unit VI Assignment
There are several standardized training events in large organizations that are required annually or biannually. One of these is often sexual harassment. For this assignment, write a training plan for all employees in your firm to educate and develop their awareness of sexual harassment and understanding of legal and organizational policies. Be sure to include training aspects of planning, design, implementation, and evaluation.
This plan should be in narrative form with a minimum requirement of 500 words. Discuss the following guidelines to complete your plan.
Planning: Should all employees be trained at once? If not, who should be trained first? What are the anticipated outcomes or terminal learning objectives of the training?
Design: In what format should the training be given, and why? What modalities will be used for employees on multiple shifts or in multiple locations? What are the core elements of the training that will align with the learning
objectives?
Implementation: Who will lead the training, and how will it be implemented? Will you be training for knowledge or behavior change? How will you conduct the actual training to account for knowledge and/or behavioral change?
Evaluation: How will you know if the training was successful? What measures will you use to know if employees
1) learned from the training,
2) behaved differently after the training, and
3) the training has a bottom line impact to the firm?
Any sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have
accompanying citations in APA format.
Information about accessing the grading rubric for this assignment is provided below.
Unit VII Assignment
Safety Policies
Recall your chosen firm and industry you have been using throughout the course. For this assignment, you will identify the top three major safety and health issues in your firm, and write a policy on each, consistent with Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) standards. There is a minimum requirement of 300 words for each of the three job policies.
Each of the five domains of OSHA must be considered when writing these three policies:
1. Hazard communication: How will you notify people of potentially dangerous or unhealthy work conditions?
2. Blood-borne pathogens: How will you protect employees from blood-borne pathogens such as AIDS?
3. Personal protective equipment (PPE): What equipment or tools will your employees in this job require to work safely?
4. Cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs): How will you prevent CTDs that come from repetitive movement (e.g.,carpel tunnel syndrome)?
5. Work assignments: How will you handle potentially dangerous work assignments, especially to protect unborn babies?
NOTE: This is a three-part assignment. All three of the policies (300 words each) you write should go on one document.
This one document is what will be uploaded to Blackboard.
Any sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations in APA format.
Information about accessing the grading rubric for this assignment is provided below.
Unit VIII Assignment
Compensation Purpose and Strategy Document
The purpose of this assignment is to choose a compensation philosophy that is appropriate for your chosen firm and articulate a rationale for this selection.
There are two aspects to this assignment. First, describe the risks and benefits with leading, meeting, and lagging the market in overall compensation and benefits. Next, choose the appropriate strategy (lead, meet, or lag) for your firm, and provide rationale about why this is appropriate.
There is a minimum requirement of 500 words for the compensation purpose and strategy document.
Consider some of the following factors in your assignment:
1. Payroll expenses are usually the highest expense at most firms. If you lead the market, this expense can be taxing.
2. If you are pursuing top talent in human capital rich industries (e.g., software engineering), lagging the market may keep you from competing for market share against your competitors.
3. If you meet the market, paying average will generally not attract top talent, and in addition, you will not have the labor-cost savings of a lag-the-market strategy.
APA Guidelines
The application of the APA writing style shall be practical, functional, and appropriate to each academic level, with the primary purpose being the documentation (citation) of sources. CSU requires that students use APA style for certain papers and projects. Students should always carefully read and follow assignment directions and review the associated grading rubric when available. Students can find CSU's Citation Guide in the myCSU Student Portal by clicking on the "Citation Resources" link in the "Learning Resources" area. This document includes examples and sample papers and provides information on how to contact the CSU Success Center.