Course Syllabus
MGMT 335: Human Resource Management
Spring 2010
Instructor: Dr. E. A. Ensher
Office: Hilton 351
Office phone: (310) 338-3037
Email:eensher@lmu.edu
Office Hours: Mondays: 2:15–4:15; 7–8; Thurs: 12–3
INTRODUCTION
It is widely recognized today that human resources are an organization's most valuable assets
contributing to productivity. Various studies on organizational effectiveness have pointed out the
HUMAN FACTOR as the #1 factor, far above all other factors that determine success in
achieving organizational objectives.
The purpose of this course is to provide you with a strong foundation in the important methods,
strategies, issues, and legal information related to the HRM function within organizations. This
foundation will provide a critical support to you in your future successful career, whether as a
manager, human resource professional, or an employee.
REQUIRED READINGS
 Fundamentals of Human Resource Management (3rd ed.) by Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, and
Wright, McGraw Hill.
 Book of readings available for purchase from Mozena Publishing at (800) 444-8398. A
representative from Mozena will sell this book of readings in class for the first several days
so you will have the opportunity to purchase the book then.
You will be required to have covered the reading assignment by the days in which they appear on
the syllabus. Not only will your preparation greatly enhance the quality of class discussion, but it
will also help you to perform well on your papers and exams.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
As a result of completing Management 335, students will demonstrate in the following areas of
human resource management their overall understanding and skill level sufficient to pass the
class:
1) How the HR function contributes to overall organizational productivity (including cost
reduction and increased profitability) and competitive advantage within an increasingly
competitive domestic and global business environment.
2) The professional specializations of HR (e.g. HR planning, staffing, training, performance
appraisal, compensation, employee relations etc.)
3) The important role of each manager and supervisor in supporting and implementing the HR
function within the organization.
4) Career planning and management, with the student's own personal career as a special focus.
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TEAM WORK
Very early in the semester you will form work teams consisting of approximately five students.
You will work in this team through out the semester on various in-class assignments and to
design and present a class presentation. By the date indicated in your course schedule, your team
will hand in a one-sentence description of your proposed topic. Also, you will turn in a one or
two-page Team Charter and time line, listing all the expectations of your team regarding both
appropriate behavior to demonstrate and avoid on the part of the total team and individual team
members. Also, be sure to indicate the names, emails, and telephone numbers of each team
member. Please identify a team representative who I can contact if I need to reach your team.
Your work team will design and present a team presentation and at times work on cases and
experiential exercises through out the course.
To start, ask yourselves in an early team meeting what should the team and individual members
do and not do to avoid the team work disasters that you may have experienced in other classes in
the past. This Charter should also indicate how your team expects to handle such things as
disagreement, decision-making, communication, feedback, and managing individual’s problem
behavior that needs to be corrected for the good of the team. All team members should sign the
Charter and keep a copy.
SUMMARY OF LEARNING ACTIVITIES
This course requires active attention and participation. Your sources of learning will be varied,
and will involve lectures and class discussions, learning exercises, team work, assigned readings,
audiovisuals, and guest speakers. Your assignments will include: A) Team presentation and
paper on a best practice of HR B) Two exams (a mid-semester examination and a final noncumulative examination), C) Mentoring activity, D) Professional Speaker assignment and E)
Class participation (detailed later in the syllabus).
A) BEST PRACTICES TEAM TRAINING AND PAPER
On an appointed day later in the semester, your work team will provide a 30-minute interactive
presentation related to a best practice of HR. You are required to choose at least 2 best practice
organizations and their respective practices to present to the class. (For your paper you must
discuss at least five best practice organizations). Be sure to clearly define your criteria for
selection and show evidence of your research. After your team topic has been approved by me
you will conduct an in-depth research review of the topic using approximately 15-20 recent
sources (i.e. past five years). I recommend that you use at least one source from each of the
three different research source categories: 1) practitioner (non-technical) journals, books,
databases or websites 2) technical research journals, books, databases, or websites and 3)
interview with an HR professional or general manager having a strong expertise in your topic.
You will analyze all of your information, organize it and present a summary to the class in an
interactive format using a variety of teaching methods. Your presentation should include time
for questions and a discussion of the information that you present. Please let me know your
audiovisual needs early. To help you locate sources for #1 above I recommend ABI database and
for #2 above, Psychlit database. For interview sources, you might contact human resources
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managers and professionals in local organizations with which you are familiar or consult the
Career Development Center for information about HR alumni. Also, see your text for links to HR
organizations and professionals online.
For your training session, you will be graded (all team members receive the same score)
according to the following equally criteria; 1) the thorough nature of your research (including
your description of current problems, controversies, and unresolved areas ; 2) the clarity and
organization of your presentation ; 3) your ability to communicate the relevance and importance
of your subject; 4) your ability to generate and manage class interest, participation, and
involvement, 5) the degree to which you fulfilled the assignment and professional presentation
style. You can design your presentation however you like, but tasteful creativity is a plus.
Please be very careful to avoid the use of inappropriate or “put-down” humor that
denigrates individuals or groups of individuals. If you feel like it might offend, it probably
will. Although I encourage it since presentation experience is beneficial for everyone, all
individual team members do not have to be involved in the presentation. It will be very difficult
for your team to earn above a "C" without a focus on generating participation and interest from
the class. Past presentations have been excellent and yours can be too!
Your team paper must be at least and no more than 15-18 pages double-spaced. Additional
instructions will be provided in class.
C) EXAMS
The mid-semester exam (covers information from first half of the class) and non-cumulative final
exam (covers information from second half of the class) may consist of multiple choice, truefalse questions, short answers, definitions and/or essay questions. These exams will cover your
class notes, required reading, and in-class discussions. Study guides for each of the exams will
be provided. The final exam will include several questions from some of the team presentations
as well.
D) MENTORING ACTIVITY
The purpose of this assignment is to provide you with a structure to network with professionals
in a career or industry you are interested in by engaging in dialogue around HR issues. This
assignment will require you to integrate class learning and question your own career
assumptions.
You can obtain an on-line or in person mentor by accessing your own personal contacts or by
using the LMU career center for contacts. A separate hand-out will be provided to you detailing
the on-line mentoring assignment along with frequently asked questions. During the course of the
semester you are required to interact on-line with your mentor a minimum of 6 times (i.e., about
every other week). You may structure your relationship as you wish however you will be required
to compose a minimum of three questions based on class readings, discussions, etc. to ask your
mentor each time. You are also encouraged to discuss career issues with your mentor as well.
Aim for a total of 18 questions and answers.
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You must complete 2 progress reports:
Progress Report 1 (worth 3 points)
If you are doing the online mentoring assignment, turn in to me the name of your mentor, email
address, phone number, and organization. Tell me how many times you have communicated so
far and indicate any questions that you might have about this assignment.
Progress Report 2 (worth 3 points)
Turn in to me all emails, records of conversations etc. gathered thus far and your candid
evaluation of how this assignment is progressing for you. What are the positive aspects of this
assignment? Challenges of this assignment thus far? Please also provide a resume or 1-page
biography from your mentor. If they do not have one handy, then this is a great opportunity to
help your mentor out by interviewing them and writing up a bio for them! Please see my faculty
page for a sample of how to do a biography.
Final Report and Evaluation.
You will need to turn in a professional and neat compilation of all emailed questions and answers
along with a summary of in-person or telephone conversations. In addition, I will ask for an
evaluation of this assignment (a handout will be provided in class detailing this).
F) PROFESSIONAL SPEAKER ASSIGNMENT
To help you develop your professional network, you are required to attend one on or off campus
event with speakers and professionals that are relevant to your career. You are required to write
a 1-page reaction paper to the event.
G) COMPENSATION RESEARCH
You will need to conduct some brief research online to uncover the expected starting salary for a
reasonable entry level job that you will be interested in obtaining after graduation. Also, you will
need to write a budget of anticipated expenses. You will likely find the www.salary.com to be
very helpful in determining pay. Check out www.mint.com for help in creating a budget.
H) CLASS PARTICIPATION
A final important learning activity is your own degree of participation, which has a significant
influence on your final grade, as well as what you ultimately gain from this course. Therefore,
your prompt arrival, attendance, and prepared participation (quality emphasized) will be closely
monitored. Please avoid tardiness- just as it is not acceptable to arrive at a job late, it is not
acceptable to arrive in class late. Your final grade will begin to be seriously jeopardized with
more than three absences.
At the end of the semester I will conduct an anonymous work team peer evaluation that will help
me to assess your performance in this important area, particularly with regard to the nature of
your contribution to the successful learning and effective performance of your work team.
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Your class participation grade (worth 50 points) will consist of the following components: a)
completion of "Strong" inventory (worth 5 points), b) completion of group charter (4 points), c)
mentoring progress reports (3 points each for a total of 6), d) on-time attendance (10 points), e)
participation in class (15 points), and f) peer evaluations (10 points).
EXTRA CREDIT ASSIGNMENT
Bring me a 3-10 minute video or TV clip that exemplifies an aspect of Human Resource
Management that I might use in a future class. Write one to two paragraphs that describes the
learning points. This is worth up to 3 points. Please do NOT use the movie Office Space.
GRADING
The following represents the relative weighting that your performance in the various graded
learning activities will have in determining your final grade:
Team paper
Team presentation
Mid term examination
Final examination
Mentoring activity
Professional Speaker assignment
Compensation Research
Participation
Total points possible
100 points possible
75 points possible
200 points possible
200 points possible
50 points possible
5 points possible
5 points possible
50 points possible
685 points
I believe that honest, regular feedback is very important. You can expect regular feedback from
me, and I will ask you for feedback on my performance at the middle and end of the semester.
Of course, feedback that you would like to give me at any other time is also very welcome. Your
final grade, based on your total accumulated points, will be determined by a modified curve
grade distribution procedure. If there is little final total point spread and evidence of
considerable student effort, all final grades can be quite high. However, if there is much final
total point spread, indicating significant performance difference, a more normal curve grade
distribution procedure will be used. Only students who do outstanding work will receive an "A."
PROFESSIONAL ETHICS AND EXPECTATIONS
I will give you my full energy and commitment to making this a successful and rewarding course
this semester. In fact, if you receive at least a "C" as a final grade, you can expect from me a
commitment to help you (i.e., letters of recommendation) as you progress in your academic and
professional career. In exchange for my commitment to you, I expect complete honesty and
genuine behavior on your part. Any cheating or plagiarism will be dealt with severely.
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GENERAL POLICIES
1. In general, I do not accept assignments via email unless you receive prior permission
from me. I would advise you to avoid using email to turn in papers as often there is a
discrepancy regarding when the paper was sent and received. It is your job to make
sure I received it and don’t assume I did receive it until you receive a message back
from me. Also, I count the paper as received when I get it, NOT when you sent it. See
how complicated this is? Avoid using email- just come to class or have a friend turn
your work in when it’s due.
2. This is a business class so I expect a high degree of professionalism so that means
everything you turn in to me must be typed and professional or I will not accept it.
3. Please note, late papers, assignments and exams are absolutely, positively NOT
acceptable! Grades for papers turned in the same day, yet after the class period
they are due regardless of your excuse, will be reduced 1/2 a letter grade. After
that, the paper will be docked one complete letter grade for every day it is late.
The same rule applies for a missed exam.
4. If you miss class the day I return assignments, you can come by my office and pick up
your assignment. I only bring returned assignments to class once.
5. Students with special needs who need reasonable modifications, special assistance, or
accommodations in this course should promptly direct their requests to the Disability
Support Services office. Any student who currently has a documented disability
(physical, learning, or psychological) needing academic accommodations should
contact the Disability Services Offices (Daum Hall, #224, X84535) as early in the
semester as possible. All discussions remain confidential. Please visit
www.lmu.edu/dss for additional information.
6. Please do NOT use your laptop, cellphone, BlackBerry, or any other forms of outside
connection, distraction, or technological interference while in class. I recognize that
extricating yourself from your electronic dependency may be painful, but it will help
you to develop the valuable life skill of being fully present!
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TENTATIVE COURSE SCHEDULE
DATE
Tues., Jan. 19
Thurs., Jan. 21
Tues., Jan. 26
Thurs., Jan. 28
Tues., Feb. 2
Thurs., Feb. 4
Tues., Feb. 9
TOPIC
Course
Introduction
Managing Human
Resources
Developing
Employees for
Future Success
Mentoring as a
Career
Development Tool
Providing Equal
Employment
Opportunity and a
Safe Workplace
Providing Equal
Employment
Opportunity and a
Safe Workplace
Mentoring Panel
READING DUE
Chapter 1
-Dichotomous Role of Human
Resources
-Chapter 9
-Engaging the disengaged
-Power Mentoring readings
-Chapter 3
-Counting on Workers with
Disabilities
-Mentoring Progress Report #1
due
Thurs., Feb. 11
Best Practices in
HR
-When the world is your office
-How to fix capitalism
Tues., Feb. 16
Planning For and
Recruiting Human
Resources
Resumes as a
Selection Tool
Selecting
Employees and
Placing them in
Jobs
Midterm
Strong
Assessment
interpretations
Training
Employees
Training
Employees
Establishing a Pay
Structure
Compensation
Chapter 5
Thurs., Feb. 18
Tues., Feb. 23
Thurs., Feb. 25
Tues., Mar. 2
Thurs., Mar. 4
Tues., Mar. 9
Thurs., Mar. 11
Tues., Mar. 16
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ASSIGNMENT DUE
-Must have completed Strong
Assessment online
-Resume Guide
Chapter 6
-Interviewing Guide
-Team charter and topic due
Chapter 7
Chapter 11
Mentoring Progress Report #2
due
-Costco CEO article
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DATE
Thurs., Mar. 18
Tues., Mar. 23
Thurs., Mar. 251
Tues. Apr. 6
Thurs., Apr. 8
Tues., Apr. 13
Thurs., Apr. 15
Tues., Apr. 20
Thurs. Apr. 22
Tues., Apr. 27
Thurs., Apr. 29
TOPIC
Issues
READING DUE
-Nickel and Dimed excerpt
Recognizing
Employee
Contributions with
Pay
Providing
Employee
Benefits
Chapter 12
Benefits and other
compensation
issues
Benefits and
Compensation
Presentation
Preparation
Collective
Bargaining and
Labor Relations
Separating and
Retaining
Employees
Team
Presentations
Team
Presentations
Team
presentations
Wrap
Up/Summary
-Rebalancing health costs
-Get Healthy or Else
ASSIGNMENT DUE
Compensation Research
Assignment due
Chapter 13
-23 and uninsured
-Health Insurer tied bonuses
Presentation outlines due
-Chapter 14
-At carwash taking a stand
-Chapter 10
Professional Speaker paper due
Mentoring Assignment due
Final Team Papers due
Final exam for 9:25 class is on Thursday, May 6 at 8 a.m.
Final exam for 10:50 class is on Tuesday, May 4 at 11 a.m.
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Note- spring break is March 29- April 2. Be safe and have fun!
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