Course Syllabus
PROFESSIONAL STUDIES: Human Resource Leadership
Recruitment, Selection, and Retention
PRST 5940 / 6940 / 7940
3 Credit Hours
Course Information
Course Description:
Employment selection is one of the most important issues in business. Making the wrong hiring decision
means throwing away a substantial investment of time and money. Students are expected to develop a
critical understanding of the theory and practice of organizational staffing.
In addition to staff planning, students in this course will learn, step by step, the employee selection
process, from pre-recruitment through hiring. Specific strategies for attracting potential employees,
interview preparation and interview techniques, and reference checking will be examined. Additionally
students will examine the usefulness of various methods used in job analysis, testing and measurements,
internal and external market analysis, and retention plans.
Course Objectives:
There are several learning outcomes for each participant. After taking this class, students should be able
to:
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Analyze organizational strategic plans to identify staffing needs
Use appropriate recruiting strategies depending on position, location, and availability of potential
applicants
Use appropriate interviewing methods as indicated by the level of staffing need
Analyze applicability of selection tests for different positions
Recommend how an organization can improve its staffing program
Use research, critical thinking, and written communication skills to address staffing problems.
Prerequisites and Co-requisites:
Students taking this course must be admitted to the Masters of Professional Studies degree program or
have been granted permission to take this course by their degree granting institutions' faculty advisor for
this program. Students must take Human Resources Management (PRST 5040/6040/7040) and complete
it successfully before entering this course.
Course Topics:
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Staffing models and strategy
Planning and job analysis
External and internal recruitment
Employment tests; measurement concepts
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5.
6.
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9.
Background information
Interviewing
Selection criteria and methods
Legal and diversity issues
Decision making and final match
Specific Course Requirements:
There are no specific requirements for this course.
Textbooks, Supplementary Materials, Hardware and Software Requirements
Required Textbooks:
Please visit the Virtual Bookstore to obtain textbook information for this course: http://rodp.bkstr.com
Supplementary Materials:
The Tanglewood Casebook will be used to complement the textbook. This casebook is available for free
in the Course Content section.
Hardware Requirements:
The minimum requirements can be found at
http://www.tn.regentsdegrees.org/students/hardware_software.htm.
Software Requirements:
The minimum requirements can be found at
http://www.tn.regentsdegrees.org/students/hardware_software.htm.
Instructor Information
Please see the separate page inside the course to find instructor contact information as well as a
statement of virtual office hours and other communication information.
Assessment and Grading
Testing / Grading Procedures:
Assessment Procedures:
Each student in the class will be assessed according to the following criteria:
1.
Chapter Quizzes: Chapter quizzes will be available until the end of each module. You may use
your textbook on the quizzes, but there is a time limit, so you should read and study the chapter
before you begin each quiz. The average of your quizzes will comprise 28% of your final grade.
2.
Tanglewood Case Assignments: Each module ends with an assignment from the Tanglewood
Casebook. Each assignment will be graded. The average of these assignments will comprise
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24% of your final grade. Each assignment will be graded according to these criteria
1. Are your final recommendations and answers derived from course content?
The final recommendations should be presented in a clear, succinct manner. The recommendations
should be feasible and directly related to the information provided in the case. Recommendations should
take potential problems into account.
2. Is the report easy to read?
Correct grammatical errors and eliminate confusing sentences.
Break the text into subheadings so it is easy for the reader to find relevant information.
Explain your statistics in a way that an intelligent reader who is not familiar with them could understand
what is being reported.
Present tables cleanly with relevant data highlighted for the reader and with minimal extraneous
information.
Explain why you chose to use information and data in the way that you did.
Grading Scale:
Final grades will be assigned according to the following scale:
A = 100-90%;
B = 89-80%;
C = 79-70%;
D = 69-60%;
F = below 60%.
Assignments and Participation
Assignments and Projects:
Assignments:
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2.
Chapter Quizzes (280 points) The chapter quizzes are drawn directly from the textbook. You
may use your textbook, but you may not use the help of another person. Quizzes must be
completed before the end of the module. Quizzes not completed by the end of the module will
receive a grade of 0. No make-up quizzes are available. Each quiz is worth 20 points.
Tanglewood Case Assignments (240 points) The Tanglewood Case Assignments are
designed to complement the textbook. Each case assignment should be completed by the due
date on the calendar. For late assignments, the grade will be reduced by 10% each day after the
due date. The assignments vary greatly in terms of the amount of effort required, so it's a good
idea to read ahead and estimate the time required to finish the assignment. You should turn in
these assignments using the Dropbox link. Each case is worth 30 points.
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3.
4.
On-line Participation (240 points) I will usually provide a "discussion starter" to get things
going. Feel free, however, to post your own questions, observations, thoughts, etc. without my
prompting. You can earn 30 points per module in participation points. Keep in mind that certain
things will reflect poorly on your participation:
1. Posting a comment or question that demonstrates you haven't done the reading
2. Arguing without evidence
3. Assuming that anyone with different ideas, opinions, or values must be wrong.
4. Posting just to improve your post count. There are no quotas in this class. Quality counts
more than quantity.
Research Summary (240 points) the purpose of this assignment is to discover the value of
academic research in solving staffing problems.
Step 1. The Search
Use Google Scholar, PsycInfo, or ABI/Inform to find an interesting empirical research study published in
the last ten years. "Empirical" means that they actually collected and analyzed data and present the
results in the article. The study should have a very clear implication for improving a) individual, group, or
organizational performance, or b) individual attitudes important to organizational functioning. Google
Scholar will be available to you after you graduate, so you may want to practice using it. PsycInfo, on the
other hand, will allow you to do more specific searches (for example, finding studies that use
experimental designs, which usually lead to more definitive cause-effect relationships).
Research studies should be "claimed" by posting a full citation (author[s], year, article title, journal title,
volume, and page numbers) to the Discussion Board. Once an article is claimed, it cannot be claimed by
someone else.
Step 2. The Summary
1. Provide a summary of the practical question or problem that is addressed by the study.
2. Explain what they did.
3. Explain what they found.
4. Explain the specific actions that managers/leaders can take to affect performance or attitudes.
5. Remember that the main goal is to make something interesting, useful, and readable to practicing
managers. Pretend like you're writing an article that will appear in Business Week. In other words, if you
go beyond two pages and don't have a useful graphical presentation of the findings, you probably won't
keep a normal manager's attention.
6. Do not cut and paste. That's plagiarism and is grounds for failing the course. Yes, it's happened.
7. Ask me if you aren't sure if your study is appropriate. No more than one student may pick each article.
You can "claim" your study by posting a full citation (Authors, year, title, journal, volume, pages) to the
discussion board.
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8. The journals most likely to have useful articles are:
International Journal of Selection and Assessment
Journal of Applied Psychology
Journal of Organizational Behavior
Personnel Psychology
Journal of Management
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
There are lots of others, but these should give you an idea of what to look for.
Step 3. Format
I'm going to leave the formatting up to your creativity, but keep in mind that we want something that will
be readable and understandable to an average manager. You can choose whether to use a Word
document, a web page, a PowerPoint file, an Excel file, or something else. I'm guessing that anything that
requires more than one page flip will be too long to keep the attention of most managers.
Step 4. Finally
Although the final product is "short", you shouldn't perceive it as "easy". You should write, revise, rewrite,
and have someone else read it, revise again, revise again, and then revise one more time. During the
final days of the class, you will post your summary to the Discussion Board so that your classmates can
learn from your summary.
Content Mastery: Students must show evidence of understanding the facts, concepts, and theories
presented in the assigned content.
Communication Skills: Students must be able to inform others in an intelligent manner what he/she
knows. Ideas must be communicated clearly and persuasively. Communication skills include listening to
others and understanding what they have said, responding appropriately, asking questions in a clear
manner, avoiding rambling discourses or class domination, using proper vocabulary pertinent to the
discussion, building on the ideas of others, etc.
Synthesis/Integration: Students must be able to illuminate the connections between the material under
consideration and other bodies of knowledge. For example, one could take several ideas from the reading
or class discussions and combine them to produce a new perspective on an issue, or one could take
outside materials (from other classes, personal experiences, etc.) and combine them to create novel
insights.
Creativity: Students must demonstrate that they have mastered the basic materials and have gone on to
produce their own insights. A simple repetitionof ideas from the content will not suffice, nor will simply
commenting on what others have said. Students must go beyond the obvious by bringing their own
beliefs and imagination to bear. Creativity may be displayed by showing further implications of the
material, by applying it to a new field, or by finding new ways of articulating the materials, which produce
significant insights.
Valuing: Students should be able to identify the value inherent in the material studied. Furthermore,
students should be able to articulate their own positions by reference to basic underlying values. Students
must not simply feel something is wrong or incorrect; she or he must be able to state why, based on some
hierarchy of values.
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General Enthusiasm and Interest in the Class: This can be shown by regularity of attendance and
bringing in outside, ancillary materials that you read or have passed along to you.
Research Summary: Each student will search the academic literature and find an empirical study related
to some course topic. Ideally, the topic will be one of personal and practical significance to the student.
Your task is to summarize the study in a concise manner to answer some specific question. The grade for
this summary will comprise 24% of your final grade. Each research summary will be graded according the
following criteria:
Did you choose a study that can be used to answer a practical question related to the course content?
Is the required information present?
Are the conclusions and implications of the study described in a way that would be clear and useful to a
practicing manager with a staffing question?
Class Participation:
Active participation is required. Students should be prepared to discuss the assigned readings in a
thoughtful, respectful manner. Class participation grades will constitute 24% of your final grade. Class
participation will be graded according to the following criteria:
Punctuality:
All assignments will be assigned a due date when they are distributed. Failure to meet this deadline will
result in a loss of 5% of the available points for every 24 hour interval an assignment is late. Assignments
must be submitted electronically and therefore will be date and time stamped.
Course Ground Rules
Participation is required. You are expected to communicate with other students and the instructor as part
of the course assignments. You are expected to be able to navigate in D2L and to keep abreast of
course announcements. Observe course etiquette at all times. The student is responsible for ensuring
their programs and hardware is compatible with D2L and acceptable to the instructor.
Guidelines for Communications
Email:
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Always include a subject line.
Remember without facial expressions some comments may be taken the wrong way. Be careful
in wording your emails. Use of emoticons might be helpful in some cases.
Use standard fonts.
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Do not send large attachments without permission.
Special formatting such as centering, audio messages, tables, html, etc. should be avoided
unless necessary to complete an assignment or other communication.
Respect the privacy of other class members
Discussion Groups:
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Review the discussion threads thoroughly before entering the discussion. Be a lurker then a
discussant.
Try to maintain threads by using the "Reply" button rather starting a new topic.
Do not make insulting or inflammatory statements to other members of the discussion group. Be
respectful of others ideas.
Be patient and read the comments of other group members thoroughly before entering your
remarks.
Be cooperative with group leaders in completing assigned tasks.
Be positive and constructive in group discussions.
Respond in a thoughtful and timely manner.
More information is available in this link to discussion guidelines.
Chat:
Chat is seldom used in RODP. If for some reason it is opened:
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Introduce yourself to the other learners in the chat session.
Be polite. Choose your words carefully. Do not use derogatory statements.
Be concise in responding to others in the chat session.
Be prepared to open the chat session at the scheduled time.
Be constructive in your comments and suggestion
Web Resources:
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Columbia Guide to Online Style by Janice R. Walker and Todd Taylor
Citation Styles Online http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/cite6.html
Library
The Tennessee Virtual Library is available to all students enrolled in the Regents Degree Program. Links
to library materials (such as electronic journals, databases, interlibrary loans, digital reserves, dictionaries,
encyclopedias, maps, and librarian support) and Internet resources needed by learners to complete
online assignments and as background reading must be included in all courses.
Plagiarism
What is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is representing someone else's intellectual property as your own. You put yourself at risk of
plagiarizing when you fail to adequately cite the original source material from which you took words and
ideas.
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Students With Disabilities
Qualified students with disabilities will be provided reasonable and necessary academic accommodations
if determined eligible by the appropriate disability services staff at their home institution. Prior to granting
disability accommodations in this course, the instructor must receive written verification of a student's
eligibility for specific accommodations from the disability services staff at the home institution. It is the
student's responsibility to initiate contact with their home institution's disability services staff and to follow
the established procedures for having the accommodation notice sent to the instructor.
Syllabus Changes
The instructor reserves the right to make changes as necessary to this syllabus. If changes are
necessitated during the term of the course, the instructor will immediately notify students of such changes
both by individual email communication and posting both notification and nature of change(s) on the
course bulletin board.
Technical Support
Telephone Support:
AskRODP Help Desk (toll free number 1-866-550-7637) or go to the AskRODP website
at: http://help.rodp.org/
If you are having problems:
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logging into your course
timing out of your course
"technical" related issues for D2L (it takes a long time to click around my course)
using your course web site tools
If you contact Technical Support by phone please be at your computer and be prepared to provide the
following information: (If you do not know the information below please call 1-866-550-7637)
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Your username
Your password
The URL, (address, "http://...") you are unable to access
Your instructor's name (Ex.: Dr. Charles Cooper)
Your course number, section and name (EX: EDU 1120 Introduction to Teaching)
Are you using a PC or MAC
Your operating system (Windows 98, NT, 2000, Vista, etc.)
Browser type and version (EX: Internet Explorer 7)
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