Course Requirements and Evaluation
Each student should read the material for the assigned class in advance and come to class
prepared to participate. A large portion of class time will be devoted to practical and
experiential learning (i.e., group discussions and exercises). All students in the class need to
share in the responsibility for learning. This requires regular class attendance. ALL COURSE
DOCUMENTS AND GROUP ASSIGNMENTS ARE ON BLACKBOARD. YOU ARE
RESPONSIBLE FOR READING ALL INFORMATION POSTED ON BLACKBOARD. I EMAIL
Professor:
Parks-Yancy
Office
THE
CLASSDr.
FROM
BLACKBOARD, IT IS YOUR JOB
TOHours:
ENSURE THAT YOUR EMAIL
Tuesday & Thursday 11pm-2:15pm &
4:00pm-5:15
Office Location: JHJ 324
Phone: (713) 313-7946
E-mail: parksthom1@aol.com
Class location: JHJ 205
TEXAS SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY: JESSE H. JONES SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
Course Overview
This course provides an introduction to human resources and the myriad of issues that affect
organizations and managers. These issues include downsizing, sexual harassment, workforce
diversity, tight labor markets, occupational safety and health, benefits and compensation,
employer liability, and individual career management. Given that human resources affect every
member of an organization, this course is designed to help students understand the human
resource management process and its effect on all organizational constituents.
To facilitate learning and to practice the skills of human resource management, the course is
organized around the following learning objectives.
Course Objectives:
1. Understand the strategic, not merely functional, role of human resource
management
2. Understand the resource functions:
Recruitment
Selection
Retention
Compensation
3. Increase awareness of the complexity of potential ethical issues: including
whistleblowing, employee rights within the organization (and out of it), procedural and
distributive justice in reward systems, recruiting ethics, etc.
4. Appreciate the challenges of managing human resources in an environment that is:
Turbulent, Global, Competitive
Personnel and Human Resource Management
Mgmt 301 Spring 2016
Tuesday & Thursday,
2:30pm-3:45pm
ADDRESS IS CORRECT IN BLACKBOARD. If you have questions about Blackboard, contact
Mrs. Sameera Rizvi at rizvi_so@tsu.edu
The following will be used for evaluation in the course:
%
1. Attendance
5
2. Participation (this includes responding to questions, giving comments,
5
participating in group discussions, etc.)
3. Your Personal Brand-Individual Paper
10
4. Interview with Downsized/Fired Employee-Individual Paper
15
5. Team Project: Presentation of current HR issue in the news
15
6. Team Project: Job Analysis Final Paper
15
7. Midterm (Test 1)
8. Final (Test 2)
15
20
Reading and Course Materials: YOU MUST GET THE COURSE e-BOOK
AND READ THE POWERPOINT SLIDES that are posted on Blackboard. THE MIDTERM AND FINAL EXAM STEM FROM THE e-BOOK, THE IN-CLASS
DISCUSSIONS, AND THE POWERPOINT SLIDES THAT ARE POSTED ON
BLACKBOARD
Are YOU Making the Right IMPRESSION? Preparing NOW for Your Real
Life after College by Dr. Rochelle Parks-Yancy & Dr. Delonia Cooley
ISBN: 978-1-938587-20-7
How to Buy the Course e-Book:
1. Available on www.amazon.com and it is an e-book. It costs about $10 plus
tax. Purchase the book from the site. Then, download the free Kindle app to
your electronic device. Once you have bought the book and downloaded the
free Kindle app, the app will find your book and you can, then, read it. You only
need to buy the book once. If you want to change devices, just go to the book’s
page on Amazon (don’t buy it again) and download the free Kindle app onto
the new device and Kindle app will show your book. I will discuss different
parts of the book in class, so always bring the electronic device that has
your book to class. This is required.
2. You can also buy the book directly from the publisher, www.decabooks.com
The price is the same as it is on Amazon. The link to the book is:
http://decabooks.com/Library/Book/c452a564-aa80-49cc-9c6f-a8dd9e803f18
After you buy the book, then go to this link to know which free e-reader works
with your device and to download it. http://www.decabooks.com/FAQ/eReaders
. You only need to buy it once. If you change devices, download the
appropriate free e-reader to your new device, go to your book account on
decabooks.com and you’ll be able to download the book to the e-reader on
your new device.
2
The details of the assignments are as follows:
(1) Attendance: Coming to class and remaining for the entire class period.
PEOPLE WHO ARRIVE MORE THAN 15 MINUTES LATE TO CLASS ARE
NOT ALLOWED TO ENTER THE CLASS AND DO NOT GET CREDIT FOR
THEIR ATTENDANCE THAT DAY (even on exam day and presentation days).
PEOPLE WHO LEAVE CLASS EARLY WITHOUT PROFESSOR APPROVAL
WON’T GET CREDIT FOR HAVING ATTENDED THE CLASS.
(2) Participation: Actively participating in group discussions. Come to class
having read the assigned material and prepared to participate in the exercise.
Participation grades reflect quality, not just quantity. In class work will be
structured with the assumption that students have read the text material in
advance. While there will be lecturing to cover key points on the topic, a great
deal of class time will be devoted to student-centered learning, for which
participation is essential.
THE PROFESSOR WILL CALL ON STUDENTS TO ANSWER QUESTIONS
REGARDLESS OF IF THEY HAVE THEIR HAND RAISED OR NOT.
PARTICIPATION IS MANDATORY!
3
(3)Individual Written Assignment #1: Your Personal Brand
Read the sections in Chapter Three of the book titled “How to Develop Your Personal Brand”
and “How to Create Your Personal Brand.” Then, select any company in any industry (business,
sports, entertainment, etc.). Explain the company’s brand: A. What is right about the company
(explain 1-2 positives about the firm) and then explain how these 1-2 positive attributes relates
to your personal brand; B. What is wrong with the company (explain 1-2 problems with the
company) and how these 1-2 negatives relate to your personal brand; C. Explain how HR
professionals should fix the company’s problems and also explain what you will do to improve
those same problems within yourself.
It is fine if the company is one where you work or have worked. But, there must be publicly
available information about the company. Articles about the topic should be from wellrespected publications (e.g. Time; Newsweek; The Huffington Post; MSN.com; etc.). The paper
should address the following issues:


Who is the company, what does it do? What did you learn from this assignment?
Explain what is right about the company and yourself. Do they make great products?
Are they good at recruiting/hiring? Why? How? Does the company pay well and/or have
good benefits? Do workers and managers have input into the company’s decisions? Do
people get promoted fairly? Do they offer good training? How so? These are just
examples, you can use other positives about the company, too. Relate those positives
to yourself. Are you good at getting people to hire you/hang out with you? Are you fair
to others? Do you always turn in work on time? Do you make good products/websites
or anything? Are you good at statistics? Give details explaining why and how you are
good at these things.
 Explain what is wrong with the company? Do they treat some employees better than
others? Do they have many legitimate lawsuits against them (what kind of lawsuits,
why?) Do they mismanage their finances? How so? Do their workers make bad
products? Why? How? Do you go to work late a lot? Do you do things that cause you to
get fired or not to be promoted? Do you not study enough for exams and fail classes?
Do many people have legitimate grievances against you? Do you spend too much
money? Give details explaining why and how you these are things that you need to
improve.
 Who does these company issues affect and how? (e.g. managers, companies, society,
government, staff employees, etc.) How do your problems affect you? (e.g. in school, at
work, getting a new job, relationships, etc.?)
 How should the firm address these problems? How can HR professionals help address
these issues? What role can they play and what are the likely outcomes of their
involvement? What will you do to solve your problems? What is the plan and what is
the likely outcome of the plan?
You must use at least 4 different sources of information regarding this issue. The first page of
each source (e.g. magazine, journal article, newspaper, or website) MUST BE ATTACHED to
the back of the report or YOU WILL NOT GET CREDIT FOR THE REPORT. You must
include a bibliography page at the end of the report, as well. The paper must be 4-5 pages
long, NOT including the cover page, double-spaced, typed in 12 pt font.
4
(4) 1ST Team Assignment: Verbal Presentation of Current HR in the News Issue
You will be assigned to a team of 7-8 people. This team will work on the team projects
throughout the semester. This assignment is to select a CURRENT HR issue that is happening
in the news (for example, a company going through a merger and the effects on the firm and
its employees) and present the issue to the class. YOU MUST GET PROFESSOR
APPROVAL OF THE TOPIC BEFORE YOU SELECT IT AND THE PROFESSOR MUST
RECEIVE A COPY OF THE ARTICLE ON YOUR PRESENTATION DAY OR YOU WILL NOT
GET CREDIT FOR THE ASSIGNMENT. The presentation should address the following
issues:
 What is the topic about? Why is it important?
 Who does the issue affect and how? Why is it an HR issue?
 How can the issue be resolved? Who will your solution benefit and who can it
potentially harm?
You are expected to keep up with current developments regarding your topic. For
example, if your topic was a company merger, and by the time of your presentation, the
company has halted the merger, you are expected to know about this and talk about it.
AS THIS IS THE EXAMPLE GIVEN, YOUR TOPIC CANNOT BE A MERGER OR AN
ACQUISITION
Presentation Guidelines: Your presentation will be 20-25 minutes-you will have points taken
off if your presentation is shorter than 20 minutes. You will be asked questions during the
presentation and you may ask questions of the audience, too. Feel free to use audio-visuals
as desired. A GOOD PRESENTATION DOES NOT INCLUDE READING A PAPER TO THE
CLASS. YOU WILL GET NO CREDIT FOR THE PRESENTATION IF YOU DO THAT.
BORING PRESENTATIONS WILL RECEIVE A POOR GRADE!! STUDENTS MUST WEAR
THE EXACT BUSINESS ATTIRE THAT IS DISCUSSED IN CLASS AND POSTED ON
BLACKBOARD…THIS IS REQUIRED FOR ALL PRESENTATIONS OR THE ENTIRE
GROUPS GETS NO CREDIT FOR THE ASSIGNMENT
A NOTE ABOUT TEAMS: In the world of work, much of the work is done in teams and most
do not have the option of selecting their fellow team members. Teams must learn to work
together, despite any personal and professional differences. As such, YOU CANNOT SWITCH
TEAMS AND STUDENTS ARE EXPECTED TO RESOLVE ANY TEAM CONFLICTS ON
THEIR OWN. THE PROFESSOR GENERALLY WILL NOT MEDIATE CONFLICTS.
5
(5) Individual Written Assignment #2: Interview with a Downsized or Fired
Person: Anyone can be laid off or fired. It’s good to understand how that feels and
how people recover from it. Interview with someone who has been downsized (or fired).
1. Was the interviewee downsized or fired? What type of job was the interviewee doing at time
of downsizing or firing?
2. If downsized or fired, what type of organization (profit, non-profit) and how long had the
interviewee worked at that job? How old is the interviewee?
3. How did the interviewee feel about it? Fairness of it? How it was handled? How did they feel
about themselves after it happened (e.g. loss of self-esteem)?
4. Why did it happen? What was the organization’s given reason for the layoffs or firing and did
the person think there were other reasons, too? If so, what were they?
5. Did the interviewee lose any social contacts that were in the organization after the person
downsized or laid off? (e.g. provided information about stuff going on in organization, could
help the interviewee get a promotion, a raise, a transfer, access to specialized training, or were
friends to the interviewee etc.)?
6. How did the interviewee find another job (If the person has not found another job yet, tell
how they are looking for a job)? Did they use the Internet (e.g. Monster.com), apply for jobs in
the newspaper, go to career fairs, and/or get help from friends/family/acquaintances with
finding another job? How did the friends/family/acquaintance help with finding another job
(e.g. did they tell the interviewee where to apply, recommended them for hire, could hire them
directly?)
7. Is the interviewee on LinkedIn? If not, why not? If so, has it helped them with their job
search? (If they have not heard of LinkedIn, ask them to look at the website as you are
interviewing them)
8. In the interviewee’s opinion, how can he/she improve their interviewing skills? What is one
thing they can do better during a job interview?
9. How would the interviewee have handled the downsizing/firing differently than how their
organization handled it? Why?
This assignment is to be approximately 4-5 pages, double-spaced, typed. The
interviewee’s BUSINESS CARD MUST BE ATTACHED to the front of the
assignment, or it will not be accepted. If the person does not have a business card,
then include the person’s name, title, company, address, phone number, and e-mail
address on a separate sheet of paper and attach it to the back of the report.
6
nd
(6) 2 Team Assignment: Job Analysis of a Company
Each team will form a company.
The company can make/offer almost any product/service for profit and/or can be a non-profit
organization. **The company cannot be a restaurant (of any kind), a clothing/shoe store (not
online or a physical building), a hair salon, a nail salon, a spa or a barber shop. STUDENTS WILL
RECEIVE NO CREDIT AT ALL IF THEY CHOOSE THOSE TYPES OF BUSINESSES FOR THEIR
PROJECT. You should decide on which 4 jobs are most important to the firm. The paper should address
the following issues:
 What is the purpose of the company? What is the mission?
 How will the company be financed? Why will it be financed that way, as opposed to other ways?
 Why are these 4 jobs important to the organization? How are they important? What are the
specific duties of these jobs? How do these duties fulfill the mission of the organization?
 How are these jobs related to each other? How do they work together to fulfill the mission of the
firm?
 What is the organizational structure of the jobs? In other words, which jobs report to which jobs
and why are they structured that way? How does structuring the reporting lines of these jobs
benefit the company?
 What sort of people should fill these jobs? What should be their qualifications? What are the
specific criteria for hiring people to fill these jobs?
 How much should people in these jobs be paid annually and why? Is it hourly pay (if so, how
much per hour?) or salary pay and why?
This assignment is designed to expose students to how HR managers analyze jobs in a company, select
employees, and compensate them, too. The report should be 7-8 pages (not including cover page) long
and should include a bibliography page.
The teams must use at least 10 different sources of information regarding this issue (internet sources
are fine). Articles about the topic should be from well-respected magazines (e.g. Time; Newsweek,
cnn.com; yahoo.com; etc.). The first page of each source (e.g. magazine, journal article,
newspaper, or website) MUST BE ATTACHED to the back of the report or the group WILL NOT
GET CREDIT FOR THE REPORT.
YOU MUST ALSO SUBMIT A BIBLIOGRAPHY PAGE WITH THE FULL WEB ADDRESS AND/OR
CITATION FOR YOUR SOURCES
EACH TEAM SHOULD SUBMIT ONE PAPER. MULTIPLE PAPERS FROM MEMBERS OF THE SAME
GROUP WILL NOT RECEIVE ANY CREDIT FOR THE ASSIGNMENT.
7
Criteria for Grading the Written Assignments
All papers should be written in essay format. Do not ever submit a paper that is written in

Q&A format or has numbered paragraphs.
Quality of writing: sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, paragraphing, readability, flow of
document, style (should be professional and interesting), and should be consistent throughout.
ALL PAPERS SHOULD HAVE INDENTED PARAGRAPHS.
Quality of form/appearance: overall attractiveness of the report, appropriate sectioning with

appropriate sub-headings, linkage of sections
Focus: demonstration of appropriate selectivity in use of source materials

Analysis: What are the key points or issues?

Synthesis: Quality of the conclusions drawn. They should fit together into a cohesive analysis

and reflect the key issues that are identified.
Linkage of source material, analysis of it, and recommendations and conclusions.

Persuasiveness of argumentation throughout the document.

Demonstrated understanding of the language and concepts of management.

 ALL PAPERS SHOULD HAVE PAGE NUMBERS!!
All written assignments should be submitted to the professor by hand.
(7) Midterm and Final exam
The exams will be all essay questions. The essay questions will require that students are able to
discuss the implications and application of the course material.
THE EXAMS WILL INCLUDE BOTH CONTENT FROM THE POWERPOINT SLIDES, OUR
CLASS DISCUSSIONS AND INFORMATION FROM THE REQUIRED e-BOOK
General Course Policies
MAKE UP EXAMS: Students who miss an exam or assignment for a legitimate reason
(illness of self or close loved one, accident, school-sponsored event; death in family, legal
matters) and can verify their reason will be given a make up exam/can make up the work.
Students who cannot verify their reason for missing an exam/assignment or the reason is not
legitimate, then they will NOT be able to make up the work. JOB-RELATED EXCUSES ARE
NOT A LEGITIMATE REASON FOR MISSING ASSIGNMENTS/EXAMS/OR CLASS.
LATE ASSIGNMENTS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED, OTHERWISE. LATE IS DEFINED AS
AFTER THE REGULAR ENDING TIME FOR THE CLASS MEETING HAS PASSED. IF THE
ASSIGNMENT IS EVEN ONE MINUTE LATE, IT WILLNOT BE ACCEPTED!
ACADEMIC HONESTY. All students in the class have the right to expect that student grades
will reflect effort and mastery of the material. Both cheating and plagiarism are serious
academic offenses, and neither will be tolerated. If discovered, expect to fail the course and,
possibly, have disciplinary action pursued with university disciplinary committee.
PROFESSIONALISM: Professional behavior is expected and appreciated. Please silence all
electronic devices prior to class. Children are not admitted to the class and any visitors must
receive prior approval from the professor. Unprofessional behavior may result in the student
being asked to leave the classroom for the remainder of the class period or the rest of the
semester, depending on the offense. BEING DISRUPTIVE AND/OR NOT SILENCING
ELECTRONIC DEVICES IS A GUARANTEED WAY TO BE REMOVED FROM THE ROOM.
ALSO , IF I HEAR AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE (INCLUDING WATCHES) DURING AN EXAM,
THE PERSON’S EXAM WILL BE TAKEN IMMEDIATELY.
CONTACT: I don’t usually check my email late at night nor do I check it (or my voice mail)
before coming to class in the morning. Hence, if you need to contact me regarding the next
day’s class, I suggest you do it early in the day. Allow up to 18 hours for me to return phone
calls and respond to emails (though I usually respond sooner than that).
8
Date
Week 1
T 1/19
Topic (In Class Work)
Assignment (Prepared in advance
of class)
Course Introduction
A WORD ABOUT PLAGIARISM
Unfortunately, I have found that many students do not understand the proper way to use or cite
the sources that they use, especially from the internet. It is important that when you use material
from a specific source that you reference it properly and that if you use words that were written by
someone else that you properly cite the source. This includes material from the assigned reading.
It is not acceptable to use someone else’s words by taking sentences (even slightly modified
sentences) without referencing the source, including the page number. Further, it is considered
plagiarism to patch together a paper with slightly modified sentences without quotation
marks, even if the references are included. PLAGIARISM IS CHEATING!!!
BIBLIOGRAPHY FORMAT
All material used in the preparation of assignments should be listed in a bibliography of works
cited and websites used. You should use the format of scientific referencing for most printed
material (name of author, date of publication: page number) in the body of the assignment (e.g.,
Schermerhorn, 2002 or Schermerhorn, 2002: 323). Full references should be put in a
bibliography at the end of the assignment. The following provides an example.
th
Fisher, C., Schoenfeldt, L., & Shaw, J. B. 2006. Human Resource Management. 6 Edition. NY:
Houghton Mifflin Company.
You should also cite the full and correct web address and source of the web pages that you use
and any other materials that you may gain access to through a web site. You need to give the
specific web address e.g.,
(http://www.ge.com/en/company/companyinfo/at_a_glance/fact_sheet.htm, not
http://www.ge.com). It is not sufficient to give just the home page address. If you draw on specific
information from the web, you should provide the exact path that will allow me to examine the
same materials that you did.
9
TH 1/21
Week 2
1/26
Course Introduction
Intro to Human Resource Management
Chapter 1-Powerpoint slides
1/28
Strategic Human Resource Management
Chapter 2-Powerpoint slides
Winners vs. Losers: “Who are you? What are
you looking for?”
Week 3
T 2/2
TH 2/4
In Class Team Meeting
-Chapter 2, location 397 of e-book, -Chapter 2 location 402 of e-book,
-Chapter 6, location 2188 of e-book
In Class Team Meeting
Week 4
T 2/9
Equal Employment Opportunity
Chapter 5-Powerpoint slides
TH 2/11
TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF
-Chapter 4, location 1420 of e-book;
-Chapter 4, location 1438 of e-book
-Appendix, location 2283 of e-book
Business Cards
“How to thank interviewers”
Your Personal Brand Paper Due
Your Personal Brand Paper
Due
Week 5
T 2/16
BE THE PERSON YOU WOULD HIRE
-Credit; Handshakes/eye contact, small talk,
LinkedIn
Haters vs. Silent Assassins/Being First
GROUPS SHOULD HAVE SELECTED HR IN
THE NEWS TOPIC BY NOW!! 10 points
subtracted if not!!
-Chapter 2, location 695 of e-book
-Chapter 4, location 1369 of e-book;
-Chapter 4; location 1467 of e-book
No prep needed
GROUPS SHOULD HAVE
SELECTED HR IN THE NEWS
TOPIC BY NOW!!10 points
subtracted if not!!
Assessing Job Candidates: Tools for Selection
Behavioral vs. situational interviewing
Review for Mid Term Exam
In class Team Meeting
Chapter 8-Powerpoint slides
Review for Mid Term Exam
MID TERM EXAM
Chapters 2 & 5 Powerpoint slides
Chapters 2 & 4 e-book
In-class Team Meeting
MID TERM EXAM
Chapers 2 & 5 Powerpoint slides
Chapters 2 & 4 e-book
Team Meeting
Working a Job Fair
Review HR IN the News Presentation
In class Team Meeting
Chapter 2, location 539 of e-book
SPRING BREAK
SPRING BREAK
SPRING BREAK
SPRING BREAK
Week 10
T 3/22
Group Presentation Current HR News Issue
TH 3/24
Group Presentation Current HR News Issue
Group Presentation Current HR
News Issue
Group Presentation Current HR
News Issue
TH 2/18
Week 6
T 2/23
TH 2/25
Week 7
T 3/1
TH 3/3
Week 8
T 3/8
TH 3/10
Week 9
T 3/15
TH 3/17
10
In Class Team Meeting
Week 11
T 3/29
Group Presentation Current HR News Issue
TH 3/31
In Class Team Meeting
Week 12
4/5
TH 4/7
Week 13
T 4/12
Group Presentation Current HR
News Issue
Salary Negotiation
Team Meeting
Chapter 2, location 588 of e-book
Team Meeting
Powerpoint slides on Blackboard
TH 4/14
Global HRM
DOWNSIZING/FIRED PERSON INTERVIEW
DUE
In-class Team Meeting
Week 14
T 4/19
Guest Speaker
Guest Speaker
GROUP PAPER DUE FOR ALL GROUPS
First Group Presentations
GROUP PAPER DUE FOR ALL
GROUPS-First Group Presentations
GROUP PRESENTATIONS
GROUP PRESENTATIONS
GROUP PRESENTATIONS
GROUP PRESENTATIONS
Review for FINAL EXAM
Review for FINAL Exam
TH 4/21
Week 15
T 4/26
TH 4/28
Week 16
T 5/3
Week 17
FINAL
EXAM
Chapters 8 & Global HRM Powerpoint
Slides; Chapters 2 and 6 e-book
11
DOWNSIZING/FIRED PERSON
INTERVIEW DUE
No prep needed
Final Grades will be assigned as follows:
Grade
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF
Percentage Points
96-100
90-95
87-89
84-86
80-83
77-79
74-76
70-73
67-69
64-66
60-63
Less than 60
12