A Trio of Experiential
Exercises for HRM
Courses
Kenneth M. York & Lizabeth A. Barclay
School of Business Administration
Oakland University
Experiential Exercises
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Can help students to learn the skills they will
need in their careers
Textbook provided exercises often take
considerable preparation time to set up
This presentation outlines three experiential
exercises for an undergraduate or MBA
course:
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Realistic
Minimum preparation time
Exercise + Instructor briefing
Linked to Bloom’s Taxonomy of Education
Objectives
Videotape Job Analysis
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Learning Objective:
– Students will practice writing a job description
(job tasks) and job specification (worker
requirements), by collecting job analysis data
from a videotape of a worker doing their job, and
being interviewed about their job
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Materials:
– Videotape: The Changing Nature of Work: Stone
Carver [http://www.workvideos.com/]
– Dictionary of Occupational Titles: Job description
for 771.281-014 STONE CARVER (stonework)
Videotape Job Analysis
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Discussion Questions:
– Why does observational job analysis work well
for the job of Stone Carver?
– What job tasks for Stone Carver might have
been missed if job analysis was limited to
observation?
– What worker requirements for Stone Carver
might have been missed if job analysis was
limited to observation?
– What are the working conditions for Stone
Carver?
– What safety hazards are there for Stone Carver?
Implementing the Americans
with Disabilities Act
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Learning Objective:
– Students will learn how to deal appropriately with
an employee or an applicant with a disability,
following the legal requirements of the
Americans with Disabilities Act
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Student Roles:
– All students given a general role assignment:
Assume they are a group of managers at a large
software company, in a staff meeting to discuss
how you will implement the ADA at your
organization
– Each student is given a specific role assignment
Implementing the Americans
with Disabilities Act
– Specific role assignments:
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#1: You must say “Can you repeat that?” every time
someone says something
#2: Turn your desk/chair around and face away from
the group
#3: You must raise your hand to talk. You cannot say
anything until someone calls on you
#4 You can only communicate by writing your
comments and showing them to the person on your
right
#5: You must sit with your eyes closed during the
discussion.
#6: You can only talk to the person on your left
Implementing the Americans
with Disabilities Act
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Discussion Questions:
– How did you feel about your role working
in the group?
– How do you think others in the group
viewed you?
– How did you feel your role affected your
ability to contribute to the group task?
Creating a Management
Development Program
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Learning Objective:
– Students will learn how to create a management
development program for adult learners (the rest
of the students in the class
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The Exercise:
– Develop a management development program
with three parts:
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Classroom instruction
An experiential exercise
Evaluation of participant learning
Creating a Management
Development Program
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Classroom Instruction
– A short presentation in a lecture format, guided
discussion, PowerPoint presentation, or other
method
– The participants will be applying what they have
learned in the Experiential Exercise
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Experiential Exercise
– Create a realistic situation for participants to
immediately apply what they’ve learned in the
Classroom Instruction
– A simulation, role play, an interpersonal activity,
a management problem, or a combination of
things
Creating a Management
Development Program
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Evaluation of how well participants have
learned
– Create some method of evaluation to see how
well students have learned
– Paper and pencil test, an oral quiz, an
application of the knowledge to a new situation,
or other method
– Should measure how well participants have
learned what the Classroom Instruction and
Experiential Exercise was intended to teach
them
Creating a Management
Development Program
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Discussion Questions
– What management development programs have
you participated in?
– What did you learn about creating a
management development program after
creating one of your own? After being a
participant?
– What different methods of evaluation did you
consider?
– Why is it important to measure participants’
learning, not just participants’ reactions to the
program or their own estimate of how much they
learned?
Bloom’s Taxonomy of
Educational Objectives,
Cognitive Domain
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Videotape Job Analysis
– Application, Synthesis
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Implementing the Americans with
Disabilities Act
– Application, Interpretation
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Creating a Management Development
Program
– Application, Synthesis