ILRHR 653  Research on Education Reform and Human Resource Policy

Spring. 3 credits. J. Bishop.

State and local efforts to improve K-12 education are employing a variety of (sometimes contradictory) reform strategies. A research seminar that will critically examine the case that is made for (and against) each of the major reform proposals and review studies that provide objective evidence on their effectiveness. The education reform strategies that will be examined include: vouchers, charter schools, smaller classes, direct instruction versus discovery learning, extending the school day and year, better preparation and selection of new teachers, better professional development, ending tenure, merit pay, state standards and school accountability, ending social promotion, and externally set end-of-course examinations.

ILRHR 660  HR Leadership: View from the Top

Fall. 3 credits. Prerequisites: ILRHR 260/560 or equivalents, plus at least two additional courses in HR management and permission of the instructor. Enrollment limit: 30. L. Dyer.

Offers students an opportunity to learn about strategic business and human resource issues from the perspectives of senior HR executives. During the course of the semester, five chief human resource officers (CHROs) representing various segments of the economy will meet with the class for lively give-and-take sessions on subjects of topical interest to their organizations. Teams of students will host the CHROs. Before the visits, the teams will prepare background papers on the speakers, their companies, and their topics. Course participants will discuss these papers before the visits to assure readiness to address the issues at hand when the CHROs arrive. After the visits, the teams will revise their background papers into white papers that reflect insights picked up during the class sessions as well as in informal meetings with the CHROs.

ILRHR 661  Applied Personal and Organization Development

Fall. 3 credits. Seniors and graduate students. C. Warzinski.

An experiential course that deals with OD and its role in the organizational change process. Combines the opportunity for hands-on practice in a workshop setting. Students are responsible for researching and writing a paper that examines a specific method, technique, or critical issue; preparing an in-class demonstration/presentation illustrating applications of a chosen subject; and completing a final project requiring a comprehensive proposal that describes an appropriate and logically supported intervention strategy.

ILRHR 662  The Agile Enterprise: Exploring the Dynamics of Marketplace and Organizational Agility

Fall. 4 credits. Prerequisites: ILRHR 260/560 and additional course work in business and human resource strategy. L. Dyer.

Increasingly, dynamic external environments are encouraging active experimentation with new (i.e., nonbureaucratic) organizational paradigms. One such paradigm is the agile enterprise. This course explores the dynamics of the agile enterprise with particular emphasis on underlying justification and rationale, approaches to pursuing marketplace agility, and infrastructure designs and human resource strategies, as well as new approaches to leadership. But learning about the agile enterprise is one thing, learning to operate and live in one is another. Thus this course is mostly experiential and is conducted as much like an agile enterprise as is possible in an academic setting. In pursuit of a vision and armed with a few basic principles, students function autonomously, albeit with accountability, to generate, share, absorb, and use knowledge and experience to enhance their, and others', understanding and appreciation of the pluses and minuses of life in an agile enterprise.

ILRHR 664  e-HR: Human Resource Management and the WEB in the Information Age

Fall. 3 credits. J. Boudreau, S. Basefsky.

Designed to teach students skill-based techniques in HR research methodology. Students are taught to act as their own consultants in both a classroom and workforce setting as they access data and find statistical information to support their research topics. The first five weeks of the semester consist of weekly meetings with the reference librarians at the Martin P. Catherwood Library. These meetings cover a different research technique each week, and students are given readings and a hands-on assignment to gain practical experience on these techniques.

ILRHR 665  Business Strategy and Human Resources

Fall. 4 credits. Limited. Prerequisite: ILRHR 260/560 plus 3 other courses in human resource studies and permission of instructor. P. Wright.

As the capstone course in HR studies, students integrate the theories and practices learned in other courses, to explore the linkages between business strategy and HRM. Extensive fieldwork is involved. The field projects are designed to make students explore and understand business strategy and draw upon and integrate their course work in HR staffing, training and development, compensation and rewards, and new work systems.

ILRHR 666  Strategic HR Metrics

Fall. 4 credits. Prerequisites: IRHR 260/560 or equivalent, one course in statistics, one elective in human resource studies. J. Boudreau.

Human resources are important organizational assets (just as capital, raw materials, and energy are important assets). Recognizing this requires that human resource managers, labor leaders, and researchers understand how to estimate the value of human resource decisions and how to communicate that value effectively. This includes applying decision making models to human resource activities such as selection, turnover, recruitment, compensation and training. This seminar will introduce the concepts of persuasion, decisions, costs and benefits and will explore how to measure the relevant costs and benefits for human resource management decisions. It will also introduce models from other disciplines that are relevant to human resource decisions (e.g., capital budgeting, TQM) and provide an opportunity to develop and apply these decision techniques to situational human resource decisions.

ILRHR 667  Diversity and Inclusion in Organizations

Spring. 4 credits. Prerequisites: ILRHR 260/560 or equivalent and permission of instructor. Q. Roberson.

Designed to explore diversity management and practices for inclusion in business organizations. The primary goals of the course are to increase students' knowledge of strategic and tactical uses of HR practices and policies to effectively manage organizational diversity issues. Specifically the course aims to develop students' skills in the practical management of diversity, particularly linking diversity strategy to business strategy and developing diversity and inclusion initiatives to help improve organizational competitiveness and enhance bottom-line outcomes. The course also assists students in developing sensitivity to differences among people and to the importance of promoting fair treatment among all employees.

ILRHR 668  Staffing Organizations

Spring. 3 credits. Prerequisites: ILRHR 260/560 and one course in statistics or permission of instructor. C. Collins.

Seminar providing an overview of the processes by which organizations staff positions with both internal and external applicants. Because staffing is one of the primary human resource activities, it is critical for human resource professionals to understand how theory, research, and legal foundations can inform staffing decisions. Therefore, this course focuses on theories, research, policies, and practices concerning job recruitment and selection. Topics covered include staffing strategy and context, measurement of staffing effectiveness, job/competency analysis, human resource planning, recruitment and job choice, and internal and external selection practices.

ILRHR 669  Managing Compensation

Spring. 4 credits. Limited to 30 students. Prerequisites: ILRHR 260/560 or equivalent, ILRHR 266 and basic statistics or permission of instructor. G. Milkovich.

Focuses on managing employee compensation in contemporary organizations. The major objectives are: to examine the current state of compensation decision making, to examine how recent theoretical and research developments inform compensation decisions, and to offer an opportunity to develop competencies in making compensation decisions.