Syllabus
MGMT 307
Human Resource Management
Fall 2009
Section 307-001 @ 9:00 – 9:50 AM; Beatty 212
Section 307-002 @ 10:00 – 10:50 AM; Beatty 212
Text: Cascio, W. F. Managing Human Resources: Productivity, Quality of Work Life, Profits. (8th. Ed). 2010. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Extra Credit Text: “How Starbucks Saved My Life.”
Syllabus
Instructor: Dr. Thomas W. Kent
Office: Tate Center, Room 309
Phone: 953-7658
E-mail: WebCT or kentt@cofc.edu
Blog Address: https://blogs.cofc.edu/kentt/
Website: WebCT
Office hours: M, W, F: 7:00 – 9:00; 1:30 – 3:00. Tues and Thurs all day by appointment.
Course Description: Organizations face many challenges in the management of their human resources. This course approaches Human Resource Management as that process of reaching organizational goals by working with and through people and other resources. The student will develop conceptual, ethical, and practical skills for managing people through the understanding of, and effective use of HR systems. In addition, the management of HR systems and their interface with issues of motivation, communication, conflict, change, and leadership will be explored. International as well as domestic situations will be examined.
Course Objectives:
1. To understand developments in the field of human resource (HR) management that managers will face in the new century.
2. To be able to apply these developments to practical problems in private, public, and not-for-profit organizations such that, those who become operating managers will be able to manage HR activities in a way that considers the organization’s needs, the human needs and ethical dimensions.
3. For those students who choose to become HR professionals, to provide them with the technical and legal knowledge that will prepare them (a) for careers in Human Resources, and (b) for professional exams so that they can become PHR or SPHR certified by the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI); and/or, for those within the Hospitality and Tourism specialty to prepare them for the certification exam provided by the Educational Institute of the American Hotel and Motel Association.
4. To enhance writing, interpersonal, presentation and critical thinking skills through examinations, in-class exercises, team presentations, and other assignments.
5. To increase students’ abilities to work productively and efficiently in teams.
6. To explore and develop one’s ethical grounding as applied to Human Resources.
Prerequisites: Junior standing (60 hours)
Attendance Policy and Honor Code: Attendance is not required except on 4 specific days. Those 4 days are the days that teams are presenting to the Board of Directors (see calendar for dates). Individuals who miss these days will have their grades reduced by one level for each day missed. Teams will be given time to work together on Wednesdays. Students should come to the classroom first on Wednesdays; there may be a lecture, quiz, discussion, etc.; then they may go elsewhere to carry out their project work. Additionally, no assignments may be handed in late. Handing in assignments late will be treated as not handing in the assignment at all and will be graded F.
All students are expected to adhere to the College of Charleston Honor Code. The Honor Code of the College of Charleston specifically forbids lying, cheating, attempted cheating, stealing, attempted stealing and plagiarism. Students at the College are bound by honor and, by their acceptance of admission to the College, to abide by the Code and to report violations. The following is from the Code of Honor Handbook:
Honor Code and Academic Integrity
Lying, cheating, attempted cheating, and plagiarism are violations of our Honor Code that, when identified, are investigated. Each instance is examined to determine the degree of deception involved.
Incidents where the professor believes the student’s actions are clearly related more to ignorance, miscommunication, or uncertainty, can be addressed by consultation with the student. We will craft a written resolution designed to help prevent the student from repeating the error in the future. The resolution, submitted by form and signed by both the professor and the student, is forwarded to the Dean of Students and remains on file.
Cases of suspected academic dishonesty will be reported directly to the Dean of Students. A student found responsible for academic dishonesty will receive a XF in the course, indicating failure of the course due to academic dishonesty. This grade will appear on the student’s transcript for two years after which the student may petition for the X to be expunged. The student may also be placed on disciplinary probation, suspended (temporary removal) or expelled (permanent removal) from the College by the Honor Board.
It is important for students to remember that unauthorized collaboration–working together without permission– is a form of cheating. Unless a professor specifies that students can work together on an assignment and/or test, no collaboration is permitted. Other forms of cheating include possessing or using an unauthorized study aid (such as a PDA), copying from another’s exam, fabricating data, and giving unauthorized assistance.
Remember, research conducted and/or papers written for other classes cannot be used in whole or in part for any assignment in this class without obtaining prior permission from the professor.
Students can find a complete version of the Honor Code and all related processes in the Student Handbook at http://www.cofc.edu/studentaffairs/general_info/studenthandbook.html.
Students are also expected to abide by the College’s Code of Conduct. As members of the College community, students are expected to evidence a high standard of personal conduct and to respect the rights of other students, faculty, staff members, community neighbors, and visitors on campus. Any violation of the Honor Code or Code of Conduct will be promptly reported to the Office of Student Affairs.
No food or drink is allowed in any of the classrooms in the Beatty Center. This rule will be strictly enforced.
Text Books: All students must purchase:
Casio, W. F. (Ed. 8); Managing Human Resources
The following book may be purchased to fulfill the “extra credit” assignment:
How Starbucks Saved My Life
Work Requirements and Grading Policy: Your salary is your grade. Your salary will be determined by eight factors: (1) a team “term project,” (2) peer evaluations, (3) 2 power (on-line) quizzes, (4) the Board’s evaluation of your team’s classroom presentations, (5) up to 10 “surprise” quizzes, (6) attendance on presentation days, (7) membership in SHRM, (8) final or “extra credit” paper.
Term Projects: See “Kentronics” on p. 9 of this Syllabus for the specific requirements of the term project. The “term project” will be worth up to $40,000. The actual salary you receive will be determined by the material in your Human Resource Policy Manual (see Kentronics, p.9, for details). Each team member will receive the same salary based on the team’s performance. That is, each team member will receive the same grade as the team receives for the project.
Grades on the Policy and Procedure Term Project will be based on (1) the quality of thinking reflected in the Manual, and on the level of integration among all the policies; (2) the fit of the policies with the Corporate Beliefs and Principles; and (3) the level of “World Class” status that the policies achieve. Furthermore, points will be deducted for technical English errors and errors of form that occur in the project document. $50.00 will be deducted for each such error. These errors include the following:
Ø Each misspelled work
Ø Each sentence fragment
Ø Each run-on sentence or comma splice
Ø Each mistake in capitalization
Ø Each serious error in punctuation
Ø Each error in verb tense or subject/verb agreement
Ø Lack of conformity with assignment format
Ø Each improper citation
The HR Policies should be written in a straightforward, simple English style much like the style of Wall Street Journal articles. The policies should describe the “essence” of your ideas, where they came from, AND what makes it world class, e.g., what world class companies are using similar procedures. Each article should be typed on one page or less in 12 point type with standard margins.
The term project (see “Kentronics”) will be conducted in a team and will require students to spend several hours per week developing the projects. A project schedule will be required by the end of the 2nd week of the semester. The project schedule will show a detailed timeline for each week of the semester that will include when various parts of each project will be completed. The timelines should include the presentations to the Board of Directors.
On most Wednesdays during the semester (see “Schedule”) time will be devoted to work on the Policy and Procedure Manual. For maximum results, Team Members should come to the first class of the week — Monday — prepared to discuss the class topic as scheduled in this Syllabus. Part of that preparation should include a certain amount of work on the scheduled topic as it relates to your Policy and Procedure Manual. For example, if we are scheduled to talk about Pay & Benefits, team members should have done some reading/research on what world-class companies are doing in that area prior to Monday’s meeting. That way, students will be able to raise and discuss questions and issues that bear on their project. On the second day — Wednesday — the team will be able to work on their project based on their new learning about the topics in question.
Peer Evaluations: Your work on your team will be evaluated by your teammates. Depending on the evaluation of your performance in the team by your teammates you may receive a performance bonus from +20% to -20% of your team’s salary allotment for the two projects. Only in extreme cases will students receive bonuses of +/- 20% (above/below SD). Typical bonuses will run from 0 to 10%. The performance evaluations are intended to help the instructor differentiate between excellent contributors within your team, average contributors, and poor contributors. In a few cases in the past, teams have jointly decided to give all team members an excellent rating. In cases such as these no bonuses are given to any students since the instructor cannot differentiate between high performers and average performers. Only in exceptionally rare cases where a team achieves remarkable results and all team members are rated as excellent by their team members will the instructor consider giving all team members bonus points.
Most teams struggle with interpersonal conflicts or personality differences from time to time. Teams are encouraged to work through these as best they can. The professor is available to facilitate the team’s work as needed. Please feel free to talk to the Professor about team related problems at any time or to ask him to help you with teamwork or team problems. Should one or more members of a team become a disciplinary or non-performance problem for the team, the class does have a disciplinary policy that is covered below under “Team Discipline Procedure.”
Quizzes:
Power Quizzes: There will be 2 “Power” quizzes (see Calendar) worth $15,000 each. The quizzes will be made up of 50 multiple choice items worth $300.00 each from both (1) the chapters assigned up to the date of the quiz, and since the date of the previous quiz in the case of the 2nd power Quiz, and (2) from your classroom lectures. These Power Quizzes will be taken on-line. Your maximum salary contribution from both quizzes will be $30,000 out of $100,000.
Pop-up Quizzes: There may also be up to 10 “Pop-Up” or “surprise” quizzes. These will be unscheduled and will come from the text only. The Pop-ups will be worth $20,000 combined out of $100,000. To calculate your salary from the Pop-up quizzes take the total number of questions asked over the semester in all the Pop-ups and divide that into the total number of correct answers you had. Multiply that result times $20,000. The answer is your salary from the Pop-up quizzes. Of all the Pop Quizzes you took or should have taken (including those you missed due to absence) we will drop your worse score to arrive at your final Pop-up Quiz score.
Attendance: Attendance is not required and will not affect your grade except as it affects your peer evaluation, your performance on the quizzes, and the performance of your team on the team project. However, your grade will be reduced if you do not attend class for all presentations made by all teams as mentioned above in the section on Attendance Policy and Honor Code. Your grade will be reduced by one step for each presentation class missed or for which you are late.
Board Evaluations: Your team will make two classroom presentations before the Board of Directors of Kentronics Corp. See Attachment A for the list of Board Members. The Board will evaluate your presentations using the evaluation form included in Kentronics. These evaluations will be worth as much as $10,000 out of $100,000 — $5,000 each.
Membership in SHRM: Joining and maintaining membership in the Student Human Resource Management club will earn you one grade level bonus. You must join SHRM by the end of August; and you must attend 80% of the meetings to earn the bonus.
Final Paper: The final paper will be Pass/Fail. If you pass you will have your grade improved by one letter grade; if you fail your grade will be unaffected. That is, if for example, according to the above mentioned grading criteria, you receive a B, and you get a Pass grade on the final paper, your final grade will be a B+. If you Fail the paper, you will receive a final grade of B.
The final paper should be a discussion of the book, “How Starbucks Saved My Life.” Your paper should answer these questions:
i. Identify several specific differences between Starbuck’s HR approach and “Average Corp., Inc.”
ii. What are the advantages or “pros” and disadvantages or “cons” to each difference?
Other: The Professor reserves the right to raise or lower a student’s grade based on their contribution, or lack thereof, to the class and to the learning of the other students in the class.
Grading Scale: If you get perfect scores on each quiz, on your Team Project, from the Board presentations, the policy evaluations, and receive no Team Bonus Points, the maximum salary is $100,000. The grading scale is based on the maximum salary of $100,000. A maximum score plus a 20% bonus makes it feasible for a student to receive a salary of $120,000. Additionally, the student can receive an extra grade credit for either or both joining and attending SHRM and/or for reporting on the book “How Starbucks Saved My Life.” The grading scale will be as follows: over $93,000 = A; $93,000 — $90,000 = A-; $87,000 – $89,999 = B+; $83,000 – $86,999 = B; $80,000 — 82,999 = B-; $77,000 – 79,999 = C+; $73,000 — $76,999 = C; $70,000 - 72,999 = C–; $65,000 – 69,999 = D; $64,999 or less = Fired!
Team Discipline Procedure: Occasionally, as in any organization, there are individuals who just do not fit. As a result, they are not motivated, they do not pull their load, they don’t get along, etc. It is possible that this may occur in your team. This class has a termination policy for teams to use in order to handle this possibility. If a team member suffers from non-performance or other forms of low productivity, first, the team should counsel the team member to find out what the source of the problem is and to discuss the importance of improving their performance. Second, if the behavior does not change, the team should once again discuss the problem with the team member, document the discussion and send a copy of the document to the Professor. Third, if the problem is not solved, the Professor will meet with the team and the individual together as a way to insure that “due process” has been carried out and, if so, to impress on the individual that they must improve. Fourth, if the non-performance continues, the individual will be fired from his/her team.
In steps 2 and 3 of this procedure, the individual will document the discussion. The document should include the specific plan the individual and team agree to that will correct the behavior. Within one day of the meeting the “improvement plan” should be forwarded to the Professor by the individual with a copy to the team.
An individual who is fired from a team, may seek employment with another team. If she/he cannot find employment in a team, s/he will be responsible for handing in all the policy and procedure articles on his/her own. S/he will not make a presentation to the Board — since only teams present to the Board — and hence will receive no payment for presentations they are not a part of.
Teams should note that this action should be initiated as soon as the individual’s behavior becomes problematic. It will not do to suffer an individual’s poor performance throughout the semester, then to initiate “disciplinary” procedures late in the semester. This is unfair to the individual.
Class Schedule Fall, 09:
Week of: Class topics or Assignments:
8/23 Course Objectives and Overview; Ch. 1. What is HR?
8/30 Ch. 2. Productivity and the Financial Impact of HR, Teams and Work Redesign; First team meeting and initial Project Planning work. Project Plan due Friday.
9/6 Legal aspects of HRM; Managing Diversity; Ch. 3. Team meeting Wednesday: CEO Presentation of Corporate Principles.
9/13 Ch. 4. Legal aspects of HRM continued and Diversity at Work. HR Planning, Job analysis, and Job and Organizational Design; Ch. 5.
9/20 Recruiting, Interviewing, and Selecting; Chs. 6 & 7.
9/27 Performance Management, Ch 9. Career Management, Ch. 10.
10/4 Mon/Weds. 1st Board Review/Presentations; Friday – Power Quiz #1
10/11 Fall Break Monday. 50 page research paper due 10/14. J Ch. 8. Training & Development
10/18 Compensation, Ch. 11. Your Professor’s Birthday – mandatory party attendance and jubilant celebration required.
10/25 Compensation Plans & Incentives. Chs. 11. Benefits, Ch.12.
11/1 Unions and Collective Bargaining; Ch. 13
11/8 Employee Relations, Ch. 14.
11/15 Safety and Health; Ch. 15.
11/22 International Issues, Ch. 16. Thanksgiving break begins Wednesday.
11/29 Human Resource Planning; Ch. 5; Wednesday and Friday – Team Presentations
12/6 Power Quiz #2
Members of the Board of Kentronics, Inc.
Dr. Thomas W. Kent, Chairman
Ms. Bridgette Beasley. Employment Manager, The Citadel
Hank Bennett. Dir. Technical Engineering, Bosch
Mr. Wallace Bonaparte. Director, EEO, MUSC.
Nicole Carfagno. HR Generalist, Nucor Steel
Ms. Desiree Clement. HR Manager, Renaissance Hotels
Ms. Anna Corr. Compensation Analyst, MUSC
Glenn DeBiasi. President, DeBiasi Associates
Ms. Barbara Donnelly. Business Development, Gallman Personnel
Ms. Kelly Forward. HR Manager, Electronic Trading
Shannon Geraci. HR Manager, T-Mobile, Co.
Mr. Jim Gray. Pres., Jim Gray Consulting
Ms. Margie Hardwick. HR Business Partner, OOCL.
Ms. Nancy Inabinet. HR Director, St. Francis Hospitals
Ms. Meghan Kelly. Human Resource Director, Town of Mount Pleasant
Ms. Pam Kelly. HR Manager, Comcast
Lisa Kluczinsky, PHR. HR Manager, Johnson & Johnson Insurance
Jolie Logan. Exec. Director, Darkness To Light
Mr. Marty Markowitz. VP, HR, Time-Warner; retired.
Russ Miller. HR Director, Chrysler
Ron Padgett. HR Consultant
Meleah B. Reynolds. HR Manager, Nucor Steel
Jenn Stark. HR Manager, IC Hotel Group
Ms. Sara Wujcik. President, A Cause to Celebrate
Ms. Alexandra Zacepilo. HR Manager, AI Solutions
Kentronics Project Manual
Table of Contents
Nature and Purpose of the Project 10
What are Policies and Procedures? 11
Criteria for Grading the Project 11
Board Presentation 12
Peer Evaluation 13
Completing the Peer Evaluation Form 13
Terminating Team Members 13
Grading Standards for Policies and Procedures 14
Writing the Policies and Procedures 15
Guidelines for Teams 15
Resources for Teams’ Research 16
Appendices
Appendix E: Project Planning Chart 20
Appendix H : List of Policies and Procedures to be Described 22
Appendix I: Expectations of the Board of Directors 24
It is recommended that you read this entire project booklet before your first class, and prepare questions about the project for your professor/instructor to answer or clarify.
Nature of the Project
In this project you will be asked to work with a number of other students — 5 to 8 in total — to complete a very large task. The task will be to completely rewrite the Human Resource Policies and procedures of a fictitious company that will be called Kentronics. As you will see as you go on, Kentronics is a manufacturing firm with manufacturing, sales, and research and development sites around the world. The company has experienced phenomenal growth in recent years. Now, the Board of Directors of Kentronics has recognized a problem. Many of its systems, structures and procedures have been developed and cobbled together in response to one urgent need after another. What the Board now sees is a patchwork of policies and procedures — each designed in response to a specific problem, but which may not fit together very well and, in some cases, do not fit well with the stated values and principles of the organization.
Your team of students will act as the Human Resource Management Team of the Corporation. You are all Managers in charge of some HR function so you are experts in HR. The Board, acting through the CEO — your professor — has asked you to completely rewrite the Corporation’s HR policies and procedures. There are 3 requirements of these policies and procedures as laid out by the Board.
First, they must be “state of the art” and world class. To achieve this they must reflect what some of the best corporations in the world are doing today. These do not have to be the biggest corporations just the best.
Second, they must adhere to Kentronic’s Principles and values as stated within.
Third, they must fit together. That is, they must represent an integrated, cohesive package of guidelines, rules, and methods for the employees of the Corporation.
The Chairman of the Board’s letter to you is included in Appendix C, and it further outlines these requirements.
Purpose of the Project
This project actually will serve several purposes. First and foremost, however, this project, to be successfully completed, will require you to learn how various companies handle a myriad of difficult human resource issues. So, Objective 1 is for you to learn about how some of the best companies in the world think about and practice human resource management.
This project is like most work that goes on in complex organization today. It requires the effective and efficient operation of teamwork for it to be completed. It is far too large and complex for any single individual to pull it off well. A few people working together will be able to achieve mediocre performance. But, in reality, this project will take 5 – 8 people working in a coordinated and integrative way to excel.
Objective 2 is to exercise and develop your teamwork and team leadership skills. These are major competencies for success in today’s organizations. Most work today in our large, complex organizations is done in teams. There are very few “Lone Rangers” in today’s modern corporation.
The project will also give you a couple of opportunities to put into play your presentation skills. Your team will be asked to prepare and deliver at least 2 presentations to outside guests who are members of the Board of Directors of the fictitious company known as Kentronics. So Objective 3 is to further develop your public speaking skills.
What are Policies and Procedures?
A policy is a broad, general guideline based on values and principles intended to give direction to decisions and to behavior. A Procedure is a detailed description of how to accomplish something or a description of various people’s responsibilities for accomplishing or carrying something out. For this project you will not be writing actual policies and procedures. You will be writing “articles” in the form of a Wall Street Journal article that describe how you do things and/or that describe your policies/values regarding a subject. When an employee — or Board Member — reads your article, they should be able to, not only, receive appropriate guidance for a decision, but also, understand the value(s) of the organization. An example of a Wall Street Journal article as it might appear on the topic of “Downsizing during Economic Downturns” can be found in Appendix A. Your articles should be no more than 1 typed page each using 12 point font and standard margins. Wall Street Journal articles are, typically, written in plain English. They often refer to several companies and explain what these companies are doing relative to the topic. You might want to read a couple of Wall Street Journal articles to get a sense of the type of writing that is expected.
Criteria for Grading the Project
The total project (not including the 2 presentations you will make to the Kentronics Board of Directors) is worth $30,000. The 2 presentations, which will be based on your written articles, will be worth $5,000 each. All members of your team will receive the same grade. The total grade will be awarded in two equal parts. That is, 1/2 of the grade will be awarded as a “mid-term” grade, and will be based on the first half of the project. The second half of the grade will be based on the second half of the project. Each half of the grade will be determined by (1) the quality and completeness of your thinking, (2) the level of “world-class” status your ideas achieve, and (3) how well your ideas fit together and fit with the Corporate Principles.
Board Presentations
Twice during the semester, your team will present your ideas to the Board of Directors of Kentronics. The members of the Board are listed in Appendix G. The Board will evaluate your presentations using the evaluation form in Appendix B. You can look at the evaluation form to get a sense of what the Board members will be looking for as they observe your presentation. These presentations will be worth up to $5,000 each.
Peer Evaluations
In addition to the above, each team member will be evaluated by his/her team mates at the end of the semester. This peer evaluation will be worth up to +/- 20% of the final Team grade on the Policies and Procedures. For example, the total project is worth 30,000 points – that does not include the presentations. Let us assume that your team receives a grade of 25,000. Individual team members could gain or lose from 0 to 5,000 points (20% of 25,000) based on their peers’ ratings of them.
The peer evaluation will be completed by each team member on each of his/her team mates. Failure to complete the peer evaluations by a team member will result in a loss of 5% (or more if the student’s peers rate him or her very low) of the value of the team grade; and no chance for a positive bonus. So if your team receives $25,000 for the project and you do not turn in your peer evaluations, you will lose at least $1, 250 points and receive $23,750 ($25,000 minus $1,250) for the project.
The peer evaluations are intended to differentiate the value of each team members’ contributions. Each person has strengths and weaknesses. The best teams draw on each person’s strengths and employ those for the advancement of the team. Team members should consider each person’s contributions and complete the peer evaluations in a way that reflect each individual’s value to the final product.
The peer evaluation is not intended to be a collaborative effort. Each person should complete his or her evaluations alone using his or her own judgment about each person’s contributions. Your final evaluations should be sealed in an envelope and given to your professor at the end of the term or semester.
Some teams collude to get every team member a 20% bonus. This does not work since the bonus is based on a statistical analysis of averages and standard deviations. Individuals who receive average evaluations and evaluations within a standard deviation of the average team evaluation will receive little or no bonus. Those receiving evaluations at or beyond a standard deviation will gain or lose large bonus points. Therefore, the team that gets together and rates every team member the same — for example, let’s say they give each team member a 100 on each factor of the peer evaluation form — will all receive average evaluations for that team and, therefore, no bonus points.
Completing the Peer Evaluation Form
Make a copy of Appendix H – Peer Evaluation Form. Write your team members’ names down the left hand column in order of their positive contributions to the team. Do not include your own name in this column. Put the person’s name who contributed the most to the team first, and put the person’s name who contributed least to the team or who distracted most from the team last. Then, to further describe individuals’ level of contribution, distribute the prescribed number of “chips” across all team members. APPENDIX H will tell you how many chips you have to distribute. For example, if there are 7 people on your team you have 34 chips to distribute. If your first two highest ranked team members were about equal, you might give them about the same number of chips; but if they were worlds apart with #1 being much better than #2, you would give #1 many more chips than #2.
Terminating Team Members
As in any organization there may be people in your team who are not willing or able to perform to the level of excellence demanded by the organization. Most organizations have a process defined to handle such possibilities. Within Kentronics the team is responsible for managing, monitoring, and improving team member performance. Kentronics will employ a process that requires team members to take initiative and to remain in charge of the management of fellow team members. This process will enable team members every chance to improve their own performance. It also will provide individual team members with the opportunity to appeal any disciplinary steps taken against them to the CEO of the company.
The process used to improve team member performance and/or to terminate a team member’s membership in the team will involve the following steps:
I. Discuss the poor performance with the individual and the standards he/she is expected to live up to. Seek a commitment from the individual to improve and to meet the expectations of the team.
II. If the poor performance is not improved discuss the situation again and ask the individual to document (as in a contract) the discussion including their understanding of a) the standards of performance and b) their shortfalls from those standards. The document should describe what the individual must do to meet those standards and the time frame in which the individual will come up to the standards. This “contract” should be written, and a copy should be sent to the CEO.
III. If the “contract” is not met, the team, including the individual in question, will schedule a meeting with the CEO. The team will bring a copy of the contract to the meeting for the CEO and will discuss the individual’s performance with the CEO. The individual will be terminated or given a final chance to improve his/her performance during that meeting and within a given time frame.
IV. If the performance does not improve within the time frame, the individual will be terminated from the team.
V. If the individual is terminated, he/she must complete the project in its entirety by him/herself or she/he may seek employment with another team. If the individual completes the project alone, he/she will be graded in accordance with the same standards as any team is graded (see “Criteria for Grading the Project” p 3 and “Grading Standards for the Policy and Procedure Manual”, pp 5 – 6).
Grading Standards for the Policy and Procedure Manual
Below are some standards that you can use to judge your own work. Your professor will be using these same standards as well.
Top Level, Excellent Work: This work represents the thinking of some of the most effective and advanced organizations in the world. Each article contains examples of some of the best ideas employed by great thinking organizations. The work is integrated in that every policy and every procedure fits with and reflects the values inherent in every other policy and procedure. To achieve this level, your team will have to insure that each individual on the team understands what each of his/her team mates is doing and writing in the manual. The work is complete in that every policy and procedure assigned is included and each completely covers the points, issues, topics relevant to each particular policy and procedure. The work is well documented — the companies researched and the sources of information are completely disclosed in appropriate format as required by your school’s or professor’s policies. It is expected that the source of every idea mentioned or used in this project by your team will be referenced in accordance with your school’s policies. Work in this category will receive a grade in the range of $36,000 to $40,000
Good Work: This work is good but is not as complete as the Top Level. It employs some of the kinds of thinking displayed above but it is “spotty” in that some procedures are world class and some are average class — they are not “state of the art” or they represent the thinking of 10 or 20 years ago. It may be that some of the work in this group does not fit together or it does not fit with the Kentronics Corporate Principles. This work is well documented, it may be that the documentation demonstrates that incomplete research was done to accomplish the work. Any one of these factors — spotty, lack of integration, little research — can result in work being classified in this category. Work in this category will receive a grade in the range of $32,000 to $35,999
Average Work: A project that is good enough to be classed in the above categories may end up in this category because it is incomplete. That is, one or more policies or procedures may be omitted. Otherwise, a project may be classified in this group because, while all the work has been completed, it is not state of the art, or it is not at all integrated (for example, a team that performs the Project by having each team member work individually and prepare his or her work separately; and presents their work by simply binding the individual pieces together using various fonts, styles, type sizes, etc. would receive an average grade if their work is otherwise complete and excellent), or it reflects the thinking of the common place organization. Work in this category will receive a grade in the range of $28, 000 to $31,999
Less than Average: A project may be deficient in a variety of ways along the variables described above such as world class thinking, state of the art design, integrated, complete, consistent, etc. Work in this category will receive a grade in the range of $000,00 to $27,999.
Furthermore, points will be deducted for technical English errors and errors of form that occur in the project document. $500.00 will be deducted for each such error. These errors include the following:
Ø Each misspelled work
Ø Each sentence fragment
Ø Each run-on sentence or comma splice
Ø Each mistake in capitalization
Ø Each serious error in punctuation
Ø Each error in verb tense or subject/verb agreement
Ø Lack of conformity with assignment format
Ø Each improper citation
Writing the Policies and Procedures
Your team will not to write actual policies and procedures. You will have to write one page newspaper articles. Each article should cover only one of the topics or questions from the list below. It is requested that your newspaper articles be written in the style of the Wall Street Journal. Each article can include your references and mentions of the world class organizations you have researched. Your articles should be as specific as they can be given that you have only one page to describe your ideas.
For the first half of the project you should hand in all the articles listed below that are above the line that marks half of the topics.
While your team will not have to write detailed policies and procedures, you should know what the procedures would be. The Board of Directors will be asking detailed questions during you presentations to them. So you should be prepared to answer these types of questions.
Your final document that includes all your articles should include a page of references that lists the sources of your ideas and decisions. Your document should be handed in electronically – either emailed to the CEO or on a CD. The document (on disc or in email) should contain only one Word document that contains all the articles. The topics that you will be required to write about are listed and briefly explained in Appendix I; they are also listed just below for your convenience.
Here are the topics and questions you should report on in your articles (These topics are further developed in APPENDIX I:
- How to record time; and rules for taking excused time off from work?
- Development of people’s potential and careers.
- What to do about people who are not performing up to expectations or who are breaking the rules.
- How do we handle economic down turns Re: personnel costs.
- Issues related to diversity; how do we know if our workforce is diverse? How will we accommodate disabled people? How will we insure that harassment of any sort does not take place?
- How will we deal with issues of turnover and retention?
- How do we make sure we have the people we need when we need them?
- Use of teams in the factory.
- Strategic Leadership Advancement Program (SLAP): a program for the development of executives’ leadership skills;
- Progression Planning
All the above must be handed in at the 1st Board Review; all those below must be handed in at the 2nd Board Review
- Anti-terrorism and Security; Security of Personal Possessions; Protection of Employees and Facilities.
- Electronic Personal security at work and pilferage of company supplies/tools/equipment; Monitoring of Employee Activities.
- Work and family time conflicts.
- Substance abuse.
- Issues related to safety.
- Unions
- What pay system will we use to pay non-exempt employees in our Charleston factory?
- Should we transfer people internationally and how do we compensate them?
- What will our benefit package look like?
- How will we maintain pay equity?
- Continuous Improvement
Guidelines for Teams
As you know, team work is more effective than individual performance in situations where (1) there is more work than one person can effectively do alone; (2) creativity and/or multiple perspectives is an advantage; (3) the work is complex. This project can be described in all three ways. This is the type of work that requires effective team work.
We also know that there are several critical factors that affect team performance. If you hope to excel on this project, you should, as a team, pay close attention to these factors within your team. You may want to stop several times during the project and assess where you, as a team, stand with regard to these factors. Below is a discussion of some of those factors.
Common Goals and Common Purpose: All effective teams have a common and clear view of what their purpose is and what their goal(s) is. You and your team mates should spend some time discussing and formulating a common purpose and goal(s).
Common Approach: No team can excel when team members are constantly arguing and bickering about how to get things done. The team should have a plan developed consensually that describes what is going to be completed, how it will be completed, by whom and by when. To that end, you are being provided with a planning document that can facilitate your discussions about how you will proceed.
The ideal team process includes several modes. They are: (1) planning — deciding what, who, when, how well things must be done; (2) individual action — accomplishing the steps; (3) interim reviews — frequent follow-ups to see how the individual action is going and if the plan is being met or followed; (4) critique — frequent discussions within the team regarding team performance, group process quality, etc. There is a questionnaire in Appendix F that your team may want to use to assess your effectiveness in comparison to other teams who have gone before you; and (5) integration — discussions to insure that each piece complies with quality and principle standards and that each piece fits with every other piece. It is recommended that the team meet frequently during the project. These meetings serve as the venue for carrying out the above steps or modes.
Individual Competencies required to Complete the Task: The team needs skills to complete the task — this is obvious. You will find that some of your team members are more talented at some things than others. Your team should give specialized tasks to individuals with the skills to perform them.
Mutual Support: From time to time team members may have difficulty with their assignments. This can result from a skill deficiency or from overload with other tasks. The team should constantly monitor the progress of its members against their assigned tasks. Those who are having difficulty should be given support from the others. Those who provide this support should be recognized by the team for their selfless actions.
Mutual Accountability: The members of your team will be equally rewarded for their success or lack thereof on this project. That is, everyone will get the same grade. In order for one — you — to do well, everyone must do well. In a sense then, you all must pay attention to each others’ progress and work quality. You must help each other when help is needed. You must add to each others’ thinking and behavior. True team work requires individual team members to concern themselves with the output of the total team, not just with their own efforts.
Resources for Teams’ Research
The Society for Human Resource Management
US Dept. of Labor
Employment Diversity, EEOC, discrimination
Chevron
Inroads
Darden Restaurants
McDonalds
www.annenberg.nwu.edu/pubs/sears/
Privacy
Cummins Engine Co.
Avis
Personal vs. Work Lives
Aetna Life
Levi Strauss
Pepsi Co.
www.dupont.com/career.html#family
Job Design, Employee Empowerment, High Performance Work Teams
Magma Copper
Herman Miller
Tennecco
FMC Corp.
Eastman Kodak
Johnsonville Foods
Netscape Communications
Harley Davidson
Cummins Engine Co.
Lincoln Electric
Nucor
Colgate Palmolive
Saturn
Gaines Pet Foods
Schindler Elevator
Tri Health Systems
Eastman Chemical
Shell Canada
Honeywell
Doubletree Hotels
American Express
Reebok International
Eastman Kodak
Work Schedules
Exxon
Sentry Insurance
www.bofa.com/p-finance/athome/ho_flextime.html
US Sprint
Kaiser Permanente
Carter Hawley Hale
HR Planning
AT&T
Southwest Airlines
Monthly Labor Review
Occupational Outlook Quarterly
US Postal Service
Sears
Dept. of Labor @ www.dol.gov
Conference Board
Amoco
Recruiting & Selection
Life Insurance Agency Management Association
Nordstrom
www.job.careernet.org/mptc/interest.htm
Intuit
Macy’s
Microsoft
Employee Development
www.careermosaic.com/cm/lockheed/lockheed53.html
Pepsi Co.
Hewlett-Packard
Eastman-Kodak
www.sea.siemens.com/training/apprenticeship.html
Fannie Mae
American Management Assoc.
Center for Creative Leadership
Amercian Society for Training & Development (ASTD)
Cray Research
Performance Management
Motorola
Procter & Gamble
Monsanto
Hyde Manufacturing
US West
Disney Corp.
www.workteams.unt.edu80/proceed/jwax.htm
Granite Rock
Dayton-Hudson
Weyerhauser
Compensation
City of Goose Creek, SC
J. C. Penny
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Digital Equipment
TransAmerica
SC State Ports Authority
Tennecco
Federal Express
Aid Assoc. for Lutherans
American Valve
TRW
Lincoln Electric @ www.lincolnelectric.com
Dowe, Cheatum and Howe
www.qualitydigest.com/jul/gainshre.html
Lowes Stores
Benefits
Wells Fargo Bank
US Chamber of Commerce
Social Security Admin. @ www.ssa.gov/SSA_Home.html
US Dept. of Labor @ www.ttrc.doleta.gov/citizen/
Pitney Bowes
Safety, Health, Security, Employee Rights
www.dol.gov/dol/asp/public/programs/handbook/warn.htm
www.ljx.com/corpcounselor/0103labor.html
OSHA @ www.osha.gov./
www.orca.nos.noaa.gov/projects/hazmat/chemaids/react.html
Unions
APPENDIX E
PROJECT PLANNING CHART
Sample Team Project Plan
|
Date |
Who |
Assignment |
|
1/27-2/2 |
Kylene & Quinn |
Research Equal Employment, AA, and Employment Diversity |
|
2/3/09 |
Andy & Blake |
Research Performance Management, Discipline procedures |
|
2/10/16 |
Cameron |
Research Attendance; time reporting; paid absence |
|
2/17/23 |
Drew & Dianne |
Research Recruitment and Retention; job postings, new employee orientation program, |
|
2/23 |
All |
Meet to review research work and decide on options for each topic |
|
2/24 – 3/2 |
Quinn |
Research Employee development |
|
3/3/09 |
All |
Spring Break |
|
3/9 |
All |
Meet to review written articles from above |
|
3/10/16 |
Kylene |
Research Anti-terrorism and Security; Planning and Staffing Requirements |
|
3/12 |
All |
Prepare Board presentation |
|
3/17/23 |
Andy |
1st Board Review; Research Compensation and Benefits |
|
3/24/30 |
Blake |
Research Substance Abuse; Impairment at work; Employee Assistance Program |
|
3/31 |
Desiree & Cameron |
Research Safety; International Relocation |
|
4/3 |
Drew |
Research Unions; Continuous Improvement |
|
4/7 |
All |
Meet to review research fom Andy, Blake, Desiree Drew and Cameron |
|
4/10 |
All |
Meet to review written articles and prepare Board presentation |
|
4/14/15 |
All |
2nd Board Review |
|
4/16 |
All |
Party! |
Team Member Evaluation
Your Full Name: ______________________________________
In business, performance evaluation is an important part of every person’s job; you are expected to make a fair and accurate evaluation. The evaluation is to be made based upon each person’s overall contribution to the team and may include factors such as leadership, quality of work input, quantity of work input, teamwork/cooperation, preparation for meetings, contributions to the team, attendance at meetings, interpersonal relationships, problem solving ability, etc.
Forced Ranking: Rank your team members (but not yourself) from one to the total number , one being the best.
In addition, you are to allocate “chips” among team members. You have 40 chips for 7 persons, 34 chips for 6 people, 28 chips for 5 persons, and 22 chips for 4 persons. After you have allocated all your chips add them up again to see that you have allocated only the number of chips prescribed for the number of people you are ranking.
|
Rank |
First and Last Names |
Number of Chips |
|
1 |
|
|
|
2 |
|
|
|
3 |
|
|
|
4 |
|
|
|
5 |
|
|
|
6 |
|
|
|
7 |
|
|
APPENDIX H
Policies and Procedures must be developed to cover the following issues/topics:
How to record time and dealing with time off from work? (What procedure will be used to keep a record of time spent on the job and away from the job, i.e., attendance and absence?)
Development of people’s potential and careers. (What will we do to insure that employees learn new skills and receive assignments in accordance with their career aspirations?)
People who are not performing up to expectations or who are breaking the rules. (What is our discipline procedure?)
How do we handle economic down turns Re: personnel costs. (How will we handle the potential of having too many employees when the economy turns down?)
Issues related to diversity; how do we know if our workforce is diverse? How will we accommodate disabled people? How will we insure that harassment of any sort does not take place?
How will we deal with issues of turnover and retention? (What will we do to reduce turnover and to keep our people?)
How do we make sure we have the people we need when we need them? (We need to insure that we have critical skills when we need them; how will we do that — what procedure will we use?)
Use of teams in the factory. (Among our non-exempt factory workers are teams an important factor; what do they look like; what do they do; how are the individuals managed?)
Strategic Leadership Advancement Program (SLAP): a program for the development of executives’ leadership skills. (What does this leadership program for high-potential managers and individual contributors look like?)
Progression or Leadership Planning (What are the details of this program?)
All the above must be handed in at the 1st Board Review; all those below must be handed in at the 2nd Board Review
Anti-terrorism and Security; Security of Personal Possessions; Protection of Employees and Facilities. (How will we protect property, possessions and life in and around our facilities and of those employees traveling?)
Electronic Personal security at work and pilferage of company supplies/tools/equipment; Monitoring of Employee Activities (How will we protect company property — real and intellectual — from being stolen?)
Work and family time conflicts. (How will we help employees deal with the conflicts that arise between doing their jobs and taking care of their families?)
Substance abuse. (What is our policy on performance altering substance usage? How will we deal with employees who are using illegal and legal substances that affect performance while at work?)
Issues related to safety.
Unions (What is our policy toward unions?)
What pay system will we use to pay non-exempt employees in our Charleston facilities?
Should we transfer people internationally and how do we compensate them?
How will we maintain pay equity? (This question is not about gender equity)
Continuous Improvement (How will we maintain a state of continuous improvement?)
APPENDIX I
EXPECTATIONS OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
One of our Board Members has outlined the expectations of the Board Members regarding students’ performance during presentations. These are listed below.
- Dress in formal/appropriate business attire. (If you do not have such clothes, advise the Board in advance.)
- Back up recommendations with data (leading edge best practices, statistics. New methodologies). Traditional and antiquated approaches do not impress.
- Call on/ask other HR professionals for input as part of your research (TCHRMA can help).
- Notes are fine, but do not read your presentation and do not read from a PowerPoint slide.
- It is OK to answer a question from the Board stating “I don’t know.” A fake or opinionated response will work against you. You may ask the Board for their insight (that is how real Boards operate!) The purpose is to learn.
- Research legal implications.
- Make sure you address Domestic (USA only vs. International) issues of culture and employment law. It is OK to state that you idea applies to USA locations only addressing potential differences that may exist in foreign locations.