Commerce 3BC3 Human Resource Management and Labour ...

COM 3BC3 – Winter 2008- Page 1 of 8 

Commerce 3BC3 

Human Resource Management and Labour Relations 

Winter 2008 Course Outline 

COURSE OBJECTIVES 

Human Resources and Management Area 

DeGroote School of Business 

McMaster University 

As a core course in the Commerce program, this course is designed to: (1) facilitate students’ 

learning of key principles and concepts of Human Resource Management (HRM) and Labour 

Relations, (2) contribute to the development of students’ skills related to HRM, and (3) provide 

students with the opportunity to apply knowledge and skills related to HRM. 

INSTRUCTOR AND CONTACT INFORMATION 

Section C04 

Mon. 5:30 PM - 6:20 PM 

Wed. 5:30 PM - 6:20 PM 

Thurs. 5:30 PM - 6:20 PM 

Location: DSB/AB102 

Section C05 

Mon. 1:30 PM - 2:20 PM 

Wed. 1:30 PM - 2:20 PM 

Thurs. 1:30 PM - 2:20 PM 

Location: TSH/B105 

www.degroote.mcmaster.ca 

Section C06 

Mon. 10:30 AM - 11:20 AM 

Wed. 10:30 AM - 11:20 AM 

Thurs. 10:30 AM - 11:20 AM 

Location: DSB/AB102 

Dr. Aaron Schat 



Instructor 

Instructor 

Instructor 

schata@mcmaster.ca schata@mcmaster.ca schata@mcmaster.ca 

Office: DSB/417 Office: DSB/417 Office: DSB/417 

Office Hours for all sections: Wed. & Thurs. 2:30-3:30 PM or by appointment 

Tel: (905) 525-9140 x23946 Tel: (905) 525-9140 x23946 Tel: (905) 525-9140 x23946 

Area Secretary: Teaching Assistant(s) (TA) 

Vicki Cometto 

cometto@mcmaster.ca To be announced 

DSB/403 

Office Hours: 9 AM – 4 PM 

Tel: (905) 525-9140 x24434 

COURSE ELEMENTS 

Credit Value: 3 Leadership: No IT skills: No Global view: Yes 

WebCT: No Ethics: Yes Numeracy: Yes Written skills: Yes 

Participation: Yes Innovation: Yes Group work: Yes Oral skills: No

COURSE DESCRIPTION 


This course provides a basic knowledge of the key aspects of managing human resources in 

domestic and multinational organizations, emphasizing the link between human resource policies 

and practices and organizational strategy. Topics include human resource planning, job analysis, 

staffing, the legal environment, training, performance appraisal, compensation, employment 

relations, health and safety, labour relations, and recent developments and future trends. 

LEARNING OUTCOMES 

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to: 

� Understand the basic principles and concepts of Human Resource Management (HRM) 

and Labour Relations (LR) 

� Appreciate the contribution of HRM to organizational effectiveness. 

� Understand the Canadian legal environment as it relates to HRM and LR. 

� Develop and apply their skills and abilities related to the application of HRM. 

� Appreciate the opportunities, challenge, and complexity of the role of HRM in meeting 

the needs of individuals, organizations, and society. 

These objectives will be accomplished through lectures, presentations, videos, in-class exercises, 

discussions, and the HRM Simulation project. 

REQUIRED COURSE MATERIALS AND READINGS 

Schwind, H., Das, H., & Wagar, T. (2007). Canadian Human Resource 

Management: A Strategic Approach (8 th Ed.). McGraw-Hill Ryerson: 

Toronto. 

Smith, J. R., & Golden, P. A. (2005). Human Resources Management 

Simulation, Player’s Manual (2 nd edition). Pearson Education: 

Toronto. 

Note: One copy of this text is required per group – do not purchase 

until groups are assigned 

WebCT registration for course content, announcements, etc. 

• http://webct.mcmaster.ca 

Note: Announcements, updates, and scheduling changes will be 

posted to the course website so be sure to check website regularly. 


$106.95 (CDN) 

$48.60 (CDN) 

$ FREE

EVALUATION 


Learning in this course results from attending to text and lecture material and participating in 

discussions, assignments, and the HRM simulation project. Your grade will consist of 

evaluations of both individual and group work, as indicated in the table below. For group 

assignments, group members will share the same grade, adjusted by peer evaluation as 

appropriate (more details to follow). 

Components and Weights 

Exercise #1 Topic TBA (individual) 5% 

Exercise #2 

Ministry of Labour Health and Safety Management 

Module (individual). 

Mid Term Exam Multiple Choice Exam (individual) 30% 

HRM Simulation HRM Simulation Project (group) 25% 

Final Exam Multiple Choice Exam (individual) 35% 

NOTE: The use of a McMaster standard calculator (Casio FX-991) is allowed (but not needed) 

during examinations in this course. See McMaster calculator policy at the following URL: 

http://www.mcmaster.ca/senate/academic/calculat.htm 

Grade Conversion 

At the end of the course your overall percentage grade will be converted to your letter grade in 

accordance with the following conversion scheme. 

LETTER GRADE PERCENT LETTER GRADE PERCENT 

A+ 90 - 100 C+ 67 - 69 

A 85 - 89 C 63 - 66 

A- 80 - 84 C- 60 - 62 

B+ 77 - 79 D+ 57 - 59 

B 73 - 76 D 53 - 56 

B- 70 - 72 D- 50 - 52 


F 00 - 49 

5%


Communication and Feedback 

Students that are uncomfortable in directly approaching an instructor regarding a course concern 

may choose to send a confidential and anonymous email to the respective Area Chair at: 

http://www.degroote.mcmaster.ca/curr/emailchairs.aspx 

Students who wish to correspond with instructors directly via email must send messages 

that originate from their official McMaster University email account. This protects the 

confidentiality and sensitivity of information as well as confirms the identity of the student. 

Instructors should conduct an informal course review with students by Week #4 to allow time for 

modifications in curriculum delivery. Instructors should provide evaluation feedback for at least 

10% of the final grade to students prior to Week #8 in the term. 

Assignments (10%) 

There will be two graded individual assignments in this course, each of which will be worth 5%. 

Both will be announced and described during class time but will be completed individually 

outside of class time and submitted via WebCT. The first assignment is due Friday, Jan. 25. 

The second assignment will be a Health and Safety e-learning module that has been developed 

by the Ontario Ministry of Labour. It will be completed on the internet outside of class time. It 

will be assigned in late February or early March and will be due on Thursday, March 20. 

More details about this will follow. Note: If, for some reason, this module becomes unavailable 

for during this course, a different assignment will be provided. If this is necessary, the details 

will be announced in class and on the course website. 

Group Project: Human Resource Management Simulation (25%) 

Each student will participate in the HRM Simulation which highlights the principles taught in the 

course and provides players with simulated real world experience in making HR decisions and 

observing their impact. You will be assigned to groups of 3 or 4 for this project. The HRM 

Simulation will require groups to work collectively to manage a budget and make a series of HR 

decisions throughout the semester, hand in a final report on the last day of classes, and complete 

self and peer performance evaluations. 

The HRM Simulation Project is worth 25% of the final course grade. This 25% is broken down 

into several components as indicated below. Upon completion of the Final Report, students will 

be required to complete peer- and self-evaluations which may influence the final grade that 

individual group members receive on the HRM Simulation Project (i.e., an individual’s grade 

may be reduced below the group grade if the individual’s contributions, effort, etc. are rated as 

inadequate). 

www.degroote.mcmaster.ca


HRM Simulation Component Value 

Industry Rankings 4 

Incident Decisions 6 

Final Report 15 

TOTAL 25 

Industry Rankings (worth 4 marks) 

After decisions 4 and 6, your team’s cumulative ranking within the industry will be determined. 

On each of these occasions, teams that are ranked in the top third of the industry will be awarded 

2 points; teams that are ranked in the middle third of the industry will be awarded 1 point; and 

teams that are ranked in the bottom third of the industry will be awarded a ½ point. 

Incident Decisions (worth 6 marks – 6 incident decisions @ 1 mark each) 

At the time of each decision, you will also need to submit a response to an HR-related incident 

that is described in your HR Simulation Players Manual. Your response should briefly describe 

what challenge the incident presents to the organization (i.e., the problem), what you would do to 

address the incident (i.e., the proposed incident decision), and your rationale for the proposed 

action / solution (i.e., the rationale). 

Incident responses will be graded based on the following criteria: 

(1) the extent to which the response represents a good understanding of the incident and the 

challenge it presents to HR and the organization; 

(2) the quality of the rationale that is provided for the proposed incident decision. 

Final report (worth 15 marks) 

The report is intended to be a Management Audit of your team’s simulation goals, strategies, 

decisions, and outcomes. After the 4 th and 6 th decisions, groups will be provided with the 

industry averages in addition to the rankings to assist with analysis. Later in the semester, the 

instructor will provide an overview of the information that is required in the report, including a 

description of the goals that you set, analysis of the strategies you used and decisions you made 

throughout the simulation, and a discussion of their strengths and weaknesses in light of what 

you have learned about HR from the text and lecture material throughout the course. The report 

should be sufficiently detailed to explain the HR simulation results to someone who has no 

familiarity with the decisions you made during the project. 

The report should be typed using Times New Roman 12-point font, double-spaced, with 1-1.5” 

margins, and 15-20 pages in length, PLUS graphs or other appendices. Writing quality (e.g., 

spelling, grammar, structure, etc.) is important and its assessment will be reflected in the grade of 

the final report. Reports are due to be handed in at the beginning of the class on April 9. 



The Final Report will be graded according to the following criteria: 

(1) Completeness 

(2) Depth of analysis 

(3) Clarity and quality of writing, structure of the report 

More information on the HRM Simulation and the requirements of the Final Report will be 

provided later in the term. 

Mid-term Exam (30%) and Final Exam (35%) 

There will be one mid-term exam and one final exam in this course. Both exams will be 

scheduled by the registrar as two hour exams. The mid-term exam is scheduled for Friday, 

February 8, from 6 - 8 PM (Locations: CNH 104 and T29-105). The date, time, and location 

of the final exam will be determined and announced later in the term. Both exams will be 

composed of 75-100 multiple choice questions and will cover material from the text readings and 

scheduled classes, including lectures, films, and class discussion. The mid-term will cover 

material from weeks 1-5 inclusive (e.g., text chapters 1-6). The final exam will cover material 

from week 6 thru the end of the course. Material related to the HRM Simulation project will not 

be covered on the exams. More details to be announced. 

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY 

It is the student’s responsibility to understand what constitutes academic dishonesty. Please refer 

to the University Senate Academic Integrity Policy at the following URL: 

http://www.mcmaster.ca/univsec/policy/AcademicIntegrity.pdf 

This policy describes the responsibilities, procedures, and guidelines for students and faculty 

should a case of academic dishonesty arise. Academic dishonesty is defined as to knowingly act 

or fail to act in a way that results or could result in unearned academic credit or advantage. 

Please refer to the policy for a list of examples. The policy also provides faculty with procedures 

to follow in cases of academic dishonesty as well as general guidelines for penalties. For further 

information related to the policy, please refer to the Office of Academic Integrity at: 

COPYRIGHT 

http://www.mcmaster.ca/academicintegrity 

McMaster University has signed a license with the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency 

(Access Copyright) which allows professors, students, and staff to make copies allowed under 

fair dealing. Fair dealing with a work does not require the permission of the copyright owner or 

the payment of royalties as long as the purpose for the material is private study, and that the total 

amount copied equals NO MORE THAN 10 percent of a work or an entire chapter which is 



less than 20 percent of a work. In other words, it is illegal to: i) copy an entire book, or ii) 

repeatedly copy smaller sections of a publication that cumulatively cover over 10 percent of the 

total work’s content. Please refer to the following copyright guide for further information: 

http://library.mcmaster.ca/about/copying.pdf 

POLICY ON MISSED MID-TERM EXAMINATIONS / TESTS 

Where students miss a regularly scheduled midterm for legitimate reasons as adjudicated by the 

Academic Programs Office (APO), the weight for that test will be distributed across other 

evaluative components of the course at the discretion of the instructor. 

Documentation explaining such an absence must be provided to the APO within five (5) working 

days upon returning to school. The approved McMaster Medical Form must be used to 

document absence for health related reasons. If an examination is missed without a valid reason, 

students will receive a grade of Zero (0) for that component. University policy states that a 

student may submit a maximum of three (3) medical certificates per year after which the student 

must meet with the Director of the program. 

Please see the following URL for APO forms: 

http://www.degroote.mcmaster.ca/curr/academ/undergr/forms.aspx 

Students unable to write at the posted examination time due to the following reasons: religious; 

work-related (for part-time students only); representing university at an academic or varsity 

athletic event; and conflicts between two overlapping scheduled midterm examinations, have the 

option of applying for special examination arrangements. Such requests must be made to the 

APO at least ten (10) working days before the scheduled examination along with acceptable 

documentation. There will be only one common sitting for the special examination. 

Instructors cannot themselves allow students to unofficially write make-up exams/tests. 

Adjudication of the request must be handled by the APO. 

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES 

Students with disabilities are required to inform the Centre for Student Development (CSD) of 

accommodation needs for examinations on or before the last date for withdrawal from a course 

without failure (please refer to official university sessional dates). Students must forward a copy 

of such CSD accommodation to the instructor immediately upon receipt. If a student with a 

disability chooses NOT to take advantage of a CSD accommodation and chooses to sit for a 

regular exam, a petition for relief may not be filed after the examination is complete. The CSD 

website is: 

http://csd.mcmaster.ca 


COURSE SCHEDULE 


Commerce 3BC3 

Human Resource Management and Labour Relations 

Winter 2008 Course Schedule 

WEEK WEEK OF TOPIC READING/ASSIGNMENT 

1 Jan. 7-11 

2 Jan. 14-18 Job Analysis 

Course Outline, Schedule; 

Intro. to Strategic HR 

3 Jan. 21-25 Legal Requirements 

4 Jan. 28-Feb. 1 

HR Planning and 

Recruitment 

5 Feb. 4-8 Selection 

6 Feb. 11-15 Orientation and Training 


Read: Chapter 1 

Complete Information Sheet for HRM Simulation 


Thurs., Jan. 17 classes cancelled for World Congress 


Wed. Jan. 23 – Groups to be assigned in class 

Assignment #1 – due Fri., Jan. 25 

Read: Chapters 3 & 5 

Read: HRM Simulation Manual 

Activity: HRM Simulation Quiz (not graded) 


MID-TERM EXAM: FRI., FEB. 8, 6-8 PM 

*Thurs. Feb. 7 class cancelled due to mid-term* 


Activity: HRM Simulation Goal-setting Exercise 

HRM Simulation – Decision #1 

7 Feb. 18-22 Reading Week Reading Week – No classes 

8 Feb. 25-29 Performance Appraisal 

9 Mar. 3-7 Compensation & Benefits 

10 Mar. 10-14 Health and Safety 

11 Mar. 17-21 

Managing Employee 

Relations 

12 Mar. 24-28 Labour Relations 

13 Mar. 31-Apr. 4 Labour Relations cont’d Readings TBA 

14 Apr. 7-9 Labour Relations cont’d 



Read: Chapters 9 & 10 





Assignment #2 – due Thurs., March 20 




Final HRM Simulation reports due at the beginning 

of class on Wednesday, April 9 

Final Exam Time to be determined by Registrar (Exam Period: April 11-29)

Commerce 3BC3 Human Resource Management and Labour ...

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