Introduction to Managing Human Capital: MO 315

Winter Term 2009

Professor: Michael Lechner

Syllabus
Telephone: 810-338-3231
E-Mail: mlech@bus.umich.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday, 4:15-6:15 PM, or by
appointment

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course examines new role of Human Resources as critical strategic
contributor of human capital management. Whereas as HR traditionally focused
on hiring, firing, benefits, and training at an individual employee level, this new
role for HR is focused on enterprise strategy and the forecasting of the workforce
supply chain necessary to implement strategy. This role shift is now common in
large corporations and small businesses and reflects the growing understanding
that business success turns on the continuous availability of special talent and
an engaged workforce. The course has three major sections. In the first several
weeks we will examine the HR role transformation and the new value proposition
of human capital management. The second part of the course examines the
architecture of new HR systems which include: The role of information systems
and technology in recruitment; selection, education, training and development,
performance management, reward and recognition, succession planning, and
workforce forecasting and analytics. The third and final part of the course we will
explore current critical challenges in managing human capital. Specifically we will
examine the impact of globalization, the virtual organization, HR leadership, and
knowledge transfer in new transnational organizational structures.

The course has 3 core themes or sections:

• Evolution in Human Resources. In the first several weeks we will

examine the traditional HR corporate function that has been common
practice for many years and its recent transformation to the new value
proposition of human capital management. Traditionally a reactive, tactical
support function focused on creating and maintaining personnel
procedures and processes, HR now is often a contributor of sophisticated
strategy. Senior HR leaders are more often in positions of trusted advisors
to the C-suite, and in particular to the CEO. We will examine the internal
and external dynamics that continue to fuel this change.

• HR Systems Architecture. The second part of the course examines the

architecture of new HR systems which include: The role of data and HR
information systems and technology, recruitment; selection; education,
training and development; performance management; reward and
 recognition; and succession planning and workforce analytics. Special
attention will be given to how technology enhances and shapes these
systems.
• Critical Challenges in Human Capital Management The third and
final part of the course will focus on exploring current and critical
challenges in managing human capital. Specifically we will examine the
impact of shifts in workforce demographics, the impact of globalization,
and knowledge transfer in new transnational organizational structures, the
outsourcing of HR services, HR leadership impact – strategic implications,
benefits and consequences.

The course assignments will include:

ƒ Your active individual and team member participation in every class and
assignment
ƒ Regular submission of potential final exam questions
ƒ A mid-term take home essay examination focused on the design,
implementation and/or application of HR systems
ƒ A team project focused on an analysis of the effectiveness of the HCM
practices of a real organization
ƒ Final exam

Student Responsibilities

1. Readings: Do not be afraid of the reading list. It is balanced between

longer, denser material and more journalistic/practitioner oriented
materials. Also, many of the chapters are very brief. This class has one
weekly meeting so the required reading is roughly equivalent to that you
would be expected to cover in a class that met twice a week.

2. Individual Participation: You are expected to come to class and to be

prepared to engage in meaningful discussion with me and your
classmates. This assumes: that you will have completed the assigned
readings and used them to think about the discussion question listed on
the syllabus for each class session.

3. House Rules for Classroom Behavior:

a. Be courteous. Come on time and do not leave early. Do not engage in
private conversations while others are speaking. Do not read the
newspaper or otherwise engage in non-course activities.
b. No cell phone calls, texting, or surfing the web during class. No
exceptions.
c. Have an opinion and respect the rights of others to have another opinion.
There are many possible and defendable positions or lenses from which
to view issues raised in the readings and in the discussion questions.
 d. Allow everyone a chance to talk and look for opportunities to
contribute to the discussion and enhance the understanding of
the issues raised in the readings and class discussion.
e. Class participation – including mine – will be evaluated throughout the
course: Does the discussion move your understanding of the issue
forward? Did you learn something or think differently about an issue as a
result of the discussion? Was the discussion relevant? Engaging?
Persuasive? Evidentially or opinion based? Your class participation
counts for 30% of your overall grade.
f. Readings: There is no one textbook for the course. There are two required
books and a course pack. I have selected the readings to combine
theoretical and practitioner oriented approaches to issues in human
resource management. The readings are intended to be a jumping off
point for your thinking and analysis of the issues. They are not for
quoting or simply memorizing.
g. Final Exam Questions: Students will submit 2 multiple cjhoice questions
based on the readings and/or discussions or other course related
experiences every 2 weeks as scheduled. (See below). I will provide
feedback on the quality on a regular basis. I reserve the right to alter
questions as necessary.

4. Discussions: As you do the readings, you should consider the implications

for practice – How would I use this concept in a real life scenario (and I will
give you those in class)? How would I feel, react, act if I were an employee
in this situation or in this organization? I have suggested discussion
questions for each topic and set of readings and listed them for each week
(See below). They are suggestions and represent a jumping off point.
Assume our discussions will be wide ranging and that we will cover these
and others ideas.

5. Guest Speakers: We will host a number of guest speakers. They will

represent various businesses and have expertise in different aspects of the
management of human capital. For part of our class time they may present
cases and/or concepts. We will engage them in discussions that will focus
on identifying the core issues or problems presented in the case; analyze
the root causes and consider recommendations that are consonant with
our analysis. If they have extra readings for us I will make it available the
week before.

Grading

Your grade will be based upon:

Individual participation 20% (100 pts.)

Midterm take home 20% (100 pts.)
Team presentation 20% (100 pts.)
Exam Questions 10% (50 pts.)
Final Exam 30% (150 pts.)
General Extra Credit: 10%

Assignments: Are due on the date scheduled. Late papers and midterms
will lose ½ a grade for each day late (for example, an A paper will become
an A- paper if it is a day late).

Accommodation for Disability: If you need an accommodation for a

disability, please let me know at your earliest convenience. Some aspects
of the course, the assignments, and the in-class activities may be modified
to facilitate your participation and progress. As soon as you make me
aware of your needs, we can work with the Office of Services for Students
with Disabilities to help us determine appropriate accommodations. I will
treat information you provide as private and confidential.

Academic Honor Code: Personal integrity and professionalism are

fundamental values of the Ross School community. To help ensure that
these values are upheld and to maintain equitability in the evaluation of
your work, this course will be conducted in strict conformity with the
Academic Honor Code. The code and related procedures can be found at
the following website:
http://www.bus.umich.edu/Academics/Resources/communityvalues.htm
and will not be repeated here. The site also contains comprehensive
information on how to ensure that you have not plagiarized the work of
others. I am highly confident that none of you will betray our mutual trust
throughout the course.

Statement Concerning Plagiarism: Any content in an assignment you

submit that is based on the work of others must be properly cited. This
includes any information found on the Web. The CVC website contains
detailed information regarding proper citations:
http://www.bus.umich.edu/Academics/Resources/communityvalues.htm.
Failure to comply with these procedures will be treated as an honor code
violation. In addition, the use of any materials prepared by students who
have previously taken the course will constitute an honor code violation.

Statement Prohibiting Collaboration between Individuals: For any

assignment that the syllabus designates as being “individual,” you are not
to share information or seek assistance from anyone other than the
instructor. “Anyone” refers not only to classmates in the course, but also
to any current or past student as well as any person not part of the Ross
School community.
 I will follow the required grade distribution for BBA electives.

Syllabus: MO 315

Winter Term, 2008

Part One: HR Value Proposition

January 13th The History of the Human Resources Corporate Role

Hammonds, Keith, “Why We Hate HR”, Fast Company, August, 2005, Issue 97, (available in
course pack).

Wickam Skinner, “Big Hat, No Cattle: Managing Human Resources,” Harvard Business Review,
September-October, 1981. (available in course pack).

Discussion: What is your impression of HR based on these readings and your personal
experience? What issues got raised for you about the role of HR and perceptions of that role?
Based on the readings and experience, do you see a clearly defined strategic role for HR?

January 20th The Evolution: Competition for Talent

Losey, Mike, Dave Ulrich, and Sue Meisinger, eds. The future of human resource
management: 64 thought leaders explore the critical HR issues of today and tomorrow. New
York: Wiley, 2005. Chapter 14.

Reserve Book: Boudreau, J.W., Ramstad, P.M., Beyond HR: The New science of human capital.
Boston, Harvard Business School Press, 2007. Chapter 1,

Cappelli, P. Talent on demand: Managing talent in an age of uncertainty. Boston, Harvard

Business School Press, 2008. Chapter 1.

Discussion: Why do we refer to a war or competition for talent? What are the implications for
you personally as you think about competing for jobs? What will you look for as you consider
potential job opportunities? What are intangible assets and what do they have to do with total
market value of a company? What are the most critical issues for companies or organizations as
they think about their employees?

Assignment: Prepare 2 potential final exam questions

January 27th Talent Management as Strategy and Business Driver

Losey, Mike, Dave Ulrich, and Sue Meisinger,eds. The future of human resource management:
64 thought leaders explore the critical HR issues of today and tomorrow. New York: Wiley,
2005. Chapters 24, 26, 31, 33

Carrig, K., Wright, P.M. Building profit through building people: Making your workforce the
strongest link in the value-profit chain. Alexandria, Society for Human Resource Management,
2005. Chapter 2. (available in course pack).

Michael E. Porter, “What is strategy?” Harvard Business Review, November-December 1996,

61-78. (available in course pack).

Cappelli, P. Talent on demand: Managing talent in an age of uncertainty. Boston, Harvard

Business School Press, 2008. Chapter 6.

Discussion: What role does the customer play in the value profit chain? How can HR drive
collaboration? What are the “Four Shareds”, and how do they impact decisions about corporate
governance? What is “expected realizable value” and do you agree with this theory? Is there an
optimal balance of core and peripheral workforce segments for a company?

Guest Speaker: Tom Mason, Ph.D, Personnel Decisions, Intl.

Assignment Due: Submit 2 potential final exam questions

February 3rd The Role of HR in Aligning People and Brand

Losey, Mike, Dave Ulrich, and Sue Meisinger, eds. The future of human resource management:
64 thought leaders explore the critical HR issues of today and tomorrow. New York: Wiley,
2005. Section IV, Chapters 18 – 22

Carrig, K., Wright, P.M. Building profit through building people: Making your workforce the
strongest link in the value-profit chain. Alexandria, Society for Human Resource Management,
2005. Chapter 4. (available in course pack).

Discussion: Branding is usually associated with marketing a product or service – do you see a
role for an internal workforce in defining and maintaining brand? What about for companies that
don’t sell products? What differentiates aligning around brand from aligning around business
objectives? What role could “appreciative Inquiry” play in aligning people and brand? What is
the “Responsibility Mindset?” What is the role of HR in building a market focused culture? . . .
an internal brand? . . . team building?

Assignment: Prepare 2 potential final exam questions.

 Part Two: HR Systems

February 10th Recruiting and Selecting Your Workforce

Alrichs, N.A. Competing for talent: key recruitment and retention strategies for becoming the
employer of choice. Mountain View, Davies-Black, 2000.
Chapters: Introduction, Part Three, (available in course pack).

Losey, Mike, Dave Ulrich, and Sue Meisinger,eds. The future of human resource management:
64 thought leaders explore the critical HR issues of today and tomorrow. New York: Wiley,
2005. Chapter 30.

Cascio, W., Boudreau, J .M. Investing in People: Financial impact of human resources
initiatives. Upper Saddle River, FT Press, 2008. Chapter 10. (available in course pack).

Danny W. Avery, Recruiting for Retention, SHRM White paper, 2008. (available in course
pack).

Discussion: How important do you believe recruiting and selecting is to overall

workforce performance? You have already been recruited and selected – which is why
you are at the University of Michigan – how did you experience the process of being
recruited and selected? How do you like to be recruited? How do you think recruitment
and selection techniques may change as a result of technology advances? What value is
screening and assessment in recruiting?

Guest Speaker: Greg Arendt, Director, Global Talent Acquisition, Kelly Services

Assignment Due: Submit 2 potential final exam questions

Assignment: Form teams and choose a company or organization for analysis and
presentation on April 14th.

Class Handout: Human capital analysis process map

Have a Happy Valentine’s Day!

February 17th Educating, Training and Developing Your Workforce

Losey, Mike, Dave Ulrich, and Sue Meisinger,eds. The future of human resource management:
64 thought leaders explore the critical HR issues of today and tomorrow. New York: Wiley,
2005. Chapter 4,5

Reserve Book: Boudreau, J.W., Ramstad, P.M., Beyond HR: The New science of human capital.
Boston, Harvard Business School Press, 2007. Chapter 3
Discussion: How do you differentiate education, training and development? What is a
differential spend and how does it apply to development and training decisions?

Guest speaker: Julie Bellamy, Sr. Director, HR

Assignment: You will receive your take home midterm. There will be 5 essay questions
and you will choose 3 out of the 5 and prepare a response to them. Please do not exceed 4
double spaced, type written pages per question. The midterm is not due until March 17th.

Assignment: You will choose your final presentation teams and target company or
organization.

Assignment: Prepare 2 potential final exam questions

Evaluation: Has the course met your expectations so far? What do you like best? What do you
like least? What recommendations do you have for me? For your fellow students?

February 24th Spring Break – No Class

March 3rd The Leadership Pipeline and Succession Planning

Charan, R., Drotter, S., Noel, J. The leadership pipeline: How to build the leadership-powered
company. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass, 2001. Chapters 1, 10. (available in course pack).

Mark A. Huselid, Richard W. Beatty, and Brian E. Becker, “ ‘A Players’ or ‘A Positions’? The
Strategic Logic of Workforce Management, Harvard Business Review, December 2005, 110-
117. (available in course pack).

Discussion: “Building bench strength” is a great concern for HR professionals and senior
management. What are the implications of this concern? How do you see companies or
organizations planning for succession? How do leaders develop? Should a company make or
buy?
Guest Speaker: Renee Beshears, Ph.D., Director, Leadership Development, TRW

Assignment Due: Submit 2 potential Final Exam questions

 March 10th Retention: Rewarding and Recognizing Employee
Contribution

Pfeffer, Jeffrey, “Six Dangerous Myths About Pay”, Harvard Business Review, Reprint 98309,
available in course pack. (available in course pack).

PriceWaterhouseCoopers, “Driving the Bottom Line: Improving Retention” White Paper.

Saratoga Human Resource Services. (available in course pack).

Globoforce White Paper. “The New Era of Strategic Recognition” 2008. (available in course
pack).

Discussion: Is rewarding employees really only about compensation and benefits? What do you
think about other approaches to recognizing and rewarding employee contribution? How would
you like to be recognized and rewarded? Can you think of some innovative approaches to
designing reward systems that go beyond compensation and benefits?

Assignment: Prepare 2 potential final exam questions

March 17th Managing Workforce Performance

Manzoni, Jean Francois and Barsoux, Jean-Louis, “The Set Up To Fail Syndrome”, Harvard
Business Review Executive Edition, summer, 2006, (available in course pack).

Coens, T., and Jenkins, M. Abolishing the Performance Appraisal: Why They Backfire and What
to do Instead.. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2002. Chapter 2.

Culbert, Samuel, A. “Get Rid of the Performance Review!” Wall Street Journal, Oct. 20, 2008
(available in course pack).

Losey, Mike, Dave Ulrich, and Sue Meisinger,eds. The future of human resource management:
64 thought leaders explore the critical HR issues of today and tomorrow. New York: Wiley,
2005. Chapter 35

Discussion: Performance management is probably the most controversial of HR systems. HR

professionals often joke that the only performance management system employees and
management like is the one they haven’t tried yet. Why do you think performance management
is such a difficult process to get “right”? What do you find to be the most troubling issues in
creating and implementing a performance management system? How would you like your own
performance assessed? How do you feel about being assessed? What is “two-sided
accountability” and how it applies to a place like Abu Ghraib?

Guest Speaker: Mary Jenkins, Private Consultant, Co-Author (see above)

 Assignment Due: Mid- term take home due.

Assignment Due: Submit 2 potential Final Exam questions

March 24th HR Technology and the New Value Proposition:

Workforce Planning

Hirschman, Carolyn, “Putting Forecasting in Focus”, in HRMagazine, March, 2007, Volume 52,
No.3, (available in course pack).

Losey, Mike, Dave Ulrich, and Sue Meisinger, eds. The future of human resource management:
64 thought leaders explore the critical HR issues of today and tomorrow. New York: Wiley,
2005. Chapter 1, 23

“Pivotal Employees.” PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Human Resource Services, Saratoga, 2006.

(available in course pack).

Cappelli, P. Talent on demand: Managing talent in an age of uncertainty. Boston, Harvard

Business School Press, 2008. Chapter 7.

Discussion: Workforce planning is the least “visible” or discussed of the HR systems. How
important do you view it as a system or process? If you were in a smaller company, how do you
think you would approach it? What might you do differently in a large company? In a unionized
or organized environment?

Guest Speaker: Laura Byars, Ph.D., Director, Workforce Planning, Arvin Meritor

Assignment: Prepare 2 potential final exam questions

Part 3: Critical Challenges

March 31th HR Practice in Global and Virtual Organizations

Losey, Mike, Dave Ulrich, and Sue Meisinger,eds. The future of human resource management:
64 thought leaders explore the critical HR issues of today and tomorrow. New York: Wiley,
2005. Chapters 8, 36, 41 – 45

Matthew Guthridge, Asmus B. Komm, “Why Multinationals Struggle to Manage Talent.” The
McKinsey Quarterly, May, 2008. (available in course pack).

Beaman, K., (Ed.) Boundaryless HR: Human capital management in the global economy.
Austin, International Association for Human Resource Information Management, 2002. Part 4
(Managers, Mindsets, and Globalization only), and Part 7 (The Future of HR: Globalize or Perish
only).

Discussion: How much impact does globalization have on the way an organization designs its
HR systems? How do you feel about outsourcing? In favor? Why? Under what circumstances?
Should the HR organization be global or local? Why? What’s a global mindset? What pressures
and barriers are in play in virtual business and how can HR contribute solutions?

Guest Speaker: Lance Richards, Senior Director, Outsourcing and Consulting Group,
Kelly Services

Assignment Due: Submit 2 potential Final Exam Questions

April 7th HR Leaders – A New Identity

Losey, Mike, Dave Ulrich, and Sue Meisinger,eds. The future of human resource management:
64 thought leaders explore the critical HR issues of today and tomorrow. New York: Wiley,
2005.Chapters 11 - 15

“Improving Talent Management Outcomes: 10 Talent Management Insights for the Chief
Human Resource Officer.” Corporate Leadership Council. Chief Human Resources Officer
Briefing, Corporate Executive Board, 2007. (available in course pack).

Discussion: How does a senior HR leader contribute to a senior leadership team?

Does it really represent a competitive advantage? What’s the difference between a CTO and
CHRO in terms of focus and contribution?

Guest Speaker: Nina Ramsey, SVP/HR

Assignment: Team preparations

Assignment Due: Last opportunity to submit potential final exam questions. 2 only.

April 14th Final Team Presentations – Schedule to Be Determined

April 21st Final Exam