MGT412 Human Resource Management and Law
Module 1 Case
DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT AND THE LAW
Case Assignment
For your first assignment in this Module, you will be considering sexual harassment in the workplace, a topic which has garnered a great deal of attention recently. Review the required readings in the background material and then prepare a memo to yourself as follows:
You are a newly assigned top HRM professional in your organization and you wish to review your organization’s sexual harassment policies and training. You will begin by identifying and explaining the key legal concepts in sexual harassment in the workplace. Then, using the background material and your own research, discuss aspects of recent developments in sexual harassment that are relevant to how your organization addresses sexual harassment in the workplace. Finally, identify and explain what you consider future developments in this topic will be and how your organization’s policies and training concerning sexual harassment will need to be adapted.
Assignment Expectations
Your memo should be 3 to 4 pages in length (not counting title and reference page) and should be submitted by the module due date.
The criteria found in the grading rubric for this assignment:
•             Meets assignment requirements
•             Critical thinking
•             Writing and assignment organization
•             Use of sources and mechanics
•             Timeliness of assignment
 
MGT412 Human Resource Management and Law
Module 1 SLP
DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT AND THE LAW
SLP Assignment
In this SLP assignment, you will prepare a PowerPoint slide presentation about Age Discrimination.
To begin, review the SLP materials related to Age Discrimination in the background material. To better inform yourself, also do some independent research to identify trends in the workforce related to age.
In your Power Point presentation, identify current issues in Age Discrimination in the workplace, social, economic, and political factors that will impact Age Discrimination in the future, and your recommendations for approaches that organizations should take to address age discrimination in the future.
Be sure to use in-text citations in your slides. Your PowerPoint presentation should be about 6-7 slides in addition to a title slide at the beginning and a reference slide at the end. Tip: Do not have too many or too few words on each slide – consider this is a slide presentation, not an essay. Also include your extra comments in the Speaker’s Comments section at the bottom of each slide, or use audio recording (voice over), or both.
SLP Assignment Expectations
Your submission will be assessed on the criteria found in the grading rubric for this assignment:
•             Meets assignment requirements
•             Critical thinking
•             Writing and assignment organization
•             Use of sources and mechanics
•             Timeliness of assignment
 
MGT412 Human Resource Management and Law
Module 2 Case
HIRING PRACTICES AND LEGAL COMPLIANCE
Case Assignment
For this module’s Case Assignment, review the background materials on pre-employment background screening.
Prepare an outline of points for a presentation to an employer about key issues in pre-employment screening.
Prepare a video (about 5 minutes) or a slide presentation with voice-over (10-12 slides). In your presentation, be sure to include a) how specific laws regulate screening pre-hires, b) your recommendations about what the employer should consider in deciding whether or not to conduct investigations or other pre-employment inquires of employees, c) the potential negative consequences of not conducting background screening, including a discussion of what “negligent hiring” means and how it could arise, and d) the legal risks the business faces in conducting background checks.
Submit your video and outline of points (word document) or your slide presentation by the module due date.
Case Assignment Expectations
The criteria found in the grading rubric for this assignment:
•             Meets assignment requirements
•             Critical thinking
•             Writing and assignment organization
•             Use of sources and mechanics
•             Timeliness of assignment
 
MGT412 Human Resource Management and Law
Module 2 SLP
HIRING PRACTICES AND LEGAL COMPLIANCE
Another important aspect to finding the best person to hire is pre-hire assessments. Read the following:
Rhodes, J. (Oct. 26, 2016) Physical Skills Test for Paramedics Violated Title VII Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/legal-and-compliance/employment-law/pages/physical-skills-test-paramedics.aspx
Maurer, R. (Aug. 24, 2017) EEOC: Strength Tests Risk Bias Against Women. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/eeoc-strength-tests-risk-bias-against-women.aspx
Now imagine you are an HR Professional for a large warehouse company. You have been asked to prepare a 2- to 3-page memo for your company’s hiring managers, explaining to them the employment law issues to consider in preparing pre-employment physical tests or assessments. Many of the warehouse jobs require physical skills of varying kinds, so pre-hiring physical tests are appropriate.
In your memo, you should address the key legal concepts hiring managers should keep in mind when working with medical consultants to design pre-employment physical tests. Be sure to discuss disparate treatment, disparate impact and how the EEOC might assess the test, among any other relevant issues. You should do your own additional research to make sure you are confident about the contents of your memo.
Turn in this memo by the module due date. Paper length: 2-3 pages, not counting the cover and reference pages.
SLP Assignment Expectations
Your submission will be assessed on the criteria found in the grading rubric for this assignment:
•             Meets assignment requirements
•             Critical thinking
•             Writing and assignment organization
•             Use of sources and mechanics
•             Timeliness of assignment
 
MGT412 Human Resource Management and Law
Module 3 Case
EMPLOYMENT-AT-WILL AND PROGRESSIVE DISCIPLINE
Case Assignment
For this Case Assignment we will be focusing on
•             The Employment at Will Doctrine
•             Progressive Discipline
After reviewing the background reading, prepare a paper in which you
•             Summarize the Employment at Will Doctrine and its exceptions (approximately ½ page), and answer the follow questions:
•             Which of the exceptions to the Employment at Will Doctrine are most relevant to current HR practice and why?
•             What is Progressive Discipline? Summarize the steps in Progressive Discipline and Progressive Discipline’s approach to employee discharge.
•             How do the concepts and practices of employment at will and progressive discipline interact?
•             How important are the employment at will doctrine and progressive discipline to realizing employee potential and maximizing organizational outcomes? Explain your answer.
Case Assignment Expectations
Your paper should be 3 to 4 pages (not including cover and reference page). Submit your assignment by the module due date.
The criteria found in the grading rubric for this assignment:
•             Meets assignment requirements
•             Critical thinking
•             Writing and assignment organization
•             Use of sources and mechanics
•             Timeliness of assignment
 
MGT412 Human Resource Management and Law
Module 3 SLP
EMPLOYMENT-AT-WILL AND PROGRESSIVE DISCIPLINE
For this module’s SLP, we will focus on the importance of documenting in writing the process of discipline steps taken in an employee situation. Read the following article:
Segal, J. (2014). Legal trends: Blunders in documenting discipline. HR Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/pages/1014-disciplinary-documentation.aspx
Put yourself in the role of an HR Manager advising line supervisors on how to document any disciplinary action given by the supervisor. From the 10 common disciplinary documentation mistakes set forth in the Segal (2014) article, choose 5 that you think are the most important to focus on.
Prepare a PowerPoint slide presentation (with speaker notes at the bottom of each slide). Your goal is to provide line supervisors with specific right and wrong examples of each of the 5 documentation mistakes you have chosen. Draw upon the background readings on progressive discipline to support your “right approach” to Progressive Discipline documentation and explain in your presentation how this “right approach” should guide the supervisors.
SLP Assignment Expectations
Your PowerPoint presentation (5 to 8 slides, not including title or reference slide) should draw on and cite additional references as needed. Submit your assignment by the module due date.
Your submission will be assessed on the criteria found in the grading rubric for this assignment:
•             Meets assignment requirements
•             Critical thinking
•             Writing and assignment organization
•             Use of sources and mechanics
•             Timeliness of assignment
 
MGT412 Human Resource Management and Law
Module 4 Case
LABOR LAW AND UNIONIZATION
Assignment Overview
Review the background materials. Imagine that you have applied for a position as an HR executive in a private-sector corporation. As part of the interview process, you have been asked to prepare written notes using Word and a short video (less than 6 minutes) responding to the following interview questions:
•             When a business anticipates that its workforce is trying to unionize, which laws and legal issues are most important for the business leaders to know about?
•             What is the role of unions in the modern American labor force?
•             How is the Human Resources Management function different in a unionized private-sector workforce setting?
•             Would you prefer to work with a unionized or non-unionized workforce? Explain.
Note: The video file should be uploaded to YouTube and the link shared. Set as “public” or “unlisted,” NOT PRIVATE. Unlisted means your video will not come up in search results. Only those who know the link can view it, and they do not need a YouTube account/username. The reason YouTube is suggested is that it often takes time to upload a video directly to the classroom. If you have slow Internet, you could be timed out.
Important: Be sure to submit a Word document to the Case 4 Dropbox in which you provide your notes and cite and reference your YouTube link along with the other sources utilized to prepare the presentation. The Word document will tell your professor where to find your YouTube video to view.
Case Assignment Expectations
Submit your written outline with title page and reference page along with your video before the module due date (end of the session).
Optional alternative assignment: If, for whatever reason you do not wish to submit a video, then please prepare a PowerPoint presentation of your outline with voiceover.
The criteria found in the grading rubric for this assignment:
•             Meets assignment requirements
•             Critical thinking
•             Writing and assignment organization
•             Use of sources and mechanics
•             Timeliness of assignment
 
MGT412 Human Resource Management and Law
Module 4 SLP
LABOR LAW AND UNIONIZATION
In this SLP assignment, you will prepare an essay based on a scenario.
Imagine that you are working in an HRM department of a unionized facility. This is your second job in HRM and your first in a union environment. There was a newly filed grievance in your mailbox. It concerned yesterday’s discharge of an employee (George M.).
As you get coffee from the empty break room you see a document titled “Using the Seven Tests” laying on the table. Someone left it there. You pick it up, stick it in your binder, and return to your office to look at the grievance form, the labor contract, and the “Using the Seven Tests” article.
The labor contract indicates that employees may not be discharged unless there is just cause. It will fall to the company to demonstrate that there was “just cause” to discharge George M.
The paper you found on the break room table was “Using the Seven Tests,” from http://www.ueunion.org/stwd_jstcause.html
George M.’s situation was documented as follows:
George M. operated a machine in Building A. He usually was an average worker, but working the past 4 weeks on that machine in Building A he had made lots of mistakes on which products to accept and put in the box and which to reject. The Plant Superintendent came into work in the middle of the night because the supervisor called him. The supervisor checked George M.’s boxes and 6 out of 8 had faulty parts inside. The Superintendent terminated George M.’s employment and walked him out the door.
•             In your paper, discuss the seven tests and how they relate to this situation. What further information will you need to gather?
•             What immediate actions will you need to take concerning this situation? Discuss.
•             Would you be concerned about the “Seven Tests” if you were working in a union-free environment? Why?
•             Is discipline/termination for just cause limited to union settings? Explain.
Utilizing background materials, library research, and/or other research will help strengthen your response.
Turn in this paper by the module due date. Paper length: 2-3 pages, not counting the cover and reference pages.
SLP Assignment Expectations
Your submission will be assessed on the criteria found in the grading rubric for this assignment:
•             Meets assignment requirements
•             Critical thinking
•             Writing and assignment organization
•             Use of sources and mechanics
•             Timeliness of assignment
Integration and Reflection
Paragraphs 1 – 3:
Given the readings and assignments in the course, identify and discuss three important concepts applicable to your work experience, profession, and/or career plans for the future. Describe how each applies.
Paragraph 4:
What part of the course (background materials, assignments, and so forth) helped to shape or reshape your perceptions of the role of HRM in the private sector?
Note: No outside research or citations are needed with your four paragraphs to the Reflective Discussion. Also, no responses to your peers’ posts are needed.