Syllabus

MBA 548: Strategic Human Resource Management

Marriott School of Business | Brigham Young University
Fall 2019

Professor: Peter Madsen, Ph.D.

E-mail: petermadsen@byu.edu
Phone: Office: 801.422.4353; Cell: 801.787.4542
Office: 566 Tanner Building
Office Hours: email for an appointment.
Course Web Page: Learning Suite

Course Description
Consider the following two quotes:
“No matter what your business, the only way to generate enduring profits is to begin by building the kind of work
environment that attracts, focuses, and keeps talented employees.” (Heskett, Sasser, & Slesinger – The Service Profit
Chain)
“Innovation has nothing to do with how many R & D dollars you have. It’s not about money. It’s about the people
you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.” (Steve Jobs, Founder and Reviver of Apple)

Many business leaders have come to realize that a critical source of competitive advantage comes from
effective systems for acquiring, developing, and rewarding talented people. Demographic changes in
the labor force, increased global competition, new organizational arrangements, and public policy
issues have made human capital management increasingly strategic and important for organizations.

At a macro level, the purpose of this course is to help you to understand the best available evidence
for managing human capital, to identify examples of both effective and ineffective human capital
management, and to apply concepts and best-practices in your role as a leader within organizational
settings. At a more applied level, the goals of this course are outlined in the learning objectives listed
below.

Learning Outcomes:
• Identify and recruit high-potential applicants for a position
• Design and execute a reliable and valid employment interview
• Negotiate a job offer effectively
• Identify and apply effective compensation and incentive systems
• Explain and apply human capital-related competencies, their connection to a firm’s strategy,
and their effect on organizational effectiveness and outcomes
• Assess individual performance in an organizational setting and provide actionable performance
feedback
• Analyze case-based organizational issues and offer systematic, critically evaluated solutions

Course Materials
We will use one book in the class: “The Manager's Guide to HR: Hiring, Firing, Performance
Evaluations, Documentation, Benefits, and Everything Else You Need to Know,” by Max Muller.
We will also use a packet of cases and additional readings. Some additional readings will be posted
electronically in Learning Suite.

MBA 548 – Strategic HR 1

Class Format
Class sessions will consist of interactive case-based discussions, debates, classroom exercises, guest
presentations, and student presentations. We will discuss a human capital oriented case or
simulation each day in class. Classroom discussion is a vital part of your learning and will be central
to your grade. Through discussion of concrete cases, we will all teach and learn from each other.
Thus, it is critical that you come to class prepared to participate in discussion of that day’s case.
We will not use class time to reiterate basic information from the assigned readings. I will assume
familiarity with the readings, and spend class time discussing how that information can be applied
to business situation presented in that day’s case.

Generally speaking, all the information you need to analyze and discuss the cases can be found in
the course materials. I won’t forbid you from seeking outside information, but my assessment of
your discussion participation and case analysis will be based on your evaluation of and conclusions
drawn from the available information in the case materials. Rather than trying to track down “what
really happened,” I would advise you to spend your time imagining yourself in the position of the
decision-maker(s) outlined in the case. Based on the information available, work to identify the key
issues, your proposed solutions, and how they might be implemented. For the case discussions, I’ve
given you some guidance on which aspects of the case focus on in your individual and team
preparation in the Course Schedule, below.

Course Evaluation
We follow the grading policy set by the MBA program, specifically the MBA grading curve, to
determine final grades for this course. The weighting for deliverables in MBA 548 will be as follows:

Deliverable Weight
Discussion Participation 15%
Team Case Quizzes 20%
Interviewing Project 5%
Coaching Project 5%
People Problem Project 5%
Midterm Exam 15%
Final Exam 30%
Team Member Evaluation 3%
Organizational Research Project 2%

Discussion Participation
Your responsibilities for discussion participating in class include, but are not limited to: attendance
(and punctuality), engaged listening to other class members, making thoughtful verbal contributions,
and volunteering for in-class simulations and presentations. Treating your colleagues with respect is
also key to participating effectively. Too much verbal participation can be as problematic as too little,
so please consider the timing and quality of your comments. To ensure roughly equal air-time for all
class members, I will, in most cases, direct questions to specific class members rather than waiting for
volunteers. But this does not mean that your comments when not directly asked a question are not
welcome. Please feel free to contribute whenever you feel you have related experience, unique perspective,
or an insight that is being missed by others. However, I will reserve the right to cut off discussion on a
point if we need to move on due to time constraints. The order in which I will ask class members to
answer questions will be determined randomly, so you may be asked a question even if you have answered
one recently.

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Because much of the learning that we will all experience in the course will occur by considering the
perspectives of other members of the class, class attendance is critical. When you miss class, you not only
deprive yourself of the insights of your classmates, but also deprive them of your perspective and insights.
I recognize that there will be days that you will need to miss for job search activities such as interviews and
fly-outs. But please try to keep these to a minimum. I will not penalize your discussion participation grade
for missed classes (within reason) as long as you inform me in advance that you will be missing class and
submit a 2-page summary of your analysis of the day’s case (via email). Summaries do not need to be
submitted before the class session that you miss (although I’m sure your teammates would appreciate a
copy of your summary before class starts), but should be submitted within a few days of the session.
Alternately, if you must miss your class session, but can attend one of my other MBA 548 sections, you
may avoid any penalty to your discussion participation grade by doing so (my sections meet at 8:00, 12:30,
and 2:00). Please email me in advance to inform you that you will attend a different section.

Business cases are written to introduce important issues, but not to have one “correct” answer. Our case
discussions will also not presume to look for a single, simplistic solution to a given case decision, and your
contributions to case discussions will not be evaluated on the basis of identifying the “correct” solution.
Rather, they will be evaluated on quality of logic, use of evidence from the case and readings, creativity, and
support for positions taken. For more information about how to prepare for and engage in case
discussion, please see “Human Capital Case Preparation,” which is an assigned reading for the first day of
class.

Team Case Quizzes

On 10 randomly selected class sessions, I will begin our case discussion by asking your teams to
respond in writing to a few questions about the case to be discussed that day. These will be team
quizzes; you will work with your team and only submit one response per team. You will have 10
minutes to craft your responses, which will not be enough time unless your team has prepped the
case very well. The team case quizzes will be open book, in the sense that you may refer to the case
and the readings, and any other materials you wish as you work on your responses. Additionally, any
notes any member of your team has made about the case before class may be incorporated into
your team’s response. The rubric that we will use to score team case quiz responses is in Learning
Suite. The questioned asked in the team case quizzes will be very similar to those asked on the
midterm and final exams.

Interviewing Project
As a manager and/or entrepreneur, one of the most common and important human capital
management activities you will personally be a part of is interviewing and hiring. Many years of
rigorous research has conclusively shown that informal interviewing techniques, used by the majority
of managers, are no better at selecting good employees than pulling a name out of a hat. This project
will give you the opportunity to design an interview protocol and practice interviewing and assessing a
candidate using a standardized scoring system. Please see the instructions in Learning Suite for more
details on this assignment, including the rubric by which it will be graded.

Coaching Project
In this project, you and your team will identify one member of your team who could use some help
thinking through how to utilize their strengths and shore-up their weaknesses in order to get and
excel in the job they hope to get after the MBA program. The identity of this individual will be kept
confidential by all team members and will not be revealed in the written deliverable for this project.
The rest of the team will help coach this team member toward the accomplishment of her/his

MBA 548 – Strategic HR 3

goals. Please see the instructions in Learning Suite for more details on this assignment.

People Problem Project

For this deliverable, you and your team members will choose a “people problem” that one of you
has experienced at work. Please select an important problem that had a significant, negative impact
on performance, moral, engagement, and/or turnover. The people problem you choose can be
related to any topic covered in this class. Your task will be to use content from class to make a set of
recommendations for how the people problem could have been resolved. Please see the instructions
in Learning Suite for more details on this assignment.

Exams
You will complete a midterm exam and a final exam in this course. The midterm will be completed at
about the midpoint of the class and the final will be completed during finals week. Both will be open
book in the sense that you will be free to refer to materials from class and notes while taking the
exams, and both will be take-home in the sense that you can complete them in a location of your
choosing. But time will be constrained on both exams (you will have 75 minutes on the midterm and 3
hours on the final). Your score on the midterm can be retroactively improved if you score better on
the final exam than you did on the midterm (in that case, the midterm score will be increased to the
average of your score on the midterm and your score on the final). Midterm scores will never be
retroactively reduced based on your performance on the final. Detailed instructions for the exams will
be given in class prior to each exam.

Team Member Evaluation

At the end of the semester, I will ask you to evaluate your team members (and them to evaluate you)
on your contribution to team case preparation, team case quizzes, and team projects during the
course. The team member evaluation form is available to view in Learning Suite, but will not be
available to complete until the last day of class.

Organizational Research Project

Sound human capital management practice is informed by academic research, where studies are
conducted to examine basic psychological processes that play out in the workplace. This project is
designed to enrich your understanding of the value of research to the formulation of sound
management practice. For the project, you may complete one of two options.

Option 1: Study Participation: The first option is participation in a study being conducted by my
colleagues Taeya Howell, Assistant Professor in the Marriott School and David Wood, Assistant
Professor at the BYU School of Social Work, and myself. If you agree to be in this study, you will be
asked to answer some questions on your background and your experiences in the MBA program.
Your participation in this study will take approximately 30 minutes across three surveys. Part 1 of the
study will be a survey that should take approximately 10 minutes. Part 2 of the study is a survey that
will be given approximately 45 days after Survey 1 that will take approximately 10 minutes. Part 3 of
the study is a third survey that will be given approximately 90 days after Survey 1 that will take
approximately 10 minutes to complete. You will have time in class to complete the surveys.

Option 2: Research Report: The other option is to write a 2 page research report. For this option, you
must email thowell@byu.edu requesting an article to read and summarize. The article will contain
recent research conducted in the field of organizational behavior. You must read the article and
summarize the author’s hypotheses and findings and explain how their findings might impact
management practice. The assignment is due the last day of the semester, December 13th by 5:00
p.m. to thowell@byu.edu.

MBA 548 – Strategic HR 4

Important Items for MBA 548
• Grading criteria and rubrics for all deliverables in MBA 548 are available to view in Learning
Suite.
• All written assignments are due electronically through Learning Suite (unless otherwise
specified) before the beginning of class on the due date.
• In the course, we will follow all relevant BYU policies, including the following:
• Student Disability---Brigham Young University is committed to providing a working and
learning atmosphere that reasonably accommodates qualified persons with disabilities. If you
have any disability which may impair your ability to complete this course successfully, please
contact the University Accessibility Center (UAC), 2170 WSC or 422-2767. Reasonable
academic accommodations are reviewed for all students who have qualified, documented
disabilities. The UAC can also assess students for learning, attention, and emotional concerns.
Services are coordinated with the student and instructor by the UAC. If you need assistance or
if you feel you have been unlawfully discriminated against on the basis of disability, you may
seek resolution through established grievance policy and procedures by contacting the Equal
Employment Office at 422-5895, D-285 ASB.
• Mental Health---Mental health concerns and stressful life events can affect students’
academic performance and quality of life. BYU Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS,
1500 WSC, 801-422-3035, caps.byu.edu) provides individual, couples, and group counseling, as
well as stress management services. These services are confidential and are provided by the
university at no cost for full-time students. For general information please visit
https://caps.byu.edu; for more immediate concerns please visit http://help.byu.edu.
• Preventing & Responding to Sexual Misconduct---In accordance with Title IX of the
Education Amendments of 1972, Brigham Young University prohibits unlawful sex
discrimination against any participant in its education programs or activities. The university
also prohibits sexual harassment-including sexual violence-committed by or against students,
university employees, and visitors to campus. As outlined in university policy, sexual
harassment, dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking are considered
forms of "Sexual Misconduct" prohibited by the university. Incidents of Sexual Misconduct
should be reported to the Title IX Coordinator at t9coordinator@byu.edu or (801) 422-8692.
Reports may also be submitted through EthicsPoint at https://titleix.byu.edu/report or 1-888-
238-1062 (24-hours a day). BYU offers confidential resources for those affected by Sexual
Misconduct, including the university's Victim Advocate, as well as a number of non-
confidential resources and services that may be helpful. Additional information about Title IX,
the university's Sexual Misconduct Policy, reporting requirements, and resources can be found
at http://titleix.byu.edu or by contacting the university's Title IX Coordinator.

MBA 548 – Strategic HR 5

 Course Schedule
(Readings/cases are available in the MBA 548 course packet, Muller’s “The Manager’s Guide to HR,” or electronically in
Learning Suite)

Session Topic / Readings/Cases Case Notes

/ Date Deliverable
Course Introduction Readings In our discussion of this case, we will
1 / Human Capital • Course Syllabus focus on Stephen Connor’s decision of
Sep. 3rd and Strategy • Champions of Change, ch. 2 whether or not to try to retain Peter
Thompson. Be familiar with the case and
Case exhibits 1-5 and 8, but don’t spend time
• Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of on exhibits 6 and 7.
a Star

Human Capital and Readings In our discussion of this case, we will

2 Organizational • Creating and Sustaining a Winning focus on Lindsay Reed’s response to Ryan
Sep. 5th Culture Culture Giles’s interview question, as well as the
• Human Capital Case Preparation implications of the question for human
capital acquisition and management at
Case LinkedIn.
• Values Based Selection at LinkedIn

Recruiting 1: Reading In our discussion of this case for

3 Knowing What to • Muller, ch. 1 (pgs. 1-16) today, we will concentrate on how
Sep. 10th Look For • Why We Modeled our Hiring Stephen Connor could know what
Process on the NFL and NASA qualities to look for in candidates
for the senior semiconductor
Case analyst position. Did Connor
Recruitment of a Star approach this question the right
way in the case? Would you have
recommended he do something
differently?

Recruiting 2: Reading We will focus our case discussion on

4 Finding the Right • How to Hire: Chances are You’re the Recruitment of a Star case again.
Sep. 12th People Doing it All Wrong Today, we will focus on how Connor
• How Much Does Reputation Matter identified candidates for the senior
in Recruiting? semiconductor analyst position. Did
he use the best methods? What other
Case approaches would you recommend he
Recruitment of a Star use to identify job candidates?

Candidate Reading • In our discussion of this case, we will

5 Evaluation • Muller, ch. 1 (pgs. 17-30) be focusing on methods for evaluating
Sep. 17th • How to Improve the Accuracy and Navy Seal candidates. How effective
Reduce the Cost of Personnel are the current methods? How could
Selection they be improved upon?
•
Case
• Navy Seals: Selecting and Training
for an Elite Fighting Force

Interviewing Reading • The “Edwards School” case is not

6 • Writing Behavioral Questions about interviewing, but please read it as
Sep. 19th background information on what we
Case look for when we hire new professors
in a business school. Our discussion in

MBA 548 – Strategic HR 6

 • The Merit of a Points-Based Merit class will focus on how the Marriott
System at the Edwards School School could use interviews to find out
if a faculty candidate is likely to posses
the competencies we’re looking for.

Selection Reading • In class today, we will conduct a selection

7 • No Reading or Case. Work on your simulation. We will also be discussing the
Sep. 24th Interviewing Interviewing Projects. interviewing projects that you will have
project due submitted before class.

No Class; Business •
Sep. 26th Trips

Job Offers and Job
8 Offer Negotiation
Oct. 1st
Reading In class today, we will have a guest
• Muller, ch. 1 (pgs. 30-33) speaker, Mark James, Senior VP or
• 15 Rules for Negotiating a Job HR at Honeywell. He will give you
Offer an executive’s take on job offers and
job offer negotiation.

Employment Law 1 Reading We will have a guest speaker today, my

9 • Muller, ch. 6 pgs. (pgs. 135-146, colleague Lori Wadsworth, who will
Oct. 3rd 159-177) discuss issues related to equal employment
• Do Ask, Do Tell opportunity and employment law.
•
Employment Law 2 Case • For our discussion of this case, we will be
10 • SAP SE: Autism at Work focus on the decision of whether the
Oct. 8th Autism at Work program should be
scaled, and, if so, how it could be scaled.
We will also discuss the implications of
the case for other EEO laws besides the
Americans with Disabilities Act.

Midterm We won’t meet together in class, but you

11 will take the midterm during our normal
Oct. 10th class time.

Motivating Reading Near the end of the case, Cantin notes

12 Employees • Employee Motivation: A Powerful that “perhaps Cirque did not need a
Oct. 15th New Model strategy other than to focus on its
artists.” We will center our discussion
Case around what does Cirque du Solei do
Cirque du Solei to keep its performers motivated, and
what could it do to better motivate
them.

Onboarding Reading We will focus our class discussion on the

13 • Organizational Socialization and the issue of what changes could be made to
Oct. 17th Profession of Management Trilogy University to maintain its
relevance and value.
Case
• Trilogy University

Training Reading We will be conducting a training

14 • Muller, ch. 3 simulation in class today. Discussion will
Oct. 22nd • Work Rules, ch. 9 center around the simulation.

Coaching and Reading We will focus on Mills’s decision to promote

15 Development Lane or not. This decision will center on the

MBA 548 – Strategic HR 7

Oct. 24th • Chasing Stars, ch. 9 question of whether the coaching process
has created a genuine and lasting change in
Case Lane’s management style.

• Coaching Makena Lane

Performance Reading We will center our discussion around the

16 Management 1 • Muller, ch. 2 decision to alter the performance metrics
Oct. 29th being used at Vertisoft’s call center. Are
Case they working as intended? Do they need
• Vertisoft, Inc.: Raising the Bar to be altered? How do these performance
metrics fit in to the performance
management system at Vertisoft?

Performance Reading In class today, we will conduct a

17 Management 2 • Let’s not Kill Performance Evaluations performance management simulation. We
Oct. 31st Yet will also be discussing the coaching
Coaching Project • Why I Hate Feedback: Anchoring projects that you will have submitted
Due before class.
Affects Feedback within Organizations

Compensation and Reading For this case discussion, we will

18 Benefits • Muller, ch. 5 (pgs. 99-120, 132-134 focus on two decisions: Dan
Nov. 5th • The Downside of Full Pay Price’s initial decision to
Transparency announce the $70K minimum,
and the decision of whether or
not to stick with that plan as of
Case
the end of the case.
• The $70K CEO at Gravity Payments

Pay for Reading In the discussion of this case, we will

19 Performance • What Monetary Rewards Can and focus on Pohler’s decision to support or
Nov. 7th Cannot Do oppose the proposed point-based merit
allocation system. Think about if the
Case system is an improvement over the old
• The Merit of a Points-Based Merit system. Why or why not?
System at the Edwards School

Employee Reading In the discussion of this case, we will

20 Retention • Chasing Stars, ch. 10 focus on what RSH and Stephen Connor
Nov. 12th could have done to retain Peter
Case Thompson. Why did Thompson think
• Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of about leaving in the first place? Was it
a Star worth trying to keep him after he
announced he was leaving?

No Class; Business •
Nov. 14th Trips

Employee Reading We will focus on the central decision in

21 Termination • Muller, ch. 9 (pgs. 253-264, up to “The the case of whether or not Ana Soto
Nov. 19th Worker Adjustment and Notification should fire Scott Wells immediately or
Act”) deal with his poor performance in
another way. We will also spend some
Case time on the issue of how ProSoft’s
performance management system could
• Pro-Soft Corporation: Employee
be improved.
Performance and Termination

MBA 548 – Strategic HR 8

 Downsizing and Reading In our case discussion today, we will
22 Layoffs • Muller, ch. 9 (pgs. 264-268, from “The focus on whether Bradley Marquez
Nov 21st Worker Adjustment and Notification needed to conduct the layoff described
Act” to end of chapter) in the case and what other alternatives
could have been considered. We will also
discuss if the layoff was conducted
Case optimally and how it could have been
• Bradley Marquez: Reduction in Force better.

No Class; Friday
Nov. 26th Instruction

No Class;
Nov. 28th Thanksgiving
Holiday
Workplace Reading Today’s “case” is a blog post made by
23 Harassment • Muller, ch. 7 Susan Fowler about her time at Uber.
Dec. 3rd This blog post attracted an enormous
Case amount of attention that ultimately led to
• Reflecting on one very, very strange major changes at Uber.
year at Uber

Employee Safety & Reading The “case” that we will discuss today
24 Health • How to Avoid Catastrophe consists of excerpts from the West
Dec. 5th Virginia Governor’s Independent
Case Investigation Panel report on the Upper
• Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster Big Branch Mine explosion on April 5,
Report--Excerpts 2010. We will discuss what Massey
Energy could have done differently to
avoid the disaster.

Employee Mental Reading Our “case” today is an article from the

25 Health • Mental Health in the Workplace local newspaper, the Daily Herald, about
Dec. 10th an incident that happened in the Tanner
Case Building last December.
• BYU Officials confirm death of student

Final Review & No Reading

26 Course Wrap-Up
Dec. 12th
People Problem
Project Due

MBA 548 – Strategic HR 9