ITU

Faculty of Management
ISL 363E HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

CRN: 21001

Spring 2023-2024

Instructor: İdil V. Evcimen, PhD

TA: Oğuz Yücel, MSc

E-mail: evcimen@itu.edu.tr
yucelog@itu.edu.tr

Course Time and Place: Monday 14:30 -17:29, MED A11

Office Hour:
Course objectives:

This course aims at delivering basic HRM concepts in order for the students to attain and to
exhibit a general understanding of a set of HRM functions. These mainly include human
resource planning and the strategic role of HRM in organizations, staffing the organization,
training and development, motivating and finally maintaining the organizational members and
HRM practices.

Upon successful completion students will:

• Define and explain basic HRM functions like recruitment planning, employee
selection, training, performance evaluation, compensation and maintenance.
• Understand the relationship between HRM processes and organizational performance
• Link HRM processes with employee satisfaction.
• Recognize the strategic value of HRM for organizations
• Acquire a basic knowledge for designing and follow up of the HRM processes.

Course Content
This course is developed around five instructional modules, each of which represents a
different group of the HRM practices in today’s organizations All modules involve lectures,
class discussions, case analyses, and reading. A summary of each module of the course is
given below.
 1. Human Resource Management and Strategy: This module aims at explaining
the the basics and the strategic nature of the human resource function in
organizations. It explores the main responsibilities of HR professionals and
discusses how these responsibilities are influenced by culture, environmental
forces, and government regulations, new management trends and technological
developments. The changing nature of HRM and trends shaping it and how
they can be addressed are also reviewed.
2. Staffing: Module 2 reviews the three steps in the staffing process: workforce
planning, recruitment strategies and administering selection methods.
Recruitment aims at identifying and attracting the largest possible number of
qualified applicants to hire for each job. Selection refers to selecting out the
candidate with the highest potential to display person-job and person-
organization fit. Talent management is also introduced.
3. Human Resource Development and Career Management: Employee training
and development and career management are other important HR functions.
More specifically, deciding who is to be trained, in what and how they are to be
trained, at what cost and how effective was the training for the employee are
the main considerations. To be effective, training and development programs
must be matched to types of employees with specific skill deficiencies and to
new skills anticipated to be needed by the organization in line with the career
aspirations and company needs.
4. Performance Management and Compensation Administration: This module
mainly discusses performance appraisal systems and explores how to create a
fair and market competitive pay plan that would satisfy both the employees and
company objective. In this respect, this module examines performance
evaluation as a system to develop reliable and valid criteria as well as
evaluation mechanisms. Among the topics to be covered are the forms of and
bases for compensation, job evaluation methods and compensation/evaluation
systems. Benefit administrations and types of benefits are also introduced.
5. Employee Retention & Employee Safety and Health: This final module
includes an account of employee retention procedures and practices like
disciplining and managing exits, alongside administering employee assistance
programs for employee well-being. Safety and health measures taken by the
organizations are reviewed.

Course Requirements and Grading

❖ HR Exams (65 %)

Midterm: (25 points) There will be a midterm exam April 2nd, 2024, Tuesday at 18:00. Exam room
will be announced.

Final: (40 points) There will be an exam where all the lectures, readings and presentation
materials will be included. The date or this exam is to be announced via sis.itu.edu.tr website.
 ❖ HR LAB (10%)

This course requirement will be completed by teams. Teams will be formed by the
students themselves. Please see below for details.

❖ HR Field Project (25 %)

This course requirement will be completed by teams. Teams will be formed by the
students themselves. Please see below for details.

❖ Grading policy:

The exam scores will be curved but with two conditions:

1. Scores between 0-45 will be graded as FF and will not be included into the curve
2. The scores between 46 -100 will be subject to a curve and to receive AA the minimum
required score is 85.

Academic Integrity
All ideas, arguments, and phrases submitted without attribution to other sources must be the
creative product of the student. Thus, all text passages taken from the works of other authors
(published or unpublished) must be properly cited. The same applies to paraphrased text, opinions,
data, examples, illustrations, and all other creative work.

Course Outline*
*As the instructor I reserve the right to modify this course outline* at any time.
Such changes will be announced ahead of time during class meetings.
You are responsible for ensuring that your syllabus is current.

Topics Readings and

assignments

Week 1
12.02.2024  Introduction to the course Course description
 What is HRM and why is it important?
MODULE 1
HRM and Strategy

Week 2 Management Trends shaping HRM Ulrich (Chapter 1&2)

19.02.2024  The new HR managers. Gary Dessler (Chapter
 Human Resources Management Strategy and 1&3
Analysis
 HR as a profit center
Week 3 Gary Dessler (Chapter 4)
MODULE 2  Recruitment,
Staffing  Placement and Talent Management
 Job analysis, job descriptions and job
26.02.2024 specification

Week 4
 Workforce planning Gary Dessler (Chapter 5)
04.03.2024
 Forecasting HR needs
 Sources for candidates,
 Effective Recruitment

Week 5
 Employee Testing and Selection Gary Dessler(Chapter 6)
Company selection  Types of tests,
week deadline for  Work samples and simulations,
teams  Background investigation and other selection
11.03.2024 methods.

Gary Dessler (Chapter 7)

Week 6  Interviewing Candidates,
 Basic types of interviews, errors,
18.03.2024  How to design and conduct effective interviews

Week 7 Garry Dessler (Chapter 8)

MODULE 3  Orientation,
Training  Employee Training
 Implementing and evaluating training and
25.03.2024 development programs.

Week 8
01.04.2024  Employee Engagement and Career Gary Dessler
Midterm Development (Chapter10)
02.04.2024  Actions that foster engagement, careers today
 Psychological contract
 Career management systems
08.04.2024 Spring Break

Week 9 Gary Dessler (Chapter 9)

 Performance Management:
15.04.2024  Performance Appraisal techniques for
appraising performance,
MODULE 3  Dealing with appraising problems
Human Resource
Development and
Career
Management
Week 10 Gary Dessler (Chapter 11)
22.04.2024  Compensation
MODULE 4  Establishing Strategic Pay Plans,
Performance  Job evaluation methods,
Management and
Compensation
Administrastion

Week 11 Gary Dessler (Chapter

29.04.2024  How to create a market competitive pay 12&13)
plan, pricing managerial and professional
jobs
 Pay for performance and financial
incentives,
 Benefits and services,
 Flexible benefit programs

Week 12 Gary Dessler (Chapter 14)

06.05.2024  Works Ethics Gary Dessler (Chapter 16)
 Employee Disciplining
MODULE 5  Exit interview
Employee Retention &
Employee Safety and
Health
Week 13
13.05.2024  Employee Assistance Programs
 Employee safety and health
HR LAB  Workplace well-being
Week 14 HRM Project Submission & Preseantations
20.05.2024

Required Texts:
• Gary Dessler (2020) Human Resource Management, 16th Edition Pearson.
• Ulrich, D (1997) Human resource champions: the next agenda for adding value and
delivering results, Harvard Business School Press
• Brockbank, W., Ulrich, D., et al.(2012) HR from the Outside In: Six Competencies for
the Future of Human Resources
• D. A. De Cenzo and S. P. Robbins (2017) Fundamentals of Human Resource
Management, 10th Edition, John Wiley and Sons, NY.
• hrdconnect.com
• https://www.ciphr.com/features/great-hr-magazines/

HR LAB

The primary objective of this HR Lab exercise is to empower student-formed teams, each consisting of
4-5 members, to collaboratively design their personalized learning experiences within the field of
human resources. This exercise is structured to encourage creativity, critical thinking, and practical
application of HR concepts. It will invlove the following streamline:

1. Brainstorming Session (20 minutes): Groups will engage in a brainstorming session. During this
time, they will generate a list of HR topics that they are interested in or see relevant.
2. Topic Selection (5 minutes): Each group will proceed to select one HR topic from their
collective list of ideas.
3. Research and Planning (35 minutes): With their selected HR topics in mind, the groups will
engage in a research and planning phase. They will do a preliminary research to gather
information and then build a comprehensive plan for their unique learning experience.
4. Presentation Preparation (20 minutes): In preparation for sharing their insights with the class,
each group will allocate time to create concise yet engaging presentations. These presentations
will cover their chosen HR topic and the blueprint for their learning journey.
5. Group Presentations (10 minutes): Following the preparation phase, each group will take center
stage and deliver their presentations. They will articulate their chosen HR topic, outline their
learning plan, and invite questions and discussions from their peers.

The HR LAB will be submitted on 13.05.2024.

HR FIELD PROJECT
The purpose of this field study is to get first-hand information about the HRM processes and their
applications in a real life setting and integrate the two via field observations. Teams composed of 4-5
students will carry out projects that are formed by the students themselves. Every team will select a
company of their own choice and give a detailed account of the HRM applications, policies and
practices as well as the industry profile of their selected company and present it in class.

Teams should let me know of their choice of their company not later than 11.03.2024.

Your investigation will be a multi-method study. In other words, you will collect data from a variety of
sources including structured observation, archival material, surveys and interviews with human
resources specialists, team leaders and/or members (if any) and supervisors. Prior to data collection, we
will meet to finalize your proposed data collection strategy and data collection tools.

Remember to cite appropriate references (author, year, page number) when information is used from the
textbook, other books, and articles. This list of references has to be included together with the report.
References to or extracts from books, articles, and other sources must be duly acknowledged. Please list
the URL of the web pages should your information be obtained from the www. Please also include the
name and contact of the person in the organization that you wrote about.

The submission deadline for the HRM Field report is on 24.05.2024.